Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Afternoon Frugal Friends,
Enjoyed the tales of continued feline terror. Another hairball for Mr F this morning. I actually got up first, but Soot helpfully delivered this disgusting missile between me going back upstairs to get dressed & Mr F coming down. At least if there HAD to be a hairball, the timing was right!
@Cheery_Daff - Thanks for the link. Looks interesting. Yes, several of my hobbies & interests are also things which very much benefit the budget i.e Crafting stuff for presents, cooking, baking, preserving, growing food, etc.
Enjoying the BH weekend. Couldn't decide which garden tasks to do yesterday  - with Mr F's energy not quite back to normal, the new raised beds are not quite ready for planting, so I decided just to pick off half a dozen random tasks, which meant a nice lot of variety. Today has been pretty much leisure-based & as it's not my cooking night, looks to continue that way. Budget-helping activity today? Just a little.....
*A trip out to a local-ish gorge for a sunny walk. Free access with our very affordably priced annual parking pass. Treated ourselves in the cafe but used our Personal Spends, so budget-neutral. The walk meant that I easily achieved my 5000+ "I won't be sedentary" steps - my 31st day of this challenge, in fact, & I am now going for a 60-day streak. I look to be on for over 7000 today. I often do more than 5000 - that's the absolute minimum.
*Entered a competition.
*Had been waiting for a discount voucher from the Watery-sounding-people before ordering a kitchen gizmo. Was hoping for a 10% off a £50+ spend voucher, but I actually received a 20% off a £60+ which was ideal for my planned order & instantly took over £40 off the price. It was free delivery too, so I took advantage of this largesse by also ordering a year's supply of coffee filter papers & a screw-top glass milk bottle for Mr F for taking to work.
*Actually did a few surveys & seem to have got onto a longer term one from PA, which will hopefully boost my truly pitiful survey earnings atm. I have been busy on other things & not really engaged, so it will be good if I can catch up a little, as I do appreciate the extra money being added to my Spends.
*Have had a walk around the garden planning tomorrow's jobs, as we are both intending at least a full on gardening morning & it may well be a bit longer for me if I get in the zone. 
And that's it for me today, I think. We have mostly been chatting, doing the crossword, pottering around & Mr F has had the hair clippers out which has obviously saved him some money on a barber's visit. I've been thinking about what I'd like to achieve over the coming week & I think it's going to be a combination of gardening (esp progressing food crops) & sewing. The unrepairable linen dress I intend to use as a pattern for a 'practise-dress' is now fully separated into pieces & just requires ironing to get everything sufficiently flat for accurate pinning/cutting. My pink socks are progressing. Heel flap knitted last night, then turned the heel & picked up sts for the foot shaping, so I shall get on with that tonight in front of a bit of TV or film. Mr F is making whole Indian spiced chicken, a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's Curry Bible book which we both like & he cooks quite regularly. It delivers on the tasty leftovers front too, so will be used for 2 further meals, as well as at least 1 packed lunch. 
Right, time for a little tidy-up.
Enjoy your evenings all, 
F x

PennysIntoPounds

Thanks for the heads up about PA, while I'm still brutally not allowed to participate, Mr PIP signed up last month and has just started that long running study as I said 'my friend saw a good one on there today' 🥂
We're hoping his PA earnings can take a large chunk out of our horribly increased water bill!

joedenise

I saw that one too but can't commit to daily for 4 weeks as due to go to France in that time period and you can't do the surveys when you're out of the UK (I know I tried when I was abroad before!).

foxgloves

Hey, @PiP - Glad to hear that Mr PiP also got onto that long term PA study. Just done my effort for today. I think the daily payments should add up nicely & it's sufficiently interesting for me to remember to log in each day.
F

foxgloves

Afternoon m'dears,
Just a quick one from me to say I'm keeping the money saving faith today. Haven't been out anywhere & no online spending - there was quite enough of that yesterday, though it was all planned. Am intending a restorative bath, hair wash & a leisurely afternoon, but here are today's budget-helping efforts first:
*Did a laundry load & managed to get everything dry outside before the rain showers moved in.
*Baked a batch of seeded rolls.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Did rubber Indian spiced chicken. Sufficient leftovers for tonight (cold with homemade jacket wedges, salad & olives) plus Tuesday's meal, a sarnie & packed lunch.
*Did 2 PA surveys & would have done those to which I'd been invited on a different survey site, had I not been unceremoniously kicked out after one qualifying question.......it's almost as if they totally ignore all the profiling information they have on their participants!)
*Helped Mr F with the continued filling of the new raised beds. We are now behind with this & there's a certain element of it which has become (as predicted by Yours Truly!) a bit of a saga. Anyway, I decided to bump my intended tasks (non-urgent) to the week ahead & to help Mr F with filling the large bed, which is very slow-going. He opened & added another dalek's worth of home made garden compost & used some of this plus some bagged to fill the 2 new small beds - both of those are now ready to go ahead with planting. We will need to make a plan for next weekend - buying lots of sacks of compost (I have ringfenced this money as it was an expected expense)to finish filling the huge bed & also prepping other areas of the kitchen garden for planting. In addition, Mr F weeded a bed ready for planting out cavolo nero, once I've hardened it off over the next few days. So windy today that I have left all our squashes & courgettes in the greenhouse.
Will doubtless continue knitting my fab pink yarn into socks later, but also intend to spend some time immersed in my book. I haven't done my usual Monday morning budget updates with it being BH, so will need to get on with that tomorrow.
Wishing everyone a lovely day. Oh, & mine began trying to identify an odd bird on the peanut feeder, finding my specs & realising it was a flipping mouse! 
F x

PennysIntoPounds

Thanks foxgloves, unfortunately he got rejected after the initial survey but at least that's £3 towards the water bill! Wish Thames would either put this water meter in or give us the reduced rate if they're trying to get out of it, which is apparently quite common with older homes

rtandon27

@PennysIntoPounds - didn't realize there was an option of a reduced rate!  We have been told that we are not able to have a water meter due to the shared pipes of our 4 house row & age of the houses - the original houses Victorian houses did not have plumbing, ours goes through to the 1960's additions that include the kitchen and the bathroom and the water comed in from a shared source.

@foxgloves - your comment made me laugh - our neighbours have a peanut feeder for the squirrel and are away over the long weekend - I'm debating sending them a pic of what's been eating the peanuts for the whole weekend - it's a rodent but certainly not a squirrel! 🤣🤣🤣

kayannie

At least your mouse was ON the peanut feeder. My neighbour popped round, bird feeder in hand, to show me a mouse that had got into the bottom of his seed feeder & managed to climb up the inside of the feeder. There he sat, on top of the seeds, looking puzzled as how he could get out again!
KA

PennysIntoPounds

@rtandon27 they're supposed to offer a reasonable assessment of your probable use rather than a general estimate based on property if they can't or won't fit a water meter. We'll see if that transpires though!

foxgloves

How could I have forgotten that today is my Big Budget Day? Mr F being off with covid last week, followed by the long BH weekend has completely thrown me out of my routines. 
Right, decision. I think I'll listen to a couple of chapters of my audiobook while getting a few everyday tasks done, then head up to my desk bright & early to tackle the budget. I shall need to do post-weekend budget updates first so as not to waste time numbercrunching inaccurate figures.
Onwards into the new week we go!
Have a good one,
F x