Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Hello Readers,
Another day of kitchen witchery to get on top of harvest time here at Foxgloves Manor. Amazing the amount of food one can produce from a relatively small kitchen garden area & greenhouse.
*Garden pickings: Last of the aubergines, basil.
*Aubergine plants chopped down & added to compost. We make good compost but despite 5 bins & the wormery, we never have enough of it.
*Made last pesto of the season. 7 pots frozen. Kitchen (& me!) de-greened. An easy but messy job.
*Made a batch of Cranks' tomato soup & froze.
*Am subbing in chopped french beans to tonight's kedgeree instead of frozen peas as have some which need using (the spirit of 'use-it-up' is strong here atm.
*Made a sourdough ready for baking tomorrow morning.
*Started grocery shopping list. It's taking a bit longer as I want to keep it below £54 to compensate for a larger spend last week which included both entertaining & stocking up on a few items. I'm checking everything thoroughly before writing it down as there have been a few items recently I've bought, then found an unopened one in a different area of the pantry. We have a tight meal plan in place so really shouldn't need to buy much. 
Looking forward to Sewing Bee later.
Take care m'dears,
F x

themadvix

Will be interesting to hear the responses (although I'm afraid I'll still be sceptical - they'll only be telling you what they've been told by the collecting company).

Sadly our Waitflower closed several years ago due to low footfall - although I'm quite surprised it had been there as long as it had (it's not that sort of town, generally speaking). We have two T's, two S's, an Al and a large A's 🙄. They are due to redevelop our local shops where we have a C00p and apparently people wanted a larger shop there - quite concerned that this a) won't be a C00p and b) will be large enough that it will have to follow Sunday trading laws (which I bet no one considered when saying they wanted something larger 🙄). I like a quiet Sunday, but being able to pop out early for milk if we've run out is useful. It'll be the petrol station instead (although also a C00p bizarrely).

badmemory

I admit I have not had pets for some years, but I would be worrying about exactly the same things I worry about when I buy us something packaged.  My ex already had a dog when we met but it was pretty obvious his mother didn't want him to leave (the dog that is).  He had always been fed on tinned food & now the vet said he needed to be fed on tripe due to the damage.  So when we got a dog we fed her straight away on the food the vet recommended which was shin beef & potatoes with the skins on.  She only had tinned once a week.  That dog used to eat better than us sometimes!

teapot2

Hi @Foxgloves I used Z00plus for my cat's renal diet food [which only came in pouches or dried] and found them very reliable and often surprisingly quick delivery.  His food was considerably more expensive to buy from the vet plus heavy for me to carry home so I felt this was the best option.  They have some options for saving via regular but flexible orders and also give points which you can save to use for treats or toys or to donate to animal charities.  They also give cashback on TeeCeeBee.

foxgloves

Thanks for your comments on alternative cat food suppliers. I will have a think about possible changes going forward, but first I do intend to contact both the supermarkets we regularly use to enquire what exactly happens to their soft plastics which are dropped off in the collection bins provided. I admit I am cynical about where it ends up, but I would like to read the official line on the subject from both of them.

And Greetings Readers on a very showery day. So persistently showery, in fact, that I was a very kind meowmy & set up a litter tray for the two monkeys. Even Ash is an Autumn cat today & decided it is far nicer to be indoors than sheltering from the rain in one of his numerous outdoor dens or simply getting soaked & turning into a spiky hedgehog. I feel we've really kept the faith with our money saving today. Been quite generally busy, but the budget-positive things are as follows:
*Very small amount of financial admin.
*Changed over to my winter handbag. I wasn't sure if I would get another summer out of my pretty floral backpack one, but I did. It has sadly gone in the bin today but I am glad I got plenty of use from it as it was a present from Mr F a few years ago. Had a good declutter of handbag contents while I was at it too.
*Started rounding up my summer clothes for seasonal clothing swap over which I will do this week as a wet weather option.
*Ordered some new slippers as my old ones had reached that point where they had lost all their structural support. Despite having ordered from this website before (sadly their branch in our town closed after barely a couple of years), I thought I'd wing it with trying to get the new customer 10% discount code & hurrah, I was able to apply it, which has more than covered the delivery costs. I went for purple with leopard print. 
*Today's garden pickings: Grapes, basil.
*Mr F has made another batch of Delia ratatouille using the last of our home grown aubergines, tomatoes, basil, garlic, etc, & labelled the containers for freezing. He is obsessed with that icy kingdom within the freezer doors. He keeps moaning about the ice build-up & I always say it's because he's in there reorganising it every 10 bloody minutes! It's lovely ratatouille by the way, though I think the recipe (in the her vegetarian recipe book) is called something la di dah-fancypants like 'Provencal vegetable stew'. 
*Our Week 2 grocery shop was very successful this morning. We stuck like the stickiest possible glue to our list & came in under budget, which means (Mr F is motivated by the carrot rather than the stick along with hard fact) that we have an additional £25-68 to add to our holiday food expenses budget. We were able to use money off vouchers on 3 items & availed ourselves of a free coffee each too. I should add that we have a very tight meal plan for the next 10 days or so as we felt it was ridiculous to be spending money on food when we have so much fresh stuff still coming in from the garden & a full freezer. I know shopping around & all sorts of other things can reduce our grocery spend, but I think the most significant method for us remains constructive meal planning, followed by a considered shopping list which includes a few selected pantry top-up items each time. Was pleased to get a litre bottle of extra virgin olive oil for under £8 today as prices of that really have shot up, along with coffee.
*Wrote 2 more holiday planning lists - one was for food to take with us. Really, that's got to save some serious cash, hasn't it? We will eat out some of the time, but definitely not every day. I also like to bake some biscuits & a cake to take with us so that we can enjoy afternoon tea back at the cottage instead of daily cafe spends. Haven't been baking much lately as it doesn't help our current weight loss goals so it will feel like a lovely treat both to make & eat it!
*Have got my collection of knitting patterns out to sort through as I want to knit a couple of donations for a Christmas community charity project. I don't want to buy any new patterns so shall defo be shopping these from home. The rammed nature of my knitting cabinet shows that I really do need to push it further up the decluttering list, so I have added this to a notional list of useful tasks I can be getting on with over the next few days when it's too wet to do anything meaningful in the garden.
*You'll laugh at this one.....I was putting something away in my basket of letter writing stuff & I found a pile of postcards which I think Mr F must have bought for his office wall when we were last on holiday at the place we will shortly be staying. He obviously didn't get round to using them as they are in perfect condition so I've rounded them up for sending while we are away, along with stamps from my stash. What a tightwad, I bet you are all thinking, but I really am in the headspace of using up stuff which we've bought, otherwise it is just sitting around doing nothing. It's not that I won't be buying any more stuff, just that I want to use up the stuff I already have. When things have been used, then I can enjoy choosing new but existing supplies of things WILL be used up first.
Well, it's not my cooking night so I am going to read & enjoy the new series of GBBO later, as I watched Sewing Bee yesterday instead. 
Hope everyone's managed a reasonably decent day,
F x
Oh another little saving from this morning. I popped a little glass rectangular container in the trolley for storing our cheese. When we got to the cheese aisle, I thought it looked a bit on the small side so took off the lid & tried some cheese in the usual size we'd buy for size. Yep, too small so back on the shelf it went. £4.50 saved! 

BlueJ94

Evening @foxgloves you sound like you've been very busy! I decided to get my butt into gear and started my declutter journey, I've binned 2 black bags of stuff that I couldn't donate or sell. I have a black bag for Vinted and another black bag of clothes donated. I think I've got the clutterbug as I said I wouldn't be decluttering tonight but I'm itching to go sort something! My bin is full so cant empty rubbish at the moment, bin day is every 21days! I have a whole week before the bin is collected. 

I also started GBBO last night! 

PennysIntoPounds

Super money wrangling all round.
Not tightwad at all to use stuff if it clearly isn't being used. It would be hilarious if you weren't going to the same place though 😁
It's funny the stuff we come across, I was hunting in the depths of a 'useful things' bag from the 'useful things' cupboard for a can of air duster to clean my computer keyboard, and found a pile of patterned napkins. I can see my logic in keeping these aside, but they've been skulking there forgotten long enough so will now be put into action and save us having to buy kitchen roll for a bit longer.
No idea what I thought I was keeping two new washing up sponges separate for, but that was on the shopping list as well so money saved for now!

rtandon27

@foxgloves - Are those new slippers the velvety ones with the leopard lining?  I was mooching on the website I think you mean & thought they were rather nice - there were also zebra stripe lining!  I'm currently eyeing up a pair of their slip on leather ballerina pumps with a nice thick sole that provides a bit of extra cushioning when walking.

Makingabobor2

Love the postcard idea. 

foxgloves

@PennysIntoPounds - Naturally following your comment, I now want to send postcards from a random place just to confuse the recipients!

@rtandon27 - I think we may be talking about the same ones. Those I have on order are purple boots with a proper sole with fake leopard fur up the back. I had a similar pair a few years ago which lasted really well, was hoping to find a cheaper pair I liked, but found myself unable to resist the twin lure of purple & leopard print!

@BlueJ94 - Good for you on the decluttering. It is so motivating once you get going. Every bag of stuff that leaves your house is a bag less of things which require storing, sorting & cleaning.