Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

@rtandon27 - The problem in our village & its environs tends to be young males on off-road motorbikes - no safety helmets & certainly uninsured as they are underage for driving, but the local populace seems to get more wound up by the pony-drawn carts driven by the local traveller community. I'd much rather see those on the roads than get carved up by feral teens on off-road motorbikes with zero road sense.
F

foxgloves

Good Morning Saturday Savers!
Well, Autumn is officially here. It must be because the central heating was switched on last night here at Foxgloves Manor. It hasn't come on very much at all yet because we have the thermostat set at 18.5 unless it is kind of 'snow-on-the-ground, hoarfrost still lingering at lunchtime' kind of cold. Ash realised the radiators were on within minutes of eating his breakfast & positioned himself along the edge of the wide living room windowsill with his paws taking turns to dangle over the edge onto the radiator. Although as an ex-feral, he will go outdoors in all weathers, he does like to be warm. Mr F has had to work today so its just me & the cats & we are all going at a leisurely pace. So far, on the budget-friendly front, I have....
*Made bread dough, which is currently proving.
*Got some of Mr F's lovely ratatouille out of the freezer to eat tonight on jacket potatoes with grated cheese.
*Sorted out some blackberries & pears ready to make compote for dessert.
*Done a couple of surveys.
I am going to have an autumnal sort of day today. I want to make a few changes in the living room - nothing major by any means, but I want to remove 2 small tables (from a 'nest of 3' but the remaining one is doing sterling work in the bathroom) because while they have their uses, it is difficult to clean around them without lifting them out, they seem to attract cat hair & I have been thinking that they now create more issues than they solve. I'm going to move them out (they can go up in the loft as they will almost certainly come in useful for something, even perhaps painted as little garden coffee tables), set the finned wonder onto those spaces to deal with the dust & then re-arrange a bit of storage, etc. After that, I intend to do the usual seasonal cosying-up.......crochet blankets on the back of the sofa for snuggly evenings of film viewing (as well as protecting our clothes from soggy cats), put out a nice new scented candle I received for my birthday back in Spring & also put a little mantlepiece display of red pyracantha berries in place in the glass vase from my just-finished previous scented candle which was a Christmas present from Soot & Ash. It is quite an elegant tall one from which all the wax & burned dregs washed out easily so it is now a new shopped from home vase. I shall also get out my Christmas piano music.....not that I will be starting on the carols just yet, but some pieces do require a bit of annual practice to get them up to scratch for December renditions! I have a lovely big pile of cook books from the library to browse through at my leisure - hopefully some nice interesting new-to-us recipes to make for the colder seasons, & I need to choose a new novel from my reading pile too. We usually have 2 or 3 months of Netty's Flicks this time of year (we don't really make viable amounts of use of subscriptions in the summer when we are outdoors more) so I've told Mr F that if he want to re-set that up, it's a good time to do it while October's budget is still open-ended as I wait for things to move on the boiler part/repair. It won't cost us any extra as he has cancelled membership of a professional body which will more than cover the cost. I've been informed that it's not my cooking night & that all I need to do is find a couple of good baking potatoes & make sure he gets a big one! So that will probably also add some sock knitting time into the mix for my day too.
So nothing very onerous going on here, but by the end of the day I should have achieved a little bit of a refreshed look in the living room for zero financial outlay. That is certainly the aim, plus more efficient use of storage space.
Best weekend wishes to all readers,
F x

amber03

I swopped the blanket that has been on the back of the sofa for a thicker one. Noticed the other night it was abit chilly with the original one, didn’t want to put on CH yet so thicker blanket will do for now. Noticed we have had a lot of geese flying over the house the last few days. A sign the seasons are changing.

foxgloves

Yes, we get the skeins of geese flying over too, @amber03 - we live in a riverside village - & they seem to start flying in & out in late August, peaking around now. I love to see them go over the garden, especially in perfect V formation with a leader centre front. It's a lovely seasonal thing I always think.
F

PennysIntoPounds

The shopped from home seasonal revamp sounds lovely 😊

badmemory

I have no idea what was on my roof on Thursday am.  Certainly not the usual pigeons or magpies.  Much smaller & even better did not poop on the solar panels.  I do not remember seeing them here before, but the weather here has been better than normal so that could be something to do with it.

foxgloves

@PennysIntoPounds - Thanks. One thing I've definitely learned since my transformation from Spender to Saver is how a few simple tweaks & swaps can contribute to a bit of a free new look.

@badmemory - Autumn migrant birds from Scandinavia start flying in around now & some i.e Redwings, travel around in groups, so your rooftop visitors could be newly arrived seasonal visitors.

badmemory

I think you could well be right about it being a redwing.  They seemed too small to be a thrush, so that would fit with a redwing.  It was quite odd to see as they were all crammed onto my roof with none on the adjoining roof.  The pigeons when they come seem to stay on one of the roofs opposite.

foxgloves

Evening m'dears,
Pleasant unexciting day, which is how I like it. Not a no-spend day as I bought 4 x £2.99 chrysanthemums for planting up Autumn containers this week, but I didn't allow myself to be tempted by further new planty friends as I know I can supply everything else from what I already have. 
Mr F helped me finish off the living room refresh I began yesterday by lifting the sofa out & cleaning behind it before moving it up into its new position. He also moved the heavy wooden chest we use as a coffee table to enable me to move the rug into a more aesthetically pleasing position. No major changes but it is amazing how the simple removal of 2 small side tables & a few tweaks seems to have created more space. Am pleased with it anyway. Mr F now raring to go with sorting out the snake's nest of cables behind the TV & moving that unit back a little to add to the illusion of more space. Anyway, it feels good to have effected a partial new look with a big fat zero spend.
Anything else today to keep the frugal faith? 
Chatted through our diaries so we know what we're doing this week, picked some french beans, decluttered 2 books to the charity bag pile & continued working my way through odds & sods of toiletries. Mr F is busy making our last WW lamb & marrow bake of the season. Plenty of blackberry & pear compote left for free dessert.
Soot helped by tipping over a full box of recycling & taking all the paper & tins, etc, out so that he could sit in the empty box 🙄.
Ah well, into a new week we go,
F xx

PennysIntoPounds

Cables and wires being sorted into an acceptable arrangement is the crème de la crème of room organising as far as I'm concerned, ooh it drives me mad having them on show let alone in piles or tangles. Excellent work you two!

Just saw on a thread called Soots' Secret Diary that he loves his meowmy but she does get these peculiar ideas about putting things in boxes that he could use to sit in 😁