Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Sun_Addict

The free sheet mask wasn’t a mushroom one by any chance? I had a free one to review. 

Makingabobor2

Sun_Addict said:

The free sheet mask wasn’t a mushroom one by any chance? I had a free one to review. 

A mushroom face mask???

PennysIntoPounds

Yay, happy returning mojo! Looking forward to hearing about all your even more excellent doings 🥂
(Though don't mug yourself if you need a wee nap or afternoon chilling!)

Suffolk_lass

Late to the discussion as usual. Beef is the other wildly more expensive item. Usually mince, and padded out with vegetables and a handful of red lentils, these days. I do have a couple of hidden roasting joints in the freezer in the cart lodge though. I buy half a lamb a year from my friend who has a small flock, but that isn't a supermarket increase. I do anticipate all home reared meat will increase in price in the coming months as the dry summer meant many used their winter silage up by the end of September, and are having to buy it in at vastly increased prices now. So if you have room in your freezer, and people are buying less for Christmas, there could be bargains immediately before and after Christmas. I am going to the nearby town to get the interest added to a paper BS book today, so I will go into the butcher and order my Christmas Turkey. I might buy some meat there today too, as I am aware we have been there a lot less this year.

foxgloves

It's Big Budget Day here at Foxgloves Manor - I may be some time.......
F

rtandon27

I hope you have braced yourself with a nice steaming mug of coffee!

Makingabobor2

Ooh, got to love a big budget. Hope all goes well. Keep yourself well supplied with coffee

foxgloves

@KajiKita - Yes, disappearing 'soon-to-be-shrunken' products are annoying too. 

@MrsCatz - Too right! I'm not buying them either. I want proper chocolate on a biscuit, not some sort of manufactured palm-oily 'brown' stuff.

@joedenise - I think bulk-buying can often result in a saving with very regularly consumed items. Mr F is already champing at the bit to go & look for yellow-stickered Christmas coffee in Waitbl00m after the festivities. We bought a couple of bags at a cracking knock-down price last year & wished we had put more in the trolley. We didn't want to be grabby, but when we went back, it seemed everyone else had, so we'll know better next time!

@Humdinger1 - I love trying different ground coffees. I mostly have just 2 (large!) cups a day, sometimes a tidsy extra first thing when I get up, just to get me firing on all cylinders. My current fave is Waitbl00m own label Ethiopian Sidamo. It's been on offer. I don't know if it still is, but it's been nice to have it back in the cupboard - we try hard to get a balance between a decent price & a variety we really enjoy drinking. We are lucky that our local market butcher has such great deals on meat that we haven't further reduced it in our diets, although we do eat a lot of fish & veg-based meals too. I like using pulses, especially in curries & chillies & I still sometimes make Rose Elliott's butterbean quiche, a staple from years ago.

foxgloves

Many thanks for your kind anniversary wishes. We decided we'd just like a low-key day enjoying the season together so we went off to Belton House, an NT property in a neighbouring county. We've visited many times before & it's one of those places where regular visits confirm the interest of each season. We didn't go in the house this time. It's a fine old building & we have enjoyed looking around several times, but both of us prefer older properties - Tudor, Jacobean, Medieval, etc, so we sometimes choose just to enjoy the gardens & estate when we re-visit newer ones & that's what we did yesterday. It was lovely! The trees shone with tawny colours & the gardens were still alive with bee-covered drifts of inky salvias, cosmos, gaura & dahlias. We weren't particularly thinking about money saving, but I count the following as small wins:
*Used our annual pass cards to get in, which does very much reduce on-the-day costs of an outing.
*Enjoyed breakfast in the old stables cafe. I'd budgeted for this, so it was a neutral expense.
*The squirrels had beaten me to the chestnuts, which were early this year but a foraging opportunity did present itself in the form of over a lb of perfect medlars sitting under the trees doing nothing. They're doing something now....they're busy ripening in our fruit drawer from whence they will probably be turned into apple & medlar jelly.
*Bought 3 Christmas presents in the shop - 2 of them were specific items on my list of presents to buy, the 3rd one was too, but I'd seen it in a different shop. Decided to buy it yesterday & am so glad I did, because we happened to call at the other place on our way home & they didn't have any. (These were all items I'm putting together with some seeds to make a gardening gift for my sister). Anyway, all paid for from the Presents Pot.
*This NT property has a particularly good 2nd hand bookshop so we always have a browse. I found a pristine copy of Ben Myers' novel, 'The Offing' which is a book I really like. Despite its crisp clean loveliness, it was only £2, so naturally it is now sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be re-read. 
So we enjoyed our morning & spent the rest of the day relaxing.
Silver Wedding next year, oh my life, where on earth did the time go?!
F x

foxgloves

And onto today's post.....
Today is my Big Budget Day & (unconnected to this fact) also one on which Soot has had to have 3 shouts & may actually be gearing up to receive a 4th. Oh that boy & his tummy!!
*Being up to my armpits in assorted number-crunching is today's major budget-helping activity. It's taken me ages. I always begin with reconciling the previous month then I know I have accurate figures on which to base setting the new one. Well, I had a whole heap of transactions which I'd deferred to budget day while I cogitated on the most useful Pots from which to cover them, or whether some of them could usefully come from the buffer zone & of course today, I had actually to sort them all out. I usually get all the overhanging transactions dealt with during the previous Monday when I tackle budget updates, but as I didn't intend spending even a scrap of our anniversary f*rting around with sums, I had to suck it up today! Never mind, we have a November budget, we are solvent, & I have paid into our regular saver, the Car Fund & bought this month's premium bonds. 
*Back-pay. A few days ago, Mr F remembered that he'd got some back-pay coming in October's pay, so I have been having a look good uses for that. So far, I have put aside a decent lump to cover some heavy garden work/gutter cleaning which I am booking imminently, added £30 extra to our Personal Spends & sent a little to the Leisure & Entertainment Pot, which frankly wasn't looking as though it'd be facilitating any interesting activities anytime soon! I have also left a decent amount unallocated so that we can see what needs transpire over the next month & also revisit the Savings Pots after various expenses that are coming up, including a full dental for Ash. Back in the day, we'd have blown back-pay in a jiffy, so it is good to feel more appreciative now & spend (or save it) more mindfully.
*Chicken s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g activity. It did a roast dinner on Sunday & I divided up the leftovers for fajhitas tonight, man-stew & also froze a container of chunks to make a future meal. Froze the carcass for stock making at some point.
*Fed sourdough jar.
*Rounded up a bag of library returns. 
Looking forward to watching GGBO & deciding which book to start next. Enjoy your evenings all,
F x