Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

@PennysIntoPounds - It's 'The Killer Question' by Janice Hallett. I really like this author's books. The first one I read was 'The Twyford Code' but I think the first one she wrote was actually 'The Appeal', set among the machinations of an amateur dramatic society. They are usually quite funny & are written in an unusual narrative style of Whats App group messages, emails, etc, & part of the fun is that we, as the readers, have all the evidence to try & work out the mystery.....usually a murder. 

@Blackcats - I'm watching the knitting programme but I wouldn't want to be on it! Knitting isn't really suitable for that format as everything has to be team efforts or constructed on enormous needles. I'm quite enjoying it but I think there's a better knitting show to be made, if only the format could be radically changed to try something different. I know my sister (also a big knitter) has previously considered applying for 'Sewing Bee' but doesn't think she could managed the time constraints.

@thriftmonster - Yes, we were pleased to find that both post-op check-ups were included in the original vet bill.

@Sun_Addict - Yes, you were right. He was fine & has now been discharged.

foxgloves

Hello Diary Friends,
It's been a pretty routine couple of days here at Foxgloves Manor - nothing exciting to report. Budget-helping offerings since Tuesday as follows:
*Have done quite a few surveys. Heading for £40 on PA once everyone has paid me. I also appear to have qualified for a product test.
*Finished knitting the snowman mitts for a Christmas charity project & they have now been donated. I was pleased with how they turned out as I altered the pattern a bit, but the most satisfying thing was making something nice & festive while also using up free supplies from my yarn stash.
*Present knitting still ongoing.
*Packed breakfasts & lunches as usual.
*The hedge cutting & gutter clearing came in at £70 less than I'd budgeted so have credited that back to November's budget. While up the ladder, our friendly gardener had a look at the problem with our roof/soffit & diagnosed the cause. This is the ongoing FROG. Aaaaagh! I think it will be more expensive & problematic to put right than I had been hoping. Still waiting to hear back from workman for a professional opinion & a quote. The company has good reviews so I hope they don't ignore my email (like the previous business did). While depressing to see photos of the roof problem, I do believe that knowledge is power & it will help me when discussing what needs to be done.
*Am on top of budget updates - important at this time of year when there tends to be more money moved around.
*The medlars I foraged last month have bletted (I was wondering why there was a fruity smell in the pantry) so I've peeled them & frozen ready for making apple & medlar jelly when I have sufficient jars. Mum & Dad used to be so good at saving jars for me. I miss getting bagfuls of those.
*Wrote a letter - card & stamp from stash.
*Baked a batch of crusty rolls.
*Wrote 4 shopping lists! Grocery list as usual, a very small list for A*di tomorrow, a list for town including our very well-priced market butcher & one for our city centre shopping visit on Saturday. Grocery budget is tighter than I'd like for the rest of this month - extra cat pouches as Ash wasn't allowed biscuits for a week, some preserving ingredients & (SHOCK HORROR!!) a top-up shop, & you know my feelings about the budget-gobbling potential of those!
*Sorted out milkman order for Christmas......then realised I haven't included cream, so I will need to do that at some point.
*Christmas wrapping ongoing - another 4 presents wrapped today. The big roll of green paper I told you about which Mr F saved from the skip is never-ending. I've been wrapping like mad & I swear it's getting bigger! I'm not complaining though as it is just plain, bright green so is fine for Christmas, birthdays, whatever.
*Ash's 2nd post-op vet check-up went well yesterday. The nurse was very pleased with him & said he could go back to his usual mixed diet of meat & dry food. He was so pleased to see some biscuits arriving in his bowl yesterday, he wolfed them down while giving Soot an impressive side-eye (Soot can be a bit of a bowl-looter) throughout. They didn't seem to be hurting his mouth so the extraction sites must be healing up nicely. Soot was up to tricks on Tues night. There was an unopened pouch of cat meat left out on the kitchen worktop & he had obviously jumped up there on his habitual hunt for snacks. He hadn't managed to get the pouch open sufficiently to eat any, but by the following morning, it looked like it had gone 14 rounds with Freddy Krueger. Later the same morning (when he'd only just had his breakfast!) I found him in the pantry biting Ash's new bag of biscuits. He never gives up! Anyway, the reason the cat biscuit thing has appeared as a budget-friendly item here is that we have plenty of biscuits in & now that Ash is back on a mixed diet, we can go back to our usual level of cat meat buying as the extra pouches definitely added up at (usually) £17 per box.
*Mr F found 2 useful supermarket vouchers in his wallet this morning which he had shoved in without looking at them. Both are potentially useful, £12 off a minimum spend of £80 & £4.50 off a minimum spend of £30. Now pinned to kitchen board so they don't get forgotten.
Right, that is a round-up of the last couple of days - nothing exciting - key things are Ash having recovered & roof stress. Easy nosebag tonight - a Malaysian prawn curry recipe which I have been making for years. I wish I'd thought to make it while I had Covid as it's packed with good things for blowing out the cobwebs!
Hope everyone's had a good day.
F x

EssexHebridean

Hmmm that curry sounds nice - and it's occurred to me that I might consider turning tonight's chicken into a noodle bowl rather than a risotto - I still have some of the oriental flavour stock pot jellies which were at the bargainous price of 19p a pack in !!!!!! ages ago, and those might work rather well as an easy source of flavouring... 

BrimfulofSascha

foxgloves said:

Hello Diary Readers,
I think I shall do 2 posts today, starting with Ash's vet trip yesterday. He needed a full dental so had grumpily done the 'no food from midnight' thing & was dropped off early by Mr F, who remembered to ask for an estimate of the cost. Well, when he came home & relayed what he'd been told...... "We can't exactly say until we have done the teeth scaling & can see what else needs to be done in terms of extractions, etc, but it could be around £800". Oh my life! I thought I was going to need to send out for the village defibrillator!! £800 for a dental! Mr F said he was so shocked, he even momentarily considered taking Ash home & not going through with it, but I know he'd never have done that, as we had been told his teeth needed attention & we 'd also recently spotted him chewing his fishy chunks a bit oddly, so we wouldn't have put money before our animal's wellbeing.............but £800!! Now, I knew the dental was coming up this Autumn, so when the Meow Pot reached its usual agreed maximum of £600 (both cats are insured for emergencies), I actually carried on & stuffed an extra £100 in. We are also carrying a larger buffer zone on our current account atm (the last bit of the money I inherited from our elderly relative) so there wasn't a problem paying the bill, it was just that it seemed so enormous for a dental. I convinced myself it must be something to do with Ash having asthma & having a general anaesthetic. We did agree to their recommended pre-anaesthetic blood test for cats of 7+ years as although we think Ash is 7 next year, we don't actually know because he was a feral & his age estimated when we adopted him, but we knew the cost of this test only accounted for £40 of the estimated £800. 
You can imagine the stress was 2-fold at Hagstones Manor yesterday - firstly Ash having a GA with his asthma & secondly that looming bill to pay. 
Mr F rang at 3pm as instructed for an update but Ash was only just going into surgery due to 2 emergencies coming in & obviously needing to take priority. He was finally collected at 5.30pm & as he was the last surgical patient of the day, he was still absolutely smacked up to the eyeballs on anaesthetic, wobbled out of his carrier & flopped onto a blanket for the next few hours. He required 4 extractions so has painkiller medicine & I'm pleased to say seems to be recovering well today.  But here's a thing about the bill.........
It was £365.00. Nowhere NEAR the estimated £800. Mr F commented that this was way under the huge amount he'd been quoted earlier that day & was told that they prefer to estimate the upper end - we got the impression that this is so people are prepared for what could happen, as if they estimate only the lower end, it can come as a shock when it's a lot higher. I can understand that entirely, but did feel we'd spent a lot of time discussing HOW it could be £800 & working out the best way to pay for it (me). I want to add that I did feel very grateful that we do have the ability to pay, even if they HAD found £800's worth of problems. Thank goodness for Savings Pots! Though I shall need to build the Meow Fund back up again, it was a relief knowing that it was there & was more than able to cover the bill.
So that's an update on Ash & his blimmin' teeth! A much less stressful day today, I'm pleased to say.
F x

So glad he is ok> Vets bills are no joke. The actual bill seems comparatively reasonable. My little cat had to have a tooth extracted last year after biting an antler (terrible little lion cub) and cracking his tooth into a dagger. I think that was £610 for one tooth! I guess its the GA that's the pricy bit though, one tooth vs 4 teeth is probably only seconds of vet time. 

PennysIntoPounds

So glad Ash is much better, love the side eye 😁

Hope the business gets in touch soon re roof and that it's not as dire as feared. Even if it is, consider it investing money to get the place in best condition for best price once Project Surbiton is ready for pouncing on properties 🥂

amber03

Good news about Ash and the vets bill. The vets we have used for many years originally was a family run business and was the best. A few years ago it was bought out by one of these big organisations and sadly it’s seems that they are more interested making money than the actual pets. One of the worst things they have changed is that they will only look after them till 6pm. So if your animal has an operation, especially later in the day and still needs some care, you have to pick them up at 6pm and take them to an emergency vets which is about 4 miles away and at least double the price. My friend had to go and pick her dog up who still had a drip attached and take it to the emergency vets. The only other vets close to us now has a waiting list of people wanting to join them.

foxgloves

@BrimfulofSascha & @amber03 - Thanks. Yes, vet bills are no joke.  I was shocked by the estimate but thought the actual bill was reasonable in terms of what we were expecting before hearing that scarily enormous quote. Yes, I have heard that the big vet chains can be pricey. Our vet is a local business with several practices dotted around our part of the county, but on the whole, its prices still seem fairly reasonable. With both cats getting older.....Soot is 12, Ash 7, I think it is worth me setting a higher maximum for the Meow Pot. They are both insured, but routine things are not always covered & there is also the excess to pay when claims are made.

@PennysIntoPounds - Not going to lie, I'm worried about the cost of this roof repair but we are going to be here sufficiently long to need to get it done, as well as needing it done for future plans when put the house on the market. I haven't heard back from the firm I contacted - it's almost as though businesses don't want the work. Having said that, this outfit has good scores & excellent feedback online (they are on one of the accredited tradespeople sites) so it could simply be that they are really busy & in demand. I will see what happens next week & hope I don't have to re-contact them.

PennysIntoPounds

Of course it's a worry but try not to too much until you have the information. Easier said than done I know. But you're excellent at being frugal when needed so if it is a shocker (which it might not be), then you'll rise to the challenge.
At least you're on PA, harrumph 😁
Some companies are just more used to using one way of communication above others, I would try email/online form/telephone call before starting fretting about no response and having to look elsewhere.
Will house insurance be able to cover or contribute, or are you loath to use that?

foxgloves

Hello Saturday Savers,
A routine round-up from me. A quick town trip yesterday & the rest of the day at home due to the almost biblical levels of rain. Not too much to report from that on the budgetary front:
*Made use of our local butcher's excellent 5 for £20 offer to stock up. 
*Groceries will have come in reasonably on target this week, I think.
*Cleaned the house between us with the usual minimal products & washable cloths.
*Fed sourdough jar.
Oh, & opened the pantry & out strolled Soot! The catch on the doors has stopped working & I am actually wondering if he can piggle the doors open himself. Anyway, he was discovered before he had time to make progress with opening a new bag of biscuits bought for Ash, which was clearly what he had gone in to do. 

And onto today.....
*City centre trip. Decided to pay for 3 hours of car parking instead of 4 & to get a move on!
*Christmas shopping now pretty much finished after this morning. The last 2 presents for Mr F are on order, but the release date isn't until next month & there are a few more little foodie items to buy for the hamper we are giving to our friends. 
*Found a book of Christmas piano music in the charity bookshop for £5. I know I said I didn't need any more festive music, but this one has some different things in it & as music scores can be quite expensive, I thought it was a nice find & didn't at all begrudge a fiver of my Spends!
*A nice freebie from the place where you might go if you wanted to buy a new body.....a full sized tube of hemp hand cream for which no spend was required. This made up for the fact that they may have discontinued my favourite moisturiser, though I bought a different one to try which I think will be as good.
*More freebies from Waitbl00m as there seem to be a few samples around for customers to try atm......some sushi & smoked cheese today, plus free coffees as usual. 
*Treated myself to a velvet dress. I had planned to go in the shop to try it on but wasn't sure whether I'd buy it or not. Your know that feeling when you can afford something, but you don't really REALLY need it & wonder whether you can justify the cost. Well, I was on my way into the fitting rooms & an assistant said that there was 20% off today. Did that sway my decision? It did, really, as it meant an instant £21 off the dress. It did look nice & the label also says hand washable, which is a 'must' for me as dry cleaning can be both ridiculously expensive & I'm sure uses chemicals I wouldn't like in my home. So I purchased it, thinking I will remember to top up the Clothes Pot on on December or January Big Budget Day........THEN........
*........This happened! Got home, sat checking my emails over lunch & found a YouGov invitation. I sat & did that, then when I went to sign out, noticed that I had surpassed the total for cash-out, so implemented that & now have £50 winging its way to our bank account as I type, which will be sent to the Clothes Pot on arrival, offsetting most of the remaining cost of the velvet loveliness! Yay to things sometimes working out in one's favour!
*Made a sourdough, now proving in its little basket.
That's it for money stuff. Oh, you'd have laughed yesterday......The rain was just awful & Mr F appeared to be heading out to town in just a hoodie. I had my waterproof on & asked him why he wasn't wearing his, as he was going to get really wet. He said no way was he wearing it as he would be "too hot". So as I have a hood on mine, I said I'd put that up & he could have the umbrella. His reply? "I'm not carrying that thing around all morning. It takes up a whole arm!" So you will understand my mirth when, standing in the queue for the butcher's stall at the market, a big load of rainwater swooshed off the top of the gazebo right down the back of his neck! He was absolutely soaked through! I had to turn away & pretend to be studying some festive cheese wheels because I was trying so hard not to laugh!
Ah well, that's it from me. I'd like to get out into the garden tomorrow if it isn't too much of a quagmire.
Peace,
F xx

rtandon27

Awwww - poor MrF - you are very kind to have turned away - I'd just have laughed at my OH and possibly made a snide comment! - you are a lovely wife!