Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

No news apart from going to a lovely Christmas craft fair this morning where I treated myself to an outrageous festive bag. Love it! Budget-neutral too, as used my Personal Spends. 
F x

Makingabobor2

Ooh, please share a pic of the lovely bag

Sun_Addict

Festive bag sounds fabulous 🎄 

foxgloves

Hello Sunday Readers,
Had only intended to do a few garden tasks today, but then remembered we are out most of tomorrow so decided to move a couple of my regular Monday jobs to today. A no-spend day for starters - other budget-friendly efforts as follows:
*Joint effort on setting up our blackberry for next year's fruit - pruned out the canes which fruited this year & tied in the new ones. Fab crop this summer - still have 2 bags in the freezer.
*Insulated the worm composter & dahlia pots for Winter using a roll of free bubblewrap salvaged a couple of years ago from some or other delivery.
*Yesterday's rain had given the wormery a good wash through so we were able to add all the free liquid food to a big trug of collected rainwater to give our old pear tree a bit of a treat.
*Potted up 3 self-seeded vebena bonariensis.
*Moved a trough of late-sown lettuce to the greenhouse so I can carry on snipping homegrown salad leaves.
*Watered my October-sown sweet-peas which germinated quite quickly (saved seed).
*Did 3 loads of laundry.
*Baked a crusty loaf.
*Small bargain gammon in the slow cooker - Mr F says he'll cook the veg to go with it later & makes some parsley sauce. I would expect to be able to get another couple of meals from the ham - am thinking a home made pizza & a pasta-bake.
*Updated my diary for next week to reflect changes to Mr F's work schedule, then assigned the tasks I'd like to do on each day, most of them of a festive nature, which I'll enjoy.
*Wrote today's Christmas card quota (2).
*Cashed out my November PA earnings of £55-75. 
*Finished knitting the last of 5 cheerful dishcloths (cotton yarn from my stash).
*And the first of my Advent activities. It's Advent Sunday, so I have hung up our Advent calendar wall hanging  - it's one my Mum made for us years ago with little pockets for a daily sweetie. Much as I love this time of year, I am absolutely not going down the route of buying expensive Advent calendars of the type with a toiletry, gizmo or, perish the thought, bag of pork scratchings (!!) behind each door. I'd have probably been on it like the proverbial bonnet back in the Spendaceous Era (make-up/beauty variety) but I don't feel any pull to buying one now because it feels like over-consumption/even more packaging. I think the only ones I could be tempted into are the ones from indie yarn-dyers with a mini-skein of something utterly gorgeous to open every day. However, they are usually really expensive & I would only buy one if I absolutely knew without a shadow of doubt that I had a pattern/firm idea of what to make with it. So as in the last few years, I will be putting out 1 festive thing every day until our Christmas tree goes up in a couple of weeks. I really enjoy doing this & it makes me appreciate nice things that we have which only come into the limelight at this time of year.
Hope everyone's having a peaceful Sunday. I'm off to have a first go at yesterday's crossword followed by some reading. Take care, all.
F x

PennysIntoPounds

Do join in this year if you want to with MSE Advent, that's such a nice idea to appreciate putting a Christmassy thing out every day until the tree goes up
And I think you said last year you were preparing your jewellery for this year 😁 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6643184/a-very-mse-advent-2025/p1

I have realised I'm weirdly emotionally invested in your wormery, how are they getting on, is everything okay with them? Send them my regards won't you 

foxgloves

@PennysIntoPounds - I may well add my daily Advent items to your new thread - I'll see how I go. Thanks for the invitation.
Re jewellery. I have decided not to do jewellery Advent but the concept has inspired me to get on with a badly needed task this month. My jewellery is in chaos, esp for such an organised person! It needs a huge sort out, clean & several items require mending. I have too much stuff to fit in my box. I don't want to replace the box because my Grandad made it, so I've been looking out for something to store all my earrings. And guess what? A 'shopped from home' item has presented itself. A little wooden & ceramic chest of drawers which had been hiding in plain sight all along! So once I'm on top of a few more festive tasks & the bloomin' birthday socks are finished, I am going to sort out all my necklaces, earrings, etc, & will doubtless find all sorts of things I've forgotten about!
F

PennysIntoPounds

Aw that's such a triple win, shopping something lovely from home, sorting out your jewellery so you can enjoy it all, and being able to utilise your Grandad's box to more splendid effect 🥂

We're also doing Christmas jobs and any other tasks on the advent diary so do pop on over if you need motivation or to give us inspiration!

foxgloves

Yes, I'm actually quite looking forward to sitting down & sorting out the jewellery task at long last, @PennysIntoPounds.

City centre trip yesterday & stayed late for a fab Christmas concert. Tired today though. Late night then woken up by a very vocal cat fight outside, thankfully not involving Ash, as these things often do.
Budget-friendly efforts today:
*Made Christmas Day red cabbage (Delia) in slow cooker. Just did a half quantity but it's  provided 3 containers.
*Made a pasta bake with some of Sunday's leftover ham.
*Did slightly belated Monday morning budget updates.
*Did a couple of surveys.
*Entered a competition.
*Did some present knitting.
*Finished writing Christmas cards. I need to add a letter to 2 of them.
*Nobbled Mr F first thing to choose next week's meals from December's master meal plan.
*Put out a lovely scented candle for today's Advent item. It isn't a festive one, I received it for my birthday, but as soon as I saw the nice green glass container it's in, I earmarked it for my Christmas candle.
Oh & I learned 'Mary's boy child' on the piano this afternoon as am playing carols most days throughout the season. Good free fun despite bum notes!
And there was hardly any ironing despite 3 loads of laundry, so that felt like a small win.
F x

ladyholly

Its the bum notes that make anyones playing unique. I am sure I heard one on the radio today. 

Cheery_Daff

I too am sorting my jewellery into a little wooden and ceramic set of drawers 😊 I'm opening one each day of advent (there are only 16 so I'll have to reuse some 😂) but they didn't have anything in anyway so they may remain as jewellery storage afterwards, as I don't actually have any kind of jewellery box and everything I own (nothing 'precious') is just scattered around the house. I don't even know where half of it is at the minute! 

Speaking of advent calendars... a colleague was telling me yesterday that someone had ordered them an energy drink advent calendar which was only available in America! 😱 After they'd paid the extortionate customs fee, they discovered it's now available in the local supermarket 😂

We found an advent book in a charity shop a few years ago so that gets wheeled out here - it's a lovely little thing, a woodland story, with little animals doing festive things (yesterday's picture was a a cat baking a Christmas cake 😂). Most jolly.