Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Thanks for all your comments & suggestions which are appreciated & I shall reply properly on Monday.
Today has been really quite festive. Mr F decided he was going off to town, primarily for the market, with our Christmas food list & he also made use of some good wine offers in the C**p & called into the village farm shop for a sack of potatoes. December grocery budget holding up well atm, but I did allow more money for Christmas.
Meanwhile, I had a baking morning. Started by baking the sourdough I made yesterday. Have packed 2 tins of baked goodies for my nephews, whom I shall see tomorrow. Tried a new recipe for little ginger buns with quite an unusual ingredient - lager! Drizzled zig-zags of white icing over them & they look quite festive. 
This afternoon, I've been wreath-making, one for us & one for my sis - am just waiting for her to let me know which one she'd like. Very low cost as while I did buy a new reel of wire & some ribbon, I re-used frames, baubles & silver fir cones from previous years & all the greenery/berries were snipped from our garden
Bath, hairwash, Mr F's cooking night, so I'm flopped on the sofa reading & looking forward to another episode of 'Slow horses'. 
Candles lit & Soot trying to score another dinner, which isn't going to happen.
Have a relaxing evening all
F x

2Scratters

@EssexHebridean we use water all year round for the loo. We are in a bungalow though which helps with carrying the water in. It sits in the bathroom till needed. Our annual bill is about £250 on a water meter needs must. 

DH trying to be resourceful by doing some jobs in the kitchen. The fact he isn't as fit as he once was. I just want progress and get help in then we end up with a long face sulk   
On the phone to HMRC as I owe £130, yet, not given me an option to pay it in full. Yet this will make work for the pension company it will be deducted  from for it to be implemented till the end of the tax year. I had anticipated I would be likely to owe some money and it is here ready and waiting  

2 Scratters xx

foxgloves

@Sun_Addict - Yes, I would rather not have to spend the money, but on balance, it isn't as much as it could have been. I showed the roofer my neighbour's fairly new roof & said I'd like one like that, so that may count as already having chosen our tiles! It looks smart though so if so, I'm fine with that.

@2Scratters - With water metering imminent, I experimented today with using the contents of the full dehumidifier tank to flush the loo. Very successful! And defo feels like free water.

@DawnW - Thanks for that suggestion. I mentioned it to Mr F who said he's heard of Apache & he'll defo have a look at it.

@Kajikita - I completely agree. I had read over the past year about newer incarnations of that wretched insulation foam causing problems for people & although ours is much older, I just had a niggle that it would be jumping out & biting us on the bum at some point. I bet you a bun that the previous occupant (some of her various creditors were chasing us for years) bought it from someone who was knocking on doors. Not much regulation in that industry apparently.

@PennysIntoPounds - Yes, it did feel like a little win remembering that £500. I know it will only cover the deposit & the cattery fees, but that is still something which won't need to come from the Emergency Fund or Meow Pot.

@Suffolk_lass - Yes, we do use Google Drive & I have an external hard drive too for backing up all my genealogy research. I pondered your credit card payment method for the roofing work, but decided that it sounds like a bit more faff than I like, although I can absolutely see your reasoning. I am going to pay the bill in full on completion of the new roof, then work on rebuilding our Emergency Fund to its current level. It won't wipe us out...although I wouldn't want another emergency following in quick succession.

F

foxgloves

Hello Frugal Diary Friends,
Lovely family meet-up yesterday morning with my sis, b-i-l & 2 nephews. We met for a leisurely brunch so had a good catch-up & exchanged Christmas gifts. The Neffs were pleased with their tins of my baking which were deemed emergency car supplies in case they got held up on the return journey home to London! My sis & I also took the opportunity to swap a few magazines with them being so expensive these days & she also gifted me a nice pair of jeggings which are too big for her now. Happy to receive good cast-offs!
Onto today & budget-helping efforts:
*Did my Monday morning budget updates & checked the state of December's grocery budget, which I think is still looking OK, given that we don't have much more festive stuff to buy.
*3 loads of laundry done & on heated airer.
*Baked birthday cake for Mr F. He requested a Norwegian apple cake. There were leftover bramleys so I cooked those into apple sauce & froze.
*Found the silver cake board I carefully washed & stashed last year. I remembered I'd written it on my Project Surbiton list last January when I did a stock take of stuff I wouldn't need to buy this year. 
*Dehumidifier needed emptying so I tested it out on a free loo flush as I am getting my head in the right space for when that compulsory water meter change-over is in place, as it is supposed to be happening within 2 weeks of us having received the letter. I think it's a good use of dehumidifier water during the winter months when pegging out laundry is rare.
*Car has passed its MOT this morning with just 1 advisory. It's also had a big service - covered by our Car Maintenance Savings Pot. Mr F was supposed to be asking for a valuation at the same time, but I don't know if he remembered. He's on his way back, so I'll soon find out.
This afternoon, we are putting up our Christmas tree. We have had to postpone tomorrow's outing because guess who needed to make an emergency dentist appointment tomorrow? Yes, a few days of intermittent toothache built up to a whole day & night of relentless throbbing, & although this has now subsided, I am getting electric shock-type zizzzes from the nerve & it is tender if I try to bite on it. I decided that with Christmas shutdown hoving into view, I'd better get it looked at in case there's an infection brewing. I did have to wait in a long phone queue but once I'd got through to Reception, they were brilliant. Yes, I could have an appointment tomorrow & yes, I could have it later so as not to be fighting though the usual awful rush hour traffic between our frequently gridlocked town & the city centre. Am so hoping it is something which can be dealt with. Have been doing salt-water rinses twice a day as if there's anything lurking, I'd rather be trying to nuke it than leave it.
OK, Soot has come to tell me he is 38 mins late for his lunch & for once, he is absolutely right, so I must go & distribute their crunchies.
Cheers,
F x

KajiKita

The family get together sounds lovely ☺️ 

Sorry to hear about the toothache but well done for getting an appointment so quickly. I really hope it can be dealt with in one go and it settles down again before Christmas.

38 minutes late on crunchies distribution?! Oh my word …! I would be fearing a visit from a wrathful Cat God on Soot’s behalf! 😉😂

KK

Sun_Addict

Glad you had a lovely day yesterday. Ouch to the toothache, it’s such an awful pain, I hope you can get it sorted before Christmas. 

Makingabobor2

Tooth ache really is the worst pain. Hope you manage to get some sleep tonight. 

foxgloves

Thanks, the tooth pain has subsided a lot atm but it's still tender & the nerve is jumping - a bit like mini-electric shocks so although I am really NOT looking forward to my dentist appointment, I'm very glad I managed to get one.
F

EssexHebridean

Ouch to the toothache - but yes, sensible move to get it looked at urgently although I can well imagine that's not a pleasant prospect! 

Yep - I often use the contents of the dehumidifier to flush the loo too, in fact I used to do it at the flat too even though we weren't on a meter there, it just seemed to make sense to make use of the contents for something practical!  Unfortunately @2Scratters it's really not practical for us to use rainwater for loo flushes as we'd have to carry buckets through the house - I suspect the cost of additional carpet cleaning would far offset any water savings we'd make! 

Sun_Addict

Hope all is ok Mrs F and you're not still in the dentist's chair.