Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

It's been lovely, @PennysIntoPounds - a bag of decent crisps, a nice hot coffee in my snowy robin mug, a handknitted blanket, both cats having a turn on my lap & a whole film! Simple pleasures!

foxgloves

Well m'dears, it is very nearly actual proper tinsel time. This time tomorrow, I expect I shall be sewing up the nether regions of our Christmas turkey with Mr F as my surgical assistant. This afternoon, however, I am enjoying some take-it-easy time. Unexpectedly, it is just myself & the cats atm, as Mr F, who is technically off work today, decided to go in & work until early evening for his own peace of mind that all the shut-down procedures have been implemented correctly. While he knows they will be, it is just that thing of seeing it with his own eyes, so that in the unlikely event of anything adverse happening (dodgy area), he is confident that there is no chance of any blame bouncing onto his team. Cats not being very entertaining - Soot (who managed to snarf quite a lot of Ash's breakfast) is snoozing next to the Christmas tree & Ash is tucked up in his igloo bed up here in Foxgloves HQ. Anyway, today's small amount of budget-friendly activity:
*In view of Mr F going into work later in the day, we decided at least to have a festive morning, so took ourselves (& Sunday's crossword) off for breakfast at the village farm shop. Budget-neutral as covered from our Personal Spends, plus a free coffee from our loyalty card reduced the bill.
*Baked a tin of Shrewsbury biscuits. I always think they have a similar vibe to Easter biscuits & Soul cakes. They feel quite festive with the currants, lemon & crunchy sugar/egg white brushed tops.
*Baked sausage rolls. Very little effort here as although I prefer cocktail size sausage rolls made from shortcrust pastry, Mr F likes puff pastry man-size ones. I can make puff pastry but it is a lot of faff when good bought stuff is available, so this was a very quick task.
*Remembered to defrost everything required for tomorrow's kitchen efforts & also located my turkey-suturing needle. 
*Did a couple of very minor budget updates. just to keep everything as straight as possible in the run-up to my next Big Budget Day.
*Did a survey.
*Another simple use-it-up for tonight's nosebag. With a few days of richer food hoving into view, we thought we'd like something lighter, so have defrosted some home made soup, which again will be followed with scrambled eggs on toast. Mincemeat twigs for dessert to keep it festive.
And that is all I intend to do today where tasks are concerned. I intend to put the tree lights on & enjoy a good few chapters of my book. My bestie has just pinged me a photo of the 1 single solitary turkey left in her local supermarket. It looked like a proper billy-no-mates sitting there on its own. Hope somebody has now bought it & given it pride of place in their fridge. Mr F says he is going to collect ours absolutely as the shop opens tomorrow morning so that the rest of the day is our own. Last time we were in there together, I had to give him a bit of an elbow in the ribs to stop making me laugh. There was a group of 3 older women entering before us, absolutely dressed, be-jewelled & made up to the nines with truly killer heels. Even for Waitbl00m, they stood out. Well, of course, he started loudly singing the theme tune to 'The Golden Girls', didn't he, which made me get the giggles. Even at junior school, he used to entertain his cohort by changing words of carols i.e replacing the line in Mary's Boy Child about the source of heavenly music with, "It seemed to come from your bra". I don't think he's really changed all that much, lol!
Ah well, enough festive verbiage from me. Sofa & book beckon.
Love F x

foxgloves

A little seasonal snippet.....
On Christmas Day 1666, Mrs Pepys (wife of diarist, Samuel) had a lie-in, being 'desirous to sleep' because she had stayed up until 4am watching her maids make the mince pies! I remember reading this & thinking, 'Hmmm, I bet those poor maids had to wash-up all the pastry-making stuff & STILL get up by 6am to get the fires lit! 
In contrast, here at Foxgloves Manor today, we have been very relaxed. Turkey stuffed, sewn up, barded, foiled, Uncle Tom Cobley & all by 11.30am & the rest of the day spent on leisure, chatting & Explaining Things to Soot about cat meal times. We think we might have another games heptathlon which was a lot of fun when we did it a couple of Christmasses ago. I could fancy some card games too, so will get my tin of coppers out.
Anyway, before I go off on some or other random festive tangent, I would like to wish all my readers & anyone else who drops in a lovely few days. Time to say farewell to the Old Year - sharing food & stories and lighting the winter darkness as we prepare to welcome in the New with all it may bring.
Yuletide Blessings,
Fxx

PennysIntoPounds

Merry Christmas foxgloves, hope you all have a lovely one x
Here's to your tin of coppers growing larger, Ash getting to eat his own food and having a cosy time with no scrapping, Mr F enjoying downtime and beers and planning when to eat leftovers, and Soot finding something exciting to eat within a millisecond of it dropping from the table 🥂

Sun_Addict

Yuletide Felicitations (sorry I couldn’t resist it 🤣). Have a good one🎄 

ladyholly

Have a peaceful Yule and many thanks for all your helpful posts throughout the year.

thriftmonster

Wishing you a lovely Christmas and many thanks for your diary which is just such a joy each day

Four_Seasons

A very happy Christmas to all at Foxglove Manor hope you have a lovely day. Thank you for keeping us entertained with tales of Soot and Ash and all your helpful tips xx

Makingabobor2

Blessings to you & Mr FG as well. Enjoy the turkey. X

themadvix

Sun_Addict said:

Yuletide Felicitations (sorry I couldn’t resist it 🤣). Have a good one🎄 

Nicely done SA, or should I say Margo?!

Merry Christmas Foxgloves, Mr FG and of course Soot and Ash, I hope Santa brought you lots of dreamies! (I suspect that my two have rather a lot - not from us, I hasten to add!)