Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Baileys_Babe

I'm sure the 4 of you will be pleased to be reunited even if Ash & Soot put up a token protest at being sent away 🤗

foxgloves

Dear Friday Frugalistas, I am typing this with the sound of........silence all around me! The banging & power-tooling has stopped, there has been a clean-up, the skip has been collected & as of about 2pm today, we have a fab new red-tiled roof which looks nicely in keeping with our 1930s house. It has been a very challenging week - full debrief to follow at some point (though ignore this if it isn't your thing - other people's roofing trials probably quite a niche subject tbf). I have paid the invoice, having first done the snagging walkaround. I swear I heard a forlorn squeak from the account containing our Emergency Fund, but this may have just been in my head. Scaffolding due to come down early next week. Paperwork will be filed away in my 'House' ring-binder as it includes the 15-year guarantee on the new roof. That will be a useful thing in years to come when we put the house on the market.
I wonder if psychologically, knowing I had such a big bill to pay today kicked the old synapses into frugal mode, as I tweaked tonight's planned meal to replace with a multi-use-it-up: Turkey soup from the freezer (post-Christmas batch-cook) with herb dumplings (uses up the last bit of suet) followed by a rice pudding baked with the last couple of spoonfuls of home made boozy cherry & walnut mincemeat & a pint of spare milk. We bought extra milk as we are used to tradespeople drinking vast quantities of tea. However, this week I have supplied precisely 2 mugs of tea, as they had all brought cold drinks with them, hence the spare milk. 
Mr F will be itching to get away from his management conference in good time so as to get a glimpse of the new roof while it's still light. I know he will feel like clumping any colleague, who when asked "Does anyone have any final questions?" pipes up with something complex! I'm going to decompress with some reading now. This weekend will be about getting the cats back, getting back to normal & agreeing a plan for getting the (heavily edited!) contents of our loft back up there. I have appreciated your solidarity during a challenging week. 
F xx

Blackcats

Such a useful reminder about emergency funds - thank you as always for your honesty about your spendy years.  Mine were almost identical - mortgages, re-mortgages, bank loans, car loans, credit cards which all felt like a never ending source of money (never mind that it wasn't my money 🤷‍♀️).
I really value my repair/replace savings pot.  Sooner or later things will break and when they do we need to repair or replace them quite quickly.  At the moment I've got £700 in the pot which would cover small appliances, a washing machine or dishwasher or TV but not a new boiler.  I will aim for a £1000 float and reassure myself that the boiler is only 18 months old and my son in law is a gas engineer.

PennysIntoPounds

So pleased for you that the roofing drama is over (🤞🤞🤞) and that you had the emergency fund in place. You will be ever so glad to have resolved this issue when it comes to getting a better price so there are more funds in the coffers for purchasing the Project Surbiton gaff.
Looking forward to hearing your plans for frugalling a decent amount back in the EF- once several stiff drinks and cat reunion have been had! 
Well done on getting through the upheaval and stress me dear 🥂

Twolabsandacat

Phew! You are an inspiration FG.

KajiKita

Oh the sound of silence … utter bliss …. 😊

So glad you will get a have a calm and collected weekend as the four of your together and that your new roof looks good. It sounds like you had a good team working on it 😊

I am looking forward to the debrief (I always learn something) but only as and when you are ready. 

KK