Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

PennysIntoPounds

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81867214#Comment_81867214

Absolutely, it's so rude and just makes you feel like you're being spoken to like a mug and conned (because we are). I never try it with books that don't meet their criteria as I know they'll be fairly rejected and I would rather something go to charity shop or on olio if someone can still enjoy reading it but there's a small tear or summat.

And the implication that we just go around randomly scanning books without putting accepted ones to one side beggars belief, it is so insulting

foxgloves

@PennysIntoPounds & @teapot2 - It's annoying, isn't it? I haven't heard from the company today - I suppose they are trying to locate the 'not received' items. I am sure they will receive quite regular parcels of stuff which is boxed in very rubbish fashion, containing grub that they are completely unable to sell - people can have very different ideas of what 'good condition' means, but it is so odd that it was an item in SUCH good condition that they reported back as damaged & unsellable. Either an error, or it was damaged on the way there or at their end. The supposedly missing items are likely to be missing because they have lost them, as they were 4 small very thin titles. Anyway, I will see what happens.

foxgloves

Hello Readers,

Another very ordinary routine day (after the roofing traumas, I am still happy to have PLENTY of dull routine!) - I have almost done everything I intended - the budget-friendly contributions are as follows:

*Ummm…well, not budget-FRIENDLY, exactly, more that I want to move on the post-roof work so as to know what the cost is going to be. Have made contact via local village FB group with a window cleaner. Have asked for a quote for a thorough one-off clean as you can imagine what our windows look like following the re-roofing. Awaiting a reply. Also waiting for a reply from the electrician. After very swift comms from chief roofer, I'm hoping it's not going to be a long wait for these peeps.

*Did 4 surveys & cashed out another coffee shop voucher.

*Have kept moving the overload of laundry around the heated airer. Too much large thick man-gear on there but too cold & dank even to think about pegging out today. Am glad of the heated airer. It's pretty good on the whole but I shall be glad when good drying weather hoves into view.

*Checked my toiletries stash & shopped a couple of 'run-out' things from there. Ditto medicines box - both so that I don't end up buying stuff I don't need because I've lost track of what I have in stock.

*Did a little bit more decluttering of the settle contents as felt there were a couple of things in there yesterday that I dithered about & put back…..now gone. Also decluttered a crate of less-often used stuff in the utility & found that there was old stuff in there we don't use AT ALL! Now dispatched with all the zeal of the post-roofing chucker-outer!

*Trying a new recipe tonight - a chickpea pilau from a low-fat Indian cookbook. We almost always have all the ingredients for this in stock so it will be economical. Intend to serve it with tandoori baked salmon fillets. Leftover pilau will be tomorrow or Thursday's lunch.

*Chose next book to read from my charity bookshop pile.

*Oh…..& last but definitely not least…..a welcome £100 from ERNIE!! I think we all know where that's got to go, don't we?!

All I need to do now is pick next week's meals from the February master meal plan & write the grocery shopping list. Mr F's day off tomorrow & he's going to help me get all those bags & boxes of useful declutterings to the charity shop as I won't be able to manage it all.

Right, I shall go & do that, then apart from cooking, I'm done for the day. Love to all.

Cheers, F x

Sun_Addict

Well done on the win! Ernie obviously knows you’re rebuilding your emergency fund pot.

PennysIntoPounds

That's a very nice wodge to cheer up the EF pot 🍻

Fab decluttering too, isn't it satisfying when you come back to a 'dither' item and know you've made an executive decision

Dakota_Rose

Congratulations on the PB win! I opened my account last month with just the smallest amount and did muse as to how often people might win. Really pleased to see you have had one. Having read the big winners list from the previous month, there were very few small balance holders who got a look in so my hopes will remain very low, as they should.

Suffolk_lass

I had a little win too - a £25 and a £50 over here. I will have to go some to top last year when I won at a 5.9% win rate across the year. I was initially very excited to read that £1m had been won across Suffolk this month, but still happy to share across the County!

foxgloves

Thanks, yes, I was pleased with the win, which will be sent straight to our Emergency Fund as soon as it arrives. We have't done too badly with bonds - only started saving in them just over 2 years ago & have had 4 wins. Of course a nice juicy one to cover the cost of the roof or to stash away for our relocation plans would be fab, but we are pleased to see ANY wins & don't think 4 is too shabby for relatively new & low amount bond holders.

Morning Readers,

Another day of general catch-up & routine. Lots of horrid ironing, which I did first thing as it was starting to emit amphibious vibes. I thought if I left it even an extra hour or two, it would morph into a frog job. On the budget-friendly front:

*Did a few general budget updates. Week 2's groceries came in at £4-64 below target spend, so I can only think it IS the monthly master meal plans which are making the difference. We were able to use a few loyalty vouchers which took acceptable amounts off some of the items on our list - i.e £1 off loo roll, 50p off bread flour, etc. Doesn't look like much but when the reductions are listed at the bottom of the till receipt, it does show that these are worth having. Our first Feb 'Little treat' on the loyalty scheme was a full size box of Dorset Cereal granola & the next one is apparently little chocolate hearts, so that will provide a free Valentine's treat. My Personal Spends looked a bit lower than expected for so early in the month, but then I remembered I'd swapped some of it for cash so no problem.

*Bread dough made & proving - am just about to go & get it knocked back & into its tin.

*Moved the payment from recent book trade to our Emergency Fund.

*Did 3 surveys.

*Use-it-up meal tonight. Am making Crank's nut roast to use up leftover Christmas chestnuts which I prepped & froze in Dec, plus the last of the yellow stickered nets of mixed nuts. Serving with the last of the Delia festive red cabbage I batch-cooked, use-it-up carrots & some homemade onion gravy. Might lob a couple of jacket potatoes in the oven too, as they are at the "We wanna be sprouty" stage.

*Then I shall be progressing the current decluttering. I can improve the utility still further by using a container I've shopped from home to store some annoying loose things (fewer of them now too because some didn't make it through yesterday's chucking out session). I also intend to declutter one kitchen cupboard & undo some 'improvements' implemented by Mr F which have rendered it almost unusable. He agrees they haven't worked so I am going to take everything out, decide what stuff to keep, then start again. I have a new audiobook from the library to entertain me while I do that.

And I think that will be my vaguely money-saving bits of the day. Grey drizzle all morning so far. Cats have got the right idea, snoozing over the radiator, but Soot will start lunch-pester very soon, I know. 11.52am is very late for him not to have piped up.

F x

EssexHebridean

Ooh you've reminded me that my MIL has a delicious recipe for a nut flan that I keep meaning to look at making, I must double check what the ingredients are for that. One thing I want to make more use of this year is pastry as it's a budget ingredient which can add so much to a meal.

foxgloves

I don't often make pastry, @EssexHebridean, but when I do, I make plenty so I can freeze a block to save time on a future occasion. It's surprising how little is actually required to line a flan dish for a quiche. I have a large deep Portmeirion flan dish which comes out on high days & holidays if I decide to make salmon & spring onion quiche. It uses a large tin of red salmon plus cream & tastes luxurious. Mr F likes it, but is it his favourite, given the extra cost of the ingredients? Nope! His favourite is my caramelised onion quiche made in the smoked glass flan dish my Mum bought from Woolworths circa1978 for my school cookery lessons! It's perfectly nice, but apart from allowing plenty of time for the onions to caramelize, it is one of the most utterly bog-standard things I have ever baked. There's no accounting for taste!

F