Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

EssexHebridean

2Scratters said:

@EssexHebridean - re your renewals... is your breakdown cover just one policy covering you both. I contacted RAC this year about the price and got it halved for 18 months at £66 and also claimed a loyalty offer (can't remember what it was though). We are both covered either as driver or passenger in any vehicle. 
I didn't like how OCtpus reduced our normal payment whilst being subsidised. I had for a couple of months paid manually the difference then took my eye off the ball so only £16 in credit. They wanted £112 but I did not want to pay more than £100. They were fine about it and reduced it accordingly. I will be putting the balance of money that would have gone from our account to bring it up in due course to where it would have been. At least not in debt so that's still good.

2 Scratters xx

Hi 2S - we’re with AXA for breakdown - it covers the car not the person so we have a policy for each car and we paid £37.90 for each last year - the service is fantastic too - they are the only breakdown company I’ve ever used where they employ actual solid common sense rather than insisting things have to be done a particular way, something which was an absolute bonus when we had a flat battery in the Hebrides a few years ago - I knew precisely where we were, even knew the closest local garage, but I only knew the local name for it and landmarks to pinpoint position that any local would know, but someone in a call centre on a different landmass wasn’t going to find on any map. The lass at the call centre very sensibly arranged for the garage nearby to call me and they were subsequently with us in about 5 minutes! 😁

EssexHebridean

Also apologies from me too for missing your birthday Foxgloves - glad you had a lovely day and wasn’t the sunshine just wonderful! 

foxgloves

@Kantankrus_Mare - I have grown geraniums from seed in the past, but these ones which I potted on were bought as jumbo plugs. What happened was that when we went out for my birthday breakfast, I visited the neighbouring garden centre to choose some geraniums (I do have some cuttings rooting but lost 3 over winter). They were £3.99 each for very nice, quite small plants. I picked 3, so that would have been just under £12, then spotted some trays of jumbo plugs. Decent sized plugs & priced at £3.99 for a tray of 6. I decided to swap & buy those & pot them up to grow on. Variety called 'Violet'. I can't put geraniums outside just yet anyway as they don't like the cold nights so my thinking was that by the end of May, they'll probably be as big as the individual plants on sale for £3.99 each. It did seem like too much of a saving not to go ahead.
F x

foxgloves

Thanks for birthday wishes I haven't yet acknowledged.
Well, I did manage a useful couple of hours in the garden. Still concentrating on the big border which is next to the new fence, I did a bit of weeding, particularly bindweed root removal & planted the 4 perennials we bought last week at the garden show plus a monarda (bee balm) - a plant I used to have until that sudden very cold early winter in 2010, when the garden suffered quite a few casualties. 
Two lots of 'freebies' today - first a stash of good-sized self-sown calendula which had popped up in a veg bed..I dug up about a dozen & used re-planted to fill gaps. Also some free turf. There was an annoying bare corner near the courtyard where the grass failed to re-grow following last summer's drought. I didn't want to buy grass seed for such a small area, so I edged a border where the grass was going a bit mad, saved it & have patched it to cover the bare corner. Hopefully with the rain showers which are coming later, it will bed in & save me a couple of quid
The gammon in the slow cooker is smelling very nice. Our local butcher was selling them at £5 per pack. Each pack contained 4 'ends' which have obviously been sliced off at the butchery stage when preparing big gammon/ham joints. No bones & very little fat. I've just had a peep & they are not shrinking so I think I will most likely get a further meal from them in addition to the two planned & maybe sandwiches too, I'll see.
I still haven't started tackling the rhubarb triffid but that job is defo on the list for next week.
Ah well, back to my book.
F x

Makingabobor2

Ooh just imagining the smell of the gammon. Not had gammon for ages. I love doing it in the slow cooker and spoon some honey over it as it cooks.  We have turkey steaks and veg in the slow cooker today , and just about to put some savoury scones on the top to make it a cobbler....fingers crossed as its the first time I've tried it. Normally make dumplings from a mix, but forgot to buy any. 

Moorviews

Happy new cold frame and congratulations on the birthday just gone!  Glad you could have a day that suited what you felt up to. If star signs have any truth to them then it would explain why I too enjoy a diary that features gardening, good food and a practical outlook. I love a practical gift that I have identified a need for. Spa days would be wasted on me 😂

I find that plug plants are good value and tend to make better plants when grown on at home, perhaps because the compost is better and they get a little more tlc than at the garden centre. 

Makingabobor2

I agree @Moorviews, practical gifts are great. My DD once gave me a pot of wrinkle cream....people laughed, but it was the brand that I buy and it had saved me buying a pot, so was a gift well received.  DH has bought me many practical gifts over the years and so much better than jewellery or perfume etc.  One Christmas my best gift from him was a lovely pair of walking boots that have lasted several years so far. 

foxgloves

@Makingabobor2 & @Moorviews - I so agree re presents. My ideal gift is something lovely, which is also useful. Some gorgeous toiletries I probably wouldn't buy myself, pretty writing paper, posh knitting yarn, scented candles, or a gift card for a favourite clothes shop. Yes, a spa day would be wasted on me too! I can't even understand people paying to have their nails done! And while I have my hair cut regularly (or the layers don't work), the cost isn't the only reason I always only ever have a dry trim.....the other is that I simply can't sit still long enough for blow-drying & salon colour faff! I can imagine that with spa treatments, I'd be fidgeting away thinking, "I could have knitted half a sock/planted out 4 dozen beans/made 2 sourdough loaves/written to 3 friends, etc, etc, in the time I've been sitting here getting slarmed in unguents"! I do like the occasional self-pamper day at home though, if I've nothing else to do.
F x

foxgloves

NOT money saving. Soot staged his biggest ever biscuit heist last night. It's clear that I will have to buy a large airtight container for storing cat biscuits. I could accommodate the small sized bag in a shopped from home container but we prefer to buy the big size because it works out cheaper, so this will incur a spend for Soot-proof storage. He has been well & truly on the naughty step today.
F

ladyholly

I sympathise with soots biscuit heist. We used to have a  collie who came to us with an untreated broken jaw which had set itself slightly crooked. (Not Mr H). We were told he had to have soft  food which he had until the day I found him eating the kibble which I kept behind the kitchen door. That was put in a cupboard and he was very successfully fed on wet food and kibble until he died.
Miss W was always good for extra if she found the cupboard door open.