Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

badmemory

I have a hip problem & have developed an arabesque!  Straight back, lift bad leg keeping it in line with the body & keep bending until I can pick up one of the many items I keep dropping.  I am beginning to remind myself of my anut who had to retire very early with arthritis & used to drop stuff & then every few days summon up the "I'll tolerate the pain" & go round picking it all up in one go.  I just need to find a way of cutting toe nails.

foxgloves

Thanks to everyone who has been kind enough to post suggestions about my sore back. I know some of the general achiness will be down to the once again under-investigation long-term 'women's issues' as I've been there before, but the muscle spasms  definitely do seem to have started when I overdid the garden after a period of not nearly as much bending & lifting. I haven't needed any painkiller for 2 days, so I think my efforts to avoid bending, except when absolutely necessary, are hopefully doing the trick. The worst thing seems to be a 'twisty bend' so I am doubly avoiding those.
F x

foxgloves

Hello Sunbeams,
Useful & pleasant day so far. It's Mr F's day off, so we have been into town for the rest of the grocery shopping. Lovely fresh produce as usual on the market, & the usual amazing selection of bargains from our regular market butcher. Also visited Wilk*'s as Mr F had another 10% off voucher. This useful for reducing the cost of cat meat, cat biscuits, a (hopefully, if such a thing exists) Soot-proof biscuit storage container, various toiletries & some BBQ briquettes. Our cleaning products seem to have run low at once, so we did spend a bit more than we intended this week getting our bottles refilled at the local Eco-refill shop. Came home & had eggs on toast with lots of coffee in our conservatory (which doubles as our dining room except in the depths of winter) with the french doors flung open wide to let in the fresh air & birdsong.
Big Budget Day is technically tomorrow, but because of the weekend, pay-day was today so Mr F said that if I wanted to crack on with it this afternoon, he'd do all the cleaning. I felt a bit bad about that, as he works full-time but he said that as I can't do any bending anyway, or lift the vacuum upstairs (long list of other tasks people recovering from pulled backs can't do....), he was going to do it all anyway. So I got on with reconciling May's budget (no nasty surprises) & setting June's. I'm glad I've done it, actually, as when I get up tomorrow, I will have the whole day for other things.
Anyway......June's budget looks fairly standard. I've allocated £50 extra for groceries because it's a 5-week shopping month & 'd rather be realistic, but we do have a fair bit of stuff in stock, especially fish, pasta, rice, & I enjoy using up odds & ends, so we will be absolutely fine. We might even have a few ££ leftover. We had a £15 underspend on May's grocery budget, which I used to offset the cost of new coffee machine filters. Everything else looks normal.......Personal Spends allowance set at £100 as usual - we both have a decent wodge of underspend to carry forward so will be fine with that. Both credit cards paid in full, & both building up decent points for loyalty vouchers again. I have had a reminder that my piano is due for tuning, so I have allowed the cost of that, although it might just squeak into July, I'll see how it goes. If it does, I will credit £75 back to June's budget.
Re Savings Pots, I have paid the holiday pot, presents, clothes & car maintenance - the latter is now at our agreed maximum amount, but I don't know for how long, as Mr F was muttering something about new tyres, but at least we will be able to cover the cost if they are imminent. I also paid our monthly £100 into the new car fund. This has a few years to go as we started it as soon as we bought our last car which we intend to keep for a good while yet, but it is starting to mount up & means that we won't need to take out any kind of finance when the time comes. So that's it.....May's budget signed off, June's all written out in my Money Book, lots of fund-shuffling as required to get money where it needs to be & filing pile dealt with.
It's still a lovely sunny afternoon here, so I am heading for a little snack (to rebuild all those grey cells after so much adding-up!), a cold drink & a few chapters of my book.
Wishing everyone a lovely bank holiday weekend - there's quite a lot going on in our local town, including a beer festival we've attended in the past, but we are mostly planning to stay home, gently progress a few jobs & relax. I will probably knit a bit more of my complicated shawl pattern. I'm a dab hand at knitting 'mini-bobbles' for the section I'm currently working on, but will need to study the next bit, which appears to involve casting everything off......then immediately picking up the cast off stitches & casting on again. The specs AND reading lamp will be firmly on for that section.
Peace,
F x

Moorviews

I’m glad your back is responding to your current strategy and that Mr F is so sensibly doing the vacuuming. Reading in the garden sounds perfect, although mine is a little breezy this afternoon for complete comfort. I’m hoping that it drops in order to have a glass of wine in the sunshine later. This always makes me feel like I am on holiday 😎 It will be nice to get away from the shed clear out that I have been doing yesterday and today. 
Thank you for the advice regarding “Pandora’s Bottle”. I quite agree with you about disposal rather than usage, as it is like an extremely close encounter with a sewage works. We’ll dig a deep hole and bury the contents at the bottom of the garden. It’s large and rural, without anyone near there, so we won’t be upsetting anyone else by doing this. The bottle can go into the bin as you suggest. 

Hope you have a wonderful weekend 😊

foxgloves

@Moorviews - It's potent stuff, you want to make sure you don't get a magic beanstalk springing up from whence you buried it!
F

Moorviews

Haha 😂 hopefully not and if so I shan’t be climbing it! I did wonder what might happen if I planted something on top of it though!

Debsnewbudget

I remember years ago, according to folklore, we had to get a dead chicken to plant under the grape vine we were putting in the greenhouse. Not something you can buy from the supermarkets as it needed to be fully feathered !  

foxgloves

@Debsnewbudget - I love garden folklore.

Hello Saturday Savers,
Glorious sunshine here & BBQ planned for later, which is helping to take my mind off next week's hospital appointment.
Productive day (virtually no bending, promise):
*Baked a gluten-free loaf.
*Pulled some rhubarb & baked a half-batch of rhubarb & cinnamon muffins.
*Assisted Mr F with building this year's wigwam for our climbing beans. He sourced all the rustic poles from his stash from de-triffiding the overgrown area behind the shed. I did the non-bendy bits like tying them together at the top.
*Made half a dozen bird scarers to hang on wigwam using old CDs & string.
*Cut a large bundle of comfrey, chopped & strewed it under & around wigwam for extra nutrition when beans are planted out.
*Lined 2 hanging baskets with inside-out compost bag & planted geraniums.
*Sowed more lettuce as first lot not v successful. I blame that mammoth slug who managed to get into my cold frame.
*Mr F weeded a bed for some of our courgettes.
*Went to empty out a failed back-up sowing of squash & discovered an overnight germination.
*Spotted a fab iris in a bed where there aren't supposed to be any. Then recalled being given this tuber years ago by a very elderly relative before she went into a care home. It has never previously so much as sprouted before, let alone flowered, so a lovely free surprise.
*Mr F has been painting the shed using our yellow-stickered paint (pale green, as thought that would be a good backdrop for my reading bench & vintage bunting.
And that is me for the day..... reading & bbq next & a bit of garden watering.
F x

Suffolk_lass

That sounds idyllic to me. I really hope to spend some time in the garden today and tomorrow but we also have some bee-wrangling to attend to. I hope your back is benefitting from the rest x

CRANKY40

How lovely that the iris has grown. Best friend had 5 irises this year where only 2 grew last year so hopefully yours does the same. I've bought pale green paint for the shed but every body that I've shown it to has pulled a face (shed is currently a reddish brown). I feel like I'll be more inclined to paint the shed if I like the colour. Does yours look good/go well with the rest of the garden? 

I hope that your back continues to improve. It's so easy to forget what you're not supposed to be doing and bend down to pick something up....