Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Elisheba

foxgloves said:

@Elisheba - I completely agree. This is just a zombie government now - nothing seems to be happening at all, apart from factional in-fighting & trying to stoke up culture wars. 
We can't as a 21st century country go on with this backward-looking, time-wasting nonsense.
F

The fact 225 MPs couldn't be bothered to vote last night to approve a cross party report which clearly shows that our then PM lied to Parliament just says it all really.  All the current government seem to care about right now are political games and back scratching.

Elisheba

Tescodealqueen said:

I would find it interesting to know exactly what useful legislation has been passed since 2016 as since the  Brexit referendum all I have seen is arguments about Brexit CoVid who should be leader of the parliamentary parties and the aftermath of all these things. How are we moving the country forward for ordinary folk?

In the area I personally work in (in local government) there is a huge move this year to get through some secondary legislation which should have gone through in 2016.  There has been no parliamentary time, or even enough consistency in that department, to get it through since then.   Now with a general election brewing they are panicking and trying to push it through, even although it needs more work, and it is all going to end up a complete mess.

EssexHebridean

Ugh to wobbles and the causes of them - and yes also to sometimes just needing to be allowed to work through a wobble without being fed words of reason. 

I've enjoyed an epic catch up on your diary and especially the pictures of the beautiful garden borders - this is exactly the sort of vibe I want to go with for our garden when we have it - albeit it will be far smaller than yours! I'm already beginning to start a mental list of plants I want - and a honeysuckle is about top of the list for me I think. I'll have an area of fence each side to think about covering, I was thinking about popping cutting of our winter jasmine in one corner as I know that will take off nicely and if it's in a corner it will be easier to contain at least a little - it is VERY enthusiastic! I suspect we'll end up with interspersing areas of productive garden on each side (ie veg) with areas of "pretty" - there are some small raised beds already in place which might work well for veg. I'm also very much hoping that they might leave behind the lovely Acer I spotted on viewing!  

foxgloves

Morning everyone & thanks for your supportive comments. Am feeling less wobbly today......it was difficult hearing the news that I have the same condition which resulted in losing my Mum, after she had a failed surgery to fix a complication. She did have a couple of other underlying issues though, which were cited as 'contributing co-morbidities' on her death certificate. If I hadn't been through this with Mum, I'd have taken the news much better & tbf, have already been thinking about small things I will need to do to manage the condition. Not looking forward to investigations on that one, as will involve that well-known camera up 'where the sun don't shine'. As for the dodgy ovary (the main reason I had a CT scan), it is staying in situe for another 6 weeks to see what transpires. As I have been told by my consultant it's only, in his opinion, a 3% cancer risk, I am ok about a short 'watch & wait' period on that. The radiologist didn't seem too unduly worried either.

@EssexHebridean - Nice to have you back on the diary community. Glad you had a good holiday. Thanks for your compliments about my garden borders. While I used to spend oodles of (the bank's) cashola at garden centres back in the Spendy Era, I can honestly say that these borders have cost me very little, despite them being so fully packed. I am a traditional cottage gardener in style, so am a big believer in having 5 or so good inexpensive 'signature' perennials which I can split & repeat around the garden to create a feeling of cohesion, while filling in gaps with everything else. Growing perennials, rather than just annuals from seed can save a decent amount of money too.....for example all the delphiniums in our garden were grown from a free packet of seed found in Mum's understairs cupboard when we cleared out our old family home prior to putting it on the market back in 2019. Plenty of veg look nice enough to mingle with flowers in a border - frilly lettuces, rainbow chard (although I always grow 'White silver' myself as it's the one we prefer to eat), globe artichokes, & of course herbs.
I shall look forward to hearing how your new garden progresses.
F x

foxgloves

And onto today's post.
Not a good night's sleep. Think I got a bit keyed up about the dentist yesterday, then the bedroom was muggy & when I did sleep, it was too deeply. headache today, but have succumbed to paracetamol & so hopefully it will be gone soon. Poor Mr F had a worse night's sleep than I did & has had to go off to the far north of the county for a meeting this morning. Bet he's already looking forward to home time!
Anyway, let's be positive about today's small wins....that's the bulk of domestic money saving, really, isn't it? It's those small regular habits which avoid wastage & maximise resources which keep our budgets (& hopefully savings) on track. 
*Did meal plans for next week, which just involved picking some options from the June plan I did a while back. All meals from existing stores. Grocery budget tight as this was a 5-week month in our budget cycle, but we don't need to buy any proteins for main meals & we are now picking a few salad items from the garden. 
*Wrote grocery shopping list as Mr F is keen to pick up the Waitbl00m part of it on his way home from work tomorrow. It's a small list, which makes me feel coming in on or close to budget is doable, but we defo need a 40-box of cat dinners which will be £16.50 - a sizeable wodge of weekly budget.....though they are worth it. I wasn't saying that earlier this morning.....both cats were tucking into their breakfast when I accidentally dropped a pencil which clattered onto their tray. Well, they both jumped & ran off. Instead of coming back once the Evil Pencil Incident was clearly over, they sulked & then Soot (the tummy machine on legs) snuck back & ate both breakfasts!! So I had to open another pouch for Ash later as he said that because of the pencil, he was ravenous. Then at biscuit time (elevenses), Two-Breakfasts Soot was back in a flash making out that he hadn't been fed since 2021. Grrrrrr.......love them both dearly, but with cat food being the daft price that it is, I don't like wasting a single pouch!
*Transferred the cost of yesterday's 2 dental check-ups from Dentist/Opticians Savings Pot & paid off credit card.
*Coincidentally, had just done this, when a text from the dental surgery pinged on my phone to say that as I hadn't turned up to my appointment yesterday, I risked losing my place on their books as an NHS patient!! Phoned them & discovered they had also sent the same text to Mr F. One of the staff on duty had checked us in so remembered us & they put a note on our record that we defo did attend. Very apologetic. said it was obviously some kind of systems error. Anyway, as we very much want to remain as NHS patients, I am logging this as a money-saving activity.
*Picked a decent-sized bowl of strawberries & prepped for tonight's dessert.
*Cut a bunch of coriander 
*Baked a wholemeal loaf. I'm ahead of myself with bread making now & shouldn't need to bake another until next week, depending on the sandwich hoover.
*Did a couple of surveys - will check for further opportunities before I sign out.
*Had a click around the new updated C**p Bank website. While doing so, I noticed that the interest rate for the current account-allied savings account is now 4.00%. This (on the figure on which I'm currently working) is now higher than both our account holding our emergency fund & new car fund, our ISA & our regular saver. Emailed the building society to obtain up-to-date interest rate for the latter account, as could not see listed among the interest rates on their website.
*Feel a little as though I am wearing something new today. I am wearing the first garment from my 'Shopping from Home Boutique' which you may remember I put together when I started dieting. It's a lime green straight style linen tunic, which fitted me back in summer 2021, but was too tight last year, so did not get worn. It was quite motivating reading the label I'd made for it, which said 'Just another kilo or so & you'll be wearing this' & '£0.00'. I reckon the next garment on the rail will now be wearable too, so will aim to wear that next week. Still lots of 'free' clothes hanging there waiting. If I could be back in my nice clingy velvet dress this winter, it would be awesome. 
Still to do:
*Make tomorrow's packed breakfast & lunch.
*Start a list for town on Saturday.
*Mist the greenhouse veg & tie in tomatoes again where necessary.
Oh dear, this is a v long post.....I don't get any less verbose, do I?!
F x

Sun_Addict

You must be so fed up with all these medical/dental appointments. Well done for persevering. 

You made me laugh about your cats and the pencil incident, mine are just the same. Reminds me I must have a word with my DD as she fills the cats dishes with food at night and they never eat it  because they’re asleep so I end up throwing it away the following morning. Too expensive to waste I’m afraid. 

foxgloves

I am fed up with it, @Sun_Addict, but I'm lucky that I've only required one surgery so far in my life, plus a stitching up after an accident at a party in my teens. I suppose it's my turn for a bout of medical stuff. Seems also tp be happening to various family members & friends. Think we have all reached that sort of age, but bah to it anyway.
Agree about not wasting cat food. It is a ridiculous price these days. Don't blame you for getting onto that.
F

Makingabobor2

Well I've really missed reading your updates while I was away on holiday. Sounds like you are just as busy as ever.  Bad of the dentist to think you hadn't attended, especially as you had obviously paid, you'd have thought they would have recorded that.  Its funny how quick they are these days to pounce on people if they think they haven't attended. Our GP FB page recently put a post about the number of missed appointments this month, its really bad the amount of people who just don't bother to turn up when there are so many people desperately trying to get an appointment. 
 I'm sure all the medical investigations will turn out to be fine. Will continue t send you healing thoughts. 

foxgloves

Hi makingabobor2, I think our dental.practice , which is quite a big city centre one, just get fed up with all the non-attendees each month tbf. It's never been so easy to make contact to cancel an appointment - no longer just phone & in person, but by text & email. It's just common courtesy & thinking of others. Like most practices, they are no longer taking on new NHS patients (except students), so it must be infuriating having to turn down registration requests from new people while plenty of their existing patients cba to turn up or even let them know, so that the appointment could be given to somebody else.
They were very apologetic & have made a note on our record that we defo attended.
F x

PennysIntoPounds

Hope the paracetamol has helped your headache and that the wobble has been cathartic and helped you take stock so you can keep on trooping on. Great work on the 'new' outfit too, I love your motivational tags.  I'm wearing a very MSE outfit today as literally not a single item was bought. By which I mean, they were all gifts or things friends and family were getting rid of, not that I'm a prolific shoplifter.

And Happy Solstice to all

Sorry to hijack your thread Foxgloves, but does anyone on here know the etiquette of sharing vouchers? I've won a couple on the Spar competition but the stores all seem to be West Midlands/Staffordshire/Lowestoft- i.e. nowhere near me!  Seems a shame for them to go to waste if someone could use them (they're for a free N*ked smoothie and £2 off a Red B-ull 8pack. I know, the glamour). They're also via text message so would someone need to give me their number so I can forward them? Thanks in advance for any advice