Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

A late one from me just to say...
Not a no-spend day (in fact quite spendy....though not like the old days) &
went over June's grocery budget on our final shop of the month.
And you know what? I'm not bothered! It's too hot & muggy to think about money, & as my Dad was fond of saying "It'll all come out in the wash!'
F x

Sun_Addict

I think you’re allowed the odd overspend you’re very good 99% of the time. You’ve got a lot on your mind at the moment. 

WinterWarrior

I do think overspending on the grocery budget is one of the cheapest ways to cheer yourself up. If you got some nice things that you will appreciate and enjoy then it’s all good. 

foxgloves

@WinterWarrior - No, not really. June wss a 5-week.month in our grocery shopping cycle, so we just didn't have as much left in our budget for the final shop as we would in a usual 4-week month..We didn't overspend because we bought treats. We did have a couple of treats but they were bought from our 'Spends' as amount remaining in grocery budget was low.
F 

foxgloves

Urrrrgh, can see that today is going to be horribly hot. Am.just drinking a cup of ginger tea, then I shall be slarming on the sun cream & joining Mr F in the garden. Our plan is to get as many garden jobs done as we can before bacon rolls & coffee at 10.15 am. After that, it will likely be too hot for us.
I intend to de-gunk the pond of duckweed (again) then tie in the beans, which can be left uncovered now if I think they are strong enough - (our sparrows love attacking beans). Then I will.continue sorting out plants in the coldframe, which I started last week.
I must remember to put a couple of LickyLix in the fridge so the cats can enjoy a cold treat later.
With those garden jobs out of the way, I will be on the coffee bench (on our shady courtyard) with my book & my knitting - splashed some of my Spends on a knitting magazine yesterday, as I spotted a pattern in there I really liked, so will enjoy reading that too.
Right, must get moving before it heats up too much further.
F x

foxgloves

Morning Monday people,
A decent weekend, apart from having to make a difficult decision yesterday. We decided to cancel this year's holiday. We were so looking forward to it & had booked a cute little old cottage on the coast. The balance is due at the end of this week. The decision wasn't financial. We always save for our holidays now, never pay for them on credit. The issue is me! I am due to be scanned again right at the end of next month & the consultant will then decide whether I need surgery. If I do, then either it or recovery time or both, are likely to fall around the time we had booked our holiday. Since the scan also threw up another condition which is to be investigated & I can't rule out that there may be some kind of surgical intervention there too, we sat down & discussed the issues around paying the holiday balance & decided it was too risky. We have lost our deposit & have taken that on the chin, but didn't want to end up losing the balance too. So we have cancelled the cottage booking & I cancelled the cattery this morning before amending our ongoing holiday savings schedule. We do have an expensive cottage booked next year for my big birthday, but even allowing for the balance of that, which is due in March, I have been able to reduce the monthly payments into our holiday savings pot from £90 to £50 a month until then. This will leave more than enough money for a deposit on a cottage for 2025, as well as freeing up £40 a month to pay into other Pots. I know they sound like positive things, & they are, but we are very sad to lose our holiday. We could have risked it - it may be that I will be un-operated on or fine at that time, but we are both planners, both very risk-averse & would have been gutted to lose the rest of the money as well as the holiday. As my sister said, if all is well that week (Mr F is not cancelling his annual leave), we can either have a couple of nights away somewhere or more likely, we can plan a week of 'holiday' activities at home - visiting some of our favourite local-ish places, a longer day-trip, a meal out, that kind of thing. No happy bunnies in this house last night, I can tell you! (Though with the financial horrors many people will be going through with their mortgage rates, I am well aware that we are otherwise in in a fortunate position & shouldn't really be moaning).
Anyway...onto today's small positive wins:
*3 loads of laundry done & pegged out for free drying. Not as warm today (good) but windy so am confident it will dry, even all the bed linen.
*Attacked two of Mr F's white work shirts with white vinegar & bicarb. He bought a different deodorant & it has turned the armpits of his shirts......BLUE!! Had to research this & it is apparently a thing, caused by the aluminium in the products. I couldn't see blue-staining when I pegged them out, but will reserve judgement until they are dry.
*Re-jigged meal plans as realised that I don't have a pepper/s for making tonight's fajhitas. I didn't put them on the shopping list as was sure there was a sliced one in the freezer.....there wasn't.....although I did find something else which Mr F swore wasn't in there, so all was not lost. I have moved tomorrow's meal to tonight & will come up with something else for later in the week. Back in the Spendy Era, this sort of miniscule upset to catering plans regularly resulted in us having a takeaway, which is ridiculous when you think about it!
*Did my regular Monday morning budget updates. We did overspend our grocery budget this month as predicted, but only by £7.85, so could have been a lot worse & I have accommodated that from June's buffer zone.
*Sorted out vouchers - added new ones, including a £10 JL one from CC loyalty points, & binned off out of date ones.
*Did a couple of surveys - PA progressing nicely. June's total at £47.04 so far, but will probably cash out tomorrow.
*Got everything ready on my desk for Big Budget Day tomorrow. Will it be calculators at dawn?
*Picked first courgette of the year plus another small bunch of coriander. 
*Sow a couple of packs of flower seeds which were in the stash of out of date seeds I found in Mum's understairs cupboard. If they don't germinate, I have lost nothing. The stocks which added a lovely splash of pink to the bed outside our front door earlier this year were from a pack of Mum's old seed from around 2014! Worth a try.
Right, I must go & find some lunch & fire up the coffee machine.
Wishing everyone a pleasant, peaceful & productive week.
F x

Cheery_Daff

Sorry to hear about your holiday Foxgloves. Sounds like a sensible decision, but a difficult one - and I quite understand why you made it, and also why it's upsetting. Hopefully you can get away at short notice like you say, or enjoy some excursions from home xx

Tescodealqueen

Sorry to hear about your holiday though your plan b sounds great too . I often think that once a decision is made even if not the one you really wanted to make then you can move on. We were meant to be on holiday next week but like you before the balance was due decided to cancel. Our eleven year old retriever has been out of sorts for a while, not poorly but suffering from the movement problems retrievers are prone to as they age. We didn’t want to kennel him so cancelled the holiday and kennels so we can be around while he is not at his best. And the weather  we have been having doesn’t suit him with his thick coat so we have been able to keep him cool too

scandimore

Sorry about your holiday. Sensible decision but still sad. Hopefully you can get something last minute if all ok that week. I'm sure you'll be glad you aren't worrying about appointment letters or feeling ill conflicting with your booking. Annoying when these things are taken out of our hands.
Sounds like you're really doing well with PA - I'll have to get back into that.

Moorviews

I’m sorry that you won’t get to the cottage this year but think that I would have made the same decision. We haven’t been on holiday for a few years now due to having various things crop up which make going away impossible. Our last planned holiday we cancelled due to a health crisis for a close family member. Making your own health a priority for now seems wise and hopefully you will get to enjoy some of those nice local days out, or perhaps a mini break. I totally understand the disappointment though when you have been looking forward to something.