Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Suffolk_lass

Another recent staple with pasta is broccoli. Who knew how good that is with a little cheese?!

I read the cost of your scan as the cost of parking (twice!) so obviously not at my best today - I hope it goes well for you

foxgloves

Thanks for your encouragement re today's trek to the specialist dental scanning place. It was appreciated. I wasn't looking forward to it on top of the other medical investigations going on at the moment & for the first time in a long while, I had an atrocious night's sleep. 
Hello Friday Frugalistas,
Pleased to say that after what could have been a bit of a disaster, there were 2 or 3 money saving positives today:
*Was assertive & managed to avert a THIRD trip to get this damn conebeam scan done. Arrived & went in early (good start!), was told to fit the radiographic stent prior to the scan....this goes in the gap where I will have the implants fitted. So I went over to the mirror to do this, popped it in place, pushed it down with my fingertip to get it in the exact right place......& the bloody thing snapped!!! I felt my heart sink. Told the radiographer, who said he wouldn't be able to perform the scan if the stent was broken & that I'd need to arrange a new one from my dentist (£145). I had a look at the thing & the most important part of it, plus the back fitment was all fine, it was the front retainer which had snapped off. I fitted it in again, said surely it would still be serviceable as I could still get it into the correct position. He had a look at it & said we could go ahead.. Thank goodness! I didn't have to pay for this 2nd scan because the 1st one was unusable due to an error in the referral form from the dentist, so did not have to part with another £125. I noticed that the radiographer pinged my scans to his manager to check that they were OK, & apparently they were, so fingers crossed this is it this time & I won't need to return. I am counting this as a stress that has hopefully turned into a win.
*I got into my appointment early so we had sufficient parking time left to go & have a quick lunch in town after all. We just had a cheese scone & posh bag of crisps each in JL, plus a coffee as we weren't ravenous & the baguettes were quite pricey so that kept the cost down.
*While we were in JL, I suggested we go & look at men's canvas shoes......Mr F likes the 'Co****e 'branded high-top canvas shoes & has often had a pair for summer. However, this summer he announced that he thought the price had gone up more than he was prepared to pay this year, so he bought a pair of very similar black & white ones which were JL's own brand. They were priced at £39 but he got them online in the sale for £27. Anyway, he really liked them , comfortable apparently & they fit well. He's a size 11 & doesn't have the most straightforward feet in the world to fit (!) so we thought it would make sense to buy another identical pair to pop away for next year, or longer depending when the current ones wear out. When we went to look for them today, they had been reduced again to £19.50, so I'm pleased to say he did buy them & was quite pleased with himself for being so sensible, lol!
*Pulled down May & June's PA earnings from P*p*l - a total of £69-29 for me - & added to Personal Spends. June's total for Mr F was just under £40, so not a bad month. One survey done this afternoon - several flagging as available, so I will have a proper look in a minute.
*Picked another cucumber.......yes, that is on top of the three I picked yesterday. 
Enjoy your Friday nights, all. I am looking forward to a relaxing night in front of the TV & finishing knitting this never-ending sock, but I've had so little sleep, I reckon I will be out like a light as soon as anything I want to watch comes on!
F x

Makingabobor2

Pleased to hear you eventually got the scan done. What a nightmare though, with it snapping. 
Good bargain with Mr F's shoes. I could do with some new shoes, both summer and winter, but buying shoes is as bad as buying jeans and bras!!  I hate having to buy any of them, as the trying on is a nightmare to find something suitable. Men never seem to have that problem. 
Enjoy your evening. 

Sun_Addict

Pleased to read the scan is finally done. 

Mr SA’s feet are the same as Mr F’s size 11 and definitely not straightforward. He’s looking for canvas shoes and I never thought of JL so might be worth a look. 

Cheery_Daff

Really pleased you got the scan done foxgloves, what a palaver with it snapping. Hope this evening is relaxing and uneventful!

foxgloves

Thanks, yes, it was a relief to get it done. I don't know when I will get onto the actual implant work because it will have to fit in with other potential surgeries. 

@Sun_Addict - The canvas shoes (hurrah to them having size 11s!) were on the menswear floor on the opposite side to the cafe, but not with the main shoe & shoes in the sale display. They were displayed on a separate unit a bit further along. There were other styles & colours still available today too, so maybe worth a look? I'm just glad he did decide to buy this 2nd pair as they look nice on, he's done quite a bit of walking in them & says they're comfortable. I think the branded ones he used to buy are over £50 now, from what he was saying. Shame you weren't in there looking today, lol. We might have had a moan about canvas shoes for partners with weird feet!
F

Blackcats

Glad the dental scan has been done.
good idea on getting some interest on your personal spends pots.  I keep all my pots in Chase which is going to pay 3.8% from July.  I like seeing the interest added on 1st of each month, although I have had to learn to accept total savings amounts that don't end nice and neatly with £.00

Humdinger1

Welcome back from the festival of dentistry @foxgloves! Away in Devon, have seen your namesakes in the usual colours and also in yellow! Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

Elisheba

Yay on the canvas shoes sale, and on getting the cone beam finally out the way 😁

foxgloves

@Blackcats - Yes, I thought it made sense to see a little bit of interest from some of our Personal Spends. I don't have anything in mind that I am saving up for, but it will be good have the facility to move surplus funds across to the interest bearing account & watch it slowly increase. I budget for us to have £100 each month for our Personal Spends & both of us add to that with survey income. I never spend all of mine & always carry a surplus over to the next month, so there's definitely room for a little bit of saving there.

@Humdinger - The pale yellow foxglove variety is called 'Primrose'. Very pretty indeed. I have grown them from seed but they have always seemed fussier than the wild purple/cream ones & the all white 'Alba' ones & I never manage to get as many to the flowering stage as I think I will. I shall have to try them again, so thanks for the reminder. The seed for the primrose colour ones is available commercially, but I think I remember reading that it originated some years ago from a church fete in Suffolk with somebody bringing some yellow foxgloves which had appeared in her garden to be sold. That's the great thing about cross-pollination - you never quite know what interesting varieties might be thrown up in the mix.
F