Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

AnimalTribe

Flat roofs are a pain. I only have a small flat roof on the porch that has begun to leak and is on the repair list. On the upside Foxgloves mentioned checking her greetings cards stash. I checked mine this morning and I have enough cards for any occasion for the whole year. I've also put all birthdays, anniversaries etc on the kitchen calendar 7 working days in advance, to ensure I can use 2nd class stamps. I've also done a trawl of the house and got all my old stamps together to use before the 31st July deadline. So a quick but productive task completed.

Humdinger1

Please don't apologise @EssexHebridean; looking back, it's hilarious! Xx

Blackcats

I also sniggered at the @Humdinger1 dancing on the roof story.  Definitely not funny at the time though.

foxgloves

Hello everyone, Thanks for all your contributions about flat roof issues. So far our old felt has stood up to all this week's rain. That's the thing - it could fail tomorrow or it could last another couple of years. I've heard that the rubber ones are longer lasting & will defo look at those when the time comes.
@Humdinger1- That's a funny story about your daughter. When I was about 11 or 12, the window of my bedroom at home was over the flat roof of the porch & I spent quite a bit of time, having been grounded, trying to work out if I could climb out. Actually, it wasn't so much the climbing out, but the getting back in having ascertained the drop into the front was a) Too high & b) Concrete so not possible for a short chunky child. A worse scenario would have been my Mum deliberately closing the window & leaving me there to teach me a lesson. So luckily, this route of escape remained only a revolutionary possibility.
@AnimalTribe - That's good work on the card stash. I used to use 1st class post a lot when there was only a difference of a few pence, but now it's around 30p, I too prefer to be organised & leave sufficient time for 2nd class to get there.
F x

foxgloves

@QueenJess,
Re your query about suitable jars for a sourdough culture..... I just used a spring clip Kilner jar I already had in the cupboard. It's not the smallest size which you'd maybe use for jams & marmalade, I think it's maybe a couple of sizes up from that. It's not huge, though. It needs to fit in the fridge between being used for baking. I just used what I'd got, but from experience, I think I will always favour a spring clip over a screwtop lid. That's because a sourdough culture is a living thing & can sometimes be more active than usual. For instance, on a hot day, or even in a warm kitchen, mine has been known to bubble up so much after feeding, that it starts to squeeze through the springtop lid. I don't know if the pressure would ever be sufficient to cause a screw top jar to explode, but I'd rather not find out. My sourdough girl is called Vesuvia for good reason & she enjoys her food! 
So if this photo will load, I've shown my jar next to a mug to give you a better idea of size. Vesuvia will be 6 years old in July this year. I've kept her going right since 2017. In fact, I remember visiting Dad in hospital the following month & telling him all about it. His IPF was very bad then. We knew he hadn't got long & I thought, as he always loved my baking, it would be nice to talk about that instead of medical stuff. Just a shame he never got to try any.
F x

foxgloves

Afternoon Friday Frugalistas,
There's something awry here....it's not raining! Very squally overnight though. Decided not to go into town for grocery shopping this morning as planned....a triple whammy of annoyances have flared up simultaneously (IBS, the dodgy gallbladder & a long-standing gynae issue), waking me at 5am & sapping my enthusiasm for a supermarket run. Mr F went instead & the first thing he wanted to know when he got home, was whether he was under budget! He was! And we still should be tomorrow when we just need a couple of refills from the eco shop & half a dozen rolls.
I cracked on with the cleaning instead, though MrF insisted on doing the vacuuming. 
I suppose the main small MSE win today is the grocery budget. We've also made sure we got 2 baths from 1 fill of hot water first thing, as it's noticeably colder here today, which is triggering the central heating more frequently. 
I removed the oven liner which was so disgusting, I was intending to chuck it, but I tried a soak in hot water & soda crystals & it improved sufficiently to be pressed back into service.
Mr F filled the car up with fuel today. Once again (this is now a regular thing), the branded filling station next to Waitr*se car park was a few pence per litre cheaper than the.big  supermarket garage. That car park is a dead end, so no reason to use it unless shopping at Waitr*se, so I think a huge amount of people won't know about it regularly being cheaper than the supermarket, unless they search our local fuel prices online.The petrol station really isn't visible from the road. While he was there, he snuck in to pick up the free weekend paper & magazine for me.

Leftover sausages from Christmas tonight with two slightly cracked eggs which need using & home made jacket wedges as we still have plenty of potatoes left from the sack we bought before Christmas.
I have a hot water bottle (& a warm cat!) on my sore tummy & will be reading my magazine pile, knitting, entering a competition, writing my journal & reading my book - the main characters were eating bear for supper when I left them last night.....at least it was a change from the dried salmon on which they seemed to have subsisted up to that point (novel is about settlers in the far north of America in the 1830s) I think on balance I'd rather eat the sparrow pie routinely made (before my time) by one of my Great Great Aunts than bear. Needs must though, in both cases.
Enjoy your Fridays (I've just had to go & put another layer on)
F x

foxgloves

Discussion topic (no.obligation to join in, of course)
It seems to be regarded as a fairly firm plank that one of the good ways to save on grocery budgets is to shop around. This is certainly true in theory, but is it true in practice?
Does anyone feel they spend less if they buy the whole weekly shop from a single supermarket? Does getting some of your list from one place then moving onto other shops or market stalls for the rest of it result in you spending more than you intended? I'm wondering if getting everything from a single supermarket on a single trip concentrates the mind better on what is being spent? We tend to shop around. We'll often think we've done pretty well, based on amount paid for bulk of our weekly shop at the supermarket, but then find that also needing to visit the market & various little indie shops can add a good bit on, even though we use them because their prices are good 
I suppose that there needs to be a tot-up of the additional shops/stalls as we go along so that we are more aware of how the overall weekly grocery spend is looking. It probably is just that simple, actually.
Wondered if anyone else thinks they feel theoretically more 'in control' when shopping at just a single venue.
F

Debsnewbudget

Since covid I have been doing our shopping from Tesco via a weekly delivery.
We buy for us, my daughter (who refunds the money) and the weekly donation to the foodbank (shared equally between daughter and us) 
Each week I sit and menu plan then add what we need to the order which arrives every Sunday. 

It does stop me picking things up that are not on the list if I go into an actual store.

We also buy cat food, cat treats, tissues, toilet rolls, fabric conditioner and a few other bits from Costco where we go every 6 weeks or so. 

I really have no idea how much things are anywhere else, but then again I hate shopping. 

Four_Seasons

Hi Foxgloves, I have a Mr T delivery weekly, I live 7 miles from the nearest big supermarket so it works well but my veg I get from the local village veggie shop, most of which is grown by the owners brother.  I don't think it would be cost effective for me to drive to other supermarkets with the cost of fuel.  I tend to buy the same basic things each week and always cook from scratch, mince I get on my delivery but joints etc from the local butcher.  While the prices have increased considerably lots of prices are price matched so overall I think I do ok.  I have a set grocery budget some weeks it costs more some less but overall at the end of the month if we are in budget its definitely a win! I do know that if I went round the supermarket I would be so tempted to spend more list or no list! I dont do top up shops if we haven't got it a quick rejig of menu is in order.  Have a lovely weekend x

Sun_Addict

I would love to be able to get everything in one big shop but there’s always something they don’t sell, I prefer from elsewhere or much cheaper elsewhere. I do my main shop online with Mr M because I get family discount courtesy of DD but some things are much cheaper in Lid! and A!di even with the discount. I also like to pop into Mr T and Mr S to see what they’ve got on offer. I generally come under budget on grocery spends. The downside is that there’s the temptation to add extras in your basket you didn’t plan to buy so you have to be strict.