Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Sun_Addict

Well done on selling the marmalade and what a worthy cause the money is going to 😻 Sounds like you’ve got a nice relaxing evening planned 🍷

kayannie

What make of toaster did you buy? I bought a new RH one about 5 years ago, but it doesn't toast evenly. It's so annoying having to turn the toast round half way through, & that doesn't always work. I had my L@keland vouchers a few days ago & thought I might use them for a new toaster. No shop anywhere near me though, so would have to place a mail order.KA

ladyholly

I generally freeze stewed apples for apple sauce. We have one small apple tree that I bought last year which has 4 apples on it but there are several apple trees in the green area we take the dog to. It use to be an orchard and there are also blackberries and elderberries (flowers) so a very useful green space.

PennysIntoPounds

Aw that's lovely you sold some marmalade and are donating profits to a cat charity. Wine and bubble bath sounds an ideal evening!
I was pleased to sell something on Vinted today and even more pleased there was a locker free to post it after I'd walked there in the rain. It wouldn't have been a complete waste of time though as the lockers are next to a good pub, rude not to have some Sunday afternoon ales to celebrate successful sending or commiserate the blimmin lockers being full. 

Has anyone on here got or checked out the Plum doodah mentioned in last week's MSE email? I can't see why one couldn't just put 1p in, pause autosaving, and get a free ten quid, but I feel I must be missing something!

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/auto-saving-apps/#topapps

Suffolk_lass

How did you sell your marmalade @foxgloves? I'm interested because I think I might be able to sell a bit more honey this year. It will all be spring honey though as the summer honey can't be jarred for a while after it comes off because there is masses of ragwort and it makes it taste a bit odd and smell funny. It will be OK by next Spring, rather like a wine or chutney, improving with age!

Sorry to hear about the jars of stewed apple (which I think, I recommended to you). I must admit, bottling them stewed rather and as chunks in syrup was a first for me, and I did do them in 250ml jars (2 portions!) which had all gone within 3-4 months, so maybe it is a short store thing. I shall do it again this year, and might do some with blackberries, which are plentiful here, as we have really found it worked for us. 

starnac

I freeze my apple sauce in ice cube trays. Only DH and I will eat it. Kids are just not interested. So I freeze it in ice cube trays, pop into a ziplock bag once frozen then when I want it, I can pull out two cubes to defrost/warm. It works well for us. 

foxgloves

@kayannie - We brought the own-brand toaster from the shop you mention which sends out the vouchers. It is a stainless steel one & looks very nice on the worktop. Seems to make good toast so far too. We thought exactly the same re this month's voucher. With it being a 20% off one, it made sense to get the rubbish toast issue sorted once & for all. I think it was a matter of time before our old one just went 'pouf' & carked it tbh. I think there was also a free delivery voucher in the last mailing as well, so that could help if you don't have a local store?

@Suffolk_lass - re marmalade sales, I don't think I'm going to be very helpful as I don't have any sales strategy - this was a Labour party friend I hadn't seen for ages due to my current political inactivity, so she hadn't had her usual consignment of jars from me during seville orange season. I did think about doing local market stalls with my marmalade back when I first took VR, as stalls are quite affordable here, it's quite a foodie town & new traders get a free stall first time just to try it out, then I think a reduced rate for a little while. I wasn't worried about taking the food hygiene certificate as have heard it isn't at all difficult but getting my kitchen officially certified was very off-putting. It's open-plan around our kitchen (where a past owner we call Mr DIY Numpty knocked a wall out) so it's impossible to keep the cats out. Also, I don't have the required double sink (one for utensils & one for hands) & am not interested in having my nice big belfast sink removed. Apart from that, I could have done a mega deep clean & passed it. So although I have had extremely positive feedback about my marmalade & I keep my recipe/method secret just in case, I haven't done anything vaguely commercial with it - just gifted it, eaten plenty of it myself & sold it privately to people I know who ask if I will sell them some. Sorry I haven't been very helpful. 

Thanks everyone for the stewed apple comments - ice-cube trays is an interesting method, @starnac - I do usually freeze it in containers, but I don't have a lot of freezer space, so tried bottling it last year as I do have a walk-in pantry fitted out with lots of shelves for all my jars. I will defo bottle tomatoes again, but I think I'll go back to freezing for fruit.....although without our big old much loved apple tree, gluts will no longer be an issue.
F x

foxgloves

And now for today's post before I have a last check for surveys, then sign out.
Hello Monday Money Savers,
An uplifting morning - Mr F had booked leave to accompany me to a CT scan, but as I had that big one last week, the hospital said I wouldn't need to have another one today. Well that suited us just fine. He decided to leave the day off in place & we went out to see 'Gaia' which is installed at a cathedral near to us. Enjoyable & thought-provoking & we also had a walk around the ruins of the medieval bishop's palace & gardens....& free parking, which made a pleasant change. On the frugal front, today's small wins are:
*Compiled a master list of meals from which to pick until August bank holiday. This involved a bit of freezer diving, but has been worth doing in June & July, so we are continuing it.
*Cashed out our PA July earnings - £55.30 for me & £42.11 for Mr F. My target was to get as close as possible to the £49 I spent on GRO certificates to enable completion of my 99% finished genealogy project, so I am so pleased to have neutralised that expense from my Personal Spends & to have a little left over.
*Did a couple of quick surveys just to start off my Aug earnings.
*Did my regular Monday budget updates. Took longer than usual as we did spend quite a lot during our city centre trip on Saturday. Everything was budgeted for or covered by a savings pot or our own spends, but the administrative part of that, especially moving the various funds around, does take a while. I do like to have all my figures accurate though, so am prepared to put in the time.
*Virtually zero effort required for tonight's meal as we just need to pop the spare WW lamb & marrow bake Mr F cooked on Saturday night into the oven. It's a very tasty use of 800g of marrow/whopper courgettes.
*Popped down to the veggie plot to see if the sparrow army had broken through into the newly transplanted lettuces, but it appears not. Have netted them, but lettuce-shredding is an extremely popular sport among our local sparrow population & I don't trust them to behave. 
*Also saved money by not succumbing to Soot's very vocal requests for a 2nd breakfast, extra elevenses, as well as twelveses, oneses, twosies, threeses, etc. If we fed our cats on demand, that boy would be spherical & our weekly grocery budget would be a disaster. 
Although the weather was quite pleasant while we were out & about this morning, it has rained all afternoon & is just so dark & dull now. I don't like very hot weather - low 20s is good for me - & I do like rain for the garden, but I am seriously wondering when we are going to see a little more sunshine, or just 2 or 3 dry days in a row to enable a few outdoor tasks & walks. 
Ah well, time to stop looking at screens,
F x

Makingabobor2

Nice to have an unexpected day out on a week day. Sounds interesting. 

Sun_Addict

I bet that was a relief not to have another scan. Hopefully you’ll get your test results soon and can start moving forward.