Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Glad to hear I'm not the only chatterbox.....& yes, I too will talk to myself, particularly through precise processes like the bank transfers I've been doing this morning.
@PennysIntoPounds - No, Mr F won't get a Covid jab & has already had a staff member off with it this month. We would pay for a private one, I think, if they were available.
@milann - Yes, I know what you mean with lists. I think the '3-task list' method can be useful in busy times for keeping motivation buoyant.
F

foxgloves

Hello Wednesday Pence-Wranglers,
Today has been my Big Budget Day so I have spent most of this morning up in Foxgloves HQ number crunching. Usual methodology....reconciled September's budget to ensure I'm working from accurate figures, then set October's. Pleased to say I didn't find anything untoward lurking.
I decided it made sense for really only very minor faff levels to transfer the fee for the final part of my private dental work back into the Savings Pots account - may as well maximise available interest on it for the intervening 3 months.
I didn't feel I had as much money left for paying into Pots as I'd have liked, bit in actual fact, when I went back over my figures afterwards, it was kind of a case of '6 of one & a half dozen of the other', as I had included a few expenses earlier in my written budget as 'outstanding transactions', which at any other time of the month would have been paid from the Presents & other Pots, but it didn't seem worth paying the money across only to be fishing it straight out again. I'm boring myself even typing this saga..... Anyway, October's budget is all up & ready to go. I left slightly more in the buffer zone this time, just in case I see any small festive items which are useful but don't really merit the faff of a Presents Pot funds transfer.
Had intended to batch cook lovely bolognese for tonight but realised I had forgotten to put mushrooms on the shopping list. This turned out to be fortuitous as Mr F popped into Waitbl00m on his way home to buy some & was given a voucher for a free pouch of expensive cat food. He exchanged it straight away while there was still some left. As for lack of bolognese...no problem as have swapped meals so tonight is now jacket potato night....tuna melt with sliced avocado for me & leftover curried mince & peas (from the "I ❤️ my slow cooker" book) for Mr F. We seem to have rather a lot of surplus milk, so will also be popping a rice pudding in the oven which can be topped with leftover stewed blackberries & pears. Gotta love leftovers!
A bit headachey & tired today - possibly a slight side effect of yesterday's flu jab, though I've never been affected before. Relaxing evening ahead as intend to watch last night's 'GBBO' & crochet another couple of squares.
F x

rtandon27

FG - remember that you've just had major surgery so your resistance will be lower than usual and no surprise that the flu jab has given you side effects! Your body's resources are focused on healing so dealing with germy invaders in the form of a flu jab might just be taxing it a bit more heavily than it would like at this time! Go easy on yourself lass (in my best SL impersonation - lol)

marionmgcars

You sound like you are managing your after surgery time well, and being sensible with your recovery,  it’s the best way to let your body heal.  It cannot be rushed.  I’ve just had a mirror image of you as I’ve completed my accounts for September.  Glad to have only spent £110 between us on grocery and household shopping this month.  That’s the benefit of Olio and TGTG bags.  Also made some blackberry and apple seedless jam, so that’s good to have in our stock along with the rhubarb jam, and plum jam.  

foxgloves

@rtandon27 - Yes, I'm sure you're right. Despite not having the best night's sleep (due to being unable to lie on my usual side as my jaw is too tender), that headachey tired feeling had disappeared when I got up, so I expect it was my first slight reaction to a flu jab. 
@marionmgcars - That's a very low spend. I usually make blackberry & apple jam every year, but still have some left, plus some blackcurrant & strawberry from my friend who has an allotment, so I have only made rhubarb & ginger this year....& my usual annual marmalade, of course. Have made more chutneys & savoury preserves this year.
F

foxgloves

Hello Pence-Savers,
I don't know WHERE today has gone! It's been one of those where I had all the time in the world & now it is nearly 4pm & time to dispense cat treats. I'm surprised they haven't come pestering for them already.
Budget-helping positives today:
*Transferred next week's meal plan to the food planner page in my diary & wrote grocery shopping list. Pinged this to Mr F as he is picking the supermarket part of the shopping up tonight on his way home from work.
*Sent another email to the Cephalopods. Very unusually for them, I haven't received a bill this month. It usually arrives on 21st of the month & here we are on the 28th & no sign of it. It is also very unusual in my experience for them not to respond to an email, even if it's just a 'holding' one while they investigate the problem. The only time we had this issue before was when their tech stopped communicating with our smart meter, meaning that our readings were not going through. 
*Paid off a credit card transaction which was a little slow appearing on my account, but I'd budgeted for it so the funds were there.
*Tonight's meal is in the slow cooker.....once I'd found our bolognese sauce recipe, which wasn't in the book I mentioned, but in the BBC Healthy slow cooker one....so that wasted 15 mins while I tracked it down. The original recipe is called 'Big batch bolognese', requires 1.5kg of mince & makes 12 portions. Well, my crock-pot is a decent size, but there's no way I could fit all that in it, so I make a half quantity. It still makes a decent amount for freezing. Good use-it-up opportunity for tomatoes. My '2 cans' worth' were made up of a container from the freezer containing the last of September 2022's frozen chopped tomatoes, plus the ripest & most in need of using fresh ones from the fridge, which I skinned & chopped. I had been intending to use a jar of my bottled ones, but of course they will keep better than the fresh ones, so it made more sense to use those. Plenty of other use-it-ups going on today - Mr F took a pot containing the last of the pears & blackberries I stewed earlier this week & I incorporated half an avocado & the last of a mozzarella ball from the fridge into my lunch. You know how I aim for zero food waste? Well I was mad the other day when I found a lemon that was 99% blue fur in the fruit basket. I know they can turn practically overnight, but I was still annoyed when it went in the compost. I can barely watch those TV programmes which show how much food families throw away.....makes me shout at the tele!
*Wrapped birthday gift & wrote card for friend. Needs posting this weekend. We deliberately went for a very lightweight postable gift because we often think we have done well sticking to a gift budget, then it can be a lot more for the postage than we envisaged. Not this time!
*Did a bit of research online into potential T-shirt gifts for brother-in-law, Mr F & our nephews. Found 3 good ones & made a note of where & how much. Will finish this another day, then they can be ordered.
*Finished knitting the foot of my current sock & began the toe shaping. Should be casting on its pair tomorrow.
*Did quite a few PA surveys. In fact, if everyone pays up by the 30th, my September earnings total will have broken £40, which is my notional target, but didn't seem likely to happen this month.
*Wrote a shopping list for town on Saturday as there are quite a few things I need, as well as post office & building society. I do enjoy browsing, but I am defo more focused when I have a list & would prefer only to pay one lot of car park charges instead of having to call back for stuff I've forgotten.
Right, I just have a couple more bits to do, so will sign out & crack on.
Love to all,
F x

EssexHebridean

The Octopus app should show if the meter and their systems are in contact - ours usually shows electricity up to 0030 overnight the "day before" and gas mostly runs a full day behind, but at least it gives you a clue. 

PennysIntoPounds

I'm awaiting an update on what suspicious activity the cats were up to not having pestered for treats...
Glad you're feeling better. 
Do remember to go through a cashback site for all the birthday purchases if you use such things! They do take forever to pay up but nice to have an unexpected couple of quid turn up 

Sun_Addict

My cats appear at 6pm on the dot for their treats 😆 I’ve got a few of those BBC food cookbooks, the little ones they produced several years ago, they were good little books. I’ve also got the slow cooker one. 

Moorviews

You sound wonderfully organised for the weekend ahead. I like the way you break everything down into tasks which build towards getting things done. 

My dog comes and reminds me very politely if I have forgotten to give her her treat. Although I am sure she would step things up if I didn’t get the hint!

Blight resistant tomatoes is a new idea for me so thank you for mentioning about that. 

Citrus fruits turning blue, or soft, are so disappointing. I take note of how they smell when I am buying them as I think there is a strange smell from some of the likely early rotters. I don’t put my nose on them obviously but kind of waft them about within sniffing range - it probably looks very peculiar! If I detect that strange whiff then I give them a miss. 

I used to have to post presents long distance overseas and got caught out with high postage charges. I don’t want to pay more to post an item than the value of the gift so always had to think very carefully about presents.