Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

ladyholly

We have been very lucky with the weather. It has rained a bit but mostly light and there has been very little wind. I hope Mr F got home safely.

Tescodealqueen

We seem to have been between areas with the worst of the rain though our 120 year old terraced house brickwork has suffered. Think the wind is coming at the  worst angle and the rain has forced itself through either the brick or the grout through the plaster which is now very damp. 

Small fry compared to a lot of what’s going on and as my brother lives just north of the red area in Scotland we are lucky. Just trying to get son on to the only train not cancelled into the city where he works. It seems the weather will improve a bit before it gets worse again. Stay safe xx

foxgloves

@Makingabobor2 - I have only ever owned wooden chopping boards & wouldn't personally consider plastic. This is nothing to do with functionality - I can't comment on the plastic ones, as I have never used one - but because there will inevitably come a time when a plastic board has degraded to the point of chucking it in the bin. A plastic one will sit in landfill forever, whereas a wooden one will bio-degrade. My parents bought me a big chunky wooden chopping board over a decade ago & it is still going strong & looking good. I don't find it hard to keep it clean. It gets wiped over after use & every so often, I give it a good scrub with lemon juice & a little salt. I should add that I don't use it for fish or meat, which I prepare on a plate so it can be washed in hot water afterwards.

@milann - Yes, he did get home safely, thanks. He is usually unphased about driving even in snow & ice, but he said it was pretty scary going through the flooded section of road because the water came over front grill level. 

F

foxgloves

Hello Saturday Savers,
Well we have mostly been saving today by staying at home, which was the advice for drivers living in the local amber weather zone. So a little local trip to Waitbl00m only, with a smaller than usual list due to our canny meal plan for the final week of October's budget cycle. Had a half price voucher for a newspaper & also got the last pack of a reduced Columbian coffee, thanks to Mr F being both persistent in his hunt for coffee bargains AND having arms like a gibbon. His personal theory is that customers of this shop fall on average into an older age demographic, which produces a cohort of keen bargain hunters who are less able or willing to get down on the floor to reach right to the very back of the shelf, so he was very pleased to get the very last pack of the bargainaceous coffee into our trolley this morning, as well as to avail himself of the usual  free cuppa. I shan't do budget updating until Monday, but I feel pretty confident that we will have come in under budget for this month's groceries.
Have had a relaxing day on the whole. other small budget-helping positives:
*All the bedding dried yesterday so didn't need any further heated airer use.
*Entered a competition.
*Found 2 nice windfall pears when I went out to check the garden after yesterday's deluge.
*Postie brought my annual statement from an ancient & very small AVC policy into which I paid for a very short while. It was about as clear as some very opaque mud, so I have put it aside to read in more depth. I have queried this before with them & the reply wasn't clear, so I abandoned my quest for more info, but again, the statement seems to say both that I can take the money as a lump sum when I take my work pension, & also that this only 'may' be possible. It isn't a huge sum of money, but it is mine & I am now at a stage where I would like to be adding it to what I think we will notionally be living on when we retire.
*Mr F is making lovely butternut macaroni cheese again tonight, using some more of our huge Guatemalan blue squash. The original seeds were sent to me from a fellow MSE-er who grew them on her allotment. I have grown them every year since then & saved seeds myself from the best specimen each year. So Mr F is under instruction to scoop out the seeds from the section he's roasting tonight & leave them on a saucer for me to wash, dry & store for next year. The plants can be fussy devils & love to turn up their toes for no good reason. I grew 4 plants this year. One produced a small squash the size of a small rugby ball before carking it. Two suffered in the endless summer rain. The 4th, however, produced an enormous fruit, which will gradually do us a good few meals. I think I will sow more next year. They do take up a lot of space, but there are plenty of places we could fit an extra couple in. I start them in modules, so a little bought compost, but they then go into the ground & as it's saved seed are virtually cost-free.
*Checked for surveys, but nothing doing. Mr F has had a £7+ one which sounded in places like a soundtrack from 'The Exorcist'. 
*Enjoying my 99p novel from our local charity bookshop. Next month, I'm planning to restock my reading pile from there & will enjoy choosing as they always have a good range of stock. 
On the not so good news, our village has gone from not being on flood alert at all (although I knew it would flood as it always does) straight to 'flooding expected'. The warning also included an ominous line about neighbouring properties to those which usually flood, which have so far escaped flooding themselves, might flood this time. Despite the fact that we have had no rain today other than the tiniest amount of drizzle, the major river on which our village & town stands is rising rapidly due to excess water flowing in from Derbyshire's rivers. So our village is on flood warning for the usual roads, including the one from which we turn off into our street. This nearest road to us in the flood warning hasn't flooded for the 21 years that we've lived here. And we know it hadn't flooded for at least 17 years before that, as an elderly neighbour told us so when we moved in. I am confident that we won't flood this time, but you know, I am a planner & very risk-averse & the changing climate & more dramatic weather events has made me think I might just draft out a list of what we could do to mitigate the worst damage if the flooding does reach us before we move (not till Mr F retires & he's a few years younger than me). Town (1.5 miles from our village) has also been flagged as 'flooding expected' & as usual, it is on two main roads in & out of town, so usually closes them. Most of our local stretch of the A1 also closed today, so we were doubly glad we don't need to go anywhere other than food shopping. 
Hope everyone is ok & not had storm damage, Awful for all the the people with flooded homes. 
F x

Blackcats

Hope that the floods stay away.  We have been very fortunate in our sheltered part of the South East.  I really feel for the places that
  have been taking the brunt of it,  

ladyholly

Tell Mr F to be careful in his hunt for bargains on the lower shelves. My daughter reached to the bottom shelf a couple of weeks ago and ended up with a week off work with a back problem. She felt the crack as she reached and ended up, as she put it, walking at a forty five degree angle.

milann

The flooding has been dire….thankfully my only experience is watching it on the news. 

I’m about a 5 minute walk from the river…..it’s source is in the town about a mile away but it turns into a pretty impressive river about 30ish miles away where there were thriving  docks…now mainly used for pleasure. There are a series of big flood gates a mile or so further downstream which open onto golf courses and a big water park. So although it does get high and breaks its banks, it tends not to damage properties as it is now controlled. When I was at school it often did damage. If it reaches my house we’re in serious trouble. It must be so worrying to live near rivers that are on high alert….I’d want to move but in reality wouldn’t be able to sell 😳😳😳 nightmare 😳😳
Well done on the bargains 👏👏

Suffolk_lass

We are fortunate here, living on what passes for a hill in Suffolk. Even so, some surrounding roads were closed and flooding of homes near the rivers. All the pictures of the flat water meadows underwater (I can't help myself) the clue is in the name. Make the rivers straight and the flow speed increases, build houses on the flood plain and then we are surprised when they flood either there or downstream. We really have not helped ourselves. I found a personal flood plan that I thought might be of interest if you don't already have yours @foxgloves and others on here (knowing you are a planner)!

PennysIntoPounds

Hope your village stays safe, good that you're stocked up

Makingabobor2

foxgloves said:

@Makingabobor2 - I have only ever owned wooden chopping boards & wouldn't personally consider plastic. This is nothing to do with functionality - I can't comment on the plastic ones, as I have never used one - but because there will inevitably come a time when a plastic board has degraded to the point of chucking it in the bin. A plastic one will sit in landfill forever, whereas a wooden one will bio-degrade. My parents bought me a big chunky wooden chopping board over a decade ago & it is still going strong & looking good. I don't find it hard to keep it clean. It gets wiped over after use & every so often, I give it a good scrub with lemon juice & a little salt. I should add that I don't use it for fish or meat, which I prepare on a plate so it can be washed in hot water afterwards.

@milann - Yes, he did get home safely, thanks. He is usually unphased about driving even in snow & ice, but he said it was pretty scary going through the flooded section of road because the water came over front grill level. 

F

Thanks FG, I think my new ones will definitely be wooden. I do agree about the plastic TBH, even though I'm sure they would last ages before they went to landfill, but thinking good quality wood is the way to go