Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Yes, that's right @EssexHebridean, the A1 now seems to be almost back to normal this evening. Just seen on local news website. Mr F v confident about his commute tomorrow & is just sorting out plenty of packed lunch. 
The all-day heavy rain forecast for tomorrow also seems to have been downgraded to lighter showers, & with so much water around already, that can only be a good thing.
F

milann

That is sounding much more positive re the flooded roads 👍

foxgloves

Afternoon Diary Readers,
I must get my laptop signed off in a minute, as want to sort out messy kitchen & get a few pre-evening tasks done.
Well the good news this morning was signing into the floodwatch site & discovering the approaching big river's status is now 'falling'. In fact, it has dropped 22 cms from its highest point the other day & although it is still at a high level, it is at least going in the right direction, which is away from residential streets. Mr F got to work with no problems this morning - the A-road he uses was muddy & plenty of standing water at the sides, but perfectly passable. No further homes appear to have flooded, although there is a little village in the area which is completely cut off by water, so that is the other part of the flooding problem. It has rained here all morning, which won't have helped, but not the persistent deluge we experienced last Friday. 
Anyway, onto today's small money saving postives:
*Meal plan unexpectedly received from Mr F by WhatsApp! Had mentioned that November will be a 5-month grocery shopping month, so for next week, we could do with probably a roast (& knock-on meals) & prioritising stuff from the freezer. Phone pinged & there was a meal plan, so we're going with that. Why re-invent the wheel? 
*Grocery shopping list started - intend to finish it when I sign out. Mr F seems v keen to get this week's groceries from Sains*'s as he has received another voucher for a decent amount off a modest spend, which defo sounds worth having.
*Jacket potato night tonight. Basically, 2 jackets get shoved in the oven & we choose whatever we want (that we have in stock!) to go on top of them. I am planning to have tuna melt & rocket salad. The bigger hairier half of the relationship is having a portion of slow cooker curried mince & peas from the freezer.
*I usually bake a little bit of something to share while we are watching GBBO - no need today, as had popped spare jammy buns from last week into the freezer.
*Ordered a couple more Christmas presents from the list. I'd intended to leave one item until next week, but I noticed it had been reduced in price by almost half, so it made sense to order it today.
*Picked a small bowl of rocket from the greenhouse.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast - lunch is another freezer item, which shows it is well worth freezing leftovers, even if it's just a single portion.
NOT money saving - the iron went absolutely crackers earlier. I have suspected it was on its way out recently & this morning it surpassed itself by being generally hopeless, then deciding it was going to empty water & assorted small chunks of crud all over the garment I was ironing. Am going to see if the JL essentials range does a decent one & pick up at the weekend. Not interested in whistles & bells - you know my feelings about ironing - just something which does the job will be fine.
But then there was a positive thing. Postie delivered a bank missive, which was the annual statement about how many charges we have incurred on our account. It was, as expected of course, a big massive zero. I still feel a little bit of a glow when I receive these statements.....you see, even though we have been debt-free for a good long time now, it is still the case that I was a silly endebted spender for a lot longer than I have been a debt-averse budgeter. I have told you about my 24-year old overdraft before, so you can see why these bank charges letters make me happy!
Right, I shall say 'bye' for now and go & get that grocery shopping list finished. 
F x

Sun_Addict

Mr F is a good un 🙂 I don’t do fancy irons either although I do prefer one with a bit of weight to it. I never pay a lot for them as I’m quite rough with them and they don’t last me long. I need a new ironing board as something has become detached underneath and it’s like ironing on a boat on rough seas 😆 My attempt at repairing it failed. 

EssexHebridean

I actually used our iron the other day for the first time in what is probably several years...to attempt to iron the new curtains. sadly the temperature their care label said was acceptable made not much impact at all on the baked in creases from being packaged up, so we've hung them as is and I'll do a bit more crease-removal each time I have the steamer out for anything else!  We are also a "no bells and whistles" household when it comes to irons. MrEH always says as long as it will go up high enough for a good finish on his 100% cotton shirts, and produce plentiful amounts of steam without needing a refill per shirt, he's happy.

I take it yours isn't just making a statement that it requires descaling? I'm sure you are thoroughly on top of such things, but I di remember one of ours doing something similar some years back and lasting for a substantial time longer after the application of some descaler of some form or another.

I am also with you on the delightfully smug feeling associated with letters from the bank with zeros on  them in relation to fees and charges! As you know we were also very similar in the state of play with overdrafts etc, and I have to confess that I do now curse the amount of money that in dribs and drabs we must have thrown away each year back then! 

PennysIntoPounds

If EH's suggestion doesn't work, does JL basics line get included in Black Friday sales? Might be able to get a bit of money off, if you can bear not ironing for a few weeks 😁

ladyholly

I am with you on the smug feeling on bank statements. I recently received my yearly credit card statement and I think for the first time ever the interest paid was 0. It was a very good feeling.

rtandon27

FG - I didn't even know irons came with bells and whistles! - I bought ours from Curries about 17 years ago and it is still going strong even though it does need descaling a couple of times a year, despite using distilled water!

EH - neither the iron or steamer worked on our new curtains, but I did hang each panel in the bathroom while I had a long steamy shower and then hung back on their own pole to dry and this worked amazingly well.  It was an exercise in patience as it took quite a few weeks as the long shower happens on the weekend while I wash my hair!

Suffolk_lass

I wonder if Mr FG has a nectar account linked to Sains shop? if he does, he will get offered Sains offers of nectar prices, a bit like Tosco CC, but not as persuasive and you have to do a self scan shop, but usually based on stuff you have bought. They always seem to have too-short dates on for us, as Sains is our go to for OB cane sugar and then I buy other bits.

Re irons, mine is a dry iron; Morphy Richards and probably over 20 now. I only iron a few things and we have hard water, so damp from the line, ironed and hung to air, works for me. I do have a steam iron. A £5 Tosco essentials one I bought at the same time as a kettle (also £5) when the urn at work malfunctioned and the estates team asked us to use one on another floor. I told them this was too dangerous so I had bought one and I was happy for it to be used until the urn was repaired (and de-furred), and please would they get it electrically tested. I got the only pragmatist there to agree. It is now redeployed in our Village Hall. We use a stove top kettle now. I digress, Dunelm do a steam iron you can use dry for £10 that looks the same as various other budget options. I still have my steam iron in a box, but have used it only twice. It's not an old-fashioned pedant thing, it's because we live in a hard water area (softer then EH, in London) and I wrecked a silk blouse in the spendy days when mine spluttered limescale (black and lumpy) all over it. I was gutted. Even then. 

EssexHebridean

In our Sainbos store the Nect@r prices rather annoyingly get given as vouchers for next time you buy the product...not what suits my way of shopping at all, so I never use them!