Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

@Suffolk_lass - Fabric origami stars sound good. I know that the paper ones I've been making can be strung like bunting & entwined with fairy lights - that might be something nice to make at some point. I also have instructions for an origami wreath, which consists of multiples of the same folded shape linked together to form a ring. I have plenty of decent festive paper saved from last year, so I think I'll defo have a go at this project before too long.
F

Honeysucklelou2

My mum made Christmasy crafty stars, a few years ago, and threaded them onto string each side. These have then been able to be hung vertically from the picture rail and Christmas cards can be slotted in and displayed. Quite useful if you run out of room on the mantelpiece !!

foxgloves

Greetings Friday Frugalistas.......I was just about to type 'Saturday Savers', then realised I was getting ahead of myself!
Pleasant enough day today, but nothing exciting. Just posting to show I've kept the money saving faith. Small budget assisting positives today as follows:
*Did the rest of this week's grocery shopping in town - just fresh veg & a loaf. Updated grocery budget when we got back & we came in £2.66 below this week's target.
*Local farm stall on market - we bought 3 bags of potatoes, a bag of onions, big bunch of carrots, leeks, a savoy cabbage & 2 bags of sprouts for £7.50. 8 food miles.
*Bought the 4 bottles of local festive beer from the Presents list, so have been able to cross those off. We went for the offers, one of which was a '3 for', so the extra bottle has started off Mr F's Christmas beer.
*Cleaned whole house between us. I opted for kitchen cleaning, general tidying, changing household linens, bins & composting stuff. Mr F did vacuuming & cleaned the bathroom. Minimal products used as usual with microfibre &/or recycled cleaning cloths.
*Entered 2 competitions.
*Added a £1 extra C**p dividend voucher to my voucher stash.
*Did some surveys - several Ips*s today which has boosted my likelihood of a cash-out this month, plus a couple of PAs. Oh, & it looks as though I will be sent a product to test over a few days, so that will be something we can cross off the shopping list that week.
*2 baths from a single fill of hot water. Have noticed gas costs ticking up on the smart monitor this week, so it must be getting a little colder & triggering the heating to come on a bit more frequently. Am now wearing a warm cardi or jumper each day. However, must remember to wear layers tomorrow as visiting friends who have been known to switch their heating on in June, lol.
*Discussed festive food with Mr F. Now that we know when we are having people round, we can get on with planning. Decided last year's method worked well, which was to make a master list of everything required, stick it on the fridge & add an item or two to our grocery shopping each week, crossing off as we go, then using our nectar & C**p points to make as big an inroad into the list as possible, until we are just left with collecting & paying for the turkey on Christmas Eve. It's a bit on the early side for a list, but my feeling is that as I have been including the odd festive baking ingredient to our shopping for some weeks now, I think we have actually more bought than we think we have, & a proper list will ensure we don't waste money by duplicating earlier purchases & over-buying generally. So delving into the pantry & writing an informed list has been earmarked as a task for this weekend.
OK, well that's me done. Mr F's cooking night & all I know is that it is going to involve BBQ pork steaks (without getting the BBQ out). I intend to catch up on the 2nd half of a TV episode as I managed to fall asleep until the credits. How annoying, but tbf, I had imbibed a pretty big glass of wine.
Wishing everyone a pleasant & peaceful weekend,
F x

foxgloves

@Honeysucklelou2 - That sounds like a good idea. I like to display my favourite cards on top of my piano, but every time anyone opens the door & causes a whoosh of air, they fly all over the place, so I should really think about making something nice for holding cards, if not this year, then for next.
F

Sun_Addict

It always seems to be Mr F’s cooking night 🤔 😆

foxgloves

Lol, @Sun_Addict. We both like cooking so we split it. I cook on weekdays & he cooks Fri - Sun. There are occasional variations if he has a day off in the week or I fancy making Sunday dinner, but mostly we split it & it works well. 
F

PennysIntoPounds

Cheers to Mr F's Christmas beer and to your next glass of wine 🥂 Do let us know if the local beer is recommended by Mr F, I like to support small breweries when I can afford to, and as Mr PIP is difficult to buy for, it's nice to have a list of new places to order from

Your Christmas food list sounds very organised, so far mum and I have ordered Baileys but, priorities 😁

foxgloves

@PennysIntoPounds - One of them was 'Toasty roasty' from a Lincolnshire brewer - the one which makes 'Witham shield'. The others were from the Pheasantry brewery. Our C**p is good for local beers & usually has offers as well as extra dividend points for buying local products.
F

foxgloves

Only just got in..Mr F making 'just got in' toast. My friend was really pleased with the big bag of magazines I decluttered throughout this week & sent us on our way with a garden fork & a large pumpkin!

Suffolk_lass

Gosh, that is an awesome swap!
foxgloves said:

Only just got in..Mr F making 'just got in' toast. My friend was really pleased with the big bag of magazines I decluttered throughout this week & sent us on our way with a garden fork & a large pumpkin!