Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Afternoon Campers!
Have enjoyed reading all your ear piercing stories. I feel I should have confessed to the occasion when as an 18-year old student, I attempted to pierce an additional hole in one of my ears using the old time-honoured hot potato & ice cube method. Needle went through ok (with plenty of yelling!) but couldn't force an earring through, so had to put up with a self-inflicted lumpy earlobe for a few weeks. As I had no interest in saving money back then, I'm not really sure why I thought this would be of any kind of benefit!
Anyway, enough of idiocy & onto today's small budget-assisting positives:
*Two loads of laundry done. Small things on heated airer as didn't want to have to take ages bringing it all indoors again if it started raining. Bed linen & towels pegged out on the line, though, as they are undoubtedly the things which will gobble up most heated airer electricity.
*Tonight's meal in the slow cooker - Smoky chipotle black bean chilli. Shall serve it with grated cheese in tortilla wraps with coleslaw on the side. Will also make up a microwavable mugful to freeze for Mr F to have a free hot work lunch at some point. Used a big jar of my home bottled tomatoes & they smelled so lovely & tomatoey when I opened them. I can see me bottling every year when we have a good crop.
*Did a couple of surveys.
*Did my regular Monday morning budget updates. Grocery budget for the final week looking a bit on the reduced side, but no problem as another supermarket voucher arrived & that will stretch it by an extra £8 - also we have plenty of food in.
*Decided not to order our usual December fish box. I do usually order one, but I thought that with December being a naturally spendier month on the food front, that I would wait until the next one, which will be around the end of Jan/beginning of Feb. 
*Postie brought my credit card statement which was a nice big fat round zero, but it still needed checking against receipts & my ongoing credit card payments log sheet. Done & no weird surprises.
*Ordered the gift for Mr F which I'd hoped to find yesterday when we met my family in a very plush garden centre. No such luck, so have ordered from the big online company I usually avoid. I had a free next day delivery credit from them because they bogged up a previous order, so I made use of that. If I hadn't have had access to free delivery, I think I would have found an alternative gift locally.
*Ordered 2 boxes of cat flea treatment online. I wish our local indie pet shop stocked it as I'd prefer to support them but they don't, so the choice is online or the big pet superstore chain. Still a big disparity in price. I have paid £9.91 for a box of 4 pipettes today. The superstore price is £17-60 for the same box & that's only while it's on offer, as the usual price is £22-00 !! That has got to be a no-brainer.
*Managed to shop a retirement card for an ex-colleague from home.
*Made a sourdough. It's just sitting in its little basket proving, but will be going in the oven very soon.
I'd like to say I have also made a bit of progress on the final pair of socks I'm knitting for a present, but as I knitted 3 rounds, spotted a bogged-up stitch & pulled them out again, it would be a fib - better luck tomorrow.
Well, I must go & fetch that bed linen in, as at this time of year, it seems to be light one minute, then too dark to squidge across the lawn the next. Then the loaf to bake, & while that's in the oven, I shall do some piano practice.
Hope everyone has managed to get off to at least a reasonably decent start to the week.
F x
P.S @EssexHebridean - I did dabble in the world of coloured mascaras. I never tried the blue ones, but I did try green, before it quickly went in the bin & was replaced in my affections by a purple one.


 

marionmgcars

I think I was about 32 when I got my ears pierced, but now never go out without earrings in.  Had a go at making Dahl today for first time, may need to tweak recipe.  Also made some plum jam, but the bug*er does not seem to be setting.  No matter how long I boiled it for only ever reached temperature of 101 degree C,  jam thermometer says must be 104.  Might reboil a few hard tomorrow- can’t face the job tonight.  

foxgloves

@marionmgcars - How annoying about the jam. Plum jam usually sets pretty reliably, so I wonder if they were a bit naturally lower in pectin for some reason. Hope you find a solution today.
F

joedenise

@marionmgcars - last tine I made plum jam I had the opposite problem.  It set too much!  One minute it was nowhere near set the next it looked perfect but by the time I'd jarred it and we got round to using it it was so set it was like toffee and needed slicing with the knife!  So be careful not to over-boil it today.

foxgloves

Yes @joedenise,  that's why I was surprised to hear that it was plum jam which hadn't set, as it is usually so reliable. Sometimes, the pectin around the stones is even visible in the fruits when they are cut in half. Hope re-boiling has had the desired effect, @marionmgcars - if you haven't done it yet, maybe worth adding the juice of half a lemon? 
F

foxgloves

Hello Frugalistas,
A rather dull routine day today, as by the time my parcel had arrived, it was starting to get dark & I felt I'd rather have had my walk in daylight, so didn't bother. It was one of those delivery services where the only info received is "Your parcel will be delivered today before 10pm" which is the least helpful option short of failing to deliver it at all. Then, having listened out for a knock at the door all day, he managed to get it through the letterbox, which meant that I needed to unwrap it for a close inspection as it isn't the sort of gift I really want bouncing off the stone doorstep in just a thin cardboard sleeve. Luckily all seems fine.
Have been quite productive, but these are the more money saving bits:
*Baked a batch of rolls as checked packed lunch requirements for the rest of this week & realised that the nice crusty little sourdough loaf I baked yesterday isn't going to last 5 minutes.
*Finished knitting the 1st of the final pair of Christmas socks & cast it off. I do love that hand-knitted socks only have 2 ends to darn in. Will cast on its pair tomorrow over my lunch break.
*Did a little more festive prep - wrote a letter to an old friend, popped in with her card & a small gift I am sending & wrapped the lot ready for posting. Used a paper bag from a clothes shop for parcel paper - very strong. Will remember that next time they offer me a free bag.
*Paid a round-up of transactions off my credit card - points building nicely again - I did just have a quick check of the budget, but was pleased to find that the expected balance was accurate to the exact penny!
*Did a very little ironing. The new iron is so much more effective than the old gunky one that I can whizz through it using minimal electricity.
*Had a quick check for any fruit & veg in need to using up - added a banana to my cereal as it was on the way to getting too ripe for me (I like them quite green) & the half can of sweetcorn in the fridge will be going into tonight's kedgeree instead of peas.
*Did a few surveys - this month's PA earnings currently at £36-37, so I think my £40 target ought to be manageable as I still have 9 days left before cash-out. Not far off cash-out on Ips*s either. I am finding recently I have more luck signing in & seeing what is available on there than I do waiting for them to email me a notification. I often respond to the latter only to find that the survey doesn't exist or I am entirely the wrong demographic, which is annoying, given the amount of profiling questions I have answered.
Well m'dears, here we are, not even 4.30pm, yet dark as anything outside. I am going to go around doing my winter 'cosying down' jobs - closing curtains & lighting the lamp & fairy lights. First though, I shall administer this afternoon's cat treats, as Soot has just come to inform me that service on these has been very poor today & that he is likely to fade away to a wraith if something doesn't appear on his saucer in the next few minutes. So I will do that, naturally to a cacophony of aggrieved meowing (he is a very vocal cat), then think about prepping ingredients for dinner. Am looking forward to watching 'Bake-off' & knitting a bit more of the other socks on the needles atm, which are for me.
F x

marionmgcars

foxgloves said:

Yes @joedenise,  that's why I was surprised to hear that it was plum jam which hadn't set, as it is usually so reliable. Sometimes, the pectin around the stones is even visible in the fruits when they are cut in half. Hope re-boiling has had the desired effect, @marionmgcars - if you haven't done it yet, maybe worth adding the juice of half a lemon? 
F

thanks,  just reboiled today, in two half’s of quantity, and added a splash of lemon.  Seems to have worked and now have 2 less jars.  Not to worry as have 18 left 👍. Will enjoy gifting them at Christmas.  X

EssexHebridean

No spoilers on Bake Off please - we'll be watching this evening as Mr EH's rugby training gets in the way on a Tuesday evening!

I too dislike delivery companies that just say "Yeah, it'll be today" and nothing more. if they give you a link to track the driver, fair enough as you can at least see if they are still miles away (The Swedish store is good for this) but just that vague "today" is super-annoying. 

PennysIntoPounds

I'm trying to get in the habit of making an effort to respond to companies requests for feedback on RustPilot etc by saying 'product fine, service fine, unfortunately delivery was xxx'. It drives me absolutely spare that deliveries and utilities think customers are just a mass of data and not actual individuals with actual lives and needs.
It's not like they can't just text you if they're a bit late since everywhere demands your mobile number and doesn't let you opt out of order updates. I don't need emails and txts that at 11.14am you put the item in the box but then at 11.16am you had to pause as you'd run out of sellotape but at 11.20am Linda from HR popped out to get some as she was buying her lunch anyway, just say a time and day and deliver it!

Sorry for ranting on your diary @foxgloves x

rtandon27

PIP - that was hilarious but sadly accurate!
My favorite is getting a text to say it was delivered 30 seconds before they knock on the door, drop it on the step and run!