Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

QueenJess

Re: craze toys, I think DS is almost at the right age for them, although he’s never asked why we don’t get him stuff like that. To be fair, he knows that unless it’s books or clothes he actually needs replacing, he has to wait for Xmas or birthday or save up and buy it himself.

We saw some pop its yesterday (which DS thought was “cool”). I did grimace at that as I hate them with a passion. Horrible tat, waste of resources that is just polluting the planet and will end up in landfill.

ladyholly

I kmow its not possible now in these days of multiple tv channels but my dd didnt realise for a long time that there were childrens programmes on Itv so was never subjected to the advertising that is around at this time of year.

QueenJess

ladyholly said:

I kmow its not possible now in these days of multiple tv channels but my dd didnt realise for a long time that there were childrens programmes on Itv so was never subjected to the advertising that is around at this time of year.

My kids don’t watch TV (just not interested), but it’s amazing what DS picks up at school.

angela110660

All the "dangerous" crazes - but we are here to discuss them ! Clackers, conkers, French skipping with elastic bands - never got into that. All good fun in its time though. My dad was the one who moaned about me wanting ear piercing but when I was 16 my mum took me to a jewellers to get them done. She had had her ears pierced years ago.  Years later when my then teenage sons wanted ear rings/piercings I threatened to get a nose ring myself like a bull! Ha ha.  They both got over their ideas at that threat. 

Tescodealqueen

angela110660 said:

All the "dangerous" crazes - but we are here to discuss them ! Clackers, conkers, French skipping with elastic bands - never got into that. All good fun in its time though. My dad was the one who moaned about me wanting ear piercing but when I was 16 my mum took me to a jewellers to get them done. She had had her ears pierced years ago.  Years later when my then teenage sons wanted ear rings/piercings I threatened to get a nose ring myself like a bull! Ha ha.  They both got over their ideas at that threat. 

You are so right. When I think back to what we did for fun back in the day I am surprised to still be here. Not for fun and not done on purpose but I recall one lunchtime in a temporary classroom accidentally touching an electric socket with no covers and bare wires . I was thrown to the other side of the room . My friends brushed me off and we never even mentioned to anyone. Likewise the day we were watching trains on the level crossing while sitting on the gate. Never told the doctor at A and E that I had fallen off and bashed my head when it swung closed and I fell off. Me and my five brothers didn’t dare mention  it to my parents til I was nearly 50! We told them I had fallen out of a tree and they hadn’t blinked at that but the railway line was a no go area. As they say we had little in the way of material things and made our own fun though I 
guess now not always in a good way

foxgloves

Hi Sunday Savers,
Interesting reading about everyone's experiences of craze toys. Agree that some of the more prolific cheaper ones are just landfill tat - I loathe the 'pop-it' things too - plastic nothingness which will be in landfill or the oceans for ever. Scoobies were the same - more creative - but ultimately thin strands of plastic which will be around for ever.
Re our more 'dangerous' childhood activities, one occasion which sticks in my mind from around 1974 after there'd been quite a lot of snow..A group of us took our sledges under a barbed wire fence onto an ancient earthwork (private land - owner wasn't averse to waving his shotgun around). We spent the afternoon sledging down the best slope. The danger lay in the fact that this old historic earthwork was right next to the river, & as the sides of the river had frozen & was covered with snow, we couldn't see where the snowy land ended & the river began. Terribly dangerous. I was about 9 at the time & couldn't swim. With hindsight, any of us having a particularly stonking sledge run & overshooting, would have gone through the ice into a pretty major river. It didn't occur to me until adulthood how dangerous this was.
Anyway....onto today's budget-helping positives. We abandoned our planned gardening session when we pulled the curtains first thing & saw the ice. I did pop out to check, but the soil was frozen solid & in no state to relinquish any weeds.
Did a bit of useful planning instead. Synchronised our diaries for the week ahead, did December's master meal plan ensuring we drew mostly on freezer & pantry stores & sorted out a small loan for Mr F's Spends from a Savings Pot, which he will pay back.monthly - much better to borrow from ourselves than from 3rd parties. It is my Big Budget Day tomorrow, so we also discussed a few things which need factoring into that. We had a useful discussion about December's grocery budget. I have said I will budget a generous but not stupid amount. We have vouchers/dividend points totalling over £100 which I have saved all year towards Christmas food. One thing which did occur to me is that every year when we do our Christmas food shop, we always include stuff for New Year - not a lot, but an extra bottle of cava, wine, Mr F's new year beer, a few treats, etc....it adds up. It occurred to me this morning that as our budget cycle always runs from 27th of the month, any purchases required for New Year need to come from January's grocery money, not December's. Of course, we make good use of leftovers/batch cooking, etc, so plenty of our existing food carries through into January meals anyway. 
Mr F is roasting a chicken tonight, from which I intend to get 3 further days of meals. I've got ahead of myself with my regular Monday laundry day by getting all the towels & household linens washed & onto the heated airer today, but I am already in my purple velvet chair near the radiator (I usually have to fight Soot for this cosy spot) & am determined to reach at least the middle of my book this afternoon.
Sending peaceful vibes,
F x

foxgloves

Hello Monday Money Savers,
Woke up a bit headachey today & it's still lingering, but not bad enough to stop me tackling today's main money saving event which has been my Big Budget Day. It's taken me a while, as I decided to take it slow & steady, to reconcile the end of November's budget, as usual, so as to ensure I was working with up-to-date figures for setting December's. So much of today's positives are to do with that really:
*Set December's budget, having discussed a few variables with Mr F yesterday, esp around festive food, a few occasions when we will be eating out - albeit in a minor way, etc. Have left £249 as a current account buffer zone. The £49 may well get mopped up with small transactions for which I don't deem it worth pulling funds out of Savings Pots.
*Managed to cover everything & still have £100 to send to our future car replacement fund, £200 to the Savings Pots (split between car maintenance, holiday, clothes, presents & house/garden.
*Purchased our first batch of premium bonds. 
*Did a couple of surveys & cashed out of Ips*s for £10, which will be sent to the Leisure/entertainment savings pot when it arrives.
*Had a good filing session & made sure all the paperwork/budget notes for pending transactions are under my paperweight ready to be dealt with asap to keep my accounts nice & straight.
*Rubber chicken duties first thing - it did roast dinner yesterday, will provide stir-fry tonight, a home made fajhita-style pizza tomorrow & an Epic Man Stew on Wednesday. I also froze a container of chunks as with some vegetables, they will provide a decent curry using a carton of the Hairy Bikers basic curry sauce I batch-cooked back when we had the tomato glut. Everything else in the slow cooker for stock, soon to be strained ready for freezing.
*Did rest of this week's laundry. Yesterday's had dried overnight on the heated airer, even the big bath towels. I will go & jig it about a bit shortly & put the dehumidifier on to hasten progress with the current load.
*Temporarily moved the CH thermostat to a room, rather than its usual cold spot in the hall. I felt perfectly warm enough, so though this would save a little money. Have decided to do this during the daytime if I am not feeling chilly. 
And that's it for today! It looks as though it may finally have stopped raining, at least for a while. It has poured for most of the day. I took pity on Soot & Ash & went out in the downpour to fetch the litter tray from the shed, but even that failed to impress them as they like to go out, explore the garden & (Soot's current favourite) chase pesky squirrels.
Hope everyone has managed to get off to at least a reasonably decent start to the week.
F x

Makingabobor2

Hope your headache has gone FG. I think this weather isn't helpful, I'm finding stuff nose a lot due to having heating on sometimes and that gives me a headache. 
Sounds like another productive day, I always find at least one tip or blast of inspiration from your posts. 

PennysIntoPounds

Also hoping the headache has b******d off, they're so rude! Other bodily ailments, there's usually a cause and it'll sort itself out but headaches are like 'yeah I'm just going to sit here in your actual head, what of it'. Rude.

And welcome to the premium bonds club! What prompted that decision?
I don't know if you read all the T&Cs but there's a bit in there that if Agent Million comes knocking, you have to send all your mse pals a homemade cake. Weird bit of legislation but what can you do... 😁

rtandon27

Ah PiP - who knew? - I'm so glad that someone reads the fine print! 🙂