Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

To be fair, our town loos are MUCH better since they were taken over by the council & a 20p charge introduced. This has offset the cost of staffing them properly & they are now hugely more hygienic, no longer covered in foul-mouthed graffiti & always stocked with supplies. The staff even put up seasonal decorations! So tbh, I don't begrudge the 20p charge. I would rather pay than return to the previous disgusting facilities.
F x

Crazycatlady2

I wouldn't have walked away from the pig in blanket 😂
I've one frome Iceland that's in a giant Yorkshire pudding and a Tesco finest 12 pack....not sure what anyone else will be eating 😂

milann

Our loos are still free. They’re well looked after in the town centre too. It’s not like our council to miss out on a money making scheme. 

foxgloves

Hello Saturday Savers,
Well, I am up in my little HQ & the rain is absolutely lashing the windows. Cats have been outside during the middle of the day which was dry, but are now going crackers. Pleasant morning & useful afternoon. Today's small budget-helping things as follows:
*Coffee & scones in our favourite indie cafe - paid from our Personal Spends so budget-neutral.
*Very low cost festive activity this morning, as went to the Christmas Tree Festival in the big parish church in town. Only £3.50 entrance & very sparkly feel good, kind event. 
*Visited the festive market. Free. Lovely to see it bustling with customers & lots of steampunkers who are here for a weekend of events. Love the costumes. Made me wish I had worn my long black velvet cloak, tiara & old black lace opera gloves despite not being into steampunk. Maybe next year just for the hell of it. Anyway, I only spent £2.50 there & that was on a tiny hand-crafted item to send to my sister when I write this weekend as she is poorly with a vile cold. 
*Two charity shop novels bought from my Personal Spends in the Oxfam Bookshop - always very well stocked.
*Free parking today. All the council car parks in town are doing free parking every weekend up to New Year.
*Not money saving, but hopefully carpet-saving - purchased 2 cat scratching posts from local pet shop. Soot tried to have a go before they had even come out of the bag & Ash has just knocked 7 bells out of the downstairs one so it looks as though they will enjoy them.
*No paid surveys around for me today. I did  one for entry into a prize draw, but they are never as motivating as being paid.
*A bit of shopping from home, or more specifically from my own wardrobe, means that I think I will only need to buy one lot of yarn, so will probably order it tomorrow. I have resurrected a black poncho I bought last winter & also my lovely handknitted gansey, which while not black, does go with several dresses/tunics to provide an additional warm layer. I don't wear it enough. There is such a lot of work in the pattern as it is a traditionally constructed one (gansey-knitting is apparently now a red-listed handicraft) & the yarn (a gift) was expensive so I haven't been wearing it much. I have decided I am looking at this the wrong way down the telescope & the cost & labour of love should mean that I am getting as much wear out of it as possible. Am wearing it today & it's so toasty that I turned the CH thermostat down to 17.5 for a few hours! So I will be knitting the waterfall cardi pattern in the hippyfied yarn - a decision at last, & better for the financials, as it will just be one lot of yarn to buy instead of two.
This afternoon, I was wondering whether to read, order my new yarn or watch a film. I asked Mr F if he'd got any plans & he said he was going to clean the oven. Ohhhhh, that was music to my ears, & it was soon Christmas music as he put some carols & festive folky stuff on & I hate cooker cleaning. I just spend the whole time berating myself for having let it get bad. As he was spending his time off doing that, I decided to tackle an Annoying Job - clearing out the settle in the conservatory. There were quite a few items in there that were really being stored in the wrong place, so I moved them, bunged a big throw into the washer to clean up ready to take to the charity shop. That all made so much space in the settle that I was able to move quite a bit of stuff into it from the utility, so ended up decluttering & tidying all the shelves in there too. I'm not done for the day as it's my cooking night tonight & I am going to be making tuna fish pie......but at least I shall be making it on/in a sparkling clean oven! 
Aiming to find a box-set from our own collection to watch tonight.
Stay dry m'dears, & cosy,
F x

Makingabobor2

Wish my DH would clean the oven...his idea of being off work is to sit at his computer and download stuff and watch boring useless Youtube stuff. Although he did fix the internet router today as it had been going down a lot in the kitchen...which is my HQ now since we got our new (2nd hand) table & chairs. Been telling him for ages there was a problem, but he kept saying it was just me and "user error" when I used my laptop or phone. I was getting so cross with him. Anyway, today he actually saw how bad it was and set about fixing it. Good job that sort of thing is his skill set. 

badmemory

Sorry I need a translation.  What is "clean the oven"?  After my first having to clean the oven an awful lot of years ago, I haven't put anything in there that would cause the need.  I decided a very long time ago that things like that need far more products than using products that avoid the oven getting like that in the first place.

Blackcats

My oven needs a thorough clean - it's such a tedious job but rewarding when it's done.  I need a few more days to work up sufficient enthusiasm to do it.
A giant pig in a giant blanket sounds fabulous.  Well done to MrFG for resisting it.  I'd hazard a guess that MrBC would not have l resisted.

ladyholly

The way mr lh isn't eating at the moment I would have got the giant pig in a giant blanket in a heartbeat.

Humdinger1

10 years and one cooker later, we are still waiting for the MAN who we were promised would be cleaning the cooker when we bought insurance.   We both remember the conversation with the salesman...love Humdinger xx 

Crazycatlady2

My cooker insurance came with a yearly clean which I loved. I stoped paying for insurance after 8 years as tbh I don't use it much now and use air fryer daily