Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

PennysIntoPounds

My mate, who I mentioned ages ago on my diary was having treatment for cancer, has had zero saliva which of course is very horrible and not conducive to eating and thus recovering. Well a few days ago he tried some bubble and squeak, had a coughing fit, and lo and behold the saliva is back! So bubble and squeak seems to be the key for major health progress, and we are all therefore justified in variants of bubble and squeak for its proven health giving properties 😁

Sun_Addict

To be fair to my mom and her lack of cooking skills, she was a professional ballerina who then married a naval officer (my dad) and travelled with him so I expect she didn’t have the opportunity to learn many cooking skills. Just in case anyone thinks she was lazy 😆

Makingabobor2

Loving all the memories. My mum always minced the weekend joint on a Monday,  using one of those old metal mincers that screwed to the table. So it was always shepherds/cottage pie on a Monday. 

Moorviews

Bubble and Squeak is one of my favourite leftovers dishes. I love leftovers and will cook extra potatoes and vegetables just to be able to make it. Saved bacon fat is particularly delicious for the frying of it! My MIL didn’t like to have leftovers as she thought each meal should be made fresh and that it was lazy to serve something up twice. She was a great cook but didn’t enjoy it. My mum also didn’t enjoy cooking and didn’t bake. She was thrilled when I developed a passion for it and willingly gave me a free rein in the kitchen. My dad and his mum were very good, adventurous, cooks and were interested in international cuisine. I am more closely aligned with them, although my maternal grandmother had some lovely baking that she was renowned for. I was very much encouraged by them all and carried that on with my own children. They can each cook well and have their different styles but only one of them bakes. I am pleased that they have such an important life skill and pleasure in good food. Since having children there has never been much cash so they really understand how to produce tasty and healthy meals on a budget. 

Foxgloves, I have enjoyed the mental shift that I have made with your use of the concept of “resources” in your diary. I feel it gives equal value to what is within the home and what is bought or brought in. When I examine my thinking I can see that I had a tendency to believe that what is out there in the shops, is somehow better than what I have already at home. Also, I am valuing my own skills more, rather than thinking that “Oh, everyone can cook, sew, grow food, knit etc.” about myself. Apart from the fact that not everyone can do these things, I can see how important they can be in living an enjoyable, economically viable and productive life. Your diary perfectly illustrates this and I thank you for all the effort that you have put into it and your generosity in sharing with us. I realise that there are lots of different ways of leading a fulfilling life but your interests are similar to mine, hence enjoying your diary and the company of your readership so much. 

foxgloves

Hello to anyone reading on this drizzly New Year's Eve, Thanks for all your comments & contributions which I have just read over a coffee & slice of Christmas cake. 
@Blackcats - My time scale with using leftover meat is that it must be eaten or frozen by the end of Day 3. So a joint cooked on Sunday would be eaten fresh, then divvied up on Monday for whatever meals are on that week's plan. Surplus leftover meat would be either wrapped & frozen or make into something else & frozen. My Mum would eat cold sliced chicken breast on the 2nd day, but never any of the darker meat & not on the 3rd day. Yes, I would think they would have been of a similar age. My Mum was born in 1936.
@joedenise - It's a nice autumn/winter recipe. The one we use is made from beef chunks, new potatoes, red pepper, carraway seeds, etc. Hope you enjoy it.
@ladyholly - I'm glad I don't live with a foodie fuss-pot! It's a shame not to bother cooking things you like because of you being the only one that eats whatever it is. I think I would make the extra portion/s anyway & freeze them for another day. 
@Sun_Addict - My Mum just really got no enjoyment from cooking or baking. She was happy for me to do as much cooking as I wanted as soon as I started having lessons at school. To be fair, even if she had enjoyed cooking, she was working weekdays from 4 -8pm, sometimes later, & my sister was terribly faddy as a child & only actually ate about 4 or 5 different meals, all very limited things.
@EssexHebridean - I have never thought about all the waste from turkeys being boned out to make crowns. Good thinking on taking the backbone. Reminded me of when I once picked up a big bag of fresh beef bones from a farm shop - there was a crate of them, labelled 'Free - please help yourself'. Didn't need telling twice! Took them for making a really good beef stock, so roasted them first, then discovered there was so much removable roast meat on there, that I actually potted it up & used later for making a spicy rice.
@Moorviews - Thank-you for your encouraging comments. I'm glad you enjoy my diary. I have been very honest about the fact that I was a silly spender for very many years & I think the re-focus on resources was really part of the mental shift I had to make in my own head. Mr F & I never reached a critical moment with our debt. We were always able to meet repayments & also pay more than the minimum, but the downside of this was that there didn't seem to be a limit to what we could borrow. Over the years since the lightbulb first pinged on, it has been nothing short of revelatory how much more secure we feel living within our means. Of course freeing up money to pay down debt (about £35k at its worst) & then both to stay debt-free & start building up some viable savings means that every resource I can find lying around at home which will 'do the job' means something else I don't need to buy. That is really how it started. If such a re-purposing can save, say, a £12 spend, then that is obviously money I would rather see in our savings pots where it can be helping us towards our holiday balance or replacing the next appliance which decides to go bung. Back in the Spendy Decades, if I came home from the city centre without any new purchases (which admittedly was a very rare event), I would feel a bit sorry for myself, that I'd had a wasted trip. Now, I am perfectly happy to come home with my money intact.
Anyway, I have got into yakking mode, so had better get today's post on.....
F x

foxgloves

And in today's news in a nutshell before getting onto the money stuff.....
My back is still bad....only muscular, rather than structural but still being a nuisance. Mr F is now also a member of the Foxgloves Manor bad back club, but his cricked neck has improved. Sighs.....I don't rate this getting older lark at all, & he's a good bit younger than me! Enjoyed our traditional New Year's Eve walk at a local historic park....fresh air & greenery, just what we both needed. Breakfasted in the cafe, but budget-neutral as used our Personal Spends & cashed in the welcome free coffee from our loyalty card. Fantastic reductions on Christmas stuff in the gift shop, but I kept my purse firmly in my bag. Leftovers for lunch, but since then, Mr F has had to travel over to his workplace to deal with an emergency. He lives the furthest away but was the only viable member of the team who hadn't yet had a New Year's Eve drink. He was not at all happy about it, but it's better than potentially being held responsible for a big problem & he can claim both double time & petrol for the 50+ miles round trip. So atm, it's just me & the cats. If the work problem is mitigated in reasonable time, we will be having our traditional NYE take-away curry tonight, a bottle of pink cava (my favourite!), followed by a film & watching the London town hall budget go up in smoke on TV at midnight. 
Enjoyed packing away my Christmas presents yesterday & they got me thinking again about resources. I think it was William Morris who said something along the lines of, "Have nothing in your homes which you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful", & I have become a thinker very much along these lines re presents & purchases. I used to know someone who if given toiletries for a gift, would think it was almost insulting in terms of the lack of thought that had gone in to this as a present-choice. I couldn't be more different. I LOVE that I received so many nice USEFUL things - some hand-printed jam labels which my friend makes from lino-cuts, seeds, some environmentally-friendly garden twine, a scented candle, hand cream, 2 craft projects, gorgeous box of soaps, a funky little lavender bag cat (from another keen knitter who is, like me, always waging war on clothes moths!), nice notecards because I love writing letters, a fab new diary, gel pens.......all such useful stuff, which I now won't need to buy for much longer. We also received a hamper bag containing wine, various posh crackers, stuff we can add to our pantry which will keep our supplies going a bit longer & help our January budget as well as being yum. I also received a pot of mystery bulbs from my friend. I think this is a nice idea & I may copy it in years to come. She had a lot of quite ordinary but fairly large flower pots, which she planted up with spring bulbs & gifted one to each of her friends. None of us have any idea what 'our' bulbs are, the idea being that it will be a nice surprise in springtime. I love this idea - it makes use of resources she already had (pots & compost) & I bet she really enjoyed choosing the bulbs for each friend. Then just a recycled plant label with "To Foxgloves, love from ***** xxx". All I needed to do with it was move it onto the back courtyard where I want it to flower. 
Anyway, I digress - yet again! - I think I was really just saying that unlike some people I have known who seem very difficult to buy for, I do very much enjoy receiving useful things, & knowing I shan't need to buy them for a good long while is an added advantage, especially as we embark on 2024 with all the heightened financial hopes, dreams & goals which a new year entails.
Wishing you all a Happy New Year. May we rise from the empty cava bottles with a new song in our hearts, & may this coming year be especially kind to all those who are finding peace & hope in short supply at the moment. 
Love F xx

Makingabobor2

I agree @foxgloves, I love useful presents. A couple of years ago my DD gave me some bees wax wraps and some home made soap. I remember her saying it was boring but she thought I would like them. I loved them.  I also like it when people know me so well that they will happily go to a CS to buy a book or puzzle for me. Unlike MIL, who gave us 2 calendars!  1 with cat photos on....we are not cat people, and 1 with motor bikes on. Yes DH rides a motorbike, but he does not use a calendar, and it is not hanging on my fridge....lol.  So he took his off to work to give to someone and I re-gifted the cat one to the CS.  My calendar is always one full of inspirational quotes/angels etc. And as MIL has known me almost 27 years, you'd have thought she would have known that. But come to think of it, she did give DH a bottle of JD for Christmas for about 6 years running when he was younger, despite him never having drunk the stuff. ...lol
Hope Mr FG gets back in time for NY celebrations. We will probably be in bed long before midnight, as both test positive for covid now and feeling a bit yuk. So think we'll save the pink prosecco, also a Christmas present, for a later date.  So Happy new Year to you, Mr FG and the cats. Look forward to following your tips and wisdom into 2024. x

Sun_Addict

I hope Mr F is back home soon so you can commence your end of year festivities 🤞

Let’s hope 2024 is a good year for us all 🥳

Tescodealqueen

Hope you can enjoy your takeaway together. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year, I am sure I will be in the land of Nod well before the witching hour so will record the fireworks on tv and watch in the morning

foxgloves

Thanks both of you. Yes, he's home & very much feeling like King Moral High-Ground of the Moral High-Ground People for attending an out-of-hours emergency on NYE. So cava & curry back on the agenda.
@Makingabobor2 - sorry you are now a plague house. Hope you feel better soon 
F