Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Moorviews

The joys of middle age and beyond regarding the bad backs etc. I now understand why people exchange stories about their aches and pains!
It’s good that Mr F is back home to enjoy the evening celebration 🎉 Yet another wild weather night here and we plan to stay at home enjoying our champagne. We can’t remember how old it is but it was a gift some years ago which we kept forgetting about. Happy wishes to everyone for going into 2024 🥂

@Makingabobor2 - I hope you don’t have it too badly and have the opportunity to rest up properly. 

marionmgcars

Glad Mr F is back and you can enjoy your NYE plans.  I had a trip out to collect a TGTG bag and some Olio items from a local lady.  All processed and in the freezer and fridge now,  so can relax, once I’ve paid off my credit card and feel I csn start the year on a clean slate.  

Loved the comment of London Town hall budget going up in smoke - too a few minutes before the penny dropped 🤣🤣

hope everyone has a healthy happy 2024 xx

Less_Talk_and_More_Action

Happy New Year @foxgloves and to Mr F.  I look forward to reading more of your musings in 2024. 

I sympathise re the back pain and hope it resolves quickly. 

I have sciatica which is generally absent but has flared a bit at the moment.  I have good exercises which manage it and it generally goes away again after a few days but a pain whilst it’s around and so frustrating when you can’t easily do things you normally do.  

Best wishes 

L x 

ladyholly

A very happpy New Year to you and Mr foxgloves.

PennysIntoPounds

Glad Mr F is back in time for cava and curry, and with the moral high ground! 

Baileys_Babe

Happy New Year Foxgloves and fellow readers, wishing you all a healthy and prosperous 2024.

rtandon27

Happy New Year 2024!

Hope you are both recovered from any late night NYE festivities!  Glad to hear Mr. FG made it back in time to celebrate!  We only just made it past midnight & are paying the price today 🤣🤣🤣

savingmore

Happy 2024 Foxgloves and all,  I do hope that 2024 will be a year of lower bills (reading energy cap reducing April and probably July) and more crafty ways of saving pounds and enjoying the simpler life.  Once retired in four months I hope to be a more regular poster, but read this thread daily.  Enjoy the posts and shenanigans so much.  

scandimore

Glad Mr F made it back in time, happy new year! 

foxgloves

Hello & Happy New Year dear readers, Thanks for all your warm new year wishes, very much returned from us here at Foxgloves Manor. Yes, Mr F DID easily make it home in time for our NYE plans  - he was equally delighted when the lovely take-away curry from our usual local place arrived in such ample portions that we couldn't eat it all & he was able to squirrel the leftovers away into containers for his growing freezer stash of 'free' microwaveable work lunches. 
Relaxing day today & very useful as I always aim to write up my new diary on New Year's Day so that is what I have been doing & I feel hugely more organised for the time spent on this. I have got another of the Emma Bridgewater diaries - very similar to last year's except for this one being more garden-based in its art & sayings, & also in that I didn't buy this one. Mr F saw how much pleasure I got from last year's, so told me not to buy this year's version & that he would get me one for a Christmas present. Well, frugal friends, it might not sound like much of an exciting afternoon, but I have filled it in with birthdays, anniversaries, holiday & cattery dates, garden bin collections, various stuff I need to remember & last but not least, this week's meal plans & packed lunch needs! What I like about these diaries is that they have a week to a page so are not squidged up & have a monthly planner which is perfect for meal plans. There is also a monthly 'notes' page & a planner for next year at the back. I really like the arty page for each month - in fact, I cut out all of these pages from my old 2023 diary & am going to peg them to my kitchen board each month so I can still enjoy them.
Other money saving stuff....well, nothing unusual. We both cashed out our December P/A earnings which appeared in the bank pretty much immediately, so I have added them to our respective Personal Spends plus an additional £10 which was also resting in Paypal which I earned from Ips*s. That has been sent to the Leisure & Entertainment Pot.
We had been debating whether or not to re-join the RHS as we used to visit one of their gardens sufficient times per year to make the cost worthwhile from an entrance fee point of view & I also like the monthly magazine. Found there is currently a 20% annual membership reduction so I have signed up. I hadn't budgeted for this when I set January's budget & was reluctant to dip into the Leisure & Entertainment Pot as I am slowly building up the Whitsun opera ticket money in there, so I have used the December grocery budget underspend which still had some money left even after we used it to pay for last night's curry & a top-slice from January's buffer zone. This will be fine, but I do just need to mention to Mr F that as I have used a slice of this for the membership payment, then any little odds & sods of expenditure which I am happy to charge to the buffer zone when it's flush, will need to come from somewhere else. Didn't want to miss out on the offer though as it was a good saving & the first discount I have seen from them in a long time, though admittedly I haven't been looking more recently.
Oh....& the money saving eating-up of leftovers is of course continuing. Mr F is making macaroni cheese tonight to use up various oddments of festive cheese & a couple of warm mince pies with a scoop of ice-cream will provide dessert. Last portion of both french stick & smoked salmon for lunch.
Soot & Ash have really had their naughty heads on this Christmas. I wonder if it is because their routine has been different. Like all our past rescue cats, they are a pair who really do seem to need routine. Ash has already wrecked his big present, which I am figuring out how best to repair & I have had to re-stitch a seam on their new kicker-toy. I suppose this at least shows they are enjoying them!
Well, no more for me to do today, so I am going to read a few more chapters of my current library book, which is getting very intriguing.
New Year Blessings to you all,
F xx