Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Cheery_Daff

Happy new year! 

RHS membership sounds like a good use of your December grocery underspend! 😊

Looking forward to reading along with your diary in 2024 😊

Sun_Addict

You’ve reminded me I haven’t cashed out my PA money yet, I’m slacking! The diary sounds lovely. 

milann

Happy New Year 🥂

foxgloves

Thanks for continued new year wishes - all very much returned. Not much to report today, though am checking in to show I'm keeping the frugal.faith:
*Tried the new drop-in blood test service at our local hospital outpatients. Excellent! Was no.2 in the queue so v speedy & some handy street parking avoided the car park charge.
*Quick call at Waitbl00m**for a grocery item. Did not succumb to knitting magazine. Mr F availed himself of a free latte as had his beaker in the car.
*Filled up with petrol, ensuring we used the cheapest filling station.
*Leftovers for lunch, leftovers packed up for tomorrow's packed lunch, dinner from freezer stores with last 2 mince pies for dessert.
*Did this week's laundry. Extra spin & dehumidifier on to minimise heated airer use & condensation.
Yet more heavy rain today. One main route in & out of town closed off due to flooding & our drive home across the fly-over showed how bad it is - all fields & sports clubs as far as the eye can see underwater again. Big river in our village has also burst so will trot down tomorrow morning to see exactly how far it has come - usually worsened by the marina over-topping like a big bowl.

**Anyway, back to ££ saving. In above-mentioned supermarket this morning, various boxes of Christmas crackers were heavily reduced for clearance. This included boxes reduced from £16-00 to £1-19, which did not contain any plastic cr*p as the gift in each was a metal festive biscuit cutter. There were 6 different ones so I'm thinking £1-19 is a pretty good price just to obtain a set of Christmas cutters should they be needed, but also worth buying to put away for next year for those who like to buy reasonably sustainable crackers but not at high prices. I decided not to buy any myself as already have 4 out of the 6 cutter designs, though admit I was momentarily tempted by the dove & the mitten.
Well, I am cosied up on the sofa with a hwb on my naughty back muscles & am hoping to finish my book - it is very intriguing - one of those in which the author (Sarah Hilary) moves backwards & forwards letting the story unfold a little at a time. 
Back to my normal routines tomorrow,
F x

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, I keep forgetting about Waitbloom and their free drinks! We just have a little machine in ours (not a cafe) and I don't think I've ever remembered. Definitely something to remember in the summer when we can walk round with a drink! 

EssexHebridean

That's a good deal on the crackers/cutters isn't it! And Happy New Year Mr & Mrs F! 

I to saw the signs of a lot of rain over the past couple of weeks on my way to work this morning - the usual flood plain alongside the M11 was looking like a giant lake - not good, although at least that is still simply agricultural land rather than having been built on as seems to have happened in so many places.

milann

Good find with the crackers. I got a box for £2.50 for 12 not as good a buy as yours but again plastic free ones.
I contemplated putting the washer on but didn’t have much so it’ll wait for Dh work clothes tomorrow.
Sounds as if you were very quick having bloods done. 👍

Elisheba

Happy New year, @foxgloves.  Those crackers sound like a good idea - I always try to stock up with decent ones in the January sales if I can. I wouldn't pay the full price, but its good to have actual useful gifts in them.

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
Thanks for your continued good wishes for the New Year, which are of course very much returned. 
Well, I have pretty much got on with my 'start to get back to normal' day as planned, but Mr F has had a disrupted day due to the floods. He got caught in awful traffic between our village & exit from town because it was backed up both from an earlier rta & loads of lorries having come our way due to the A1 being flooded further south of us. When he did get to work, the environment agency verdict on the environs of his riverside workplace was still high alert, so he could only enact the procedures he has to oversee, check in with bosses & drive back home. Water levels dropping now, so tomorrow looks better. Haven't been down to see how far the water has come into our village - I intended to, but the status is now that the river is 'steady' so it ought to fall off over these next few drier days. Oh here I go...why I think you are interested in our local flooding, I can't imagine! A few budget-helping positives today, so shall move onto those:
*Baked a wholemeal loaf, having eaten the sorry remnants of sourdough Mr F had left me for my breakfast! It made decent toast though.
*Defrosted the leftover mince pie pastry overnight & made a pastry case for tonight's quiche, as I like to bake those blind first. There was still some left, so I rounded up a leftover Christmas carrot & parsnip, a few green beans from the freezer & some onion & favourite curry paste (Mr Huda Universal, in case anyone was wondering) & made a teeny spicy vegetable pasty for my lunch & a caveman-sized one for Mr F, which I shall freeze for a portable lunch at some point.
*Baked a dozen mincemeat muffins using up a the last small jar of my home made mincemeat. Half frozen for coffee-shop avoiding portable snacks & half left in cake tin to add to packed lunches or eat for dessert. All these leftovers are potential resources, aren't they? 
*Did a few very minor budget updates, but I am utterly determined to 'keep on it' this year.
*Checked for surveys but nothing doing this afternoon. January's PA earnings already on £5-12 though, so can't complain, having cashed out December's on the 31st at over £40.
*Still to do - sort clean laundry, which is my next job. I can see that there are only going to be a very few items requiring ironing, so that will be a nice low amount of energy - both mine & the paid for kind. 
Looking forward to a nice peaceful night on the sofa with my knitting. That bright hippyfied yarn (I posted a pic a few days ago) is knitting up really nicely. The first 50cms (apart from the Irish moss stitch borders) is just plain stocking st so very easy to knit away in leisurely fashion on a night while watching TV. Could also do with a bit of piano practice & a few more chapters of my book.
Be safe getting about in all this flooding,
F x

scandimore

I love a flood report! It likes to flood around here in Cumbria so over winter it's constantly on my mind, glad I'm not the only one. 
Very good use of leftovers there (I need to crack on too, if I can only shake this horrible virus that has me done in). I do find your ideas inspiring.
Hope you will post a pic of the cardigan / poncho (?) when finished.