Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Hi @Makingabobor2 - I don't have loyalty to any particular seed company. I used Mr Fotherwotsit this time, but I start with my list & an idea of the varieties I want & just use whichever supplier has everything in stock at the time. I don't want to pay more than one lot of postage.
I still require a couple of packs of flower seed but intend to pick those up from village garden centre when we call in for shallot sets.
F x

kayannie

foxgloves said:

Hi @Makingabobor2 - I don't have loyalty to any particular seed company. I used Mr Fotherwotsit this time, but I start with my list & an idea of the varieties I want & just use whichever supplier has everything in stock at the time. I don't want to pay more than one lot of postage.
I still require a couple of packs of flower seed but intend to pick those up from village garden centre when we call in for shallot sets.
F x

I'm annoyed with myself because I usually order my seeds from K!NGS seeds in November. This time, I didn't get round to ordering until last week (blaming Mr KA who couldn't make up his mind about a few new varieties that he was thinking of trying). I've still got last year's order form & had forgotten I'd had a 25 per cent black Friday discount. All was not lost as I do I did find a discount code, but not as good! KA

C_J

Makingabobor2 said:

@foxgloves where do you order your seeds from? Thinking of ordering some this year to save trudging round the garden centres and not being able to get what I want

Just jumping in from lurkerdom to say I rate Premier Seeds Direct very highly. Seeds come in simple little bags so you don't get pictures and growing instructions (you can google them if you are unfamiliar), but they are fantastic value.

milann

I was looking at seeds at the RHS garden centre at weekend. I didn’t buy any as I’m very undecided if and what to plant this year as I haven’t had much success the last couple of years. We’re away a lot more than we used to be so I can’t care for them as I used to. I’ve also had problems with the compost as I grow my veg in tubs. I’ll see how I feel in a couple of weeks.

Humdinger1

Catching up in the middle of the night again! Not wanting to lower the gloriously positive tone on your diary @foxgloves but am fretting about DD's appointment later.  What if she can't resume her course? Will her student accommodation for next year still be in place? I know it always looks darkest just before the dawn and am holding onto that.  Love Humdinger xx 

foxgloves

Now, @Humdinger1....if there's one thing I know about, it's pinging awake in the middle of the night, then lying there for hours fretting about whatever the worry is at the time. You're right that everything seems a lot worse then. I find that when the alarm goes off, the severity of the fretting starts to resume a more normal level as soon as my feet hit the floor.
Like all worries, there is a lot of 'what iffery' here, worrying about things which might not come to pass......& If they do, you will both deal with them. Your daughter wouldn't be rhe first to quit a uni course & she definitely won't be the last. I am going to send a useful quotation about worrying. Hang on, I'll just need to fetch my diary as it's written in there......(trots off....).
Right back again.

      "Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength - carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength"
Corrie Ten Boom (1892 - 1983)

At the moment, what you need is information. Appointment first, then your daughter can start enquiring with the relevant sector of the university as to the logistics (both course & accomodation) of deferring for a year. With all this information gathered, that's the time to sit down together to talk about how it will work.
Fingers crossed for the appointment,
F x

Humdinger1

Thanks @foxgloves; as ever, you are right! I was interested to see that you max out the due dates on credit cards.  I do this and was worried that this is 'cheating ' and getting into bad habits again but as everything is cleared by the due date I don't think it is.  Love Humdinger xx 

foxgloves

@Humdinger1 - No,it's definitely not cheating! If we are paying off credit card bills in full before the due date, then we are not 'loaning ourselves money', incurring interest charges or reverting back to naughty past behaviour patterns. The way I look at it is simply that there are occasions when I would rather budget a larger planned item from the following month's income, so a bit of credit card due date flexibility is a good way to achieve this. 
F

foxgloves

Hello Icicles,
Very cold here.....ground still frozen, but only a few half-hearted snowflakes first thing this morning, & actually a little bit of sunshine.  Quite a productive day - small money saving wins as follows:
*Laundry had completely dried on heated airer overnight & better still, only 3 garments required ironing.
*Did some Savings Pots transfers & paid a few transactions off my credit card. 
*Ordered a couple of sock yarn in nice colourways for knitting this year's present bag socks for mine & Mr F's B-in-L. Have noticed that sock yarn seems to be increasing in price like everything else, so thought it would be sensible to order it now, then when I need a little project at anytime this year, I can knock 2 presents on the head.
*Did a few surveys. January's PA earnings up to £23. Quite a few surveys on there today, but I haven't got time to do all that are available as am more often than not doing tasks which don't involve having my laptop on or hovering over my phone.
*Shopped a few rubbish bags from home. We don't have a kitchen bin as I hate cleaning them, but do need a modest amount of bags for gathering stuff up for the wheelie bin. I won't buy plastic bags though, not even degradable ones, unless I absolutely have to do so.
*Still hadn't heard from supermarket about our very sub-standard grocery order last week, so Mr F decided to phone them on his lunch hour. Customer services person was v apologetic & said there were so many things wrong with the order that were not up to their standards that she didn't need to see additional photos, she was happy to refund all the problem items & has also given us a £10 voucher as a goodwill gesture. Mr F said that our previous deliveries from them have always been really good, & she said that actually this time, our order had come from a different store - one in a county south of us, which we all found really odd, as this supermarket has 3 superstores branches nearer to us, our usual one being MUCH nearer. She is going to inform the manager of the store which delivered our order because she said they need to know that there were so many things wrong with it. Anyway, it's sorted now & from the point of view of Foxgloves Manor, I now have correct grocery budget figures from which to work for tomorrow's Mid-Month Budget Check-In. If anyone is wondering about the fine detail (I know what we're like on here, lol!), the problem items were:
Eggs - Smashed (Mr F noticed this before the driver left & was refunded straight away, but then we unpacked the rest of the order & found the other issues...)
Sparkling mineral water (bottle was half full & had leaked over other items)
Bag of pasta twists.....picked it up & it was full of water, half the twists were wet & soft, obviously from the leak, but the bag must have had a hole in it, as the contents were dripping water.
Mushrooms - On their last day, damp from the water & although we did try to use them, rather than waste them, by tweaking our meal plan, we found that they were already off & inedible.
Yoghurt (big pot) - On its next to last day. 
Carrots - Contained a very obviously visible mouldy one.
5kg bag of sugar - Sugar had been spilling out freely at the top, which was open & the bag was damp at the bottom because of the burst water bottle. 
There were also 3 very basic items missing as were not in stock. Well, that is fairly normal with online orders so we weren't complaining about those, just the things which were obviously not up to scratch. We hate food waste & have salvaged what we can. I have dried out the sugar bag & I think most of it will be useable for my marmalade. I will be able to use some of the carrots in tonight's veggie curry & Mr F did manage to save 3 of the 6 broken eggs by getting them into a cup for making some scrambled eggs the next morning. Anyway, all sorted now.
*Made a batch of garlic flat breads this afternoon. 
*Have planned a round-up of various veg to make a veggie curry later, using one of the Hairy Biker curry sauces I batch-cooked back when we had our tomato glut.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & porridge pot.
Looking forward to some reading & TV later. I think that is everything I have to tell you today. Oh, I will just mention that I did successfully manage to mend my handbag yesterday. The lining had badly ripped in 2 places & I kept losing things down the holes. I managed to pin them back in place & do a double row of stitches. The rest of the bag is fine, so it seemed a shame to replace it because of that, so I'll see how long my repair lasts, anyway.
Stay cosy,
F x

Cheery_Daff

Gosh, what a litany of woe in your shopping! No wonder they gave you a refund and an extra gesture of goodwill!