Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

EssexHebridean

Well I am VERY glad it wasn't just me that was out pursuing wheelie bins last night - Mr F has my sympathy! I ended up opting to just leave the recycling bin (empty, thankfully) lying down, and wedged the lid against something in the hope it would stay closed...the residual waste bin meanwhile has all the ash from the fire in among other things (we put some in the compost, but obviously that only takes a bit) so I very much couldn't lie THAT down - or risk it falling over really. I managed to wedge it against the steps to the front door in the end! 

Well done on your DIY'ing and your shop-from-homing - it those little things that make the biggest difference over a year, at the end of the day isn't it.

Booking a 2025 holiday is exciting - where will you be off to?

marionmgcars

Oh I love to hear about the charity shop finds - sock yarn !!!  That’s a fabulous find ,  well done x

Sun_Addict

We had flying patio chairs but can’t see any damage thankfully, although I didn’t check the whole garden. Yes I’m very familiar with the minutes/actions/agendas - that’s my (public sector) day job 😆 Is the 2025 cottage for a big birthday 😉 If so you and Mr SA are big birthday twins 🤣

foxgloves

@Sun_Addict - No, actually it's THIS year's more-expensive-than-usual holiday cottage that has been booked to celebrate my big birthday, & it IS a big one this time. HUGE!!
F

Sun_Addict

foxgloves said:

@Sun_Addict - No, actually it's THIS year's more-expensive-than-usual holiday cottage that has been booked to celebrate my big birthday, & it IS a big one this time. HUGE!!
F

So you’re not twins with Mr SA. I bet that’s a relief 😆

milann

Some good bargains from the cs 👍
Im pleased to say e got away very lightly with the windy weather. It was windy but nowhere near as bad as I expected. It must be incredibly scary to be caught up in a bad storm 😳

Suffolk_lass

Our glass in the pigshed window is now laying in the vegetation under it. So there is a side benefit from not finishing the weeding ( )in that bed as it is intact, having had its fall cushioned. I doubt it can be refitted though, as the frame has a twisted appearance where it is, still vaguely attached to the frame it was blown from.

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers & thanks for all your comments. Quite a busy productive day today - not gardening weather, so I have earmarked tomorrow for that, & have stayed indoors today cracking through a few jobs. The budget-helping stuff today as follows:
*Made this year's marmalade. Decided not to make as much as usual (I usually sell a few jars) & had calculated about 7 jars, but I ended up with 10, so that was a nice surprise. Added some pretty paper lid-toppers which were given to me by a friend. At least one of these jars will be gifted. Oh, & the sugar was free because the bag arrived in a bad way in our recent v poor online grocery delivery.
*Made a porridge pot & sarnies for tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Paid a few transactions off my credit card - Big Budget Day looming on the horizon, so I want everything straight.
*Wrote up the notes from our annual Money Summit on Sunday. We reviewed what we were doing & pretty much decided to continue. I agreed that I need to show credits on the Personal Spends spreadsheets (Mf F takes his Personal Spends very seriously!) & we decided that keeping the same maximum holdings for each Savings Pot as we did last year would continue to be fine. This gave us a chance to discuss what expenses could crop up this year in terms of car maintenance, significant clothing needs ( i.e - possibly 2 pairs of DMs plus a pair of new hiking boots), the next big house job hoving into view (almost certainly this will be our 20-year old flat roof) & whether to start increasing payments into our Tech Replacement Pot with a possible view to buying a couple of more ethical mobile phones when necessary & just paying for a monthly SIM-only contract. No decisions taken & our phones are working fine, but Mr F has as an 'Action' from the discussion to investigate the likely cost of this so as to have the funds ready in the relevant pot. Our general savings were also discussed & everything there is ticking over.....we agreed we will aim at very gradually adding to the ISA just for the satisfaction of getting it up to a nice round figure. At the moment it is static, as have been paying into other savings.
*Wrote out a draft new Holiday Pot payment schedule. I have been doing this since we booked a more expensive holiday cottage than usual for my massive birthday & I've found it so useful. I have again started with how much we have in the pot now, & go through month-by-month adding the payment made into the pot on every Big Budget Day & also when holiday balances & cattery fees need to be paid. I can't actually add in the new figures yet, as I need more information about the mini-break we would like to book for this September - not at all expensive , we want to book one of the rooms in a barn at our favourite campsite, ensuite - I think £195 for the room for 3 nights. It's a nice site, so as we have no canvas since my spectacular pre-pandemic fall through the tent (!) causing its instant demise, we'd like to see if staying on site but in the rooms has the same sort of vibe. Since the LBM, I can say that not a single holiday has been taken which we have not saved for in advance. Sooooo much nicer to be enjoying the sea or whatever, knowing that it has all been paid for.
*Examined car insurance renewal docs which landed in my inbox this morning - I received an advance email warning me that car insurance prices have increased & an explanation of why this is. I quite like our current insurer because on the rare occasion I've needed to phone them, the advisors have been very helpful. Policy has gone up by £75 (£6.25 per month). We could save a little by paying annually, but it suits us to pay monthly, so am happy to continue with that atm. Have decided we will renew - it isn't as much as I feared, having heard some horror stories - but I am likely to look at a few other providers next year should there be an even bigger rise. I can quite see that there are more claims.....storm damage, flood damage, accidents caused by both of these, pot hole damage, & of course more expensive repair bills. Isn't this time of year annoying, when every other day another new increase appears in our inboxes or on the doormat? Lots more spreadsheet increases still to come, I'm sure, including a couple of big bills - water & council tax.
*Quick triage of the fridge & veg basket for items in need of using - half a leek will be added to tonight's pork hash, along with half a red onion which was lurking about doing nothing much & a just-about-to-get-squishy tomato sliced & added to my lunchtime cheese on toast.
*Did a few surveys
And that's my lot for today. Mr F is on a training course & I am hoping it won't have been one of those where you stand in a circle chucking an inflatable beachball at each other while shouting out different leadership qualities, otherwise he will be chuffing about it for at least an hour when he gets home!
F x

milann

The finances are all sounding good as usual. Love the way you have financial meetings. We do talk about finances but in a much less organised way .

Makingabobor2

When we have financial meetings, its normally me talking and DH nodding in agreement as he really doesn't care, as long as he knows it all runs smoothly and he has money in his personal spends and the car/bike maintenance account. I mentioned the YBS saving account the other day and he looked at me as if I was talking a foreign language and said he didn't even know I had opened an account with them...despite me having told him a year ago!