Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

ziggy2407

Have added "Janice Hallett" to my list but at the moment I'm trying to clear books from the groaning shelves in the attic (thats what happens when you 3 sisters in law passing you books).  Have just finished "The Girl in The Picture" by Kerry Barrett, it's a book I dont think I'd have picked up in but  really enjoyed it - historical fiction with crime, intrigue and mystery.  One more book from my shelves and I have promised myself Val McDermid's 1979 from the library.  

foxgloves

Thanks for the book suggestion, @ziggy2407, as that is a new author to me. I like Val McDermid too & borrow one from the library now & again.
F x

Moorviews

I have had handbags go the way of your jacket. It’s as if once the coating starts to fail then it fails all over and there is no possibility of patching up. One handbag started disintegrating when I was on a weekend away; everywhere I went I left a shower of plastic flakes in my wake! 

Your annoying jobs list has inspired me to get on with a few bits of my own. It’s very easy to get distracted by the bigger things. 

foxgloves

@Moorviews - Yes, that is exactly what happened to my jacket. I am usually prepared to have a go at a 'make-do & mend', especially if it is something I love, but I knew I was beaten on this occasion when the flakes decided to step up a gear & actually, I was still picking a few up this morning. I have seen another similar jacket which I like & as I am hoping for a city centre trip this weekend, I will try it on & see what I think about buying it. It was very useful as much lighter than a coat, but warmer than a denim jacket & looked nice with a knitted shawl on cooler days or with a floaty hippyfied scarf on warmer ones. Actually, even during the Spendy Years, if I had a garment I loved, I would always wear it until it absolutely dropped, & I am still the same now. My problem with clothes buying back in the bad old days was my very regular habit of buying 'bargains' from sale rails, which really were only 'OK', & sometimes not even that - for instance the dress I mentioned in a Debtisode in my first diary which I kept cutting bits off in the vain hope of achieving something I actually wanted to wear! But if I find the perfect item, I will wear it & mend it until it can go on no longer.
F x

foxgloves

Hello Thursday Lovelies,
I hope everyone has had a decent money saving day.....or at least not a money-leaking day.....you know the ones...they start off full of hope then end up with plumbers, tyres, vets, etc. I'm hoping no-one among our number has had one of those.
Well, today has seen a large sum of money depart Foxgloves Manor's coffers for a well-known purveyor of eye-tests & specs, but this has so far been a Good Thing....& hopefully when our specs arrive in store for collection, a Really Good Thing. My overthinking was obviously getting me in a tizz about this morning's eye-test as I awoke at 2.40, having had a peculiar dream about not being able to see the rising tide because I hadn't been for an eye-test for so long & nearly getting cut off! I did get back to sleep but not before I had lain awake another hour & a half mulling over all the problems I was sure they were going to find with my eyes & it would all be my own silly fault for not having had an eye-test for 6 years. In actual fact, it was all fine  - no problems, just a prescription update which I expected as am hovering on the brink of a pretty big birthday & knew my specs haven't been up t'job for a while. So I will start with this as the first of today's budget positives:
*We both needed new varifocals & took advantage of the 2 for 1 offer. I chose a pair of everyday specs plus a lighter weight pinky-mauve pair I thought would be nice for summer. Mr F chose an everyday pair plus some prescription sunglasses as he does a lot of driving. So 4 pairs of varifocal glasses & 2 eye-tests for a total of £653-00. I thought this was a good price because my last pair of varifocals at my previous indie optician cost £520 for a single pair & with both of us requiring a new pair, much as I liked my previous opticians, I couldn't face the thought of a 1K+ bill. Hopefully when we pick them up in a couple of weeks, they will be a big improvement. I had based the cost on my previous bill, so I did have £1100 saved in the Dentist/Optician Pot to cover this, but I am relieved to have some left over in the pot, as my teeth can be absolute b*ggers for breaking & I need to have some put by for dentist emergencies. 
*Cut down cost of cafe visit by making use of £1 scones with purchase of hot drink. That saved out Personal Spends £1.40 each.
*Did our grocery shopping, making use of 2 loyalty vouchers, including £3 off a box of cat meat....NOT the favoured Persian Queen variety, but tough banana! We will be a little higher on Spend than I'd like because it is the 1st shop of the new March budget cycle & involves an eco-refill shop visit to top up various products for the month ahead, also a sack of potatoes to buy from the village farm shop tomorrow. 3 yellow-stickered items which were on our list....nearly all the eggs yellow-stickered again, despite plenty of BB date left. Availed ourselves of free coffees on the way out.
*Remembered to pick up my click & collect order, which of course saved us paying a delivery charge. Very boring item - coffee machine filter cartridges - but Mr F assures me that having bought these, we won't need any more this year.
*Postie brought me £15 loyalty vouchers from my CC. I have stashed those as they are useful for presents or large items of festive poultry.
*Salvage - 1 large padded envelope added to wrappings stash.
*Did a Taste Nation survey, but nothing else, so cashed out of PA at a February earnings total of £56-42. Mr F cashed out at a very respectable £33-23  - this will be added to our Personal Spends, as usual (Other survey site earnings go into the household budget).
*Did 3 tasks from the Annoying Jobs List. Doing one of them (using a free item) actually liberated a container which was then perfect for tackling another job, so none of these involved any ££ outlay, as both things shopped from home. 
That is me done for the day now. Mr F says he's cooking so I am going to finish my gardening magazine & carry on with my book which is making me laugh......honestly if anyone ever tries to recruit me into an am-dram production of 'Jack in the Beanstalk', I think I will run a mile! (well.......not run, obviously, let's not get silly!)
Take care of yourselves, m'dears. 
Love F x

Blackcats

That's a good result at the opticians.  I hate going to the optician although I'm ok with the dentist. 

I hadn't realised there was another Janice Hallett book so I will put that on my wish list.  I really enjoyed The Appeal which I think you recommended.  I listened to it on audible and thought it was very well read.  

Did you say it was ok to start planting sweet pea seeds?  Inspired by you I saved some seeds from my first ever successful crop of sweet peas last year.  I'd be so excited if the saved seeds grow this year.

Onebrokelady

Ahhhh RIP faithful jacket. I also wear my clothes to death especially at the moment as I have put weight on so I can't wear a lot of my clothes until I lose it again 

foxgloves

@Blackcats - Yes, sweet-peas can be sown in October if you have an unheated ghouse or coldframe for overwintering them or they are sown now.
F x

foxgloves

Hello Friday Frugalistas,
A useful day so far. Enjoying Mr F's time off, as is he. We had planned to pop to the village farm shop this morning for breakfast & Mr F announced he was going to vacuum upstairs & clean the bathroom before we set off. Well I wasn't going to put up any sort of fight where that was concerned, so my usual Friday house cleaning was done very quickly today. Today's small positives for the budget:
*Cleaned whole house between us using minimal products & washable cloths.
*Treated ourselves to breakfast out, but paid from Personal Spends so budget-neutral.
*Bought a new birdseed feeder to replace an old broken one. Chose the £14-99 one (looks nice & sturdy) instead of the £24-99 eco-material built one which we found we were talking ourselves into. 
*Tracked down noxious whiff to utility room & my first thought was that it was going to be the first sign of an underlying problem requiring a plumber, as we don't really get this kind of thing since we had the smelly cupboard & horrid cloakroom knocked out & converted during the building work. The source of the nasty niff turned out to be all the big towels Mr F had used to soak up the water when defrosting the freezers before shoving them in the washing machine. Washed them. Problem solved! I think when one has lived in an older house for a while, one expects everything to turn into an expensive job.
*Did a couple of surveys. Had an invite from PA to complete a follow-up survey which boosted March's earnings to £10-06, as I also earned a bonus for some or other survey I did on economics.
*Did 2 Annoying Jobs from the list. One took me about 20 mins, some eco-multi-surface cleaner in a bowl & a scrubby cloth & was so successful I have crossed the item off my list of household things we will most likely need to replace this year. The other task took less than 5 mins & a small length of strong crochet cotton! Neither required any ££ outlay.
*Did cat litter price comparison. This will be very dull for anyone not owned by a cat, but I found it useful & intend to act on it. Soot & Ash don't routinely have a litter tray, but I do set one up if the weather is just awful wall-to-wall rain as Soot (who was an entirely indoor cat for the first 8 years of his life until he came to live with us) will not willingly venture out in anything splashier than drizzle.....& very definitely not in snow. Ash was pretty much feral so will go out in absolutely anything. We also always have a bag of litter in stock in case either of them are poorly or needed to be kept in for some reason. Have tried lots of different brands/types of litter & our favourite (& the cats get on well with it too) is the wood pellet kind, as we don't seem to notice any odour & it is very easy to sweep up if either of them have been extra vigorous in their ablutions. Our little village garden centre has a small pet section & I noticed this morning that they are selling 30L sacks of wood chip cat litter for £14-99. That seemed a good price to me so I have done some comparisons.
Waitbl00m - 10L for £5-75     (57.5p per litre)
Sainsbug's - 10L for £5.70     (57p per litre)
Morrison's (branded only) 10L for £5.50     (55p per litre)
A*di - Don't seem to stock the wood pellet variety
(I have only checked the supermarkets which we would use &/or are local to us)
Meanwhile the big 30L sack on sale at our village garden centre works out at 49.9p per litre.
It's possible that I could find it cheaper in bulk online, but with the rate at which local shops are disappearing (our favourite little indie bakery is the latest to close), I would rather support a business with an actual shop/community presence. So we intend to swap to these bigger sacks & will see how we get on. I can easily keep an empty 10L bag & fill it in the shed to bring up to the house. I am aware that for non-cat owners, my investigations into wood pellet litter pricing has been about as interesting as watching paint dry. Cat owners, however, will be well aware how much cat stuff - not just litter, but meat, had risen in price. Ever the cynic where big multi-national corporations are concerned, I feel sure that some of the big cat food brands have slipped a few extra price rises in while obscured by the pandemic & high inflation.
Right, well that is QUITE enough woffling for one day. It's not my cooking night & Mr F has got some oddments of BBQ-type meats out of the freezer to use up as he says he's sure they will make a nice meal alongside some home made jacket wedges & coleslaw. I am going to sit & finish my book as another of my library reservations arrived the other day & I am looking forward to starting it.
Take care, stay cosy,
F x

badmemory

No cat but always find people's price comparisons interesting.  I would have expected your garden centre to be the most expensive.  Nice to see they are not.  A friend of mine had a Co-op open up nearby & they aren't the cheapest but it caused the local mini supermarket to close.  They aren't even 40 yards apart so it was bound to happen really.  He used to chat to the owner but now it is walk in pay & walk out.