Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

@Elisheba, No stamps don't go out of date, as far as I know, as long as they just say '1st' or '2nd' on them, instead of a specific price, then you can buy them now at the current price & use them throughout the year. You can still.purchase actual Christmas stamps on the Royal Mail website. It's a good idea thinking ahead to stamps for Christmas cards, so thanks for that. I might squeeze in another purchase before the price change. I have ordered some with water wildlife on today. I like writing letters so thought they may as well have nice stamps on them!
F x

Humdinger1

At the risk of boring everyone, may I return to the scamming discussion? We used to get IT scam calls; when I said in a confused manner that we didn't have a computer so could the messages be coming from the ironing board, they would go away...love Humdinger xx 

kayannie

@foxgloves. I bought £60 of 2nd class stamps yesterday. I also stocked up on 1st class ones last October when the price increased from £1.10 to £1.25. They are now going up by another 10p to £1.35 and as they have 1st & 2nd class on them & not the price, they don't go out of date. It's a lot to lash out on all at once, but saves a significant amount in the long run.
KA

foxgloves

GOOD MORNING CAMPERS!!!
Why am I shouting? Well, it's cheery enthusiasm!! It is sunny here (though a chilly wind) & I have got all my chores done, so am about to take myself off to the troublesome overgrown garden bed to do a bit more clearing. I feel as though all of me could do with a damn good stretch, so it feels like the perfect activity.

@Makingabobor2 - I know what you mean. I've said before that walking down the cleaning aisle in supermarkets makes me despair for the human race. However did we let ourselves be conned into believing that so many products are necessary for a clean house? Capitalism in action, I suppose.....& not just chemicals the planet could well do without, but all that plastic!

@milann - I lost a really sturdy bay too, in that very cold winter of 2010. Since then, I have had my bay tree in a big pot so it can be moved into a more sheltered position on our courtyard during the colder months.

@Humdinger1 - Oh I love that! I like the idea of wasting their time as they waste ours. I'd like to say it's good to waste their phone bill too, but I expect their set-up is hot-wired into somebody else's network, bunch of skankers that they are.

@kayannie - That was a good saving stocking up in October. I may purchase another sheet later in the month, I'll see.

Well, just a few budget-helpers today, but it all adds up:
*Free bending & stretching session clearing big flowerbed. It's providing a lot of lush leafy material for the compost bins as well as exercise for me.
*Did a small amount of budget updating, paid an invoice & sorted out a small transfer from the Presents Pot.
*Did a YouGov survey. 
*Bread dough made & proving as noticed we will run out of bread tomorrow.
*Salvage - a decent small padded envelope in the post which has been added to my free wrappings stash.
*This afternoon I plan to do my annual Spring plant hunt, so will be going around the garden with shuttle trays/pots potting up self-seeded freebies. As I finish getting the beds cut back & cleared, I will use these to fill in gaps. I love seeing what I can find & have been looking forward to it. I have replanted quite a lot of sweet rocket at the back of the bed I am currently working on & would like a casual drift of foxgloves in front of it. I wonder how many I will find.
Ah well, lovely chatting to you, but chat won't butter any parsnips, so I'm off to lace my gardening boots on.
Love F x

foxgloves

Well, that was an encouraging garden freebie-hunt. I have temporarily potted up:
5 aquilegias
2 oriental poppies (hope they will be the frilly pink.ones).
1 poppy 'Tangerine gem' (more if needed)
3 primroses (the native wild ones)
3 marguerites or ox-eye daisies
1 buddleja
1 centaurea 
1 oregano (will put in front courtyard which is planted for attracting bees)
Decent clump of forget-me-nots
2 woad
1 golden feverfew
1 purple thing - can't recall name atm
4 foxgloves potted up but also many others which are not too far from the area where I'd like a drift of them, so will just move them directly across when ready - Mr F is going to dig some alkanet clumps out for me first. I can shift the smaller ones, but the big clumps have hefty roots & digging them out makes my hands sore. He's usually up for a bit of caveman work.
Also oodles of Mum's pink primroses. If I were to divide all that need it, I'd probably have about 50 additional plants. Pretty as they are, & they are lovely, I think I will aim for about 20 or so extras & just move some of the others.
Lots of frog spawn in our pond & judging by the amphibious love-in still going on, doubtless more will be appearing.
I think I might make a start on sowing my March seeds tomorrow.
Quite tired now.....thanks to Ash sitting under a neighbour's car & yowling at another cat for an hour from 4.30am. Mr F went down to call him in but while he was doing that, Soot slipped out to go & join in. Thankfully, he is exceedingly motivated by food, so scurried back in with all speed when the biscuits were rattled. Bloody cats! Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em! 
Well, this is a chill wind (I'm chatting to you from a garden bench), so I think I will go in & do a little tidying, then read my book. Managed to get 2 more titles from my list from the library, so I need to be cracking on with them.
Nice sunshine even though it's cold.
F x

milann

Wish you’d have shared the sunshine with us. It just felt very cold and grey today. 

That’s a good haul from the garden. I had a scout around ours earlier and it’s all taking care of itself nicely . I want to prune some hardy fushia bushes next week. I always do it on 17 th March - my mum always pruned on this day so it’s a bit of a tradition 

foxgloves

@milann - I have dates for some garden jobs too. I always aim to sow courgettes & squash on my Dad's birthday & then french beans around mine.
F

Suffolk_lass

Back to the question of stamps going out of date; not yet, but the Christmas stamps that are not bar-coded should be used first. I was just listening to Money-Box Live on the radio and a listener said he bought £400 of stamps in 2003 when 2nd class were 19p and first were 27p. He swapped them for bar-coded and is still using them. More profitable than some investments! Just saying...

foxgloves

I am confused about barcoded stamps as the sheets of stamps currently on sale on the Royal Mail website (including very new designs like the Vikings ones) are not barcoded. The Christmas ones I bought were barcoded as far as I can remember. But non-barcoded ones must be usable, otherwise surely they couldn't be selling so many of them.
The messaging on this seems a bit inconsistent.
F
Oh hang on, edited to say that I have just looked this up & it seems that non-Christmas special issue/picture/commemorative stamps are not barcoded, are fine to use & don't require swapping. I did think this must be the case given that they are still issuing heaps of nice new designs.....none of which have a barcode. Whoever knew that there were Iron Maiden stamps?!
F x

foxgloves

Hello Sunbeams,
Yes, sunshine! What a treat. I love Autumn & like Winter, but I do get rather tired of 'grey'. Haven't been out today, as Mr F had to work this morning so obviously required the wheels. Bike hasn't had its Spring service yet & the tyres are pancakes. Pleasant day so far however with just a few small positive budgetty bits:
*Another good free bending & stretching session clearing that big bad bed......basically, imagine a weed & it will be there, including the pernicious baddies (bindweed, hawkweed, bramble & a lot more willowherb than usual). Quite enjoyable clearing another c. 2m x 1m area & thinking about which of yesterday's plant freebies I might plant there.
*Sowed 9 lots of March seeds - I did all the ones which start off in seed trays today, & will sow the salad/veggie troughs later when Mr F has liberated some of our home made garden compost. So today's sowings were coriander, basil, 2 types of lettuce, nemophila 5-spot, larkspur, evening primrose, zinnia & hollyhocks. The lettuce & herbs were leftover seeds from last year, some were free on my gardening mag, the hollyhocks were saved seed from my friend, so I actually only bought the larkspur, which I grow every year because they are one of my cottage garden favourites & the nemophila. Mostly sown in recycled plastic food trays & cloched with similar transparent ones. 
*Potted up 3 young coriander plants & brought them inside to the kitchen windowsill. I thought my autumn sowing had failed, as it was an experiment, really, to see how it would fare in my unheated greenhouse, so I was surprised to find today that there were 3 plants, admittedly they were not dancing fandangos of joy, but they should rally now they are indoors.
*Cut a little bunch of sorrel as it is looking very lush at the moment,
*Baked a few cheese & sorrel scones as an experiment. Was thinking that watercress scones are 'a thing', so why not sorrel? It added a subtle fresh backnote. I think I will put more in next time now that I know that they are nice. One of those, buttered, & an apple sorted my lunch, anyway.
I have a few financial updates to do, mainly funds transfers from the Savings Pots for things like the vet bill, etc, but I always do a round-up of budget updates on Monday mornings anyway, so am going to leave it all until then. Leisure for me for the rest of the day. Mr F has been wanting to make one of his lovely chillies for ages, so he is doing that tonight, with home made jacket wedges. I've played the piano & intend to read the Guardian (Mr F laughs at me because there's a little word puzzle in there & as I always think words are my thing, I just can't cope with scoring anything lower than 'excellent'. He says he can always tell when I am struggling with it as I start blaming the letters!) & also carry on with my current book, which is unfolding at a well-crafted pace, convincing me that there are still secrets which I don't yet know. Planning on watching some Polish crime tonight, treating myself to a seville gin & tonic & possibly a bit of knitting. I can't knit lace if I have been on the pop, but my cardi is very straightforward.
No surveys today. Only need £3.50 for my £50 YouGov cash-out & am already contemplating which Pot might be the lucky beneficiary of that. Not going out tomorrow. Everywhere will be rammed for Mothering Sunday, so I am going to take up Mr F's kind offer of helping me dig out weeds which require cavemen strength. He says even if it rains, he will get these b*ggers out for me, which I appreciate as it will be his only day off this week.
OK, enough yakking. Enjoy the sunshine,
F x