Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Onebrokelady

It’s been raining all day here, I am champing at the bit to get out into my garden but it’s not happening any time soon 

Baileys_Babe

Very grey here today, but not wet or windy which is at least something.

Suffolk_lass

We are almost due SE of you @foxgloves and it was lovely and warm and sunny all morning yesterday, and through until about 3pm when it forgot it was spring and went grey again. It is officially piddling this morning, and the perceived temperature (although warmer than last year, this time) is about 5 degrees colder than the actual temperature.

I am pottering indoors instead of planting my seeds in pots and long root trainers

2Scratters

We got our 6 monthly water bill (United Utilities) the other day £105.35. Quite excited still about our 61 litres of used metred water. It still hasn't got under the £100 mark. It keeps evading us, just need to focus a little harder in our practise.  Any money we don't need to give to shareholder greedy businesses suits me. We used 5 litres less than the last bill and it has gone up just over £2. 
We do have 2 water butts at 250 and 750 litre. It is used for the loo, yes I carry up buckets to leave at the backdoor even through winter this has been done - clearly an odd time we have got a bit slack. Overall though quite happy with this. I was pleasantly surprised to read in an email from UU that they even mentioned MSE in there and placed a link in too  they have gone up a little in my opinion for now. 
Thinking of Utility companies I remember them giving a low rate quantity of supply at a lower cost rate then it raised up a bit after that. It could have a few more steps of costings on domestic supply. That would help those who use less and would also (hopefully) help others pay attention (where appropriate) and keep an eye on their use. I wonder why it stopped? more profit probably...

Have a good day Peeps

2 Scratters xx

foxgloves

@2Scratters - We are not on a water meter. I have considered it a few times, but we have a wildlife pond which needs topping up in the summer if we go long spells without rain, also a veggie garden, greenhouse, etc, which we water wisely, but of course there are times of year when our water use would be quite heavier on this than a household which doesn't grow stuff. We have 2 water butts - one collects from the greenhouse gutters & the other from our large shed. Mr F is planning to fit an extension butt next to that one so we can collect more, as it is mostly full. I agree about these corporations. I think water privatisation was a terrible idea. At least with the other privatisations of public-owned assets, one could pretend that competition would help keep prices down (even though it hasn't) but this isn't the case at all with water, which is just a private monopoly. It infuriates me reading about all the sustainability work these big companies need to do (esp stopping all the wastage via leaks) being funded by us the customer in higher bills over the next 10 years or so. Of course shareholder profits aren't touched. I'd like to see water renationalised.

Well m'dears, not a lot to report today. We got up nice & early ready for our joint seesion digging out nasty deep-rooted weeds, Mr F raring to go, & found that the 'light rain' mentioned in the forecast was in fact a p*ss-down. Oh. Checked the prognosis for the day & it looks pretty much set in. It certainly hasn't stopped raining yet, so we have postponed to next weekend & I will continue weeding & clearing all the sections of that bed that I can reach & manage in the meantime. At least there look to be some dry days in the coming week, but Mr F is at work then, so it does have to be a job postponed.
Nothing really planned today on the money saving front, but will keep the faith:
*Did a YouGov survey. I now need under £3 to be able to cash out my £50. No other surveys, despite the worst offender for inviting me to non-existent surveys emailing me to tell me there was one available. 
*Will chat through our diaries for the week ahead later over a coffee as it helps with planning.
*Tonight's meal will be simplicity itself as Mr F made sufficient of his lovely chilli to feed us for 2 nights, so just a jacket potato or rice to cook to accompany it. Yesterday's cheese & sorrel scones which I baked as a sorrel-based experiment will do us for lunch along with some fruit & use-up crisps.
*Will make tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
But apart from these very small things, I intend to have a day of leisure. I'd like to finish my book, will knit more cardi & we will doubtless finish the last 2 episodes of a Polish crime drama we've been watching. Hair already washed so at least will not go into a new week looking too witchy.
Hope those diary readers who celebrate Mothering Sunday are having a lovely day. We don't do anything as my Mum is no longer with us & we don't have children.....& other more complicated reasons involving long term estrangements, so we usually have a normal day at home. We tend to avoid going out as everywhere is rammed, so will make sure we do a bit more next weekend, when we will also be able to SEE, as will by then have collected our new specs!
Love to all,
F x

themadvix

It strikes me that you’d probably benefit from a water meter Foxgloves. We have a 440l pond and plenty of gardening and just one water butt and our metered water is £18/month as opposed to £44+ on rated amount. I do prefer a shower but Mr MV has a bath a couple of times a month (as well as showers, obviously!). I think you’d have to use *a lot* of water to outspend the rated quantity. We don’t waste water naturally, but we don’t watch it excessively either (or flush with grey like 2Scratters - which is definitely dedication to the cause!).

CRANKY40

I explained the real meaning of "mothering sunday" to the House Troll today (not that I'm ungrateful for my lovely present). The HT was never christened as I left it for his father to organise due to what/where his father wanted and said parent never did get around to it (he died when the HT was four). My little heathen said that as he hadn't been baptised we could go and worship at the alter of "Costa Packet" and he would pay and so we did. It's rained all day here too but we've had a good and peaceful day. I hope that all reading this have had the same. 

foxgloves

Hello Frugalistas,
I will see if I can get today's post on. Clearly some problems with connectivity today. Very slow or have been unable to load the site at all. Anyway, a few budgetty positives as follows:
*Did this week's laundry. While not actually raining, the air was still hugely damp from yesterday's whole day long pee-down, so had to use heated airer. Feel I've made up for the electricity use by doing 2 out of 3 loads on 30 mins at 30 degrees......& in the words of Meatloaf, "Two out of three ain't bad".
*Did my regular Monday morning budget updates.
*Decided on Thursday for March mid-month budget check-in.
*Ordered a couple of items online which I've been unable to get in the local eco-refill shop & only available in the supermarket if I want unrecyclable plastic containers. Good price, anyway, bought one item in bulk.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Ultra cheapo quick nosebag tonight as we have each chosen a home made soup from the freezer which we will have with cheese on toast. I'm having roasted squash soup & Mr F decided on potato, courgette & cheddar. 
*Make a rice pudding to make this week's expensive yoghurts go further. Am going to make it on the hob to save 1.5 hours of oven time.
*Got a bag of library returns together,
*Checked veggie seedlings. Will soon need to be potting on.
*Selected next week's meals from March's master meal plan.
*Surveys - not a lot going on, then some appeared on PA all at once & I was able to stick £7 onto my March total.
*Fed sourdough jar ready for baking tomorrow.
*Did 1 Annoying Job, but added another one to the list, so it was swings & roundabouts on that really.
*Did a few more rows of cardi over my lunch break.
Hope everyone's got off to a decent start to the week. I am hoping for a couple of dry days tomorrow & Wednesday for some work in the garden. Have decided to take part in the Big Plastic Count. Signed up & printed off the info & the counting form which is divided into categories of plastic. We have managed to cut down a fair bit over the last couple of years or so by swapping out products & using our local refill shop, but there is still way too much of the bloody stuff & more radical action is needed from brands & supermarkets. 
Ah well, time to sign out & get the house cosy for the evening ahead.
F x

PennysIntoPounds

Other than the potential for winning food 'money', I always feel it's worth doing the Sainsers receipt surveys as they have a page where they ask how satisfied you are with various environmental/ethical factors. You can probably guess which boxes I always tick! It's not going to change much but it's a small way for voices to be heard on whether people are delighted with the amount of plastic packaging etc

themadvix

Ooh, any chance of the potato, courgette and cheese soup recipe Foxgloves? That sounds lovely and just the thing to use some courgette up in the summer glut!

Do you take your own containers to the butcher for the meat? Mine have long been trained to accept this (by me!) - it saves lots of manky bags that would otherwise have to go in the landfill bin. We’re away this week, otherwise I’d be counting (very minimal) plastic.