Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Blackcats

Glad to read about the positives after such a rotten day.
I did my o levels in 1980 too - quite a good year for music I think but not so sure about the fashions and the hair.  There are a few of us on here who were caught by the irresponsible spending star that cast its spell over the 1964 babies.

Onebrokelady

Sorry to hear about your car but I am glad to hear Mr Foxgloves was ok . Days like those are definitely sent to try us

Baileys_Babe

PennysIntoPounds said:

What a palaver! Glad Ash is okay. Do you think his dentistry stuff maybe disagreed with him?
I'm sure you've already thought of it but in case not, the mse phone guide might be handy 
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/phone-finder/

Thanks @PennysIntoPounds for highlighting the mse phone guide, it somehow passed me by, but looks like we will find it useful.

PennysIntoPounds

Aw I hope so @Baileys_Babe

Crazycatlady2

Glad Mr F is ok and hope car sorted as stress free as possible 🙂

Makingabobor2

The year I did my O Levels...1974, my DH was just starting school...lol.  Yes. he's my toy boy by 12 years...lol

badmemory

Well showing my age I did mine in 1962 & a couple of repeats with some AOs in 1963 & A levels in the evening in 1964 whilst working & they got me a pay rise.  Some things you remember!  Even my first marriage got me a pay rise as they didn't want me to leave.  Unfortunately I did after my second marriage, big mistake, well apart from getting DS.  Sometimes life can be a little more interesting than you really want it to be.

Humdinger1

Curse coming to mind 'May you live in interesting times' @badmemory! Just popping in @foxgloves to say - as ever- how much I'm loving your diary.  Not commenting much at the moment as work deadlines plus running for City Council (spoiler alert: not on the T*ry ticket) love Humdinger xx 

foxgloves

Hello Sunday Savers,
Thanks for all your comments, which I have enjoyed reading, as always.
Not a lot to report, really. Our car is at the garage on the other side of a neighbouring county & we have a free hire car for getting about in. Mr F hates it. I've told him he should be grateful that we've got one. We are not covered on our insurance for a replacement car as it's an extra we have never opted to pay for. We have got it because of the other driver being 100% at fault & it can thus be charged to his insurers. However, he IS happy with his new bargainaceous phone, which arrived yesterday on 'click & collect'. I have told him that it has wiped out the Tech Replacement Pot as we didn't expect to be replacing any techy stuff this year so agreed on a low maximum holding. At least we HAVE a pot though - it would have been straight out with the credit card in the pre-budgeting years.
Any money saving efforts today? Not a lot really, the main one has been deciding not to go on a little trippette to our favourite big garden centre, so no cheese scones & cappucinos to charge to our Personal Spends or any other little temptations. We had put this morning aside for a gardening session, & it was. Mr F cleared & prepped one of our big raised beds ready to plant shallots. He used some of the free box of fertiliser pellets from our friend with the allotment, so it was good not to have to buy those. Then he mowed the lawn. He had warned me that it was highly likely that our old mower wouldn't fire up & we would probably need a new one this Spring, but it actually did roar into life first go & made a decent job of the lawn, so fingers crossed it can postpone carking it for a bit longer!
My planned task this morning was to work on some planting, filling in gaps with the free self-sown plants I rescued during my treasure hunt & weeding as I went. I didn't get as far as I hoped. When our neighbour replaced a long length of our shared old hedge last May with fencing, it meant my 2 big flower borders on that side became bigger as the fence was so much narrower than the hedging. With all that hungry privet dug out, the earth there has been able to access a LOT more rainwater & light, so the troublesome weeds under the hedge which we'd always been able to keep on top of, just went 'Yaaayyyyyyyy' as they took off on a marathon sprint. Once I started digging holes for new plants today, I could see that I would have to go properly at all these areas first with my border fork as there were so many roots from bramble, hawkweed & bindweed slithering along ready to burst through & get EVEN STRONGER photosynthesising all over the place, so out they had to come. Ah well, it will save a worse job later - though I will need to do zero-tolerance on these 2 big beds all year truly to get on top of it - & I did manage to plant some pleasing drifts of foxgloves. Once my bum muscles started complaining about all the bending, I moved to Job 2, which was checking & watering all my greenhouse seedlings. I would have liked to move the tomato babies down to the sunny greenhouse today, but even under bottle cloches & bubble wrap at night, I am not risking it quite yet, as I think there may be some colder temperatures coming. Am conscious that these little chaps are our future food!
Other stuff today - Baked the sourdough I mixed up last night, divvied up leftover Indian spiced chicken which Mr F roasted yesterday - enough for cold chicken, salad & jacket wedges tonight, spicy rice tomorrow tomorrow, 2 microwaveable work lunches & a sandwich. Can't say fairer than that from a single chicken, I don't think.
Two baths from one fill of hot water......but I made sure I got in first, lol, as I reckon he was way grubbier than me from that raised bed! Oh, & I did a YouGov survey - only require 80 points now until I can cash out that juicy £50 for a savings pot.
Oh dear, for someone who began with 'Not a lot to report', I haven't half yakked on again, haven't I?
It's reading time now - I have a book from the library on eco-gardening, so am sure I will enjoy looking at that.
Love to all,
F x 

badmemory

I know just what you mean about hedge removal.  My neighbour had their's removed & I went from having an under 5ft conifer to having an over 10 foot one in less than a year.  It was only supposed to grow to 5 foot.  It was still growing so unfortunately had to go, it was just too close to the house.