Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Sun_Addict

Welcome home, glad you had a fabulous holiday 🙂

PennysIntoPounds

'Old gal' indeed, 60 is the new 40!

Glad you had a splendid time and that most of the plants are doing well. Nice of you to contribute to the wellbeing of the sparrow population too 😁

Leftover holiday expenses money is seriously impressive, looking forward to your budget catch up and seeing where you reallocate it  

ladyholly

Welcome home. Being old is always at least 10 years older that the calendar says you are. My dd was complaining that she would be married to a 50 year next year. I remeinded her she is only 2 years younger than him. That went down like a ton of bricks.

EssexHebridean

Ah so glad you had a fab time - and that the cottage would work for you again at an off-peak time too. When you find somewhere you like staying, in a location you love, that’s a real bonus - we love getting to our holiday cottage and immediately feeling at home, while also excitedly looking to see what has changed since our last visit! 

Makingabobor2

So glad you had a good time. There's a lot to be said for being 60.....( I should know, I'll be 67 next month)...lol.  You can get free prescriptions now, free eye test, cheap cinema tickets, cheap fish & chips on certain days....the list is endless. 

My cucumbers on the dining room windowsill look like they're rotting as well. Not sure if its too much water/not enough/too cold or what. Told DH I want a greenhouse before next year. 

badmemory

Just wait until you get to 70 & make the mistake of going for your age 70 health check like I did.  I came out with the highest blood pressure I had ever had & in a bit of a temper (actually fuming).  30 years before that I used to smoke but gave up.  According to a supposed healthcare worker at the surgery giving up would not have been at all beneficial to my health.  If I could have afforded it I would have started smoking again.  If they do an aged 80 one (2 years to go) I will be telling them where to put it.

ladyholly

Whether or not giving up smoking has helped your health it has done wonders for your purse and means you are not putting £s into the chancellors pocket every day and thats something to be glad about.

badmemory

So true but is a worry when they keep telling us that healthcare workers can do so much to avoid you needing to see a doctor.  That one destroyed my trust in them completely.  I mean why do they tell people to give up smoking for their health if it doesn't help?  I gave up because I had a bad do of bronchitis & realised that I had been having it several times a year for years, but working all the time.  I gave up immediately & have only had bronchitis once since & that was after being in an extremely smoke filled room.  Sorry rant over.

foxgloves

@Makingabobor2 - It hadn't actually occurred to me that 60+s might be entitled to anything! I certainly didn't know about free prescriptions - I only rarely require anything of that ilk (touch wood!), but will remember next time I do. 

As for smoking, I'm firmly in the anti brigade. I can't see how it can do anything positive for health. I've never smoked - despite having being able to turn out very neat & respectable roll-ups in my student days - it was something I tried 2 or 3 times & just found nothing to commend it as an activity whatsoever. I'm glad of that, as I do know people who have found it extremely difficult to give up, despite the fact that most of them would be very much better saving the money.

And coincidentally, talking about being called for medical tests.....I received my first letter about bowel screening this morning. Hopefully following a clear CT virtual colonoscopy less than a year ago when my IBD problem was diagnosed, they shouldn't find anything too bad. I shall take up the offer anyway.
F

foxgloves

Afternoon Campers!
A busy day trying to get on top of post-holiday stuff. The money saving bits of it today are:
*Did the rest of the holiday laundry. All pegged out for free line-drying.
*Cats collected from cattery so paid their bed & board & updated my holiday payment schedule accordingly. Back in the Spendy Era, I never used to think of cattery fees & would end up scratting about to pay them having bought so much stuff on holiday. 
*Finished setting May's budget. I did do the basics right at the beginning of our holiday, but needed to finish some of the allocations. Have added £100 to our Car Fund & bought another £100's worth of premium bonds which left £218 to divide between some of the Savings Pots. I paid the Car Maintenance Pot to cover the cost of unlocking the infotainment screen (the closing chapter of the car accident issue last month) as Mr F is calling in to get that removed & sent away on Tuesday on his way to work. Also paid the Clothes Pot & the Presents Pot.
*Used a a credit card for almost all transactions while we were on holiday, so totted them up & paid the money across, updating different parts of the budget accordingly. We will have boosted our loyalty points (for vouchers) quite a bit by doing this, but won't incur any interest as we haven't used our cards for borrowing for several years.
*Identified a couple of days ago that we would have a significant underspend on the sum of money I ring-fenced for holiday living expenses. It worked out as £106. We decided that a good use of this would be to do a pantry stock-up at A*di (£42-82) & a freezer stock up at our local market butcher (£30), which still left a surplus of £33-18. Decided to send this to the Presents Pot as we did buy a few gifts while we were on holiday.
*Did 2 surveys.
*Entered 2 competitions.
The day is yet young. Mr F is cooking tonight & will be making whole Indian spiced roast chicken, which is one of his favourite things to cook (from Madhur Jaffrey's Curry Bible book). It creates tasty leftovers, which will see us fed for the next couple of days too. I am going to a bit of speedy filing, then head off to the greenhouse to get my courgettes, squash & pumpkin seeds sown. About a fortnight later than I'd usually do them, but given how cold it has been during that time, I don't think it will make too much difference. I am going to put them in my little heated propagator though, just to boost them into germinating. 
I'm smiling because it is lovely to have Soot & Ash back & I can hear Mr F talking to Soot He has just said, "It's only 3 o'clock, Soot, & NO-ONE in this house has snacks at 3 o'clock". Soot is being quite vocal in his disapproval of this mean-spirited scheduling of food distribution & will no doubt come & tell me how perilously close to collapsing from low blood sugar he is when I head downstairs shortly. 
F x