Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Found a burst of mental energy (not sure from whence it came!) & did next week's meal plans. July's PA earnings landed in our bank account very promptly so I have added them to our respective Personal Spends. Mr F had a decent survey month as well so we cashed out over £112 in total. Have made a rough list of stuff I need to do before our guests arrive at the weekend (my sister & 16-year old nephew) & will crack on with that tomorrow. Weather looks set to break so I shall need some indoor jobs if the forecast is right - just as well that I have plenty of them.
Cats have been fed & had seconds. Soot is hanging around in the hope of thirds (no chance Matey!). He really is the most hopeful cat where his tummy is concerned!
Had a brief discussion with Mr F about the Savings Pots, which appliances he thinks will be the next to cark it & shopping from home (or making-do) on the stuff which is less of a priority. I will keep thinking about this as August progresses.
F x

Sun_Addict

That’s a brilliant cash out between the both of you 🙂

Makingabobor2

That's a good lot of P/fc cash out. It has been a good month, which I was surprised at TBH. Every little helps, as they say. 

foxgloves

Thanks, yes, I was surprised how many surveys there were in the end. It looked like it was going to be a slow month at one point, but it did pick up. It's no trouble to have the tab open at the top of my screen while I am online for other purposes. I catch a lot of surveys that way.
F

EssexHebridean

I have tomato envy - like so many others, ours are just still green - although I have to say there are a LOT of them. Of course with the weather currently I'm now worrying about the fruits splitting if they dry out too much and then get watered - eek! I did spot that there were a couple on one of the bush plants that were thinking about being ripe, so I will check those tomorrow and see whether they are ready to pick yet. So far we have had just one of the "Minibelle" ones - and as there was only one, and it was first of the year, we ceremoniously cut that in half and shared it!  

Great work on PA too - I need to ensure I get back on that this month! 

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
A busy day so far - you know when you have a list of stuff to do & there's barely 2 jobs alike, so you are bitting & bobbing all over the place....it's been one of those. Amongst all the activity, there have been a few budget-helping things:
*Transferred next week's meal plans to my diary.
*Went over the menus for while our guests are here, added a couple of things in & removed others. Left Monday/Tuesday fairly flexible on the meal plan, as I reckon we will have leftovers. Added the stuff needed to take a picnic. We are going to an event in a neighbouring county which was one of my big birthday presents from my sister & will need a picnic. (Think I mentioned I looked at the coffee shop menu & it was £9-50 for a sandwich!). 
*Wrote the grocery shopping list & pinged it to Mr F who is quite happy to pick up the supermarket part of it on his way home from work (I know he enjoys the free coffee while he's there). He apparently has vouchers for a number of items on the list & will select the ones which are the  best deals.
*Wrapped my sister's birthday presents. I thought I might struggle for birthday paper but found enough left of a roll I bought for Christmas but is actually really just gold foliage on a dark blue background so with some trendy jute string (from my Mum's huge craft stash) & some home made gift tags (made from some bright pink & purple foiled card which someone gave to me), they look very nice. I did have to buy a strong gift bag as she will need to take them back down to London on the train, but I never begrudge a fairly-priced bag when I know the recipient will re-use it.
*Today's garden pickings: 1 good sized courgette for tonight's pesto pasta. The rest will have to wait.
*Did a couple of surveys.
*Tackled my shredding pile - not out of any sudden shredding virtue on my part but because I need the shreddings as a free resource. I need to make a new base layer on the worm composter & have found that shredded bank statements, etc, seem to do a very good job & save on buying the coir bedding.
*Not a lot of exercise today, except for the usual domestic jobs, wrestling duvets into covers, etc, for guest beds, moving furniture so I can get nephew's bed set up in my little office room, cleaning up, but I am now off to get a good free bending, stretching & generally getting myself into all sorts of daft positions so as not to fall headfirst into the garden pond.......yes, duckweed-removal time again! Tedious task but the pond looks so much nicer afterwards & I can see resident critters better. While I'm out there, I think I will remove a tray of worm compost too. I know it's ready - in fact there are probably two - & start them off again with their new bedding.
Right, onwards.......what a shame we didn't get the decent rain we were promised. I doubt we'll see any now. 
Never mind, chin up!
F x

Blackcats

We just had more than our fair share of rain.  We had thought it would be  nice to have a pre-dinner walk ....10 minutes into the walk there was lightning, thunder and torrents of rain which didn't exactly suit my summery dress and sandals 😎.  I've just realised that whenever I wear this particular dress it causes a change in the weather from sunshine to rain.  

joedenise

We have rain now!  Was forecast for 11am so a bit late!

Makingabobor2

We had massive shower last night, hopefully it got up as far as you.  

Suffolk_lass

Sweet FA rain here, in the East. I think we are roughly SE of you @foxgloves. I really must water (or ask Mr SL to do so). He does more of a shower, I like a nice heavy downpour when I water.

Over six weeks now since I updated properly, and the bee activity is moving towards end of season. Honey is being removed and I have buyers for some of the buckets (I said it had been mad) our bees have generated. A modest contribution back to our hobby at £4 a pound, with the buyers having to stand the cost of jars, labels and labour