Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

PennysIntoPounds · 30 August 2024 at 5:16PM

Typical contrary cats!
Big fan of Mr F's money allocations 😁
Well done on the cricket saving

Elisheba · 31 August 2024 at 11:33AM

foxgloves said:

@badmemory - That's the only downside, isn't it? When we got rid of our landline, we had a good mobile phone signal pretty much everywhere in the house. Since then, this has become quite a lot more random & calls answered or made downstairs have a high drop-out rate. If I need to make an involved phonecall, say to HMRC, an insurer or hospital, for example, I make sure I go upstairs where the signal is much better. So if I ever need to phone anyone in an emergency, let's hope I can drag my carcass up a flight of steep stairs to do so, lol!
F

If you have internet enabled phones that connect to your WiFi, you can change one of the settings on your phone to allow calls over WiFi. Then the lack of mobile signal won't matter.

foxgloves · 31 August 2024 at 4:09PM

@PennysIntoPounds - I saved another one this morning! Came through to open the conservatory windows & there was one sitting on the edge of my decanter full of sea-glass. I expect Soot brought it in then lost it when it did a giant leap.
@Elisheba - Thanks for that tip. Will have to try that. I got so fed up with losing calls as soon as they connect, that I tend to use What'sApp to make calls to Mr F & best friend now.
F

foxgloves · 31 August 2024 at 4:42PM

Hello Saturday Savers,
One of those days where quite a lot is achieved simply by pottering around. Not a good night sleep-wise. Woke up with latest annoying insect bite hurting. Thankfully Postie brought the anti-insect-essential-oils-impregnated bracelets I ordered this morning so I intend to try one out during tomorrow's planned garden session. As they tie on like plaited friendship bracelets, I may well wear one around my ankle too, seeing as I seem to be a magnet for flying chompers.
Anyway, enough of that & onto today's little bits of budget helping acitivty:
*Cleaned the house between us using minimal products & washable cloths. Better for the environment & the grocery budget.
*Baked a sourdough loaf.
*Pears backing up - I pick up a few windfalls every day & that's without really starting to gather what's on the tree - so baked a pear cake as we had everything in stock that I needed, & it used 4 pears.
*Garden pickings: The aforementioned latest windfalls & a small bunch of grapes.
*Dry blowy day whereas Monday (my usual laundry day) looks to be showery, so took the opportunity of a free dry by doing a couple of loads.
*My much-loved lime green linen dress has finally worn into holes & they are not repairable. Have washed it & will put it away in my sewing stash, not so much because I think I will use the fabric, but because I really like the dress. When my sis (v good at dressmaking) was here recently, she made a paper pattern from drawing around sections of this dress onto a big roll of craft paper I rescued from being skipped. She also wrote on instructions for making the dress. I am going to make it up in the fabric from an old duvet cover....not to wear, but to make sure I can get it right & to custom-fit it exactly as I want it. It occurred to me that keeping the original dress might be helpful, as I could also unpick the seams & use the individual components as back-up pattern pieces if necessary. Either way, it's a free pattern & I'm sure I can purchase some linen for a lot less than I paid for the dress. Actually, this is turning into more of a saga than I intended when I mentioned it.
*Did 3 surveys.
*Cashed out of PA. My August earnings = £65-43 & Mr F's = £70-51. He's like a dog with 2 tails because he is apparently about to order a Porcupine Tree box-set which is either just out or available on pre-order. Also paid £10 earnings from a different survey site across to the Savings Pots (Leisure & Entertainment Pot, which is rather bereft of funds since we booked a few things a while back). I am still waiting for £4.50 in payments, but that's fine as it will start off September's earnings.
*Sorted out an annoying freezer drawer which was only annoying because of the haphazard way I have frozen various bags of homegrown chillies! Sorted them out, wrote 'USE FIRST' in big letters on the remnants of last year's crop, & added the ones I picked yesterday to the correct bag. This freed up space for some bags of french beans - a constant game of freezer tetris in our house this time of year, but I do love our garden harvest time.
*Free resources: 1)A strong cardboard box which will be perfect for the large amount of gardening magazines I'm decluttering to my friend, 2) A bolster pad - had intended to assess bolster (from sofa) to see if mendable but too far gone so it was destined for the bin this morning - decided to have a look at the cushion pad inside & it is fine, just requires a wash, then I can make a new cover, hopefully from fabric I already have in my craft stash 3) 2 transparent yoghurt pots which will be good mini-cloches at seed-sowing time 4) The old grabber which I have decided to use indoors whenever the need arises. Now soaking in disinfectant as I last used it to remove a dead mouse helpfully supplied by Soot! better than binning something that is still perfectly useful.
Well, it's not my cooking night. Mr F asked me to write on the meal plan, "Assorted meat box from freezer with jacket wedges & stir-fried garlic courgettes" - that sounds ok to me - doubtless I shall soon find out what the box contains! I love home made jacket wedges. Mr F makes very nice ones. Mine are not so good, unless I do the 'PONom' book Cajun-style ones, then they are yum!
So I shall wish everyone a lovely evening, go & fetch in the dry laundry, then settle down with my book. Starting a new Scandi TV drama tonight - I've read the book but quite a long time ago & can't remember the ending. Expect it'll come back to me as I watch it. Take care, m'dears.
F x
Oh, I meant to mention.....that new veggie curry recipe I made last night to use up some of our produce.....it was really nice & we both said we would like to eat it again. The veg suggested was french beans, carrots, frozen peas & a small cauliflower but that it's designed just to use whatever is in season, so inexpensive to make. I subbed the cauli with a large courgette & an aubergine & it worked fine x