Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Hello Sunday Readers,
I'm chatting to you while Mr F is chopping stuff for dinner/listening to geeky podcast while being pestered by Soot & Ash for 2nd helpings.
Very definitely NOT a no-spend day as we have been to our favourite big garden centre & spent £119 excluding our coffee & scones in the cafe.
I'd describe this as one of my absolute CLASSIC garden centre sprees of old. We bought all our Spring bulbs, 2 varieties of garlic for Autumn planting, new knee-pads for Mr F & a Christmas present & I chose a new Christmas jigsaw, a new handbag & a purse. 
This is a haul very similar to those from back in the Spendy Years.....amount, range, etc, but there the similarity ends. Nothing bought on credit or adding to the overdraft I had for 24 years, no guilt, no danger of this spend increasing the likelihood of my card being refused later in the month in front of a big supermarket queue. The difference is of course budgeting. Every item purchased this morning will be paid from the appropriate part of the budget - 2 savings pots & personal spends. 
Mr F raised an eyebrow when I announced I was buying a handbag as this was something I had put on my notional Christmas wishlist, but it was such an affordable one that I could easily buy it with my personal spends. He said, "It's a cool bag, but you'd better get thinking about some more present ideas, Missis". My current bag has been mended twice but I can't mend it again as the leather is fretting. I shall clean it up & put it away for emergencies as I don't have many bags. My current purse is 2nd hand as it belonged to my Mum & is now tatty & in need of replacement.
I stood at the till & when it totalled up at £119, I was struck by how much I used to spend in garden centres back in the bad old days & how really, very little of it was my money, as I was quite simply never out of overdraft or hammering the evil flexiloan - what a terrible product that was! My financial reformation was a long time coming but very much better late than never.
Many conversations with my Mum in my 20s & 30s went like this:
Mum: "Foxgloves, why are you looking at boots & skirts? You can't spend what you haven't got".
Me: "But I still have cheques left".
Let's just leave the old naughty Foxgloves there!
Enjoy yiur evenings, all,
F x
P.S You'd have been impressed by how many bulbs Mr F got into a 'Fill a box for £6.99' this morning. Every one was individually tessellated for maximum use of space. In fact, a customer filling her own box looked at how many he'd got in & tipped hers out, saying "You've got way more than me, I'm starting again!".

PennysIntoPounds

What an incredibly pleasing haul, and all debt free!
Congratulations on your new lovely things.

Love the customer starting again after seeing Mr F's box. She needs to get training on freezer tetris to maximise her skills!

Sun_Addict

I’m glad I’m not the only one who can buy a handbag at a garden centre 🤣

2Scratters

I am even more resourceful when I don't go shopping.
 Hence why I don't like to venture out. It is definitely cheaper me staying at home. There is only the 2 of us and the 2 daft collies. In fairness by the time I really have to go shopping it does cost that much more to replace. It is on these trips that you see how much food has gone up along with other bits. It does remind me though of what is still available at home and can be used up or repurposed. Cleaning products in particular all have more than one purpose of cleaning in this house. It has been helpful of reminding DH of food items that are available in the freezer and still and need using up  much to his dismay sometimes. 
I need to do a freezer audit as one hasn't been done for over 18 months. Where did that time go?
Things have gone off kilter since being at my parents house during that time and the last 4 months 5 days a week. Sis 1 is back doing her stint now so has given me some time back to revisit this area. Needing to declutter and be resourceful at the same time shows the difficulties of achieving both. I am I would say, managing to do both but is not as I would like, or need it to be. I suppose being thorough and purposeful it will be successful. 

Gees that was a bit deep. Too deep for a sunny day.

Just need to get the bucket of apples peeled and cooked before I loose them 

Have a good day all

2 Scratters xx

 

foxgloves

@PennysIntoPounds - Yes, it was funny. I think she realised that in just tossing them in, she was going to go home with about half of what he had! I hope on her 2nd go, she fitted a nice big lot in.

@Sun_Addict - I was looking for a leather handbag as Mr F had said he'd buy me one for Christmas, but I couldn't find anything I really liked, even at £100+. Decided to abandon my search as the one I treated myself to at the garden centre is deep enough to take my water bottle & all my clobber & has oodles of zip pockets. I thought a couple of zips on the outside were just for decoration, but they turned out to be pockets too!

@2Scratters - I need to do a freezer audit before pressing on with doing a meal plan up to the end of October. Thanks for the reminder.
F

foxgloves

Hello Monday Money Savers,
I think the only part of me that doesn't ache today is my hair! I don't know why I always find sorting out & planting up the big containers on our front courtyard so absolutely knackering. I suppose all the trekking of stuff up & down from the shed doesn't help, & dragging compost sacks around. Anyway, today's budget helping positives:
*Got 2 loads of laundry pegged out & fully dried.
*Did triage of the tomatoes - did another slow cooker batch cook which used 500g, prepped 2kg for bottling mid-week & sealed the remaining 2.6kg in a large brown paper bag to ripen the remaining awkward squad.
*Baked a granary loaf.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & porridge pot.
*Very low effort meal tonight as am re-heating some of the leftover pulled pork I made on Sat & serving it with rice.
*Topped up worm composter with a bucket of scraps.
*Picked a small bunch of coriander.
*Cut back & potted up all the geraniums & a fuchsia from front containers as they should all overwinter for free colour next summer.
*Determined to make the most of the Spring bulbs we bought yesterday. Planted the 2 big containers either side of the front door in layers to keep the colour going as long as possible. Topped with pansies, violas, as well as some cyclamen, a heather & purple primula I saved from last winter's tubs. I just need to add a few snowdrop bulbs when I get round to digging them up from the back garden & some of my Mum's pink primroses which are in need of dividing. The big pot by the side door has been planted with the remaining hyacinths ("Woodstock") & some of the daffodils from Mr F's bumper tetris box. Have saved some pansies & violas for the one of the front borders too, as will start on clearing those either tomorrow or Weds.
Plans for tonight - absolutely sweet b*gger all! I will be hobbling around like an ancient crone by then.
F x

KajiKita

I hope this evening’s plans included a soothing soak in the bath after all that effort! 😊

KK

Suffolk_lass

Morning (back from hols and gradually working my way through posts on diary's I follow...)

To that end, have you tried drying and then crushing any herbs so that you have (fresh-dried) herbs in winter. Thinking of Basil and some mint, really.

That smoky blackberry ketchup sounds delicious (pun intended) - their recipe? - I might make a quarter recipe to try it (we eat about one bottle a year in the absence of DS).

Good to hear about the tomatoes in use and processing underway. I stock-pile mine pre-prepared in the freezer until I undertake my version of Nonna Gina's passata processing. 

I'm a modified Delia Christmas cake fan myself. Different nuts, less sugar, different temperature, fed more brandy after cooked (medicine syringes were made for this!). I make small cakes in lined saucepans - stainless steel handles make it easier to pick them up and move them around too!

Like @2Scratters I am best kept away from the shops (I can resist anything except temptation). I am currently processing our remaining Bramley apples. They all have at least a speckle of sooty blotch/flyspeck, or holes with earwigs happily munching away inside, so none will store over winter. I have half a dozen jars of cooked apple so far and more to process, with a few jars and some ready mix crumble promised for DS and DSP to have for a quick pud. I also succumbed to some more 250ml Kilner screw-top jars, 2 portions when you just need something for dessert with no leftovers. 

With regard to handbags I am committed to decluttering much of my wardrobe (5 years retired, the penny has dropped that I no longer need my work clothes, just a couple of pairs of trousers and a blouse or two). What is the relevance to your diary? A BNWT Radley leather handbag that my Mum and sis bought me as a retirement bag!! (why?) - I need to list it so someone else can enjoy it for Christmas.

Do any of your readers use Vented? I haven't, but I suspected it may have taken over from the bay of EEE, and I don't intend putting clothes or accessories on Face-ache MP

Sorry to post such a long catch-up, your diary is so interesting...

foxgloves

@Suffolk_lass - Welcome back! Yes, the blackberry ketchup recipe (Thane Prince - 'Delicious' mag website) is lush. I have more blackberries in the freezer & might make another batch as at least 2 jars will be given as presents.
I do dry herbs, but don't find I get very satisfactory results from basil & mint. I have made basil cubes (frozen) in the past but don't have room for them atm. I am gradually snipping my way through this bunch though, & changing the water every couple of days.
Glad you find my diary interesting. I often feel I am posting the same or v similar stuff every day.
F

rtandon27

foxgloves said:

...Glad you find my diary interesting. I often feel I am posting the same or v similar stuff every day...

@foxgloves - never doubt for a moment that there is beauty in consistency!

I find your life rhythms very inspirational, as I'm sure many of us do!