Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

@2Scratters - With things like that, I sort of go by my gut instinct that if it smells dodgy, it probably is. Years ago, I filled in my details for a competition to win a holiday. I was in a tearing hurry & I did it because I felt sorry for the poor woman who was on our high street doubtlessly being paid minimum wage for badgering people into entering. I didn't think for a moment I'd win.......but I did, because guess what?! it wasn't a proper competition at all. To get the holiday, I had to attend a seminar morning which was a hard-sell session for time-shares. As I didn't come upstream on a water biscuit. I declined the offer & the woman on the phone was so rude (obviously on commission), she got the rough edge of my tongue & instructions to p off. To exact her revenge, she wrote on my details that I was 'interested but due to dementia, only have an attention span of 2 hours' so would need to be phoned regularly every day. One of her colleagues, who obviously wasn't in on it, unfortunately read this note out to me & I just about went ape on the phone & said that if that note isn't binned now & my details erased, I would (being in complete possession of all my faculties) be contacting trading standards, competitions watchdogs & just about any other corporate official sounding body I could think of. Never heard from them again. Big lesson to me = If you don't want to 'win' an unspecified very vague holiday, don't fill in the pretend competition form because you feel sorry for the fed-up rained-on promotor!
F

foxgloves

Afternoon Diary Readers,
The light's going already so I think I shall be having a rather crepuscular walk soon. I wasn't going to bother with a walk today, but I am so stiff from doubling my usual paltry exercise quota that I do need to move, as sitting for a long time, as I have done today, is making it worse. 
Today's money-saving efforts are all about one thing - it's my Big Budget Day, so after fortifying myself with 2 cups of coffee & finishing the last few pages of my book, I took myself off to my desk to tackle the finances. Pleased to say that Foxgloves Manor is still solvent. It actually went better than I was thinking it would. This is because I knew there were a few quite large transactions still to be dealt with (Yes, @Four_Seasons, isn't it better to sort receipts out when they first arise?) I'd decided to hang fire on a few things - the new washing machine because we didn't have sufficient funds in the Appliances Replacement Pot to cover it, tickets to see Ben Elton as I was thinking I might prefer to bump those to next time's budget, which I can do without any interest becoming due & some presents purchased from the Marine Condiment shop as we were accidentally overcharged & I was awaiting a refund. I was also hoping that this month's budget might accommodate paying for these without recourse to using the Presents Pot, which I'm pleased to say it did. One of them is actually a lovely dress for me - I went in the shop to try it on, thinking I might treat myself from my Personal Spends & Mr F suggested he buy it for me for Christmas. I was all for that, as I like useful presents (which are also lovely). There was nothing to pay off my CC, so I have budgeted the fish box as this month's payment to that when it arrives. 
I have left the Ben Elton tickets. There's the possibility of an underspend this month as I have still got the money I ring-fenced for hedge/gutter work. It's possible that my estimate was too high, so if that's the case, I will via that off towards the cost of the tickets.
So I've covered all our bills/regular outgoings, allowed the usual amount for November groceries, topped up our Personal Spends (we have £100 each every month which we can augment with survey earnings, etc), honoured all our general savings commitments (regular saver, premium bonds & car fund) & also sent £428-74 to the Savings Pots account & split it between 5 of them. I've also had a good filing session.
The washing machine replacement has hit our Savings Pots this month. I did initially think I might need to fund some of it from general savings & as quite a new saver, it would really pain me to have to dip into those for such a foreseeable expense. As it happened, when I added up what we'd got in the Appliance Replacement Pot & the Tech Replacement one, I was only £8.36 off the total cost, so I could easily take that from November's budget. I have impressed upon Mr F that both these pots are now empty. Not £34-22 or £51.50 'empty' but properly empty as in 2 big fat NILs. I have told him not to drop his phone or leave it in silly places where it can crash down onto the quarry tiles (which was what caused the demise of the last one & premature denuding of the Appliance Pot!).
So, that is the budget done for another month. WHY didn't I discover the benefits of this back in my 20s & 30s? I find it a process which facilitates, rather than curtails, & surprisingly, after being such a silly money-fritterer for so long, I've discovered that I'm good at accounting. Ah well, we all come to these revelations in our own time, do we not?
Right, I must get signed out, get my boots on & head out for a not-too-energetic walk to limber up my stiff muscles.
Take care all,
F x

badmemory

Isn't it annoying though that people doing things like that put normal people off doing nice things. I can't remember how many charity draws/comps I have entered in the past knowing full well I am never going to win, but now it is so easy for them to be some form of scam that I no longer do.

Makingabobor2

Love reading about all your budgeting. Enjoy your walk

amber03

Noticed tonight it seemed dark a lot earlier, then thought after Sunday this what it’s going to be like at 5.30pm.

Just done my budget for next month, going to be tight but it is what it is, but love a challenge.xx

foxgloves

@badmemory - I still do the occasional prize draw from the big charities, but I probably wouldn't these days for ones I have never heard of. In the same vein, I always take my charity shop donations to local charity shops now & hand them over in person as so many of the bags which come through our door are looking for clothing to sell probably abroad, then giving just a percentage to charity. 

@amber03 - Good luck with your budget challenge. Sometimes it can spur us on, can't it? My thing over the next few months is definitely going to be building up the Savings Pots again. They seem to have been decimated this year & no longer feel like the security blanket they usually do. Unless they start building upwards, we shall be a lot more likely to dip into our emergency fund for some or other completely predictable event & that will really annoy me. However, I am on it & Mr F has taken on board that he needs to take care of his phone!
F

foxgloves

Hello Saturday Savers,
Not much to report today. Postie brought one of the big box-sets I pre-ordered for Mr F for Christmas, so I have squirrelled that away & will sort out paying it off my CC next week when I am doing budget updates. We got everything on our town list & having decided only to pay for 2 hours parking, we made it back to the car on the absolute final minute. Enjoyed breakfast in our current favourite cafe & as always, that was budget-neutral because we used our Personal Spends. Had a welcome surprise in the shop which you wear on your feet, as I had 2 items on my list from them & asked at the till if they could check whether I had sufficient Advantage card points to pay for them. The answer was not only 'Yes', but I also have £19's worth left on there. I couldn't think how this had happened, then remembered that when Mr F's hair clippers turned their toes up back in summer, he chose a new kit from there & when he went to pay, his loyalty app wouldn't connect to the wi-fi so as there was a queue starting to build up, I presented my Advantage card & said I'd have the points.....I seem to recall there was a voucher for double ones too, so that explained the points largesse,  Anyway, that was a saving for my Personal Spends, which I appreciated.
Other budget-helping bits have just been more shopping things really. We were just about to buy a bottle of branded sherry - we don't drink it, it's used for Christmas cakes, cooking, trifle, etc - when we spotted an own brand one for a fraction of the price, so that was a saving. We also called in at our butcher as had heard he had the whole pork loins in again. There were 2 left & priced at £25 each, so we bought one & decided what we wanted to make with it before Mr F donned his pinny & cut it up into required portions. We decided on 2 slow cooker recipe - Chilean pork & beans which I've made before, is really nice & makes 6 portions & freezes well - & another one to try in the slow cooker which I haven't made before - more of an Asian vibe with soy, 5-spice, cinnamon, spring onions, etc. That left a very large roasting joint which he will cook next Sunday & I shall, with some nifty 'rubber pork activity' (no comments from you, @PennysIntoPounds, lol!) get a lot of knock-on meals from that after we have eaten some of it as a roast dinner. I will try to remember how many meals I get out of that £25, but I am already thinking it is going to be a goodly amount.
Well, it's not my cooking night so I am going to amuse myself with doing the Guardian word wheel (for once I picked it up & spotted the 9-letter word straight away), reading, knitting & I have also been asked to supply my Christmas present wish list by tomorrow night. I do have one made, but as he has already bought me that nice winter dress, I don't want too much more money spent on me. I've suggested a couple of books & 4 very nice but useful things, plus he knows I always like nice soaps, bath things & a small box of chocs, so I think that should be plenty to choose from.
I am still ahead in the steps challenge, btw, but not by much. I think he will overtake me & win tomorrow as his planned garden jobs are more 'steppy' than mine are going to be, but.....get this! I already consider myself a winner because during this challenge, I have doubled my usual step-count AND this, plus mindful eating has paid off on the scales, as I have lost 0.8k this week! That is a lot for me.
Enjoy your evenings all,
F x
P.S Mr F informed me that I had done our final week's grocery budget out of £1.80, & he was quite right, I had. So to make itself useful, it went to buying another Christmas cake ingredient this morning!

PennysIntoPounds

Me?! It's @Blackcats who's the bad influence! I'm a naive innocent.. 
Though having said that, fnar fnar and thrice fnar 😁
(Glad you'll be getting a goodly amount though 😂)

Well done on the steps and healthy weight loss, and the saving on the sherry, and bonus Christmas cake ingredient.

Isn't it funny what the brain remembers- apropos of last year, could you ask for sparkly/different colours/different designs shoe laces so Mr F feels he's getting you a requested gift without spending too much money, and you can enjoy updating your boots as the seasons change?

2Scratters

Well after using up many items of parents and ours and some gifted to me off Dsis2 I had been putting a pound an item away. I currently have a £90 stash. This will come in handy for bulk buying. Not sure what to spend it on yet though it will give half a months shopping a good boost. We are still working on reducing the freezer contents, not at the point of one fitting in the other yet though.
We have both been working on eating better DH by getting some weight back on a bit and myself hopefully shedding quite a bit. I am on to a good start and working on the next 5 weeks before I'm on holiday with the girls. I bought a new suite case yesterday as it needed to be a smaller size than previous and have spent double than I had wanted to  it's purchase has been supported by some unexpected back pay from my now retired from employer. I wasn't expecting anything  so it has cost me just £15. I've started to put some items into it as am only allowed 10kg total - now there is the challenge   

2 Scratters xx

badmemory

The last time my baggage limit was reduced from 20 to 12kg I landed up throwing out most of my clothes so I could fit all my reading material in (I still ran out).  Thank goodness for kindle.