Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
Nice, as always to log into my diary & read all your comments, for which thank-you. It wouldn't be much of a diary if I was just turning up to talk to myself, would it?!
Agree that luggage is expensive. I don't travel abroad so I don't have the issue of needing to keep my holiday packing within a limit, but like you, @badmemory, I'd be very twitchy if I thought I wasn't going to be able to take sufficient reading material!
A pleasantly useful day today. It's our wedding anniversary & we decided to treat ourselves to a couple of fab little cakes from one of our talented local market bakers, instead of doing cards this year, so we enjoyed sharing a caramel brownie & a white chocolate bakewell blondie with our morning coffee. They felt very decadent after 3 weeks of healthier eating. We've bumped our planned outing to next weekend, but have nevertheless enjoyed some good teamwork in the garden today doing some much needed pond maintenance. While it doesn't sound like the most glamourous of anniversary activity, it was good fun & we had a laugh. We managed to remove an enormous overgrown flag iris from our pond, wrestle it out of its basket where it was absolutely stuck fast & replant two new little rhizomes for free plants. Also removed rampant overgrowth of hornwort & the usual bucket of highly annoying duckweed. Mr F removed moss from the surrounding slabs & we reminisced about how we salvaged them from the innards of a big old cruddy storage heater which we removed from the our kitchen shortly after moving in because it gave off a highly ominous whiff of being permanently on the cusp of bursting into flames. Two skeins of geese flew low overhead while we were out there, & our tame robin helped out with pest control at every opportunity - another good reason to get those borders cleared after such a bonanza of mollusc-breeding this year. I do feel very much more grounded & part of the wheel of the year when I am regularly outside doing seasonal things. Mr F added to the autumnal vibe by preparing the bed for garlic planting this week & raking up fallen leaves. 
Other stuff - I shall be progressing my Christmas charity knitting (from my yarn stash) later, have made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast, packed up leftover bottling-size jars for storing in the shed until next year, & we have chatted through our diaries so that we know what we are doing over the coming week.
Oh, & I wrote & submitted my first review for a retailer by whom I have been recruited to review occasional products. Panel members can choose which items they are interested in trialling (with the proviso that not everyone will be chosen) & after going through the review process, can keep the item. I shan't say any more, as I am not sure how locked down the process is, but the reviews are all public on the website - under a nickname, of course. This is the first time I have been chosen - to be fair, I haven't applied for most of the call-outs because the items in question have been very large household items & I wouldn't have been able to accommodate them easily for the trial period or anywhere to put them afterwards either. I have enjoyed the process & hope my first review will be acceptable & I will get selected again in future. 
Right, it's not my cooking night, so I think I shall have a wander around closing curtains & getting ready for our evening. Mr F is ahead of me in the steps challenge. I knew he would go ahead of me when I saw the gusto with which he was tackling all that leaf-raking. I don't mind because I think that was good weight-loss & as I managed more than double my usual amount of steps, I do feel like a winner. I maintained my lead right from last Monday to this morning, so I am happy with that.
Have a cosy evening all, & let's go into a purposeful new week of money saving.
Love F x

PennysIntoPounds

Happy anniversary to you both!
That sounds a lovely, and successful, day 

themadvix

Happy anniversary Mrs and Mr Foxgloves 😊 It does sound you’ve had a productive and enjoyable day. We too were working together in the garden and enjoying the sunshine today. Definitely feeling in tune with the seasons and the clocks changing (the less said about the furry beasts’ views on this as dinner time (don’t approach), the better… briefly consisted going out for an hour and a half until it’s actually their dinner time!).

foxgloves

Thank-you, @PennysIntoPounds. The Beloved did get liberally sprayed with muddy pond water, but the anniversary teamwork shone through & we got the job done. There is so very much do do out there in the garden at the moment, as we are also doing a vegetable plot refurb before Spring, but I no longer view it as a big overwhelming task. It's my main form of exercise, so as long as I get out there & nibble away at all the cutting back & clearing a little bit at a time on dry days, it will all get finished in a mindful & enjoyable way. 
F x

foxgloves

@themadvix - Thanks! I know what you mean about furry beasts & the clocks changing. Soot & Ash have just been told off in no uncertain terms by Mr F for fighting in the kitchen. They rocked up over an hour before their dinnertime & when no pouches of fishy stink were proffered, Ash got hissy & cross & started a couple of spats with Soot. As they both persisted in hanging around trying to look like starving waifs, they were fed early & then instructed to go outside to run off some steam. I'm sure this will backfire later on, when they decide that they should be given their bedtime biscuits at about 7.30pm, however.
F

Cheery_Daff

Happy anniversary! I too am embracing seasonal tasks- today I've been chopping and stewing apples from a friend's tree, and raking up leaves for leaf mould to supplement next year's potting compost 😊

KajiKita

Happy anniversary! How lovely that you had such a good team-working day together 😊❤️

Like you I am tackling the veggie patch - in my case overgrown and weedy - one session at a time, looking closely at the section I am working on and avoiding looking at the whole as it becomes overwhelming. It will get to a tipping point some time soon, where more is done than not, but I’m not there yet … 😉

KK

Sun_Addict

Happy Anniversary 🥂🥳

Humdinger1

Congratulations @foxgloves! How many years? Your day sounds like the perfect celebration as it's all about rejoicing in the moment rather than living a fantasy.  The latter explains a lot of our past debt and the difficult stories we see on the boards here, no? Love Humdinger xx 

LadyWithAPlan

Happy anniversary and sounds like you had a lovely day