Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Right. I'm up. I'm dressed. Make-up on. Hair straightened. I have had coffee. Let the productive money saving week commence!
F

KajiKita

I have a list … a long one! 😉

KK

rtandon27

foxgloves said:

Right. I'm up. I'm dressed. Make-up on. Hair straightened. I have had coffee. Let the productive money saving week commence!
F

Ditto!

...and I've done the morning book balancing! 

Will be starting the week with a clean slate after a weekend of necessary spending on replacement hoover & replacement boots

2Scratters

@foxgloves I think my use it up (have too much stuff) does/has come down the line. When my grandma passed away c1976 (there were admittedly items that had come from the corner shop they had had, as they moved out of it about 1963.) My Uncle who was not nice to his sisters but fair in ways that suited him. There was a quantity of soap that came to our house, now when I say quantity we are talking a black bin bag size and it would probably have been about half full. The quantity had already been split between the 3 of them. So we are talking green Fairy, Pears original, Wrights coal tar - I think that was a big brown one if I remember rightly. There was a pink coloured one, some for hand washing clothes. Needless to say this stuff was used at the sink in the bathroom and kitchen to be used. Mum loved the Imperial leather so that stayed on the bath whoa be tied if she spotted to soap on the bath became wet during the week by us sneakily using it  That lot has lasted a life time. In my years of marriage certainly in the early days some came home with us and that's going back 40 years. 

Yesterday I mused onto my banking app for Nwide and found that a saver had finished. That soon got shifted out and spread around and a chunk into a better saving rate account for now. I have started another good rate for 12 months so that is me for a while again. 


2 Scratters xx

Suffolk_lass

I love that soap story @2Scratters! right up my strasse.

Over here, I have received the refund of VED for the motorhome that I remembered to SORN at the end of last week. £260. DS has not transferred the £110 he owes me but he needs to. There is very little wiggle room in this month's budget and I intend shopping from home. That said, DH is out, giving blood and I have just sent him for four items from the SM. I have retrieved three frozen boxes of "something-cooked" from the freezer, the contents of one of which is a 2023 sausage casserole leftovers pot. If Mr SL brings home the baking potatoes, we can have those with the leftovers for supper tomorrow. I am going to have a go at a simple piccalilli recipe at some point, but if I don't buckle down and study, I shall be wasting £70 on my exam. Biscuits baked. So no need to buy treats

EssexHebridean

The mention of imperial leather reminded me of my Nan as she always bought that. the main thing I can remember about it was that it had a label on that meant that the soap around the label lasted longer than the rest of the bar - you always ended up with a little mini soap bar behind the label!

Twolabsandacat

Long time lurker FG, who just officially joined to say please keep posting ...reading your diary is part of my coming home from work routine!  I aspire to your lifestyle of taking pleasure in the simple things and regularly 'shop from home'.  Thank you

Makingabobor2

Well I had a good start to my very MSE week, went out to buy a coat and couldn't find one, so money stayed in the purse.....tomorrow is the day for setting new transfers and savings etc, so far I'm on a roll.....lol

foxgloves

Evening Everyone,
Thanks for all your comments & contributions. It does sound rather as though a number of us are wanting a productive week. Hello & welcome @Twolabsandacat - I feel amazed & humbled that reading my diary posts is part of anybody's coming home routine. I shall aim not to disappoint today, as I have managed a pleasantly productive day in which money saving has been pretty central:
*Cleaned 2 pairs of boots using a repurposed pedicure tool! It was blimming rubbish on feet, but for extracting mud from the treads of boots.....it's come into its own. Glad I didn't throw it away & waste the money (& plastic).
*Did 3 loads of laundry - 2 on eco setting & 1 on 14-min cycle. I did peg out the 1st load as forecast said there would be 'light winds', which sounded useful, but in truth, it was as still as a millpond. Fresh but wet load now added to the others on the heated airer with some added oomph from the dehumidyfier.
*Did a good s-t-r-e-t-c-h on the leftover roast pork. It did us a roast dinner yesterday, will be providing hot pork cobs with home made smoky blackberry ketchup tonight, a stir-fry with rice tomorrow & pork & sweetcorn hash on Wednesday with hot sauce. Also froze a container of chunks to make a chilli at some point & Mr F took some leftover roast dinner to heat up for his packed lunch today. So that will be 11 portions in all - I'm pleased with that, as we still have the remaining 2/3 of that big pork loin we bought in the freezer. This was just the 1st piece.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Did my usual Monday morning budget updates. Have got these smack-on up-to-date now. I've even paid the wheelie-bin cleaner who arrived while I was number-crunching. Grocery budget has been so heavily front-loaded with the butcher's offer & an A*di stock-up that we will be tight for the rest of November. We do have lots of food in, so I've flagged the situation with Mr F & I will make sure we do some really canny meal planning, as that is the key to effective grocery budgeting, before we get anywhere near the shopping list stage. Also did the relevant Savings Pots transfers & updated our Personal Spends with October's PA survey earnings. Mine were on the low side (under £40) but Mr F managed £117 thanks to another good run of techy surveys. He requested I send £100 from his Personal Spends to his Spends Reserves, which means he's saving up for something! Our Personal Spends Reserves are held in the Savings Pots account, which is interest bearing, so that's another positive. Sent £10 earnings from another survey site to the Leisure & Entertainment Pot towards the cost of those comedy tickets.
*Confirmed appointment for hedge cutting/gutter work this week. I have had the money (my best guess) ring-fenced for this for a few weeks, so it will be good to get it done & see if I have an underspend or if I need to tweak something to cover a larger cost than I'm thinking. Good to move another thing on.
*Checked home insurance renewal docs, corrected the new payment on Spreadsheet 1 (bills) & filed.
*Printed off latest VM contract & marked the renewal date with a flash of neon pen as we will want to be onto negotiating that to avoid another nonsense increase.
*Went through my email inbox thoroughly & checked everything of even a vaguely financial nature had been dealt with before deleting. Another form of decluttering & very satisfying.
*Scrubbed out a big, perfectly good bag for life which had been languishing unused since it fell victim to some extremely muddy carrots from a local farmer's market stall. Now back in service & not wasted.
*Finished the ribbing on last pair of socks I need for a present & have started knitting the leg.
Then moved onto seeing where I am with Christmas stuff........
*Crossed the items bought on Saturday off the presents list & highlighted those things still left to buy. This does not include gifts for Mr F so......
*Chivvied him for his Christmas/Birthday wishlist. Have said if I don't have it by the end of this week, he will only be getting pants. 
*Ordered 2 presents for Mr F (surprises, as I do like to get a few things which aren't on his (usually) geeky/muso list!)
*Investigated my wrappings stash to see how many gift bags I have & how many I need to buy. have actually decided not to buy any. I have sufficient for in-laws, friends & Mr F to have one each & I have some big festive bags for life which can be used to transport presents down to London to my family.
*Found a strong cardboard box which (after a bit of trimming) is perfect for making a festive hamper of my home made preserves. I will cover it with wrapping paper & festoon it with something I already have & that'll be job done without buying a basket, cellophane & any of that kind of gubbins.
*Did a few surveys.
*Wrote to my sister to confirm a few festive arrangements & that I am defo making the cake. Used a nice card from my stash, ditto stamp from last bulk order prior to price-rise.
*Entered 2 competitions.
I haven't written a job list for tomorrow but it will defo involve making soup & some garden tasks among other things.
I'm satisfied with that as the start of my productive week. You know, every so often, I sort of get sick of seeing things hanging around unfinished or not yet done & just want to get them done. I am very much in that mode atm, so I'm sure it will drive progress. The state of the grocery budget has also given me a push money-wise, so I'm heading into Tuesday with Doing-stuff-itis. Off to close all the curtains now & see what Soot is up to as he's meowing fit to wake the dead! Almost certainly it will be to do with current bowl status - empty!
F x

Makingabobor2

Wow, what a very productive day and a massive stretch for the pork. You gave me an idea when you mentioned hash, we haven't had hash for ages.  Used to love it with corned beef, but wouldn't by corned beef these days as its really not "real meat".....lol.