Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Suffolk_lass

We love sending and receiving Christmas cards still. I have ordered some from the whistling seafood (online) place, and a few extra second class stamps. They are not the cheapest, but like your artist ones, having a little bit of wiggle in my budgets means I can choose to shop with them. They do, at least, sell some artists cards. I use these for carefully chosen recipients I think will appreciate them, rather than willy nilly. I have also just ordered an A5 diary for next year and 2 copies of a recipe book. One of the recipe books is for a fiend, the other is for me, paid for by my Mum, but ordered by me.

Outstanding money (DS debt payment [interest free for 10 months] and the refund of VED from the motorhome) a collective £340 boost is just enough to cover the big credit card bill that will be taken in full next Monday, without the need to top up the account from another pot. Then my pension will arrive the week after. A very marvellous and welcome top up. 

In one other frugal plan, after next week's trip to the osteopath, we are going to reduce the frequency to half what it is now. My knee is behaving normally and the shoulder (damaged by using the crutches for the knee) is starting to improve. At last!

Supper is going to be vegetable au gratin, maybe with a shared baked potato (they are the size of a Galia melon) all in stock so no need to shop. DH has just gone for his eye test. Mine is this afternoon. I'm just about to make a spicy (not very) courgette soup for tomorrow's village celebration of the attempt to blow up Parliament being thwarted.

One more thing - I think you might appreciate Mr SL's post yesterday; "the flies have elected the T**d"

foxgloves

@Suffolk_lass - I'd love to be part of a village Bonfire 'do' (though probably not this village). I would be perfectly willing to contribute soup, parkin & bonfire toffee, as I love seasonal festivities. And, yes, you are quite right that my views align with Mr S_L's on the subject of flies. 
F

foxgloves

Hello Money Savers,
Dusk has fallen & the cats are busy with their nightly 'looking out for Mr F vigil'. I don't need to do too much more today so am going to put my post on, then go around closing curtains, lighting lamps & making the place look cosy for our evening together. The heating hasn't been on very much - I am missing those crisp bright cold mornings I love, but am also telling myself that the higher outdoor temperatures will be helping to keep the gas bills down. We haven't lit our lovely stove at all yet, apart from just to test it out after it was serviced. 
Right, before I start off on a general yakk, here is today's budget-friendly activity:
*Wrote a really quite short grocery list & pinged it to Mr F who will no doubt have a couple of relevant vouchers he can use to reduce the cost a little. Crossed root ginger off. I know that's not an expensive item - I like a cup of ginger tea every morning - but I have a big jar of assorted herbal tea bags in the cupboard, including ginger, & as I spent money on them, I really ought to be using them, so I have had one today & will be putting one ready for tomorrow morning. So yes, a tiny saving, but they have now joined the use-it-up mission.
*Baked the sourdough I mixed up yesterday.
*Leftover leek & potato soup I made on Tuesday provided my lunch today & the rest is in a microwaveable mug for Mr F to take for packed lunch tomorrow.
*With great difficulty, finally managed to cut off a chunk of our last (& biggest at 4.3kg!) home grown Guatemalan blue squash. There was a lot of swearing involved as I used my biggest, sharpest knife, but it got stuck & I couldn't pull it out. I actually had to get the carving knife & use it to cut the first knife free! Never mind, I got there in the end & it is now doing its thing in the slow cooker - another batch of nommy Indian butternut squash curry. 
*Scooped out plenty of squash seeds, rinsed well & have left on a paper napkin to dry, as I shall want some good plump seeds for sowing next year, which will of course be FREE!
*Did a few minor surveys.
*Credited the underspend on the hedge/gutter work back to the budget. We have a city centre night out later this month & that £25 will be useful for food & drink.
*Entered a competition.
*Garden pickings: The last little bit of coriander. Shan't re-sow until March.
*Garden jobs: Netted lots of bits of stray privet from yesterday's work out of the pond plus a bit more duckweed. Weeded & forked over a small veg bed (helped by our tame robin, who flew down to eat a worm, but drew the line at a centipede). Then into the greenhouse where I emptied out a finished lettuce trough, potted up some September-sown parsley babies & also some larkspur, which I have only recently learned can be sown in Autumn. Would have liked a bit more time in the greenhouse tbh, but needed to listen out for mountain goat herd van man bringing my parcel. 
*Festive prep: A little more present knitting over my lunch hour & also wrote another 10 Christmas cards.
I'm actually thinking I could do with making a start on gift wrapping soon. It feels a little on the early side, but my little HQ room where all the presents are stashed is looking like a warehouse with all the boxes & bags building up & it would be a lot tidier & more accessible if things were wrapped & rounded up into gift bags. I think I will make a start on that next week.
Well, I've just had a ping from Mr F to say he's landed at Waitbl**m so he will doubtless be raring to go with a free latte. he will be very speedy as such a short list. I just need to add chickpeas, coriander & tomatoes to the slow cooker at 6pm, give it another 30 mins, then it can go on timer until we are ready to eat. Cats eat first.....they absolutely insist on it, wolf their fishy stink, then Ash comes to see if there's anything he fancies on our plates. He has been known to reach out a paw to help himself, but we are strict on this sort of behaviour, & he gets nothing if he oversteps the mark. He tried to rob a whole slice of toast once.....he doesn't even eat toast! It think it was just the lure of it belonging to somebody else!
F x 

Makingabobor2

Another very productive day for you FG.  Took me a while to work out the mountain herd delivery man....lol.  Was going through them all in my head.  Hope it arrived safe and sound. 

PennysIntoPounds

One of our now sadly deceased cats used to be horribly affronted by food belonging to anyone other than him. We tried to be strict but it was too funny watching him trying to be inconspicuous and seeing a little furry black paw appear on the side of the table and furtively move towards your plate. We could of course quite easily see his massive cat body at the side stretching up too 😂❤️

kayannie

I had a similar experience today, trying to cut a chunk of a swede!
KA

Makingabobor2

Is it that the swedes & squashes are all tougher these days? Or are the knives blunter? I had to get DH to help at the weekend,as I had a knife stuck in a swede!

Cheery_Daff

You are having a very productive week! I wanted to join you, but pinged my back last weekend and everything has gone a bit to pot since then, I didn't even finish working til 9.45pm tonight so no home-related productivity for me! 

I too love sending and receiving cards. We still get a surprising amount, although Mr Cheery never sends any (never even gives any to people he sees), and I am appalling at only getting a limited number out of the door, and rarely in time for Christmas. I shall endeavour to follow your good example and get on the case earlier this year! Certainly don't need to buy any, we have leftovers of several packs from the last few years so it'll be nice to use them up and buy some more in the sales after Christmas. Might help with our decluttering efforts too! 

Humdinger1

@foxgloves I appreciate that you may not want to go into detail here but so sad to hear about Mr F's family estrangement.   I can't believe that either of you has made any contribution whatsoever towards this situation as you radiate sweet reason.  Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

foxgloves

@Humdinger1 - I would tell all over a coffee, as it's quite the saga, but not on a public forum as it could compromise anonymity. I will just say that the perpetrator couldn't deal with 'sweet reason' & neither of us pander to fact-less accusations & paranoia so we are where we are & I don't see it changing. 
F x