Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

@2Scratters - There's always that 'using up' period between different approaches to food & diet isn't there? Better not to waste what you have bought though, so I would defo be using up too. 
F

foxgloves

Afternoon Saturday Savers,
Just a quick one today to say it's been a minimal spend day....just a newspaper. We've both had a good garden-clearing session, me in the herb bed & Mr F clearing 2 veg beds ready to transfer the soil from the big raised one prior to dismantling it as part of our veg plot refurb. Picked a bunch of thyme for tying & drying, also another bundle of cavolo nero.
Have baked a crusty loaf & put a colour on my shabby-looking roots.
Not my cooking night so I am going to knit my shawl.....oh, well I was, but Ash has just jumped on my lap so I shall have to read instead.
Take care, m'dears,
F x

foxgloves

Hello Sunday readers,
This morning's really-quite-decent weather has now turned to rain which looks set in for the duration. Cats not looking impressed but will no doubt perk up when their Sunday treat comes out - Sunday is Lick-e-Stinx day & they both love those more than life itself.
In money saving news......
*Treated ourselves to breakfast at our favourite big garden centre. No impact on November's budget as we paid from our Personal Spends.
*Saved money by avoiding most of the festive department which was rammed with both people & display units covered in as much sparkly ornamentation imported from China as you can imagine. 
*Saved further money by deciding against buying half price tulip bulbs. I don't want this to sound as though I was having a hair shirt moment. There were still lots of bulbs from which to choose & I did begin choosing a couple of packs to plant up a couple of additional Spring pots. Then I remembered 2 things - firstly that I have already bought more Spring bulbs than usual, as I treated myself to some extra packs when ERNIE remembered us, & secondly, that although we are still in 2024, this is exactly the kind of spending which won't be happening once we begin our 2025 money saving project, so we might as well at least nod in the general direction of that mental zone now.
*Bought a very small Christmas present from our list. Another person's presents now complete & tbh, when I have a good cross-off the list next week, I think it will be all but finished.
*Have made a start on the laundry which I don't usually do until Monday, but as the nights are colder, I thought it would be worth getting it on the heated airer & having the extra benefit of keeping the temperatures a little higher in the conservatory too. 
*Tonight's dinner is in the slow cooker cooking itself. A recipe I haven't tried before - pork (cut from that whole loin we bought recently) cooked in soy & cinnamon. It is defo going to have an Asian vibe as also contains 5-spice, spring onions, ginger & garlic as some of its other ingredients. Shall serve with rice & stir-fried greens tonight (so minimal effort) & in noodles bowls with mizuna & mushrooms tomorrow. 
Not a lot of other budget-helping activity to report, although I have pinged some dates to our besties who have invited us over for a pre-Christmas meal. We need to go over that way for an errand too so we are hoping to be able to combine the two & save 66 miles round trip worth of petrol. Oh & I've been WhatsApping my sister about whether I need to bring/bake anything else at Christmas & there was indeed an item she'd forgotten about, which I usually bring to will add that to my list. I do think that planning ahead & being organised does invariably end up saving me money, so I have no qualms in admitting that I really am a serial planner!
Right, I think I shall get on with some more shawl knitting now.
Peace & love,
F x

KajiKita

I finally got the last of the spring bulbs in the ground this weekend and have told myself firmly, NO MORE this winter. I want to see the effect of what I have already chosen / planted next spring before adding more. Also, the spring pots will need decanting and they will all end up in the garden too 😊

KK

foxgloves

@KajiKita - Yes, exactly that! I will be transferring bulbs to the garden once they have finished flowering in their Spring tubs so plenty of colour for future years. Really, it was just a case of reminding myself that I had already bought quite a few extra ones this Autumn so even paying half price wasn't necessary as I don't need any more. 
It was kind of the 'bulbs' equivalent of my sale rail habit back in the Spendy Years, when I had no concept of items not being bargains if I didn't need them......& often, didn't even particularly like them.
F

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
An unexciting but pleasant day. Mr F is off today, so we went to a local-ish historic parkland for a walk around the lake. I made sure to drive there as I get so little opportunity for driving these days & I like to keep my hand in. Not an especially impressive day for budget-helping activity, but certainly not spendy either:
*Parked at the park using our annual pass - we do visit frequently for a walk so it more than pays for itself over a year.
*Coffee shop (well, self-caffeination was an important part of getting my little legs around that lake!) funded via our Personal Spends so entirely budget-neutral.
*Did not go in the gift shop or garden shop so avoiding temptation wasn't even a thing.
*Did the rest of this week's laundry. Pointless pegging it out by the time the cycle had finished as very cold, so it's on the heated airer, which will help the overnight temperature in the conservatory.
*Cut a colander of mizuna to stir-with some l/o mushrooms tonight to go with the leftover Asian pork thing I cooked yesterday & some noodles.
*Wrote 3 Christmas cards.
*A bit of knitting later - probably some on both projects - my la-di-dah fancypants shawl & also the pair of socks I am making from odds & ends of self-patterning sock yarn from my stash. Neither project has involved any naughty little trippettes to yarn shops, I hasten to add!
Also trying to get my book finished. It's still the Hilary Mantel novel about the medium. It's an unusual book, & very well & cleverly written, as I expected. A charity bookshop find. I like to broaden my reading with these, which is very affordable at between 99p & £1.99 per book, usually, then I either pass them on, donate them for someone else to buy or add them to any ongoing boxful of WOB trades.
Well, that's my lot for today. I'm aiming to make major progress on festive prep this week & have rather hopefully assigned various tasks to different days in my diary. 
For anyone else in the snow zone, I wonder how bad it will actually be. The forecast says that sleet is due to kick in here around 6pm & will continue until tomorrow morning, but how sleety versus how potentially snowy seems to be guesswork. I have known this before.......MSM practically wetting itself over some possible snow, then having worked myself up over needing to travel in it the next day, I hardly dared to peep out of the curtains & when I did, there wasn't a single flake in sight!  It is definitely much colder. I have been going for walks in a long-sleeved top & my leather jacket, but this morning I wore my coat & mittens & needed them. In fact, even Mr F put on an extra layer! 
F x

KajiKita

Are you getting to the top edge of the shawl now? I find with projects like that, each row takes soooo long, I have to really plan the time, without interruptions so I can complete a whole row ….

“ It was kind of the 'bulbs' equivalent of my sale rail habit back in the Spendy Years, when I had no concept of items not being bargains if I didn't need them......& often, didn't even particularly like them”

Yup, I recognise this - well done for pausing … 👏😊

Colder here too. I have managed to avoid putting the heating on today - knee length socks (Oh! The glamour! 😂) and a mega mug for periodic herbal teas is helping a lot 😊

KK

PennysIntoPounds

Well I'm in the apparently balmy London and I have put the 'break glass in case of cold emergency' jumper on, and dug out my leg warmers.
Hope everyone in more vulnerable climes keep safe and cosy. 
Like with Mr F, I know winter has arrived as Mr PIP is wearing a jacket

foxgloves

Woke to a white world. A good 4cm of snow & it was still snowing. Heating had been on 20 mins when I got up & thermostat said 14.5° so it's defo been a cold night. Just enlivening myself with a coffee before mixing up a sourdough & starting my day.
Layers on today, m'dears. Even Mr F has a t-shirt on under his rugby shirt. 
F x

foxgloves

@KajiKita - The shawl has central mitred increases so I'm on the lower section which is a 13-row very open black lace pattern with loopy fan shapes. There are 3 repeats of those 13 rows (very long ones) before casting off. I'm about halfway along the 2nd repeat. Because of the construction involving central double increases (mitred), the cast-on edge is actually the outer edge of both sides. My green shawl with the double row of tassles was also constructed this way.
F