Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

KajiKita

foxgloves said:

@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

Sounds stunning! Please share a photo of it when it’s done, especially of the centre section?

KK

Moorviews

Lovely to have snow instead of the wind and the wet that I have this morning. Not everyone loves it I know, but it does make everything look so pretty. I wonder what Soot and Ash think though!

2Scratters

I had inadvertently left the hyacinth bulbs outside the back door on a shelf and have seen them starting to sprout/ I should at least get them potted up to bring indoors in a few weeks. I love their fragrance. 
Finally finished off some bisto gravy powder that came from parents. (This needs adding to the UU list I have recording such events) Hid it in the beef gravy as DH moans about it and says he doesn't like it, weirdo yet wants gravy granules, he didn't even notice 
Tea is therefore christened for tonight as yesterday leftovers too. The other half of the piece of beef will have to be created into a pie me thinks for when I'm away as a treat for DH and the dogs with which he shares his meals. They rarely ask me   
Yet another item packed for dispatch and ka-ching thanks tebay   


Be mindful in the snow peeps.


2 Scratters xx

foxgloves

@2Scratters - You do very well with your use-it-ups. I have been wondering if I can bear to go back to doing a little bit of online selling next year. I used to do it on the site you mention fairly regularly, but my being a weirdo magnet also unfortunately extends to online buyers so I got tired of all the faff for relatively low money, However, it does all add up, so I will see how I feel when I am all full of New Year money saving vim & vigour.

@Moorviews - Ash goes outside in any conditions even though he is a radiator hugger when indoors during the colder weather. Soot is another matter entirely. He hadn't ever been outside when we adopted him as a 7-year-old & although he now loves to be out & about, he doesn't tolerate snow. This morning, I popped him outside having thrown a biscuit out onto the courtyard. He gobbled the biscuit & came straight back through the flap. he wasn't going to be ripped off that easily!
F

foxgloves

Hello Tuesday Readers,
Despite my cynicism about histrionic weather predictions, it was snowing when we went up to bed last night & it was a white world when we woke this morning. I needed to pop out & feed the birds so I measured the snow depth while I was out there & it was 7cms. It only continued to fall until about 8.00am though & has been slowly melting ever since. The garden looks so pretty under its white blanket. Not so happy about Mr F being on one of his periodic very late shifts though, as he will be driving back from the north of the county after the slushy roads have re-frozen. He has strict instructions to send me a hands-free voice message every so often on his return journey so I can track him!
Anyway.....enough of snow, has there been any useful budget-assisting activity on this pretty but chilly day?
*As Mr F is working so late & didn't have to be in until noon, we popped to the village farm shop for breakfast. Personal Spends, of course. The Pots didn't get away unscathed, however, as we stocked up on bird food, having used up all our supplies down to the very last seed. Also bought a small sack of potatoes. These are very good value for us as they are not the enormous size sack & so we get through them all before any of them think it would be a laugh to start getting sprouty. £8 which I think is good value.
*Crossed a few items off the presents list. I mentioned that we are almost done. We need to buy a couple of local beers for B-i-L, a thermos coffee travel beaker for nephew (& Mr F) & I need a box of liqueur chocolates for Mr F. His favourite ones have become so hard to find. I think I will either resort to getting them online from a department store in Norwich or choose something else. I do like to get them though as it is only once a year & a treat.
*Finished writing Christmas cards. I have left 3 open for enclosing letters, which will be individually written as I cannot abide round robin missives & would actually rather not receive a letter at all than open one which turns out to be a sheet of generic A4.
*Wrapped 2 presents. I hoped to do more wrapping this afternoon but I have realised that I can't really carry on without a better system in place. I will return to it tomorrow, but set up everyone's Christmas bag plus the festive bags for life in which we intend to convey family gifts down to London. Then I can wrap things & put them straight into the correct bag. Honestly, Foxgloves HQ currently looks like Santa's elves have downed tools & staged a walk-out, it is such a mess of paper, ribbons, balls of string, packaging. I can't work in this mess so will be sorting it out tomorrow for sure!!
*Did slightly belated Monday morning budget updates. 
*Sorted out my November credit card bill. It was £24-36 higher than I expected & that was such a specific sum, I knew there must be something I'd missed, & sure enough, it was a present I'd bought for Mr F online, arrived with no invoice & having wrapped it straight away, I'd forgotten about it. Now sorted & card paid off in full.
*Did 3 surveys.
*Mixed up a sourdough for baking tomorrow.
*As Mr F is not back until around 11pm, I will finish his birthday socks as I only need to knit the toes & cast off. That will be another gift sorted. I do wish our family birthdays were better spread throughout the year. There is only me, my sister & my B-in-L out of the family & friends for whom we buy who had the decency to be born in Spring & Summer!
*Tonight's nosebag is as cheap as it gets as Mr F has taken some of the leftover Asian pork & rice with him & I have defrosted a portion of my batch-cooked gigantes plakis to serve on a jacket potato with avocado slices. Grocery budget isn't looking as good as it could be as we start to plan Week 4's food, but it is perfectly doable given our good freezer & pantry stores. Mr F suggested we change our plans to buy a chicken for Sunday & knock-on meals as he says he can easily cook the chicken pieces which are already in the freezer doing sweet b*gger all & we are also going to be out on one of the days we'd notionally earmarked for chicken leftovers, so defo a bit of money saved there.
Right, I am going to sign off now, go around closing curtains, then decide on tonight's viewing, as I am Queen of the TV Remote tonight! 
And tomorrow, if I haven't reported on some pretty impressive present sorting/wrapping, you have permission to give my backside a good verbal kicking!
Cheers all,
F x

themadvix

If you and Mr F both use WhatsApp, he can share his location through that so you can keep an eye on - safer and more constant than messages.

I haven’t even thought about Christmas presents yet. Your organisation is next level!

Sun_Addict

Enjoy being remote control queen tonight 🙂 I hope Mr F gets home safe and sound. 

foxgloves

Well, today was going to include a good garden session of further cutting back & clearing but that plan's going nowhere as our garden is still covered in snow. Never mind, I've plenty of other stuff which needs doing so will hopefully be able to return later to kick in a decent list.
Do take care stepping out in the ice this morning,
F x

KajiKita

Sympathies on the wrapping chaos - my dining table is in a similar condition! 😊😉
Hope the rest of it goes well today ….

KK

Moorviews

Dear little Soot! If he is lucky Ash will entertain him later with tales of his snowy adventures. Of course they will require feeding up with its being so cold 😄

It’s amazing what chaos the wrapping stage creates! No doubt I shall still be doing it on Christmas Eve again as I tend to buy up until the last minute. I switched over to fabric wraps last year and reusable ribbons. It was great just folding everything up and putting it away instead of the large amount of paper we used to have. Our bin men won’t take any kind of printed wrapping paper so I just use brown paper if I need to use paper for something. I like your idea of festive bags for life for transporting gift collections. This year I am determined to try and make the origami stars. 

Hopefully Mr F’s journey home was okay.