Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

@themadvix -Yes, we both use WhatsApp - for calls too, as it's more reliable than my mobile coverage when I'm at home.
@Sun_Addict - Yes, he did get home fine, thanks, & even though he risked coming the scenic route, he said that the roads weren't too bad. I suppose having a 4-wheel drive helps. I put my night of being TV Remote Queen to good use & watched 3 episodes of 'Anatomy of a Scandal'. I haven't read the novel, which I usually prefer to do before watching a TV or film version, but I am enjoying it.

@Moorviews.......'Little Soot?' He's a bit of a brick outhouse to be fair. He has been outside today but only to sit on the courtyard to view the snowy lawn.
F

foxgloves

Hello Wednesday Pence Wranglers,
Productive day. Had intended to have a good garden clearing session this morning with the aim of getting at least another 2 big trugs of stuff into the garden wheelie, but the garden was still covered in snow so I have postponed it. It's melted a bit as the day's gone on, but still a fair bit hanging around. Anyway, no problem, always plenty to do. Budget helping stuff as follows:
*Bagged up saved Guatemalan Blue squash seeds which have been drying ready for sowing next year.
*Had a valiant attempt at shopping a string of fairy lights from home to replace the ones on the kitchen dresser on which the wiring has become unsafe, but sadly the moulded plug is much wider, can't be changed & won't fit in the socket behind the dresser. Never mind, at least I tried before looking to buy a new set.
*Baked the sourdough I made yesterday.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Did a few surveys. PA earnings slowly increasing, but I am unlikely to make my £40 monthly target.
*Did meal plans for next week, which were tweaked to reflect the state of remaining grocery budget for Nov Week 4.
*Picked some rocket & mizuna for tonight's salad.
*Made dough for pizza & a batch of rolls.
*Really progressed present wrapping. I did as intended & got everyone's gift bag out & labelled them, then just popped each gift into the correct bag once I'd wrapped it. I seemed to be wrapping lots of little items today so was able to use up plenty of oddments of gift wrap, including some supplies recycled from last year.
*The fairy lights may have been a 'shopped from home' failure, but a successful one has been finding some sheets of nice green card in my craft stash. I've almost run out of gift-tags, so tonight I will get my Christmas tree biscuit cutter out & use it as a template to cut some new tags. I've a bag of recycled ribbons/metallic thread/jute string, etc, so will be able to make new supplies without actual pence being parted with.
Right, well that's it from Foxgloves' temporary Christmas grotto. I'm going to go & sort out a pizza topping now....I'm thinking, tuna, red onion, green pepper & sweetcorn, then I intend to sort out my witchy hair.  Cats went absolutely loop-the-loop last night because they'd been on a snow day & needed to run off some steam so I think I am going to entice them outside with their afternoon treats in the hope that they might fancy a bit of exercise. Not really any excuses as even if Soot doesn't want snow on his paws, enough of it has now melted around the edges for him to have a walk. 
Another cold night tonight, so stay cosy. I am going to watch yesterday's GBBO, eat some Cadbury's Snowballs just to be festive & make those gift tags ready for tomorrow's wrapping session.
Cheers,
F x

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
Well, as you can see, I got my shopped from home gift tags made last night. I used my Christmas tree biscuit cutter as a template, then added a selection of bits of salvaged ribbon, etc, from my wrappings stash.
Another day where my hoped-for hour of gardening was sacrificed to the weather. It's been bright & sunny but the garden is still covered in snow & too frozen to tackle much in the way of clearing. Never mind, it'll wait. Quite a productive day on the frugal front. Budget helping activity as follows:
*Wrote grocery shopping list & pinged to Mr F who was telling me what vouchers he'd got as he was going out of the front door this morning. Not a long list as plenty of food in atm.
*Checked Christmas cake ingredients as I intend to bake the bigger one on Monday. Added an orange & a lemon to the list or that's a walk to the farm shop for me mid-cake-making which would just be annoying.
*An unexpected shop from home success. Had been intending to buy ribbons for going around both Christmas cakes but when I was putting those gift tags away in my wrappings stash crate last night, there was a lump at the bottom & when I investigated it, it was an entire, still wrapped reel of silver & white festive ribbon! And at 4m, enough to do both cakes. I can't even recall buying it so it must have been there for a while. A little bit ot cashola saved, anyway.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Another batch of butternut squash curry in the slow cooker. It will serve us tonight with rice & I intend to cook a bit extra rice to make up a couple of microwaveable containers for work lunches too.
*Remaining squash chunked & roasted with rosemary & garlic as it needed using up. Will reheat & use on Saturday instead of buying a 'side' to go with what we are planning to eat.
*Added an item to festive milkman order. I like to avoid popping to the shops for 'one item' because we all know that it never is, don't we?!
*Cracked on with present wrapping & am pleased to say that order is now restored to Foxgloves HQ! The only things I have left to wrap are the very few items not yet bought & some home made foodie items which require gussying up to convey festive nom-nom loveliness. Mr F's birthday presents also wrapped - just a box of home made fudge to make to add to those.
*Cashed out £10 from Ips*s & there were sufficient surveys for me this morning to get me about halfway to the next cash-out too. Did a few PA surveys & I am feeling more confident now about reaching my monthly target of £40 as am now at £33-93 once everyone has paid me & still over a week to go until cash-out.
And in other positive financial news, Mr F pinged me to say that their pay-rise has been accepted all round, so it will be in his January pay packet, backdated to April. He wasn't feeling all that positive because of the state public sector finances were left in, so was pleased about the news. As mentioned previously, we have a financial project set to begin on January 1st, so this will help to get it off to a flying start.
Well, Soot's come upstairs to tell me that his afternoon treats are late....& wouldn't you know he is taking the opportunity to have a nosey in every single Christmas bag while he's at it.......so I shall hie me away to the kitchen to distribute said fishy pellets.
Stay cosy (& upright, as it's blimming icy!)
F xx

Makingabobor2

Love the gift tags. Look so much better than my attempts. I just  cut up old Christmas cards.

foxgloves

Well I do that too, @Makingabobor2...& sometimes I do a hybrid by drawing around festive biscuit cutters onto Christmas cards. I sometimes use a heart-shaped cutter for those, which look nice. Have also done a luggage label shaped template & used that. It's just nice to re-use things, isn't it?
F

Makingabobor2

foxgloves said:

Well I do that too, @Makingabobor2...& sometimes I do a hybrid by drawing around biscuit cutter onto Christmas cards. I sometimes use a heart-shaped cutter for those, which look nice. Have also done luggage label shaped template & used that. It's just nice to re-use things, isn't it?
F

Yes indeed. Never thought of using a biscuit cutter, might have to give it a go. My GK's have some stencils in their crayoning pot that lives at our house, maybe I could try those as well. Never been very "crafty", but starting to like it these days. 

Sun_Addict

The gift tags look lovely. 

PennysIntoPounds

Those tags look fab, you talented woman.
Fantastic news on Mr F's payrise! Looking forward to hearing Foxgloves' Grand Plan come January. Mr F certainly sounds like he's earnt it, as of course have you with all your budget and household brilliance 

Moorviews

Great news for Mr F’s pay rise! A lovely idea for the tags and a fun use of ribbon off other items. Hopefully you will be able to get back out in the garden soon. You will have to wrap up yourself though 😊

KajiKita

Pleased to hear about Mr F’s pay rise and good to hear about it before Christmas so you won’t have to wonder any more 😊

Those tags are lovely. Every January I have a session with pinking scissors, a hole punch and red string to recycle as many cards as possible. I like that you can make them as big as you want 😊

The cake ribbon is a cracking find. I always feel like the Universe is smiling on me when things like this happen. 🤩

No gardening here atm either …. It was nice to have a rest at first but now I’m getting frustrated! 😉😂

KK