Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Sun_Addict

Eek to the rolling pin! The cake looks beautiful and very classy.

foxgloves

Thank-you, all. Very kind. Yes, @joedenise, I did explain that I used a little angel cutter, but my photo appeared in advance of the text, which I edited in afterwards.
F x

ladyholly

The cake is beautiful. I love the simplicity of it being all white with the red ribbon. I used to do similar but with holly leaves with red marzipan berries instead of angels.

Makingabobor2

That is beautiful. You truly are talented.  I might bake a cake next Christmas, not done a Christmaa cake for years. 
That's exactly how my rolling pin broke as well. I'll get a new one in the new year. 

EssexHebridean

The cake is gorgeous - As ours is basically just for us now I don’t worry about icing it, but when I did I usually used to go for an all white decoration style as well, there’s something simple but classy looking about it isn’t there. In the spirit of bringing the tone down a notch I can’t resist adding that I do like the fact that your angels all have little silver codpieces too… 🤭

Thank goodness it was only your rolling pin that broke with the fall - I was fully expecting to hear that one or more tiles had also fallen victim too! 

Humdinger1

Utterly wonderful and so Christmassy @foxgloves! You underestimate your talents! Love Humdinger xx 

Suffolk_lass

My marble rolling pin lives on, despite someone putting it in the dishwasher. I removed the rod with the wooden ends and gave it to the culprit, saying it was no longer usable with the varnish off the wood, and suggesting it would give me splinters. I use it without now. It works well, takes up less space and I prefer it!

The cake looks fab, btw

foxgloves

Thanks so much for all the nice comments about my cake. That one will be staying at our house. The bigger one with the repaired reindeer will be off to London. Although it's very nice of you to say so, it really doesn't take talent to decorate a cake using my biscuit cutter method. You can even arrange all the pieces exactly as you want them to get them right before you stick them on. 
@Makingabobor2 - Yes, why not bake a Christmas cake next year? I'd miss it if I didn't bake one, partly eating it & partly that its a seasonal activity which is very much on the wheel of my year.
@ladyholly - Oh, I do like the idea of holly & red berries. I might have to try that another year as I think it would look striking, whether the holly leaves were green or white. I will try to remember to buy myself a holly cutter as that's one festive shape I don't have at the moment. Thanks for the idea.
@EssexHebridean - Worry not! Tones are flexible, as in they can be both raised & lowered. I experimented with 3 different placings of the silver balls. I originally intended to put them on the heads, sort of as a nod to the notion of shiny halos, but it looked odd. Siting them in the centre looked like blingy belly buttons so codpieces it was! Now I have thought about this, I think my conclusion is that the world probably needs more sparkly codpieces!

Anyway, before I go off at a codpiece-induced tangent, I'd better crack on with today's budget-friendly activity:
*Managed to get one of the last 2 parking spaces in town. Mr F kept saying there wouldn't be any left because the council have scrapped all charges for weekends in December, but we were late leaving as I had lain on my hair weirdly & didn't feel Chewbacca was a particularly good festive look. So the straighteners were wielded. Free parking nevertheless achieved.
*Stocked up my toiletries stash using offers where available & also bought hand sanitiser & handbag-sized packs of disinfectant wipes for travelling next week. Every time I go to London I bring a lergy home with me which incubates nicely for New Year & I would like for this not to happen.
*Mr F received a birthday voucher for a free cake from one of the coffee chains so we shared that between us with a coffee. 
*Visited the eco-refill shop with our assortments of containers. Spent under £22 for what I thought was a decent bagful of refills - a large washing-up liquid, a large liquid hand-soap, a big tub of green bleach, a good-sized bottle of multi-purpose cleaner, a large lunch box of spicy noodles (a lovely crunchy snack which on balance I probably wish we hadn't discovered!) a jar of baking powder & a tub each of mixed nuts & figs. I often think this shop will be more expensive than it actually is, but I suppose that is one of the positives of not paying for packaging or advertising.
*As we needed to go into town today, instead of going for our usual solstice walk somewhere green, interesting & soulful, we decided we'd treat ourselves to an 'Emm & Ess' Christmas sandwich. It was fun choosing & mine was absolutely delicious, but oh my life, that shop was rammed! 
*I'd budgeted for a basket of shopping for donating to the local food bank so we called off at the C**p to choose as many items as we could for the sum I'd set aside. The assistant who served us gave us a crate to pack it all into as he said the Food Bank collector was due any moment so we were pleased to have got our basket included in time for them making up the Christmas bags of provisions. Such a wealthy country.....yet heartbreaking levels of need, & our town is regarded as one of the wealthier in our county too.
*Dropped off charity shop bag - nothing money saving about that, but got to love a bit of decluttering.
*Mr F found a treasure in the charity bookshop - a set of audio books, or rather I think vol. 3, 4 & 5 of something where he already owns vol. 1 & 2. He says these items are no longer available & are expensive to get hold of 2nd hand, so he was happy to pay under £5 each for them.
Apart from sorting 2 more loads of laundry onto the heated airer & making a list of stuff we need to remember to take to London, we have mostly had an afternoon of leisure. We did the quick cryptic crossword, Mr F started watching a major Beatles documentary & I've been reading & trying to remember how to play my Grandad's version of a specific card game. Mr F's cooking night. He's making a lasagne - enough for tomorrow too.
I must make sure I don't forget to do my usual Monday morning budget updates as there are quite a few to do & as my next Big Budget Day begins to hove into view, I want to keep everything as straight as possible.
Anyway, I have as usual yakked on for quite long enough. 
Bye, F x

rtandon27

Codpieces...
...once you've seen them, you can't unsee them! 🤣🤣🤣

I'm thinking in particular of one particular portrait by Hans Holbein the younger, c.1530

foxgloves

Lol, @rtandon27. I suppose it was partly protection for one's 'family jewels' (cods) as male heirs were so important, & of course bragging about one's virility - maybe the Tudor equivalent of the mid-life crisis sports car! 
The word always makes me think of 'Blackadder' - I loved that first medieval series. The line, "I shall call.myself........<dramatic pause> Black Vegetable" cracks me up every time!
F