Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Debsnewbudget

I made crackers last year from fabric, card and velcro (for the snap noise) 
my grandson wrote out the jokes and I put a little lindt type reindeer in, along with a stretchy duck that the kids could launch at each other. Other suggestions included a small miniature bottle of booze.
I learnt at the local craft/sewing  classes where we made 4 and then came home with the pattern and knowledge and made another 6 !!

I didn't use them this year as I needed an extra 2 and ran out of time.  That reminds me I need to find the chocolates I had bought to ut in them !!

Makingabobor2

Debsnewbudget said:

I made crackers last year from fabric, card and velcro (for the snap noise) 
my grandson wrote out the jokes and I put a little lindt type reindeer in, along with a stretchy duck that the kids could launch at each other. Other suggestions included a small miniature bottle of booze.
I learnt at the local craft/sewing  classes where we made 4 and then came home with the pattern and knowledge and made another 6 !!

I didn't use them this year as I needed an extra 2 and ran out of time.  That reminds me I need to find the chocolates I had bought to ut in them !!

Would have never have thought of fabric ones. Did they pull ok?  Sounds like a good idea. 

Debsnewbudget

Yes they were surprisingly good. The cardboard inner tubes held the shape well and the velcro made a noise
need  to be big enough to be not too fiddly to make ! 

Makingabobor2

Oh wow, they look amazing. What a brilliant idea. 

ladyholly

My mum always made her own crackers. The gifts inside were tailored to the recipient. My job was to get something for her's so she would also get a surprise. They were always very pretty.  She made them with paper but this was long before the worries of climate change.

kayannie

Sometimes I make my own crackers by buying cheap ones that are easy to disassemble & insert a personalised gift. Years ago, I bought the 'snaps' online & made the crackers from scratch. I still remember my elderly relative's face when he polled his cracker & a packet of his favourite baccy fell out!!
KA

foxgloves

@Debsnewbudget - They look really good! I once saw something similar at the CL Christmas Craft Fair in Islington, but they were beyond my price range, even though my attendance at that event was very much back in the Spendy Era. 
@Ladyholly & @kayannie - My Mum also sometimes opened bought crackers carefully to insert gifts. One year, I remember, the family cat had her own cracker & the gift was a little jar of fish paste! She really enjoyed that while we were all having our turkey!

One year when we were hosting, I made teensy weeny additional crackers from wrapping paper & the only thing in them was a joke (of the really long, shaggy dog variety) which I wrote on strips of paper & tightly rolled up. That was good fun, although it made getting everyone served take ages because they all wanted to read our their joke.
F

foxgloves

Well, another Wednesday done, Pence-Wranglers, & I haven't got everything done today that I intended, so shall know exactly where to start tomorrow!
Nevertheless, a useful day on the budget-friendly front:
*Braved the freezing cold to take a basket of useful salvaged materials down to the shed - bottles cut down into cloches, a few large jars to add to my stash of jars for bottling, some food trays to use as seed trays, that kind of thing. As I had already got so cold, I thought I may as well take the compost caddy down for emptying too & re-fill the bird feeders. I'm glad I did that, as the birds have been stuffing themselves all day, especially the blackbirds who don't use hanging feeders. They were glad to see a kettle of water going over their frozen bird bath too. Absolutely treacherous underfoot on our courtyard, even though I had my hiking boots on.
*Made a granary loaf.
*Used some of our last homegrown pumpkin for a batch of the curry we like. It's bubbling away in the slow cooker. I just need to add tomatoes, chickpeas & coriander for its final half hour, then stir in a bit of yoghurt to serve. So apart from cooking some rice, it's a low effort affair. Used the last of a potted coriander plant. I am soooooo in use-up mode atm.
*Sorted out the pantry as it was looking decidedly untidy post-festive period & I'd lost all sense of what we actually have in there. Now tidy & took the opportunity to top up jars. Also rationalised 3 part-bags of dried fruit by transferring them all to a big kilner jar. Re-filled salt pig with seasalt & ground up a decent tub's worth for when I need fine salt for baking, etc. 
*Knobbled Mr F first thing before he went out to de-ice the car & we chose next week's meals from our January meal plan.
*Sorted out my seed box & did an audit of veggie seeds compared to a list of what we actually want to grow. Was delighted to find that with a couple of minor compromises over variety, we will need to buy very little - just a packet each of 'Oh happy day' tomato seed, as I like a blight resistant variety just in case, also cucumber, jalapeno chillies, coriander & a couple of packets of spring onion. Then it will just be a bag of shallot sets & some seed potatoes if Mr F decides he is doing some first earlies this year. That will depend on how far we have progressed with our veggie plot re-vamp by the time they need to go in.
*I shan't need any flower seed either as have plenty. Have shared the love by putting together a selection to send to my sister & also a few packs for my friend with the allotment. If she doesn't need them, she can leave them in the allotment shed as 'free to good home'. I was really pleased to find we need to buy so little in the way of seeds as obviously this is an expense from our House & Garden Pot, so maximising the using-up of seeds we already have plays well with Project Surbiton.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
Nothing else to report, except for having to split up a fight between Soot & Ash this afternoon. Both of them sick of the cold weather & have spent far too long indoors this week. They didn't enjoy getting a shout from me at all, but it did the trick & they stopped rolling around the kitchen floor hissing & yowling trying to bite each other & took themselves off to (probably not) think about their behaviour. I'm now heading for a hot bubble bath as I feel a bit grubby from cleaning pantry shelves & sorting sticky jars.
Stay cosy, m'dears, although I will admit I am not looking forward to my energy bill this month. The heating is only set for 18.5 (from 6am to 9.30pm) but has pretty much been on all day.
F x

Suffolk_lass

Makingabobor2 said:

Thanks FG. The strange thing is, he has only got like this since we've cleared the mortgage. He was fine before.  We aren't normally the type of couple who row, which is why it upset me so much. I think I was just so frustrated that I had worked so hard to clear the mortgage and start to save, and then he said...."let's buy solar panels"!!   It just tipped me over the edge. Anyhow, after a long discussion yesterday, he appears to be back on board, and realises what a stupid idea that was.   And if you think you were late in life coming to budgeting, we were even later.  I was 40 when I married DH, I had been married before and didn't come out of it well, financially, and it turned out DH didn't have a head for being sensible or budgeting either.  We just used to think we could pay it off next month, but of course we never could. Then when I got made redundant (twice), that really messed things up.   So I was actually 56, when I had the LBM. But at least we know what we are doing now.  And TBH, I actually don't enjoy spending money these days....how weird is that? 

I think I was a bit like Mr Makingabobor2 after we cleared the mortgage. I have worked out that I need to feel poor or what I call my "smug filter" takes over; it's akin to "Ooh, shiny" moments where you buy things on impulse, only in this case, it is because "I can have it if I want it!". It's why mine is all in a spreadsheet so I can't miss the impact. What are we all like!? 

Makingabobor2

@Suffolk_lass, well can't have it and that's final . Lol. I have it all in my budget book/spreadsheets and the majority of it is going towards the other debts, with a bit to incease some of the savings pots, including starting a "new car" pot, which he is actually pleased about