Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

badmemory

I don't think I have ever seen a £50 note & nowhere seems to accept them except banks, so in this case I think ignorance may actually be bliss.

Onebrokelady

So glad you found your gift card. I had the happy experience of giving what I thought was my points card to the cashier in Waterstones only to be told it was actually a gift card with £25 on it , it had been in my purse since Christmas 23 so I was lucky it was still in date.

 I’m another who loves stationary and I nearly succumbed to temptation the other night when I found a gorgeous note book that I decided I really needed but I added it to my wish list instead and it’s still sitting there being ignored,I will forget it’s on there and then when the DDS need present ideas it will be there waiting and if it’s sold out then it wasn’t meant for me. I’m terrible with nice journals and notebooks because although I like to own them I don’t  actually like to spoil them by writing in them 😀  I have lots of cheap note books to use up and have recently adopted the idea of a master list so anything I need to buy or do tor ideas I have are written down in the note book so I don’t forget then I check it everyday to see which things I can do that day. If it’s something I need to buy it’s transferred onto my phone which I then take shopping with me 

Suffolk_lass

Ooh, I like twenty-twenty-thrive @2Scratters! I like that a lot! I may have to steal it... (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and all that)

KK I think she does use some but I think the obsession comes from having a box of (10) unused ones in each colour in her stores. I have not seen their house (yet) as she has been unwell for about 4 years so I always host. She and her husband moved to a large 4 bedroom house with outbuildings so they could each have a craft room. Hers was the largest guest room in the house when DH dropped by shortly after they moved there. It was the other couple in our 6 old friends that had seen them recently and even she (also with an extensive crafting inventory) incredulously divulged the latest confession. Our friend is a talented artist and used to draw the cartoons and caricatures for the in-house magazines when we had those (back at the turn of the century...). I think she used to make cards as we certainly had some in the past with stick on pieces that looked like her designs. I don't know what she does now but we will see them in the next couple of months (she has a medical intervention later this month, so after her recovery from that).

2Scratters

What is it about  nice stationery? I am my mothers daughter with this and it worries me quite a bit. I am definitely SABLE in this area with my own purchases and am also collecting such items from my parents lot. I am currently using a pop-a-pencil. (Those with the mini leads you take out at the bottom and place in the top for a fresh one. This is from mothers collection, the bottom is breaking down/cracking go goodness how old it actually is. I have penchant for nice pens (very expensive top of the range) and propelling pencils. This did start when our house was robbed a long time ago and some items that were sentimental could never be replaced. So the jewellers shop we were at had a wonderful selection of high end writing instruments and other bits. I would have never been in a position to make such lavish purchases, it has since become a bit of  a thing  I am proud to say though the purchases with my money were made when there were very very good price reductions. I am treating them as investments that don't take up a lot of space. Looks like I've got a lot of writing to do in my retirement

Had friends round on Friday night and we were a bit gluttonous/greedy with a choice made by 2 of us. That meal went on to make 5 good generous portions in total. Need to do another shop from home stores as I have already killed to irons 1 blew up the other not fit for purpose this past week. There is yet another one from parents in the loft which I need to retrieve and put it to work. Oops need to put them on the UU list for £1 credit each. 

Better get down the garden to the water butts and get some defrosted water for the loo. Got to keep that water bill down  and TwentyTwentyThrive.


2 Scratters xx

foxgloves

Oh my goodness, what a lovely lot of visitors!
@2Scratters - I love nice pens too. In fact, one of the jobs on my list is to clean out & start re-using a fountain pen which my Dad bought me for my 30th birthday. It clogged up badly, then did it a 2nd & 3rd time after I'd flushed it out with dilute soda crystal solution. Since then, I have discovered that calligraphy ink is unsuitable for ordinary fountain pens & that is defo what I have been filling it with as have been trying to use up an old bottle from back when I used to do a bit of fancypants lettering now & again. 

@Suffolk_lass - 8000 colouring pencils! Ooooh, shiver of envy, although any more than a normal amount would be wasted on me as I can't draw. Artistic talent skipped a generation in my family. My Grandad's uncle was an artist & art teacher, Grandad was good at drawing & painting and was a signwriter, Mum did art A-level & was very good at painting & drawing, but while my sister & I are both creative & crafty, neither of us can draw for nuts! My nephew is arty though, so it is still being passed down.

@badmemory - Yes, I am the same as you in that respect. I like everything to have a place as it saves so much time faffing around looking for things as well as piles of random clutter building up. That's how I knew I'd picked up that gift card accidentally with something else, because gift cards & vouchers always live in the same place.

@Blackcats - Thanks. It's a clothes shop one, so I may save it for later in the year towards a new summer dress, as that is really what I most need atm.

@Onebrokelady - How lovely about your Waterstones gift card. Like you, I love books & reading, so can imagine what a nice surprise it was. After my current notebook, I just have an old part notebook to use up, so I might include a nice notebook on my birthday list. Agree that it is a good thing to have as a present.

@rtandon & @PennysIntoPounds - 'Scheherazade', lol...... Actually, it wasn't intentional, more that as soon as I had found the gift card, the story ended, as far as I'm concerned. Gift cards are currency, aren't they & £50 would have been a lot to lose, especially as it is £50's worth of clothing which won't need to be taken from the Clothes Pot. Anyway, this is how I found it......After I'd looked through all the logical places, then plenty of stupid ones, I got my brain into gear & started thinking systematically about what tasks I'd been doing around the time it must have gone missing. This raised a few new places to look, but no luck. Then I remembered a final thing. I'd had a big cloth bag up in my little HQ room which having been emptied of various festive bits, I'd picked up, folded & put in my stair bag ready to bring downstairs to put away with other spare shopping bags. The gift card was already in my stair bag as it was en route for my handbag ready for our re-scheduled city centre visit. When I got downstairs, I put all the stuff from my stair bag away. As soon as I remembered doing this, I wondered if I had possibly picked up the gift card accidentally along with the bag, so I went to look, lifted out the bag, gave it a shake & there was my gift card still in its little gift wallet. Thank goodness! for that! So it wasn't an interesting place or anything, not like finding that Soot or Ash had knocked it under the piano while doing zoomies or I'd put it through the washing machine or anything like that, but there is the end of the story as requested.
F x

PennysIntoPounds

Thank you, we can rest easy now 😁

foxgloves

And now for today's post. 
Morning Frosty Folk....though not as bad as yesterday. Yes, we awoke again to a white icy world & I had to go & thaw the bird bath again, but the lawn is looking more green already & at this rate, I might even get out into the garden for a little bit of clearing later this week. We have had a peaceful weekend. Decided to postpone our city centre trip again as nothing was urgent, so still have that to look forward to. Today's budget-friendly activity:
*Mr F froze a portion of last night's cauliflower cheese for a work lunch.
*Did the rest of tomorrow's laundry to get ahead of myself. Also thought that the heated airer would be a good way of raising the conservatory temperatures a little while it is still so cold.
*Checked for surveys - nothing doing, but as I wasn't really in the mood for them, that didn't matter.
*Re-purposed ancient handknitted cardi for extra kitchen cat blanket while the weather is so cold. Soot was obviously pleased to see it as he'd re-arranged it into a ridiculous snuggly heap this morning.
*Mr F gave me 3 free pencils which he acquired from some or other works promo & didn't need. (I love pencils & get through a lot of them as I am also a stickler for liking a nice sharp point).
*Updated my library wish list. I am going to start a list of all the books I read this year. I would like to aim for 100 books. Somebody else on the diary threads is doing this - possible @foxandflowers.....or it might have been
@Onebrokelady....& I really liked the idea so as I am a big reader anyway, & also consume quite a lot of audiobooks too, I thought I'd see how close I get to 100. I have never counted up how many I do get through in a year, so it will be interesting to find out.
*Sorted out a heap of jars from my recycled jar stash ready for my annual marmalade making early this week. I already have the Seville oranges, lemons & sugar & checked that there's sufficient orange liqueur left for this year's batch without buying another bottle (there is).
*Continue knitting my fancy shawl. Have now knitted back the frogged section plus more & really want to get it completed now. It needs cold water drip-blocking on the washing line so I shan't be able to do that until the weather is warm enough to tackle this in a day, as can't unpeg it until it is dry & it isn't possible to do it on the airer. I can, however, get all the knitting finished. Plenty of projects, both new & old, to get on with this year without spending ANY money on yarn or other crafty stuff.
Intending a relaxing afternoon. Will do the Observer crossword with Mr F over lunch. It's his cooking night so I am intending to do nothing other than read, knit & have a nice hot bubble bath, with the 2nd series of 'Slow Horses' to start tonight. A use-it-up meal tonight as there was an unused pack of pigs in blankets in the freezer which are going to be cooked with poached eggs & home made jacket wedges. Easy, quick, didn't involve spending anything extra & a tray-shaped space in the freezer!
Enjoy your Sundays all,
F x
 

foxgloves

 @PennysIntoPounds, If that, or indeed any of my other rubbish, was keeping you awake, I think you have problems!! Seriously, I was so relieved, obviously about the money itself, but also not having to make up a story when the gift card giver asks me what I bought - she & I can yakk for Britain, so I knew she will ask me & I now won't need to fabricate a tale of finding a lovely thing because hopefully I will have bought one, OR can truthfully say I haven't spent it yet, as am waiting for their Spring/Summer stock to arrive.
F x

rtandon27

@foxgloves - oh dear - the dreaded upstairs/downstairs bag!  - I have one of them and am forever leaving my credit card, glasses & phone in it, then having a right panic when the next morning, usually just as I'm trying to leave for the office, I can't find one or all of the items.  OH now stops me in my tracks and asks if I've checked the Mary Poppins bag!

foxgloves

Lol at 'Mary Poppins bag', @rtandon27. Here at Foxgloves Manor, my stair bag is known as 'the heron bag', not because it can also fly & rob goldfish but because it is a jute bag with a colourful print of said bird. It was a compromise item because I wanted one of those traditional stepped wicker stair baskets but thought they were too expensive & might end up not fitting our stair risers properly. I can't abide items piling up on the stairs 'waiting to go up' so my heron bag works perfectly & is emptied pretty much every day. I have also 'trained' Mr F to drop any till receipts into it which means I generally have them all to hand for Big Budget Day. It's a pleasingly low-tech solution & I quite like those.
F