Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Jellytotts

All this talk of lovely homemade bread has me wistful.  Being coeliac I’m yet to find a decent recipe that’s foolproof and doesn’t require 335 ingredients.  

Thanks for the reminder about PA and surveys a few pages back. It was something I’ve been meaning to join for years and I finally got round to it. Have cashed out just over £30 in 2 weeks which is amazing! 

I’ve been on the forums for years but sometimes it just takes one spark from one of your favourite diaries to ignite the money making flame. 

Makingabobor2

Jellytotts said:

All this talk of lovely homemade bread has me wistful.  Being coeliac I’m yet to find a decent recipe that’s foolproof and doesn’t require 335 ingredients.  

Thanks for the reminder about PA and surveys a few pages back. It was something I’ve been meaning to join for years and I finally got round to it. Have cashed out just over £30 in 2 weeks which is amazing! 

I’ve been on the forums for years but sometimes it just takes one spark from one of your favourite diaries to ignite the money making flame. 

Well done on P/fc studies. I love them, if I am in the house I often have my laptop on, just in case. Had 2 small ones already this morning and they all add up.  £30 is an excellent amount for 2 weeks. 

foxgloves

@Jellytotts - That's a very good return to PA surveys! My monthly target from that site is £40. I don't always reach it, but there are also some months where I make between £50 & £70. Mr F has had a couple of months where he's achieved £100+. 
F

foxgloves

Morning Campers!
I've been told coffee is on its way, followed by bagels so I'm taking a few mins to chat.
Yesterday's dentist appointment went really well. The implants I had done last year are looking exactly as they should & the bill for my check-up was £2 less than quoted. I only required a standard x-ray, rather than the 3D scanner, & that was included in the cost of the check-up. 
We treated ourselves to lunch out at our favourite garden centre afterwards as planned. Lovely food there but I'm thinking that at £10.95 each, their paninis with salad & coleslaw may have reached a price ceiling for me.....I await my London-based readers telling me I don't know I'm born & that the cost down there would be £24 though!
Was very restrained otherwise. Only spent £2.99 on a pack of cayenne chilli seed as a similar multipurpose variety I sowed at the end of Jan has failed to germinate. Made sure we checked number of seeds in the packet (60) as the 1st variety we picked up had 6 seeds for the same cost!
Oh, & I finished my recipe copying project & numbered all the pages ready to type out an index next week.
 One of Ash's scratching posts had come unscrewed because he's been pole dancing around it while doing the daily zoomies. Mr F was able to re-secure it so it lives to fight another day. Mending things can be very satisfying & Ash seemed pleased.
Right, coffee has arrived. Big garden session planned for this morning as Mr F is going to help me sort out the back of a border which has been invaded by hawkweed, bindweed & bramble. Really looking forward to getting out there.
F x

Suffolk_lass

Me too this morning (gardening). Finally planning to get the greenhouse sorted today. Yesterday, we (Mr Sl & I) spread three tons of 20ml stone on one end of our parking area yesterday, after our gardener got us loose stone for the wholesale price. He and Mr Sl did the preparation on Thursday; scraping back, repairs to the ground, spread out some old concrete roof tiles as hardcore, then membrane, heavy duty gravel mats and finally scraping back the old stone. The new stone looks all bright and yellowy when delivered, and my shoes are in the wash, as not all the sand has washed off it yet. 

Spendywendywoo

@foxgloves, I’m Northern based and the difference in prices between here and London (where I travel for work often) is getting smaller, I’m finding. 

£11 or £12 for a panini and crisps at my local, lovely cafe, when we last visited towards the end of last year. £4 to add chips. All 3 of us at lunch, one kids meal, one panini and a club sandwich with a chips for DH and I to share, with a coffee, Diet Coke and a kids drink and it was £47! Nice as a little treat for us every so often (as long as budgeted) x 

foxgloves

@Suffolk_lass - 3 tons? That sounds like some session! I hope you got to make  a start in your greenhouse. I'm really hoping to get some much needed time in mine next week. I think the forecast looks quite rainy, but I don't mind if I am dry in there with my coffee beaker & a pile of tasks to work through.

@Spendywendywoo - Yes, I think it's probably a case of us usually visiting earlier in the day & having cheese scones & cappuccinos for our breakfast, which works out much cheaper. We hadn't had lunch there for a while, & of course everything has continued to go up in price over the past year. It was an enjoyable treat after having to trog over to the other side of the city centre for my dental appointment, & it's not as if it is something we do regularly since becoming reformed characters on all things financial. I am not at all averse to occasional treats.
F

foxgloves

Hello Sunbeams (yes, sun!!)
Just popping back to report that we did get a really useful garden session. Mr F cleared a tricky section at the back of one of our big borders to remove brambles & other undesirables coming through from next door. We both dug out heaps of hawkweed root & I cut a few things back & a bit of plant division. Mr F moved last year's spent growbags from my greenhouse bench (re-used for Autumn-sown salads) & added the compost to a stretch of border which needed banking up. I now have sufficient space on my bench to crack on with February seed-sowing next week.
I shall be achy later, but my muscles & joints usually begin to get used to physical garden work again as we move through Spring so it is better that I keep moving. 
Also baked a loaf.....unfortunately, it has scorched on top because our oven timer decided it has stopped pinging. I think the inside of the loaf will be fine, so we can cut the top crust off as we go so as not to waste it. It was a good timer - a Tala one, but tbf, it was pretty old, as I brought it from my parents' house when we were clearing it out in 2018-19. I might investigate using the inbuilt timer on the oven instead of buying another freestanding one, at least for a while. Mr F uses the timer on his phone but for some reason, I find that idea a bit tedious, idk why.
Used a bit of basic Excel to index my newly written out recipe book. Shall print it out & tuck it into the front. Have saved the file so that I can update it as additional recipes are added. It's been good to be reminded of all sorts of good things I haven't made for ages, many of them healthy & inexpensive, & a few of them dating back as far as my school cookery lessons! I've added notes to some of the recipes saying where I discovered it, important occasions for which I cooked it, etc, especially if it was one I was given by somebody else. Nice to have this project finished at long last. I do still have some recipe clippings in an A4 wallet but they all need to be tested & 'approved' before I add them to my book. 
Mr F still seems to be planning to defrost the freezers tomorrow, so tonight is jacket potato night/freezer dive. I am being supremely unhelpful re the freezer situation by having grated cheese, coleslaw & sliced avocado on mine. The Beloved has defrosted a large box of assorted leftovers, a carton of stock & the last bit of a bag of frozen peas, so yes, it is looking like Man-Stew again! 
Leisurely day apart from the above.....we've done the crossword, I've halfway through reading the paper & as I have just heard that two library books are ready for collection, I will shortly be cracking on with the one I'm currently reading. Soot went up the pear tree at breakneck speed then looked as though he wasn't entirely sure how he was going to get down again. As soon as we left him to it, he climbed down immediately. I think he was just enjoying being centre-stage in a potential drama!
Oh, & I did 1 survey. It was the most boring survey I have ever done about a big online company I only use when there is absolutely no other way of procuring the item. Never mind, did it, the pence have been added onto my total & I shall be cashing out on Monday morning - the £10 destined for one of our Savings Pots.
Enjoy your Saturday nights, you wild things!
F x

Makingabobor2

Hope your gardening went well. I wanted to get out there today, but DH had other ideas, so left for another day. Probably not a bad thing, as it will give me time to organise a bit more, exactly what/where etc.  We had to nip out and decided as we were near a Mr M's, we would treat ourselves to a coffee, as although the cafe isn't the most luxurious....looks out onto the carpark....lol, the coffee is actually very nice.  As it was lunch time, I offered to treat to a sausage sandwich.... not very healthy, but hey, its the weekend.  £8.50 total for the 2 of us. They do an offer on sandwich and hot drink, I thought that was not bad at all. 

foxgloves

That's a very good price, @Makingabobor2.
F