Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Suffolk_lass

2Scratters said:

@KajiKita re the extra forward payments for the gas/ electric I see no reason in letting the supplier get any benefit of my over payments. I do however have an accounts pot for the utilities of added what has been recommended or my anticipation of costings. I'd rather me make a little extra money. I do monthly readings as it is. If my account is getting down a little bit I will throw £100 into there to keep it floating obviously not going into debt. 
Learning how to make some firelighters as per Nancy B. Lets see how this turns out 

Have a good weekend all

2 Scratters xx

If these are the old candle ones, I have other ideas for making your own natural firelighters. They all smell lovely too:

• if you eat any citrus fruit , dry the peel when you are cooling your oven, or just spread it out, on a tray above a radiator - the natural oils make it light easily, flare and get your kindling going. With Shrove Tuesday next week and lemons on shopping lists, it's a great time to try it out
• we have a real Christmas tree and cutting off the fronds with lopping shears, we keep them in a dustbin so they dry out a bit, then use them as kindling next winter - brilliant little kindling accompaniments, especially in a glass-fronted wood burning stove
• ONLY in a glass fronted stove, I put pine cones in muffin cases and pour a little melted wax over these. The seeds might spit if they are ripe and ready to disperse, hence the advice re glass fronted
• I also collect eucalyptus bark (from the farm locally, that planted the trees to deal with a boggy wet patch) and I break it into kindling sized pieces. Again, the natural oil makes it burn well and flare so that the kindling lights quickly

foxgloves

Hello to anyone reading on this delightfully sunny Saturday,
Thanks for all your comments which I always enjoy reading.
@Suffolk_lass - Yes, we also noticed that compost prices have shot up this year. I have 12 bags of peat-free & 3 grow-bags every year. I checked back in my Money Book to see what we paid last year & I don't think we will get them for that price this year. I have tomato seedling envy - I haven't sown any yet. It's imminent but my little propagator is currently full of chilli seedlings & recently sown aubergines & peppers so I shall need to move the biggest chillies on first. I do like the sound of dried citrus peel firelighters. Our 'woodburner' is a lovely (but cheaty!) gas one so I would only have the BBQ on which to use them, however.
@2Scratters - It'll be interesting to see how your homemade firelighters work.

Well, m'dears. defo not a no-spend day today as had quite a few things to sort out in town this morning, but nothing silly, no impulse spends or succumbing to temptation. In fact, I'll start with that......
*Collected our £60 meat pack from local butcher. Joints frozen as soon as we got home. Mr F helpfully divided the packs of lamb chops, pork steaks, steak & chicken breasts into meal-sized amounts before freezing those too.
*Couldn't get my moisturiser this morning but another one I like was on offer at half price, so I bought that instead. 
*Two other little things on the list very cheap from good old 'Rhymes with Toys' - a kitchen timer, as I haven't got on very well without one this past week & a cable needle to replace my old one which I assume is still stuck down between two veranda boards on a historic site in Suffolk! I intend to knit myself a pair of bright pink dip-dyed socks with a cable up the side (birthday present yarn last year) & a sort through my huge collection of knitting needles failed to turn up a spare. Oh, & a quick visit to the Eco-refill shop for washing-up liquid, cous-cous, figs & walnuts so will add those to the grocery budget updates on Monday.
*Enjoyable garden session this afternoon - so warm once I got busy that I didn't even need my coat. One big trug of woody & pernicious weedy stuff for the garden wheelie & the rest composted. It was satisfying but slow work today, which I tried to re-frame, partially successfully as a mindfulness activity. I cleared a section of the final large bed which really needs some work. Son of bramble had come through from next door so I had to wrestle that out, along with oodles of bindweed. Re-planted some freebies - a lush foxglove, an aquilegia (which might be one of Mum's white ones) & 3 sweet rocket - the latter can be a bit invading with self seeding, but it is easily pulled out & it's a good one for insects. This afternoon's session was actually a case of free plants stopped play. I spent a good 20 mins or so just digging out clumps of newly sprouted willowherb (worth getting it now before it gets anywhere near seeding time), then realised that the next section of this border is dotted with self-sown foxgloves. Now, those are plant freebies I definitely want, but I counted at least 20 - all of them look big enough to have self-seeded last year, so should flower this year - & I didn't have time to get them all temporarily removed to trays while I cleared the area for replanting them in drifts. I think tomorrow is also set to be a sunny day, so I intend to get out there to deal with all these fab freebies. I know there are more in my cold frame & in other beds too, so I shall be really busy this month as have loads of (mostly free) seeds to sow too.
*Entered a competition.
*Did a survey.
*Cashed out of PA with February earnings of £47-82. I am still waiting for a further £8 to be paid, but that can start me off for March's earnings.
Intend to have a relaxing rest of day. Mr F's cooking night. He wasn't too upset about the work problem when he got home last night btw, think he was just glad it was the weekend tbh. Interesting how many of us on here could remember the absolute annoyance of not being backed by management despite doing everything correctly. It used to wind me up no end when I was working, as these were the people who made the rules! He's making tuna & chipotle wedge melt tonight, which is an easy tasty favourite originally from an old edition of the Waitbl00m free weekend paper, I think. Cats being little Bs today.....or rather Ash is. He has twice pounced on Soot for no reason other than grumpiness & devilment & tried to bite him. Then he seemed to be making friends again by licking Soot's ear......which lasted for all of 30 seconds before the ear got a chomp. It hasn't helped that I succumbed to biscuit pester & gave them their lunch an hour early, as they now think it is long past their dinner time. You know, I have heard many dog owners talk about the importance of routine for dogs & it is true to some extent for cats, but none more so than this pair. Give them an inch & they'll take a country mile. Hopefully tonight, after persian queen fishy stink has been distributed, they'll settle down & watch some TV with us. We can but hope! They are both lovely cats & we adore them.
OK, signing out. Wishing everyone a lovely evening.
F x

2Scratters

Well the firelighters did a grand job. Just one  no messing about getting going. I didn't really need to make them just now as I hadn't finished cutting up the Christmas tree. So there is a tub full of starter fuel there already dry. I just wanted to make them as a tester. As I have a lot of candles that have come from my parents house some had become distorted by heat from where they were stored. Mum also had a mountain of wax melts too. I don't care for them too messy for my liking but I am not prepared to totally waste them. I actually used up a large chunk with the plain candles of a wax melt DS's GF made as a Christmas present last year. I have been a bit over zealous with the wax - standard for me -  It is  very fragrant and lovely of rhubarb and custard. So the HM lighters waiting their call for service are now scenting out the LR delicious  I did use a few dried pine cones and some not very fragrant cinnamon sticks too. I will do better next time but for now good enough is good enough. 
@Suffolk_lass thanks for the heads up on the other oily type to be used too

Hope tomorrow is as nice as today has been would be lovely if so.

2 Scratters xx 

foxgloves

Morning Sunbeams,
Productive morning, just stopping for lunch. Budget-friendly offerings:
*Rubber lamb. Roast dinner last night, sufficient for spicy pittas tonight, pilaf tomorrow & some destined for the next man-stew.
*2 laundry loads done first thing & pegged out in the sunshine.
*Bread making - loaf on its 2nd proving.
*Did my usual Monday morning budget updates. Credited £22-14 back to March budget (an underspend on the amount I'd set aside for buying our annual compost supplies. This will be used towards the planter we have our eye on for strawberries or added to one of the Savings Pots).
*Distributed PA earnings - January's added to my Personal Spends, February's including a tenner from Ips*s sent to the Savings Pots as promised - £40 to Presents Pot, £10 to Clothes & £8-13 to Leisure.
*Make tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast - will do while I made my lunch in a minute.
*Get sewing machine out for (hopefully) a shopping from home opportunity. I want to make a whirlygig cover as I'd noticed ours needed mending, but on closer inspection, the fabric had rotted so not worth doing. I have fabric from my stash & intend to get on with measuring & sewing this afternoon. I seem to recall paying £18 for the old one (I didn't want plastic) so I am going with Project Surbiton & leaving that sum in our House & Garden Pot while I make one for a nice big fat £0.
Hope you all get off to a good start to the week,
F x

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers, Pancake eaters (.....or both! I'll hold my hand up to having had pancakes for lunch. Mr F doesn't like them & I don't see why my Springtide celebration with sugar & lemon-bedecked rolled carbohydrate should be cancelled because it's just pancakes for one in our house!) But have I just been stuffing my face with pancakes or has there been any budget-friendly activity? Actually, not a bad day on the whole....& a nice little surprise........
*£50 from ERNIE!! This will be sent to a Savings Pot as soon as it arrives. 
*The whirlygig cover I was just settling down to make when I wrote yesterday's post worked (despite my sewing machine being in the most vile temper) & the whirlygig is now sporting a new non-mouldy blue & white cotton cover to protect it from bird poo. I don't know what it is about perching on top of somebody's whirlygig that instantly affects woodpigeon bowels, but I swear there must be a psychological correlation somewhere! Anyway, fabric was 2nd hand from my stash, so no need to dip into the House & Garden Pot to purchase a new cover.
*Today's home care hour = Ironing, putting away clean household linens & vacuuming.
*Free fitness  - an hour of clearing the current big problem garden border I'm working on, followed by a further 15 mins of trotting up & down emptying trugs & putting tools away.
*Free plants - Finally cleared enough to be able to access all those nice self-seeded foxgloves I had my eye on at the back of the bed. Dug up 10 - 3 have already been replanted to fill gaps elsewhere & the other 7 have had a big drink (which was pretty much what I could have done with!) & are waiting in a trough to be re-sited tomorrow.
*Still using up Sunday's rubber lamb - pilaf tonight so I shall only need to do a round-up of veg & spices to go in that for a very low effort but tasty meal.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Finished the 1st of Mr F's birthday socks for the presents bag. I just need to sew the ends in before casting on its twin. These are the 2 pairs I am making entirely from sock yarn in my stash - yes, channelling Project Surbiton for a free present!
*Have been checking for surveys this afternoon, but nothing doing. I've only done a YouGov one first thing, which has taken me over the halfway mark to cash-out. It doesn't seem to have taken me as long to get this far as previously - I can't recall when I last cashed out, but I seem to think it was last year. March's PA earnings currently £4-52 with a further £8-00 still to be paid. 
I think that's all I have to tell you today. I have finished all today's planned tasks, except for it being my cooking night (I usually do Mon-Thurs & Mr F (who also enjoys cooking) does Fri- Sun, but we are pretty flexible about it. I have just started latest library book - 'The Mercy Chair' by MW Craven - Hey, no spoilers, @ziggy2407, if you've read this one. I bet you have! 
Hope you've all seen some of this fab sunshine today,
F x

PennysIntoPounds

What a lot of productivity and money saving, think you deserve that big drink! And hooray on your PB win! Do you have a savings pot in mind? 

foxgloves

@PennysIntoPounds - I'm not sure yet, as various pots (we have 10 in total) could do with it. Soot & Ash are going to the vet for their annual MOT & jabs tomorrow, so I'll wait & see the effect of the bill on the Meow Pot before making a decision. 
F x

PennysIntoPounds

Hope all is as unspendy as can be and they are on their best(ish) behaviour 

ziggy2407

foxgloves said:

*The whirlygig cover I was just settling down to make when I wrote yesterday's post worked (despite my sewing machine being in the most vile temper) & the whirlygig is now sporting a new non-mouldy blue & white cotton cover to protect it from bird poo. I don't know what it is about perching on top of somebody's whirlygig that instantly affects woodpigeon bowels, but I swear there must be a psychological correlation somewhere!
Anyway, fabric was 2nd hand from my stash, so no need to dip into the House & Garden Pot to purchase a new cover.

I have just started latest library book - 'The Mercy Chair' by MW Craven - Hey, no spoilers, @ziggy2407, if you've read this one. I bet you have! 
Hope you've all seen some of this fab sunshine today,
F x

Envious that you've whipped up a whilygig cover so quickly - its on my plans too for this year.  Its not just the pigeon that sit atop ours, think sometimes they are just teasing Betsy (our very vocal black cat).

Yes, I've read that one, I'm a bit weird and once I find an author I like I tend to fix on them and read everything they've written (and in order) and am waiting (patiently) for his new one.  I did manage a no-buy book year last year and so far so good this year as received quite a few for Christmas, a few book wins and swaps with my 3 sisters in law but the main help was the Library and keep banging on that if we dont use them we are going to lose them.  

This sunshine the last few days and watching the garden re-awaken has really lifted my spirits.  The lighter evenings are making a difference too although I'm not doing much at the moment but am hoping that as I feel better/brighter that I'll make my March target of 3000 steps a day - although I wont be beating myself up too much if I dont hit the target as it took me Jan and Feb to get to 2000 steps and just having a shower can wipe me out.  

Sorry for waffling, loving the dairy as always and love the project Surbiton updates.

Take care x

Blackcats

Is it time for Soot's weigh in?  Look forward to hearing his figures whilst of course respecting his cat dignity and acknowledging that some cats are big boned and muscle weighs heavier than fat 😸