Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

@rtandon27 - Thanks for that. Mr F's job also involves assisting people with tech (as did mine at times) so he's happy to fiddle around to solve various issues. I am perfectly competent with tech but quickly become bored with the tediosity of background stuff, settings, etc, whereas he quite enjoys it. He is intending to look at it this weekend. I've just reminded him as saw he was using his laptop, but apparantly he is currently doing a £15 survey & then he is heading down to the veg plot to progress our refurb project. We are both cashing out our March survey earnings this weekend, & as he won't want Co-pilot's unsought 'help' messing up his Personal Spends spreadsheet, I reckon he'll be on it like a bonnet!
Thanks for your message & hope you have a good weekend. Soot & Ash being very a*sey with each other this morning so shall definitely be keeping an eye on THEM!
F x

badmemory

You have just reminded me why I have 2 computers, one of which hasn't been online since I installed it.  So it never gets updated & has spreadsheets going back 15 years or more.  That started when I used one for work & one for personal.  Every real update seems to mean losing something or having to pay for it when you never had to before.  I resent having to pay for something which is worse than the one that used to be free.

foxgloves

Hello Saturday Savers,
A chilly wind, but some lovely sunshine too & we've both enjoyed a morning of fresh air out in the garden. Budget-friendly stuff as follows:
*Two baths from one fill of hot water....which reminded me to reopen discussions with Mr F at some point as to whether we try a water meter for a year. Monthly payments non-metered have now breached £80 so we ought to make a saving with just the 2 of us, but it is watering the veg garden (& the borders in dry spells) which makes us both hesitant, as well as summer pond top-ups. Still thinking.......a 3rd water butt would be possible.
*Decluttered a hugely overspilling mess of a sack in the shed from which.....3 big empty compost sacks were put aside to use as free rubbish sacks, 3 were cut open & used inside-out to line the new 3-tiered strawberry planter we bought last week, ditto 2 used to line my hanging baskets. All the others put aside for recycling at garden centre when we next visit. Also binned big length of plastic netting which we no longer use after reading about it causing serious injuries to hedgehogs & birds. And established we definitely DON'T need to buy any more enviromesh - found 6 big lengths then Mr F found an unopened pack so can shop from home next time too. Before this morning, I'd have said we probably needed to buy a couple of packs which would effectively have been about £30 wasted!
*Moved plant babies down from ManCave windowsill to conservatory. It's much colder in there, but they all need to get big pants on as they will be going down to the greenhouse next week.
*Watered greenhouse seedlings.
*Cut a moisture mat for worm composter from a big sheet of salvaged card. Mr F moved the unit out of the greenhouse to its new space. Needed a new (bigger) receptacle for collecting liquid feed but was able to shop quite a nice vintage-looking salvaged item from home.
*Mr F cleared weeds from veg plot paths & made a base from salvaged bricks to raise the new strawberry planter off the ground then shifted a few more barrowloads of soil out of the very big old raised bed we are replacing. 
*It's not my cooking night, but I did contribute by getting a piece of gammon into the slow cooker this morning. Already eyeing the leftovers for a pasta bake & pizza on Mon & Tues.
Did the Quick Cryptic over lunch & am now into my planned reading time - still on 'Caledonian Road' & enjoying it.
Wishing everyone a lovely weekend.
F x

themadvix

Ouch to the water bill Foxgloves! We are two, with a pond and a garden to water (albeit not as big as yours, but only one water butt), but we have only been paying £19 (yet to see the new price). You would almost certainly save a substantial amount - and I think that’s likely regardless of where you are in the country.

badmemory

The water thing is becoming quite an issue & I am beginning to waver although ---.  Mine has gone from 10 months at £75 to 10 @ £95.  I am going to have to try to figure out how much a 30 minute power shower uses.  I know they say you can change back within a year but I am not sure I really believe that would happen.  The thing is once they get most people on meters they are going to have to keep putting those rates up because they will still need around the same income.  So just how long can we expect the lower meter prices to last.  Then there are all the extra fines they are going to have to factor in as we are the mugs who have to pay them.

ziggy2407

Water Bills

We are with YW on a meter, 3 adults, 2 cars (washed at home), 2 waterbutts and pay £44 pm 

Cheery_Daff

How big is your water butt? Do you have space for an IBC? 

11 DIY Projects to Upcycle IBC Tanks and their Metal Cages - Permaculture

I've got a black one running off the greenhouse, they hold 1000 litres. (I do need to sort out the collector from the greenhouse gutter, which keeps falling off, but that's the fault of the collector, which I bought independently of both the greenhouse and the IBC, and which is rubbish!)

Suffolk_lass

ziggy2407 said:

Water Bills

We are with YW on a meter, 3 adults, 2 cars (washed at home), 2 waterbutts and pay £44 pm 

We are Two of us, Anglian, metered, £34 a month. I have one water butt, currently, filled from an unmetered source.

I was considering putting 2 large, linked butts to collect grey water (ie sinks, washbasins, shower, washing machine, dishwasher), to settle (to remove soapy stuff) and then use in the garden. We don't pay for roof water waste because we (being thatched) don't have guttering, so that is a small reduction

foxgloves

Morning Campers!
Thanks for your comments about water meters. We are certainly thinking about it. In fact, it was the main topic of conversation yesterday morning when we went out for breakfast.
Am off to a good start here at Foxgloves Manor today. Mr F is off on Friday so we both decided really to go for it & have a properly productive 4 days, him at work & me here on the home front. Today's budget-friendly plans:
*Bake bread (dough already proving)
*2 loads of laundry to be pegged out for free drying (1st load on final spin)
*Divide up leftover gammon - a pasta bake tonight, ham & sweetcorn pizza tomorrow & some sandwiches.
*Make a batch of tomato pasta sauce - My sis put me onto the recipe nearly 20 years ago as it was one of her ways of sneaking lots of veg into my then small veg-dodging nephew's meals. Shall use a couple of jars of my bottled tomatoes.
*Move aubergines down to conservatory for their last couple of days indoors.
*Water greenhouse seedlings & plant babies.
*Unpack & sort out my strawberry runners - order has just arrived.
*Free resources - another couple of good plant labels cut from base of empty butter tub & another bottle cloche.
*Make tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Do Monday morning budget updates.
*Move nicely sprouting tulip containers out onto courtyard ready for Spring colour.
I should achieve all of this but there could be a few other odds & ends too, as I'll be pottering around doing bits of stuff as I go.
Wishing everyone a peaceful productive day. 
F x

Sun_Addict

Re the Co Pilot, we all automatically got this at work but it doesn't interfere with shared spreadsheets so IT must've disabled part of it. Hopefully Mr F has discovered which box to check/uncheck by now. I also assist with IT systems as a side line to my role, mainly resetting people's passwords when they've managed to lock themselves out of systems. I've only used the Co Pilot once and didn't find it very useful to be honest.