Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

tiddles

Belated Happy Birthday wishes - I hope you had a lovely day xx

foxgloves

Thanks, @tiddles. Yes, I did have a lovely day.

Hello Friday Frugalistas,
A very routine, though pleasant enough day today. 
*Reassured Mr F that the Week 1 grocery shop he did last night was not over-budget. In fact, with my garden mag deducted (as mags are always from Personal Spends), it has actually come in slightly under our target weekly amount. I do need to pick up a couple of items tomorrow, but they are preserving ingredients so will go into stuff which will last all year, as well as be added to festive hampers.
*Baked a crusty loaf.
*Cut a bundle of sorrel & made sorrel soup (adapted from Cranks cream of watercress soup recipe though I add 4 cloves of garlic to my sorrel version & leave out the cream). Now frozen for Mr F's Spring work lunches as requested!
*Cleaned the house between us. I opted for kitchen & bathroom, which left Mr F vacuuming & bins. Usual minimal products & washable cloths. Made up another bottle of multipurpose cleaner from concentrate we buy from the eco-refill shop. One bottle goes a long way.
*Washed a load of towels, kitchen linens, etc, to make use of good free drying weather.
*Mr F declined to fill the car up locally. City centre trip tomorrow & we are likely to find cheaper fuel there.
Plenty of leisure too - lots of perambulations around the garden enjoying plants coming into flower, reading & we finally managed to finish last Saturday's Guardian crossword. Looking forward to a nice long weekend together.
F x

badmemory

I noticed today that the price of fuel had gone down by another 1p a litre.  I of course filled up last week expecting it to go up this week not down.  Not exactly traumatic as I doubt very much that I have used more than a litre since then, but I am sure they were saying it was due to go up - shows what "they" know doesn't it.

PennysIntoPounds

I've been rolling my eyes at every IMF forecast in the last few years after they strongly predicted rates would go to 6% and stay around there for the foreseeable. Not according to my savings accounts!
'They' are making it up as they go along just like the rest of us

foxgloves

Hello Saturday Savers,
Well, here I am with a mug of echinacea tea bemoaning the first cold I have had for over 4 years. Still wasn't sure of the nature of the beast yesterday so did a covid test just to see & it was nicely negative. Today, the snot has finally put in an appearance so while not happy to have picked up a lergy while stuck in the Birthday Queue, at least it is only looking like a cold. Mr F wisely suggested my gardening activities should probably stop at lunchtime so I have been relaxing this afternoon. It probably won't be a no-spend day as I think I will have ordered a new sewing machine by the end of today, but otherwise, activities have been budget-friendly:
*Bit of make-do & mend repairing 2 small areas of fretted seams on my only summer dress. It's quite an old one & was inexpensive but it would be nice if it could last out this summer because I still like it.
*Mr F constructed the new bench we bought for our veg plot refurb which is currently underway. Soot had a wonderful time with the big empty box (always a great free cat toy!) & quickly developed a game involving him shooting a paw out from under the flaps to grab us whenever we went past. 
*Hung out the bigger items of yesterday afternoon's laundry just for a final hour or two on the line.
*Potted up two dozen white candytuft plants & some bedding asters.
*Postponed today's planned city centre shopping trip until tomorrow. I kept getting dips in energy yesterday due to the lergy so we thought it would be worth giving it an extra day. Still planning to go tomorrow though, as need to buy a birthday present, hopefully a new summer dress, price up a couple of things as well as having a list of bog-standard stuff on the shopping list. I didn't want us to get there, pay for a morning's parking, then find I was feeling too tired to do all we'd planned & end up wasting our parking & petrol money. I shall make sure I take some cold/flu caplet thingies first thing tomorrow for a bit of a boost.
It's Mr F's cooking night tonight & he has decided he is going to tweak the recipe for Rick Stein's Mexican Red Rice because it is tasty but 'too wet'. He has been taking a scientific approach, comparing this recipe to an Indian one he makes & reducing the liquid content. He'll be annoyed if it isn't perfect, but it will be tasty however it comes out & he is cooking some BBQ pork steaks to go with it (part of local butcher's amazingly priced multi-buy offers). One thing I must do, is make sure I get an earlier night than last night, as put off going to bed for far too long, despite being really tired from the lergy & not being that great a sleeper. 
Right, I shall wish you all a happy Saturday night & go back to perusing sewing machines. My sis (sewing afficionado) has recommended I go for one of 3 big names so as to ensure availability of spares, & I think this is very good advice. In the distant past, I have occasionally been lured by cheap unknown brands of stuff & this has not always been a sensible choice - yes, soviet-import vacuum cleaner which spectacularly exploded, I mean you!!
Peace, & hope over hate,
F x

PennysIntoPounds

Hope you feel much improved after a good night's sleep. Maybe take a caplet thingy before bed too to help you get as much non-disrupted kip as possible.
And have tissues next to the bed so if you need to blow your nose you don't just lie there miserably trying to garner the energy to get up, though it might just be me who's that sleepy-lazy 😁

ladyholly

I hope your lurgy is much better tomorrow and you are bursting with your usual energy.

Four_Seasons

Hope you are feeling much better today xx

rtandon27

Hope you are well on the mend @foxgloves and were able to get out to town today!

Humdinger1

How's the dear patient? Xx