Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Hello Friday Frugalistas,
And here are today's efforts:
*Split the weekly cleaning between us. I opted for bathroom & kitchen & Mr F for thrashing the fearsome triangular-finned vacuum around. 
*As I'd changed all the towels & household linens, I thought I might as well make use of continued excellent free-drying conditions so laundered them straight away & they were dry in an hour, even big bath towels.
*Garden pickings: Another 8 courgettes.
*Finished my £3 dress & pressed it. Postie brought my new pattern this morning - a top. Says 'easy' but there's more work in it than the tunic dress pattern I've just made. I shall make sure I study it & understand everything before I start chopping into the fabric.
*Entered a competition.
*Added a potentially useful Sparks offer to my card.
*Re-wrote list for our deferred city centre trip tomorrow as I want to make maximum use of the petrol to get there & parking charge. Mr F has added stuff he needs to buy. We both enjoy shopping but we like a sense of mission rather than aimless wandering around. 
*Mr F went out early to get the grocery shopping. I stayed home because Soot had, had some kind of incident & I wanted to monitor him in case he needed a vet visit. The grocery list involved Waitbl00m, local market butcher & Mr M's supermarket. We do often have specific items to get from the latter, but this time, Mr F's view was that it's perhaps not now so worthwhile as pricing in different establishments get closer together. The cat meat he went in for had gone up again, so he ended up buying a different brand, a dairy item not available at our usual supermarket now costs more than we think it's worth (still bought one) but while there, he did buy some organic own-label ground coffee, as we both like it & Waitbl00m have increased the price of their Essentials one again by an extra 25p since this time last week. Also a useful yellow sticker item (as it was something on our list) & his usual free cuppa. Best bargains as usual were from our local market butcher. 
It's not my cooking night. Mr F is doing something with salmon, new potatoes & oodles of lovely courgettes (this seems a very un-watery variety so must remind myself what it is so I can buy the seeds again). I am going to read & catch up with the last episode of Springwatch later. 
Oh, I should add that Soot seems to have rallied. He was quite worried & unsure when we got up, though he did eat his breakfast. He was salivating excessively to the extent that there had clearly been some kind of incident. It does seem to have calmed down now. I suddenly thought of @ladyholly saying that Bear had been stung or bitten by something & I think the most likely scenario is that something similar happened to Soot when he went out in the garden 1st thing - either a sting from an insect (he is very interested in catching these) or maybe from accidentally chomping on a small nettle when he was eating some grass. Anyway, we are both keeping an eye on him in case it turns out to be something else, but atm, this seems the likeliest explanation.
Right, off I go. Wishing everyone a lovely Friday evening.
F x

ladyholly

If you think Soot might have been stung in his mouth it might be worth giving him an anti histamine tablet. Just check of make and dosage that is safe for him. We didnt realise that Bear had been stung and it became infected before we picked up that he wasnt right as we put his lethargy down to the very hot weather at first.

PennysIntoPounds

Glad Soot is rallying.
Isn't it annoying how coffee keeps going up in price. Bet it never comes down again either!

foxgloves

@ladyholly - Thanks for that advice. He seemed completely back to normal by the evening so we haven't administered anything or booked the vet. I still think it was a minor sting or maybe an ant bite, or a nettle. I noticed this morning that there is a suspicious feline bite shaped piece missing from one of my houseplants too & no sign of the chomped off bit. Hmmm. Not sure how recent this is or which cat is to blame. It's a hoya & isn't toxic to cats but could cause excess salivation if enough of it chewed & if he was sensitive to it. Still think some sort of insect incident most likely but we'll never know. Am just glad he's back to normal.

@PennysIntoPounds - Yes, I agree. I do understand that coffee is a natural thing & supplies of it are subject to weather variations, etc, but like you, I can't see the prices coming down in the shops, even if we were to hear that commodity prices had tanked. Decent ground coffee is a deal breaker here at Foxgloves Manor. I usually only have 2 mugs per day but that's as low as I'm going! Have tried coffee from the discount supermarkets but didn't really save anything as found I needed to add an extra half scoop each time to taste it. Strongly suspect that coffee is a commodity price-manipulated by hedge fund types betting on futures, damn their souls!
F x

foxgloves

Afternoon Sunbeams,
Very pleasant & useful city centre visit this morning. We are lucky in that we live equidistant between 2 cities - we favour the smaller one for shopping these days as traffic, parking & roadworks are less faff. Anyway, edited highlights of a budget-friendly nature:
*Mr F scored Bargain of the Day with £90's worth of very nice shirts for £26. The recently-hacked chain has heaps of stock to clear according to a chatty assistant so there were some seriously good sale rails, everything priced at 70% off. 
*Bought the last couple of items for my sister's birthday bag. I think the theme will make her smile as it is 'feet'. Today's items were a pretty ankle chain & a couple of nice nail polishes. 
*The shop which doesn't sell new bodies but sounds as though it should had the product I wanted at half price. Also bought a moisturiser.....which leads me onto.....
*Being strong in the face of temptation: I received a set of gorgeous skincare for my birthday. I have plenty of the cleansing balm & bi-phase serum left but am running low on the moisturiser so thought I'd buy one separately. It was priced at £49. I know there are many more expensive moisturisers around but I decided that was higher than I'm prepared to pay. It wasn't that I couldn't afford it. My Personal Spends could have covered it with ease & I love good skin care products but I have a ceiling on what I'm prepared to pay & it wasn't £49 for 40ml. Bought another brand I like for £18. 
Other things not bought were jeggings - why buy now when my sis is swapping me a pair later this month? A purple summer dress I would have bought last time had my size been in stock. Swerved this purchase too, as I have just made 2 new summer dresses, it wasn't in the sale & as I am losing a little weight, I think it may be a few new Autumn bits that I need. Also put back a hardback book which I actually have on order from the library as there's no reason to part with £22 just to read it sooner.
*Got home in time to.make use of Free Energy Hour so got ahead of myself by doing Monday's laundry & we charged everything too. 
*Garden pickings = coriander.
Mr F's cooking night & he's making a Cajun pork thing using a yellow-sticker pork mince find
 He's opted for veg watering later on, so I shall clear & re-set the kitchen while listening to my audiobook. For now I intend to read the paper & stroke Ash who has just rocked up covered in sticky buds.
And I fancy a gin & tonic.
Peace & love,
F x

themadvix

While I think coffee prices are speculated on, climate change is probably the cause of the ever increasing prices. Coffee is definitely at risk with a warming climate and of course the erratic weather affects the crop too. 

foxgloves

@themadvix - Yes, I think climate change is defo having an effect on coffee farming, & if it isn't quite yet, it's coming. I think this will happen with other things we tend to take for granted too. 
Perhaps it would be easier to start constructing myself some tinfoil headgear & pretend it's not happening.......
F

kayannie

PennysIntoPounds said:

Glad Soot is rallying.
Isn't it annoying how coffee keeps going up in price. Bet it never comes down again either!

I noticed this week that the boxes of Nescafe (cappuccino etc) sachets now only contain 7 individual packets instead of 8. Not so long ago there were 10 packets in a box & at one time there was even a little pot of chocolate powder included, to sprinkle on your coffee. I hate shrinkflation, it smacks of deviousness!! Do manufacturers really think we won't notice?! 
KA

Sun_Addict

Sounds like a successful visit to the city centre. I wouldn’t pay £22 for a book or £49 for a face cream either. I’ve noticed a few things have crept up in price recently. 

Humdinger1

I saw the moisturiser in the same shop today @foxgloves.  After polishing my specs, I did start muttering to myself; maybe along the lines of 'just who do you think you are' and possibly even WTAF...confined myself to stuff in the sale; refilling a pot and small pressie  for DD. Your diary is as riveting as ever love Humdinger xx