Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

badmemory

foxgloves said:

@teapot2 - Yes, me! I had dental implants done in January 2024. Do feel free to private message me any questions.
F

I was told the bones of my jaw were not good enough!  It didn't sound quite so blunt when they said it but that was what they meant.

BrilliantButScary

teapot2 said:

Hi Foxgloves, glad your visit to the dentist went well.  I hope you won't mind me asking a dental related question here as I know you get lots of visitors.  Has anyone had a dental implant and what was the process like?  The idea of it fills me with a good deal of dread but I don't know anyone who has had the procedure done to ask.  Fine to send me a private message as I don't want to hijack FG's diary.  TIA x

Check out this discussion, @helensbiggestfan has had dental implants and I am sure would answer any questions you have.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6577623/frump-to-fab-2025#latest

foxgloves

Hi Diary Readers,
Not much to report today. Have just been getting ahead of myself with some of my usual Monday jobs so as to free up what is looking like a rainy day for cutting out & pinning my maxi-dress & making a start on sewing it together. I had the ironing gubbins out this morning as was sorting yesterday's dry laundry, so I took the opportunity of ironing the fabric while the iron was already hot & steaming.
Have also done a few basic budget updates, mostly the grocery budget as I don't want a repeat of July, with overspending because we front-loaded it too heavily at the beginning of the month. Underspent on a little bit of cash I put aside for lunch out on dentist day, so in the spirit of every little helps, I've divided that between our Personal Spends to subsidise our coffee out on Wednesday. 
Did a survey & wrote a card to a friend who is having an awful time. Shall trot out to the postbox with that shortly as my steps are low this morning. Yesterday, I hit my target of not being sedentary for 100 days in a row. I loathe more formal exercise & simply cannot maintain any commitment to it at all, so I am going to try & have more daily walks, as in actually making the effort to go out for a walk rather than rack up steps by being generally busy. I generally find this very boring so will see how it goes! 
Mr F is roasting chicken for lunch & as he also made enough lovely WW lamb & marrow bake last night to feed us tomorrow as well, I will be stretching chicken leftovers easily to Tuesday & Wednesday's meals. We are going to do a master meal plan for August this afternoon as we have 2 weekends where we are entertaining friends & it will be useful to work around & also prioritise our lovely fresh homegrown produce & the food we already have in the freezer & pantry. The rest of today will be leisure-based though, as Sundays usually are here. I've only been clearing jobs to free up sewing time tomorrow.
Soot & Ash ate breakfast (2 clean bowls) but by 10am were both pestering for their lunch. This involved a lot of unnecessary fisticuffs for which they were soundly told off at least 5 times. Ash isn't usually too bad for food pester, as unlike Soot, he will usually take the hint, but he has developed a serious 'persian queen' pouch habit & seems to think that if there is some in the house, he should be eating it all the time. 
Wishing everyone a peaceful Sunday,
F x

Debsnewbudget

I love listening to my audio books when I am walking - would that help your boredom ? 

PennysIntoPounds

Glad the dental appointment went well, and was super money saving! Big up that dentist for letting you know, seems like many wouldn't, sadly.
Love the idea of tights with bats on, pics if you get them please (obviously no-one show Did-You-Speak-To-My-Husband lady 😁)

rtandon27

Haha - just imagine if the over-protective wife discovered you'd been flashing your stocking clad legs on t'internet!  She not ever let her husband out of the house again!

BrilliantButScary

What about these?

https://snagtights.com/products/80-denier-tights-glowsty-black?pr_prod_strat=jac&pr_rec_id=e6c8d7856&pr_rec_pid=7440792977450&pr_ref_pid=6872050073642&pr_seq=uniform

Sun_Addict

Well done on the 100 days of activity. Good that you’re making a conscious effort to stay active, it all helps, not everyone enjoys formal exercise. However a friend of mine hated formal exercise until she retired and she’s now in her 70s and going to the gym several times a week - so you never know 😆

foxgloves

@Sun_Addict - Lol, no, that will never be me! I don't spend long lengths of time sitting, as I like to be busy, so even that must help, I should think. 

@Debsnewbudget - I love audiobooks. I listen to them on a daily basis on the kitchen stereo. I don't stream music or audio at all, as it's never fulfilled any need that I have, but I could try it for going on my walks. I can't use ear buds or any headphones which go in my ears as they don't fit & fall out constantly until I am ready to hurl them to the ground & jump on them! I have a nice little rechargeable DAB radio but have stopped using it because of this. Mr F says he will lend me his headphones which go over his head to see if I think I'd get on with a set like that.

@BrilliantButScary - I am a very satisfied customer of the site to which you posted a link & yes, they do have a good range of spooky & seasonal tights. I also like the ones which have stripy legs, but in different colours. My purple glitter tights came from there.

foxgloves

Hello Tuesday Friends,
Productive day so far. Positive stuff for the budget:
*Made a sourdough for baking tomorrow.
*Roasted a tray of homegrown veg with zaa'tar & used it to make couscous for tonight's meal.
*Did rubber chicken duties. It provided a roast dinner on Sun. Leftovers divvied up to provide some cold for tonight, to make spicy chicken, cannellini beans & veg pittas tomorrow plus a container frozen for Mr F's next Epic Man Stew session.
*Garden pickings: red spring onions (Variety Lilia. If you leave them longer, they grow to shallot size & are great roasted in a tray of veg as above), courgettes & another kg of blackberries.
*Did a couple of budget updates.
*Have got everything ready for this afternoon's free electricity hour: Wil re-charge everything, run the washing machine (pillow washing atm) & anything else I can think of which would be a useful move of energy use to this afternoon's free session.
*Sewing this afternoon - I have dug out the toile I made when I was practising my easy dress pattern. Have partially opened the side seams to take it in a little & used some of the surplus scrap duvet fabric to cut out the pieces to add a tier. I am doing this because I am not a very confident dressmaker but mainly to ascertain how gathered I want this tier to be, & how long, which will inform how big a piece to cut from my new fabric. I can remember our rather dour needlework teacher telling us to spend twice as long measuring & understanding the pattern & constructing as we did cutting as of course, once it's been cut, we can't stick it back on! I don't want to waste my new fabric through a silly error.
*Chose next week's meals from the August master meal plan we did & added them to the planner I use for food in my diary.
*Wrote grocery shopping list plus a town list for tomorrow as we may as well make best use of the parking charge.
*Have a think about Mr F's proposal that we book a few days away in the ensuite hostel rooms at our fave campsite for my birthday next year. I'd love to go & the finances will be ok, but we do already have an expensive cottage booked for our Silver Wedding later next year so I have told him I'll need the exact cost & will revise the Holiday Payment Schedule. We will need to pay a bit more into that to cover this additional proposed break, so I will check the other 9 savings pots too - they are in pretty good shape on the whole due to Project Surbiton - to ensure that they can take a little less. I shall need to factor in cattery fees for the 2 monkeys as well (& Soot really was a monkey yesterday.......seems hard to believe that this time last week, he was eating nothing, miserable & we had got him booked in at the vet).
Looking forward to a bubble bath & hair wash later - am on bathroom cupboard 'use-it-up' again, so it could also involve a face mask.
Ridiculously windy today, which is I'm sure, why we have the offer of the free energy hour.
Cheers for now,
F x