Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Morning Campers! 
I was prepping veg for roasting by 7.30 this morning. We have family coming over for lunch today & I was on strict notice from Mr F that he would require major first dibs on the oven for his slow cooked harrissa lamb. It was good getting an early start, as I also set the dining table, did a bit of ironing & sorted out serving dishes. Zaat'ar roast veg couscous now made & in the fridge & I don't need to do anything else apart from make a salad, chuck a bit of feta in, cut some crudites & put out things like hummous & olives. Pittas can be warmed last thing while I'm cutting the meat up. So THAT is why I am out on my reading bench with this doorstep of a book. Mr F is busy doing a factory re-set on the TV. A bit of a money saving angle there. Our TV isn't ancient, but no longer receives updates so it has a few annoying connectivity issues with the C4 & ITVX apps. Fiddling about with tech set-ups is one of his top pastimes. We have deliberately built up our tech replacement savings pot to buy a new TV when the connectivity problems become unworkable & he was all for this to happen fairly soon. However, this weekend, he's had a change of heart. Says our current TV still works fine in every other aspect & it's a fantastic clear sharp picture. So now he thinks he'd prefer to see what else he can do to get around the connectivity issues. Things seemed to improve slightly after he'd cleared some or other cache so he is now trying a full factory re-set to see if it has any impact. I'm perfectly happy to delay spending the money we've saved for this, but it is still good to know that it is there. This is part of a big change re Mr F & tech. Back in the day, before the LBM, he was a serial 'upgrader'. As soon as he'd set up a new gizmo, he'd already be talking about the model he was going to buy next time. This was a big part of his Spendy Years & I'm glad it has been left firmly there!
Time for a chapter.....
F x

foxgloves

Hello Monday Money Savers,
I've got one eye on chatting to you & the other on the weather as I may need to dash out & recue the laundry. We had a lovely time entertaining family yesterday. They loved the food & we had a good long catch-up. Poor S-i-L has been going through the most awful time at work & I think a change of scenery coming over to Foxgloves Manor probably did her good. I offloaded a big bag of pears, but couldn't get them to relieve us of any courgettes as they are also big veg growers. Anyway, before I start going off on tangents, onto today's budget-positive stuff:
*Enough tasty leftovers from yesterday's lunch to feed us last night & tonight with some spare pittas for a couple of lunches too.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Wrote to a friend - still using up my extensive stash of writing materials & already had a stamp so it was just a case of writing the letter & then building today's steps by trotting off to the postbox.
*Garden pickings: Courgettes, blackberries, french beans, 3 green peppers, chillies & tomatoes.
*Veg prep.....beans put aside to go in tomorrow's kedgeree, peppers cut into strips & frozen for recipes which require them - shall let the rest of the peppers ripen to red), chillies frozen. Tomatoes divided up between meals we'll be eating this week & the surplus put aside as if many more ripen over the next 2 or 3 days, I may do some more bottling.
*Fed sourdough jar.
*Finally Postie brought my replacement credit card. That damned scammer ensured that I missed the double loyalty points promotion on throughout August as he knew so much about my card it was too compromised not to cut it up & wait for a new one. I never use it for credit, those days are done, but I was surprised how much I missed it, as it is used regularly to maximise points & the vouchers are treated as either tech replacement pot money or pay for our Christmas turkey. 
*Didn't take part in the free energy hour yesterday after all. As there was another one today, it was easier to max out today's opportunity rather than rush around switching on chargers, setting the washing machine, etc, while our guests were here. Today, I managed to do a laundry load, charge everything (even brought vacuuming forward a day so I could recharge that too) & deferred my afternoon coffee so as to get a 'free one'.
*Did a survey. I didn't really engage with surveys much last month & haven't bothered cashing out my August PA earnings. I will do better in September. 
I thought I'd get a lot more done today but tbf, I did spend a decent amount of time on my letter & did also manage to do quite a lot of tidying up from the weekend. Well, m'dears, here we are in a new shiny month, feeling all enthusiastic & 'back to school-y'. Yes, I really am! I love Autumn. It's my favourite season & I hope to find something positive every day. I'm going to talk Mr F into polishing up my boots & enjoy the fact that it is almost time to get my new amethyst glitter tights out!
Peace,
F xx

Sun_Addict

Although summer is by far my favourite season I do like autumn and the new term feel of September. The amethyst glitter tights sound awesome. 

Elisheba

Ah, bless Mr F. That was very thoughtful of him, doing all the hard to reach kitchen places 😁.

I have to be honest, I find the whole cat food pouches things an utter con. Tins are half the price by volume and easier to recycle. Black cat gets 1/4 of a tin, twice a day, and it just goes into the fridge until next time. 

You dressmaking is inspiring me to think about getting my sewing machine out. My ex MIL gave me it 20 years ago, as her work place was clearing them out. I did a dress making course, but haven't really looked at it since 🙄. It's currently doing good work as a doorstop silly dog can't move or chew 🤣.

themadvix

I’m with Elisheba re cat food - no pouches here. Tins are also infinitely more recyclable. But I will acknowledge that my cats are food obsessed and will eat whatever is put in front of them.

rtandon27

I love the cloths that are worn in autumn, turtlenecks, wool skirts and tights - it's nice to be warm and cosy.  I'm not a fan however of the short days of the 'ber' months.  Summer is by far my favorite season with the long endless days and short nights!

Suffolk_lass

Our cat enjoys the ritual of a pouch being opened. I'm sure it is the knowledge it is for her and the sound and attention associated with it as she just licks it a bit and leaves some for the flies or to dry out. One pouch is split into 4 portions, lasting 2 days but topped up by dry senior Poorina stuff. She's an indoor girl and mostly thrives on goading the small dog, openly drinking his water and trying to get him into trouble for chasing her (not hard, by the way). She's the only cat we have ever had that does not punish us when we have been away, and is a pretty gentle cat (by their standards), especially since her sister was killed on the increasingly busy road.

foxgloves

In many ways, I'd prefer to buy tinned cat food. It's the choice & availability that's poor. When I adopted my first beautiful floof (late 90s) there was lots of choice available & all supermarkets carried good stocks of various brands. He particularly liked one called 'Classic' but I haven't seen that around for years. There may be a better range of tins available online, but then I have to balance replacing plasticky pouches with using big companies I may not choose to support. Our local C**p takes the empty pouches back in their plastic recycling dumpbin but like all these collection points, I wonder what happens to the plastics. Is there a contract with a recycling business ensuring they get reused? Or do they simply get added to the business' waste skip out the back? I know Waitbl00m (at least at one point) recycled plastic bags for life into outdoor furniture, as I have sat on one of these benches, but I think all countries would need to be recycling plastics on a hugely industrial scale to come close to the amount that is binned every single day. 

themadvix

I am afraid I am very doubtful about the recycling of soft plastics - the variety of items that apparently count strikes me as very dubious and I think it's highly likely they end up in landfill or incinerators somewhere (and likely as not abroad). The large multinationals who produce the products in them are not interested in reducing their plastic waste (and in many cases have links to the oil companies) - they would rather push all responsibility on to the end user and ignore the externalities of their profit margins (there's a lot of literature about this out there).

I know you prefer to buy in-store Foxgloves, and appreciate your reasons for doing so (esp. from Waitflower and your C-op, but if you fancied something different (and more to the point, if Soot and Ash fancied something different!), I buy from Z00plus. It's a German company and no, that's not great, but I don't think they operate from a tax haven and they aren't Amazon. My boys enjoy Wild Freedom tins - all chicken, no filler.

foxgloves

Thanks, @themadvix. I will have a look at them. I do prefer to shop in store, you're right. The rate at which shops are closing here makes me think that even the 2 supermarkets you mention could become under-used enough to withdraw from our town. When I was a local councillor, a big supermarket wanted to buy a site in town & an impact study was commissioned. We already have 4 supermarkets plus another on the edge of town & 5 small C**ps. The study looked at whether this was sustainable, as in would it simply mean a redistribution of shoppers & their spending more thinly amongst more supermarkets. That was when I read that our existing supermarkets were "only doing ok" & none of them getting their anticipated footfall (probably because there are too many for a relatively small rural town). So to support the supermarkets we consider most ethical, we made a committment to use them. I do shop online, but not for stuff I can get on the high street. 
But on the subject of soft plastic collection points, yes I share your cynicism about the end point of those materials. Actually, I think I will ask both companies exactly what happens to it. 
F