Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

thriftmonster

Glad you had a great evening and your outfit sounds fab

PennysIntoPounds

Sounds a great night out and a wonderful outfit 🥂

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
Quick weekend round-up of budget-friendly stuff.
Saturday:
*Had our flu jabs. Mr F had a voucher for a free one as he's a key-worker so only had to pay for mine.
*Bought 2 Christmas presents from the list, picked up a 3rd via 'Click & collect' & when we got home, Postie had delivered another two.
*Visited eco-refill shop for cleaning stuff & some festive baking ingredients.
*Another £10 voucher arrived from my CC loyalty points. Am stashing these as 'Tech Replacement Pot' funds.
*Did 4 surveys. PA survey earnings target this month is £40.
*No mangoes on market. Still wasn't minded to pay £2.25 each. Found some in another shop for which Mr F had a £4 off voucher & mangoes were on offer so worked out at £1 each plus one on yellow sticker. This halved the price & I shall get the sauce made this week.
*Bought a long felt pumpkin garland for next year's window display- 1/2 price (£7-50) as Oct 31st been & gone. Had intended to make one myself but didn't get round to it & don't think I could buy the materials for less than that tbh.

Today:
*Rounded off our anniversary week with breakfast at village farm shop cafe. Personal Spends so budget-neutral.
*Productive garden session. Mr F cleared a large veg bed, dug it over & sowed it with a green manure mix. I cleared a section at the back of a border & did some planting - hollyhocks grown from free seed plus self-seeded sweet rocket & verbena bonariensis.
Rest of the day v leisurely - reading, bath, crossword, Sunday papers, chatting & stroking cats. They are both worried atm because of fireworks going off nearby. 
Well, a new week is nearly upon us. Let's see what we can achieve.
F x

Humdinger1

Velvet wedding cloak?! Every detail please @foxgloves

foxgloves

Well, @Humdinger1, we were married in the Autumn so I arrived in a long black velvet cloak over my dress because it was chilly. Dress had medieval style sleeves so wouldn't have been able to fit them into a coat. 
F

Suffolk_lass

Ooh, I've got the outfit (not the personality) of the evil queen in Walt Dibbly's Snow White in my head now

Humdinger1

Marvellous @foxgloves! I had a black velvet cloak that got pinched from a wedding.  I used to wear it sometimes as a scarf to work when very cold. It led to questions about whether Batman worked there.  Love Humdinger xx 

rtandon27

oooo - I love the thought of a velvet cloak!  We have an occaision next week and while the dress is autumn weight &I have a pashmina, I was thinking of a velvet capelet for over the top! Then I'd not have anywhee else to wear it!

foxgloves

Lol, @Suffolk_lass - She is much thinner than me! 

@Humdinger1 & @rtandon27 - I do think there are occasions when a velvet cloak has its uses i.e making an entrance.....or even better, making the swishiest of dramatic exits!

Hello Diary Readers,
I feel I've got off to a productive start to the week, although budget updates took a lot longer than usual because of transfers needing to be done from 3 different Savings Pots as well as updating November's grocery budget & Personal Spends. I'll start with that for today's budget-helping activity:
*Did my regular Monday morning budget updates & sorted out the £4 which was adrift on my CC balance.
*Did 3 loads of laundry, 2 of them had an extra spin which should result in less heated airer time. Quite breezy outside but didn't trust the overhanging greyness of sky sufficiently to peg out.
*Made mincemeat. It is now macerating in sherry for 48 hours before I pot in up into jars.
*Made a batch of my own (secret) recipe Hot Mango & Scotch Bonnet Sauce. It's a bit too hot for me, but Mr F loves things which incinerate his mouth linings off & I may also put a jar in one of the festive hampers I intend to make as B-i-L also likes things hot, hot, HOT!
*Froze the very last of the cayenne chillies from their ripening tray. I didn't think they would ripen this late but as soon as I brought them indoors, they weren't even bothered about light, it was just the warmth they wanted & there were new red ones waiting every morning.
*Swallowed the frog. Or I have for now. Am awaiting reply, hopefully followed by a helpful workman.
*Easy-peasy nosebag tonight. We have an online folklore talk early evening, so decided just to have some homemade tomato soup while that's going on, followed by scrambled eggs on toast. It doesn't get much simpler than that, especially as Mr F is the chief egg-scrambler here at Foxgloves Manor.
That's it for today. We shall have sad cats later, especially Ash. He is nil by mouth from midnight but has to stay in so that he doesn't 'accidentally' eat a rodent. So his dinner tonight will be his last food until he wakes up from the anaesthetic tomorrow afternoon. Soot will also have to stay in as the cat flap will be blocked off & will need to have a later breakfast tomorrow in case Ash muscles in on it. Ash isn't poorly, btw, but he needs a dental. 
I am feeling stiff & a bit sore today - some of it is from digging/clearing & planting yesterday (Gardener's bum) but I think my shoulder, a knee & general aches are because I tripped over a coffee table last night & went flying. mr F called upstairs, "Whatever was that big crash? Did you hear it?" & rushed up when I said from the floor, "Yes, it was ME!!". (Then I nearly lamped him when he asked me if I'd "fallen over my feet"!! Don't know why it annoyed me so much but it did! He helped me up & made me take some deep breaths before saying I wasn't to do any more jobs, so I was all for that as a result, lol!
Hope your Mondays have been OK.
F x

daisy_1571

another velvet cloak owner here, blue, silver lining, big hood (like the Scottish widows ad lady), matching little bag, lots of hours on my knees cutting and pinning great swathes of velvet - love it but won't be making another !!  Fabulous for the swish entrance and exit 👍