Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

He got the ascerbic comments later, @rtandon27, when we got homw & the heated airer had to be deployed to dry his clothes! 

PennysIntoPounds

If the roof cost isn't too much, can you please get pantry-cam, I so want regular updates on Soot's secret cunning devices 😁

Happy new mse velvet dress 🥂
Where will it be making its dèbut?

Oh dear, sorry Mr F, I have also laughed

'Studying festive cheese wheels' is now my favourite euphemism for trying not to react 

Sun_Addict

Great bargain with the dress after the discount and survey proceeds. I hope you have a nice outing in mind for it.,

Humdinger1

Yes, 'studying festive cheese wheels' is joining 'bees too angry to sell' as shorthand for so much.. as ever, you are both kind and practical @foxgloves.  Crimbo plans coming on nicely.   I'm cutting down weekly R*ford orders now to allow space in the budget for more at the relevant time.  Love Humdinger xx 

Suffolk_lass

Humdinger1 said:

Yes, 'studying festive cheese wheels' is joining 'bees too angry to sell' as shorthand for so much.. as ever, you are both kind and practical @foxgloves.  Crimbo plans coming on nicely.   I'm cutting down weekly R*ford orders now to allow space in the budget for more at the relevant time.  Love Humdinger xx 

I may have said it, but like butter left out of the fridge, you spread it @Humdinger1 - personally I prefer "paying the supermarket to store their food", but that's because I have to remind myself I could possibly not shop for several months and still never run out of some things. That said, I have to shop this week. The LED bulb in the porch is as weak as a weak thing. Pale and wan and useless!

foxgloves

Thanks for all your comments, which I always enjoy reading x

Hello Diary Readers,
Where on EARTH has today gone? I feel my time has been stolen away by gnomes. 
Budget-friendly bits as follows:
*Laundry all done at 30 deg & draped on heated airer. A dry bright day, but I felt probably too cold for effective pegging out results.
*Divided up leftover roast pork. It did a roast dinner yesterday & there is sufficient for hot pork rolls with apple sauce tonight plus a stir-fry on Weds. Mr F over-catered on roast veg so I intend to use the leftovers as the basis for a meal tomorrow.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Did my Monday morning budget updates, but deferred my regular mid-month budget check-in until tomorrow when more of this weekend's transactions will be showing on my accounts.
*Printed off November's credit card statement, reconciled it with receipts & paid the balance.
*Did a couple of surveys.
*Entered a competition.
*Fish box arrived so I divided the contents up & froze. Trimmings in a mixed box ready to make a fish pie at some point.
*Did a bit of present knitting.

It's not even 4.30 yet & it's already getting positively crepuscular here. I shall run round closing curtains then it's bath & hair wash time. Am making progress with bathroom cupboard use-it-ups, especially various sample/travel sizes I have acquired on various free offers. Tonight's target use-up is a shea hair mask. TV quizzes & some crochet tonight for me. I am only a v basic crocheter but have decluttered a pile of granny squares I made last year from some yarn my friend gave me. I am going to crochet them together to make a new cat blanket.
Have ear-marked tomorrow's target tasks as getting my Mid-Month Budget Check-In done & attempting to finish the rest of the Christmas wrapping.
We are into a new week, let's see what we can do with it.
F x

foxgloves

Hello Tuesday Readers,
Another day which seems to have disappeared very quickly. Budget-positive stuff as follows:
*Not quite a no-spend day because a techy problem I had trying to renew a membership was sorted out by techy folk at their end & I paid our annual £30 fee.
*Laundry had pretty much dried overnight on the heated airer so having removed the dry items, I had room for more, so washed some cat blankets - pretty much dry already.
*Did a few budget updates that had appeared on my CC account since yesterday so as to have really up-to-date accurate numbers, then did my regular mid-month budget check-in. My figures were £33 lower than expected. I thought that was enough of a discrepancy to investigate the obvious variables, if not to launch full scale forensics & I did find I could account for around £7 of this, but not the remaining £26. I combed through my original November budget but that didn't shed any light. My best guess (& I'm sure it will be this) is that with all the Christmas shopping & transfers from the Presents Pot, etc, I have probably paid a purchase off either mine or Mr F's CC but haven't remembered to do the Pot transfer. Annoying, but not a problem as I always allow a sufficient buffer zone when setting monthly budgets to absorb this kind of nuisance.
*Did a couple of surveys - have surpassed my monthly target of £40 on PA once everyone has paid me. Still 12 days to go until the end of the month, so I shall keep going with it.
*Foxgloves HQ has been like Father Christmas's grotto this afternoon (though substitute very questionable cat help from Soot for usefulness of elves!). I decided to push through with the wrapping & have now wrapped everything except 2 items for Mr F which haven't arrived yet plus the foodie hamper we are giving to our besties. I still need to buy a few bits for that, but not much as it needs to fit in the box I decorated. Nearer our arranged family meet-up, I also need to trim up some jars as I always give my sister & family a box of my homemade preserves. So those things still to do but EVERYTHING else has now been wrapped & allocated to individuals' gift bags. I shall not be tempted to buy additional things (I was dreadful for this back in the Spendaceous Era) as all the gift bags look nicely replete so NOTHING else is needed. I do need to finish making that 2nd pair of socks though......hence....
*A bit more present knitting over my lunch hour.
That has pretty much taken up most of my day. I just need to do a bit of cooking later to turn a big dish of leftover roast veg into tonight's meal. We have plenty of milk so I am going to make some cheese sauce to pour over them, then top with a mixture of cheesy breadcrumbs & pumpkin seeds. This is a spare 'free' meal so one of this week's planned meals can be bumped to next week. I have made sure Mr F is fully aware that November's grocery budget is down to £51 but there is only one shop left to do from this sum before my next Big Budget Day when December's budget will be set. He says he's well up for using stuff we already have in to make more room n the freezer so we are both singing from the same hymn book on that!
Right, I must hie me away to the kitchen, though with the fairy lights & a good audiobook, it's hardly a hardship.
It's definitely colder here today. I am having to get used to seeing £4+ figures for daily gas use on the smart monitor again. Since we switched the heating back on, we've only been using about half that, & on some days less, as it just hasn't been cold enough to trigger the CH to come on. I'll be interested to see what this month's statement says, particularly if we have tipped over into using more than our monthly DD payment & a little into using our credit balance. But that's enough yakking.
Stay cosy,
F x

Humdinger1

Lovely as ever @foxgloves to read about the homestead! Budgets are so often about decisions that seem small but add up to a whole theory of mind that's not about conspicuous consumption aka showing off.  I'm always refreshed after reading your diary.  Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

foxgloves

You are very kind, @Humdinger1. I agree that that unless we have an enormous financial decision to make, then budgetary wisdom is pretty much based on a series of fairly small decisions & actions. There is also a lot of choice involved. When I hear someone say they are hopeless with money, I always think, "No, you are not, you are just repeatedly making the wrong choices". There are choices which help our financial situation & those which hinder it (& ultimately **** it up completely, of course). We are in control of those choices, there isn't some other-worldly psychic power steering us in the direction of the check-out while waving our credit cards. Of course I used the "Oh, I'm just really bad with money" excuse frequently back in the Spendaceous Era, but the truth was that I'd never tracked my spending, created or adhered to a budget, so how would I know? Proclaiming my uselessness with money also absolved me (in my own head) of responsibility. It turns out that the opposite was, in fact, true. I have strong budgeting skills - I just had to get in the necessary frame of mind to find out! You are so right about all those little, seemingly insignificant decisions/actions, as it is lots of these which result in us living within our means, paying down debt if we have it &/or building a safety net of savings......in fact, exactly the reverse of how all the 100s of silly little fritters, buying unnecessary tat & top-up shops (so often from failure to plan) lead us into overdraft, rising credit card balances, loans & debt! It really is a case of understanding the cumulative effects of lots & lots of small things.
Well, @Humdinger, you provided me with today's 'Thought for the Day' there!
F x

foxgloves

And I'd better get today's post on.....
Hello Diary Readers,
A useful day with time for some leisure (reading, crossword & piano playing) as well as target tasks. Budget-helping stuff as follows:
*Baked bread.
*Did the ironing - sorted everything really well so only did what required it.
*Wrapped up against the chilly wind, fetched my secateurs, cut back two buddlejas & wrestled it all into the garden waste wheelie - last of the double collections tomorrow, then just one a month until March, so I wanted to get my money's worth. Still some room left so pulled out several cosmos which had finished for the year. 
*Did meal plans for next week. This week's meal plans went slightly awry, but luckily Mr F spotted a container of leftover roast pork in the fridge for a stir-fry which dropped off the list, which meant we were able to freeze it in time & it won't be wasted. We aim to be a zero food waste household & it would really have annoyed me if it had ended up in the bin.
*Wrote a tight shopping list, as final week of this month's grocery budget is lower than I'd ideally like it to be, but I don't anticipate any problems as we have plenty of supplies in.
*Arranged pre-Christmas meet-up with besties & also invited them over for New Year's Day. Nice to get stuff confirmed in diaries. Mr F has volunteered to cook lunch while I 'entertain' (should I be sewing spangles onto my bra & tights?) & bake something for afternoon tea. 
*Sorted those blimmin' granny squares into equal piles (once I'd retrieved a couple from behind a bookcase, you see, I said they had turned into clutter!) so each can be crocheted together over the next few evenings. Sufficiently mindless to do while watching TV. Then the cats can enjoy having a new blanket for Christmas.
*Mr F fetched the big Christmas crate, tree & box of my wreath-making bits & bobs down from the loft so that I can start putting things out from Advent Sunday. The holly needs a good prune so will combine this with wreath-making & see if my sister would like one too. 
*Did a few surveys.
And that, m'dears, is it for today. Cats glued to the radiator so can tell it's colder. I expected sleet today, but none as yet. 
Stay cosy,
F x