Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
Thanks for all your good wishes as we all embark on 2026 with all the promise & challenges it will surely bring.
Finding it hard to get going this morning, thanks to the late night, wine & a glass of mead to welcome in the new year. No such problem for Soot & Ash, who had already performed their first zoomies of 2026 by 7.30 am!
Right, we have guests arriving later so I must get cracking. Glitter tights may well provide the boost I need, plus a 2nd coffee.
F x

Baileys_Babe

We celebrated new year with the wider family, playing games.

Happy New Year 

foxgloves

INTO THE LOFT.....
Well, as my dear old Grandad used to say, "After the Lord Mayor's Show comes the muck cart......."
A delightfully relaxed day yesterday entertaining our friends. Mr F roasted a small ham which has provided some tasty leftovers for a couple of further meals, so a bit of a win there. But now we feel we need to address the fact that the roofers are scheduled to arrive in just over a week & we need to get our shizz together. This morning we are removing various items from the loft for safe-keeping. I am hoping that we will find stuff we can get rid of, & perhaps a few useful things we've forgotten about too. Either way, we won't be out & about spending any money today & that leftover ham will mean a spare meal from the meal plan which can be bumped to next week. 
Caffeine first.....
F

Makingabobor2

Take care climbing about in loft. Hope you find some hidden treasures

KajiKita

Good luck in the loft! I hope there are no portals to other worlds up there - it would be a shame not to use that ham … 🤔😉

KK

Suffolk_lass

Shh! Creeps in, shoe straps in hand, barefoot, on tiptoe, to go to bed after err, extensive New Year celebrations that included (seemingly) everyone's favourite cocktail, if my diary is to believed. It is so nice to have the house back to ourselves, much as we love our friends. And so lovely, reading the normality of everyone's comments.

Have a great 2026, with much frugality. Me? I'm aiming for £10k savings this year, under £3000 on groceries, and two more modules towards my Masters (fingers crossed) - but most of all, for both of us and our animals to be healthy - and I wish you the same @foxgloves!

foxgloves

Thanks, @Suffolk_lass. We haven't yet had our annual January Money Summit meeting where we look at how we are doing & set financial goals for the year ahead. We have postponed it until the roof is finished, just in case the work throws up any (deeply) unwelcome problems which require yet more money. I think rebuilding our Emergency Fund is likely to be key though....no surprises there!

foxgloves

DESCENT FROM THE LOFT.......
Hello, thought I'd better pop a post on in case anyone thought we were still up there! Actually I didn't go up there at all. I was the Very Useful Engine at the foot of the ladder receiving items & trying to find somewhere to put them. It only actually took us yesterday morning to empty out the entire loft with another hour or so conveying things to where they needed to go, ensuring access into upstairs rooms, etc, so it could have been a lot worse.
Did we find any treasure? Nope! Well, except for a single solitary 1p, about which Mr F seemed ridiculously excited! I think it was more that he couldn't think how on earth it got up there, so it must have been from the previous occupants, therefore he felt we were 1p up on the deal. My more cynical take on it was that had they not had the problem nasty spray-on insulation installed, we wouldn't be about to part with £8.5k, or £8.499-99 taking into account the found penny. There were some loft-sorting wins, however:
*A couple of large lidded storage boxes freed up by re-packing some of the others more efficiently.
*The large water cannister from our camping days moved to utility room ready for use now we are on metered water. It will be good for collecting run-off while waiting for the tap to run hot.
*Furniture item from Mum & Dad's house moved into my little HQ room as I now have a use for it. If I use it to store various craft items, I can free up some more versatile shelving space. Have already relocated our printer on top of it which has made it more accessible.
*3 items moved to the shed as I intend to re-purpose them for garden use.
*Quite a few large empty boxes from appliances (Mr F often finds it hard to throw these away in case the item needs to be returned) were flattened & added to the recycling wheelie which isn't money saving but definitely felt like useful decluttering. Another item started off a new charity shop bag.
*More decluttering - I decided that as I haven't made any wine for 25 years, I no longer need to keep a colossal box of wine-making equipment. No takers from our driveway 'help yourself' pile so it will be off to the tip tomorrow. Ditto (oh joy!!!) quite a few items from Mr F's tech graveyard. I reckon @ladyholly will know all about these, as I reckon Mr LH may also have oodles of cables & bits of tech that 'might come in useful' again. Pleased to say that a chunky sub-woofer, a set of speakers, other home cinema stuff, cables, etc, (also no takers from the driveway) will also be having a little one-way trippette to the tip tomorrow.
Still lots more stuff for sorting but no urgency. I shall need plenty of productive tasks to keep me sane while the roofers are here. The important thing is that the loft is empty.

Other stuff: Continuing to use up leftovers. The ham provided an extra meal last night with poached eggs & home made jacket wedges, Tonight is the turn of some camembert from Mr F's festive cheese mountain, which he is serving melted in crusty warm baguettes with a dollop of my home made hedgerow jelly, coleslaw & potato salad. Quick perambulation around Waitbl00m to assess post-festive yellow stickers. Not bad on the whole but nothing we really needed. Defo none of the fab Christmas coffee left this year. We treated ourselves to a pack of la-di-dah fancypants mince pies (will do for weekend desserts) as they were reduced to 20p a pack & I bought 3 good-sized nets of shell-on nuts which were reduced to £1 a net. I eat a few nuts with my lunch every day & as my usual  shelled ones have just gone up to £5 per really quite modest-sized bag, I thought this would probably be a saving. Mr F enjoyed a free latte. I didn't because in a supremely helpful way, I had left my pretty beaker at home on top of the freezer (again!!). As I was holding his coffee on the way home in the car, I did partake of a good few slurps!
Lovely walk this morning around frozen local-ish lake sharing my emergency packet of oatcakes with robins & nuthatches. Yes, I did peruse the gift shop, but ne'er a single penny left my purse. Just realised I have both started & ended this post with a 1p!
Last evening of sitting in the heartwarming light from our lovely Christmas tree & festive tea-light glasses as I intend to pack everything away tomorrow, except for the strings of fairy lights which I have out all year.
Stay cosy m'dears. 
F x

KajiKita

Wow! Thats quite a doing! Well done for maintaining sanity and perspective on all of that 😊 You’ve earned a rest now I think! 

I remember you making your hedgerow jelly 😊 Good find on the bags of nuts 👏

We will be de-christmassing here tomorrow too. 😊

When do the roofers start? 

KK

ladyholly

foxgloves said:

off to the tip tomorrow. Ditto (oh joy!!!) quite a few items from Mr F's tech graveyard. I reckon @ladyholly will know all about these, as I reckon Mr LH may also have oodles of cables & bits of tech that 'might come in useful' again. 

You know us so well. The funny thing is whenever he needs a cable for something we never seem to have the right one. As for things that "might come in useful". I think he has cornered the market in them.