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Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend
Comments
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@foxgloves - your OH & mine must come from the same school of food appreciation - the most appreciated dish in our house is my very plain jane ham cubes and green veg quiche - uses up the last of everything and the pastry can be whipped up in no time in the food processor.
4 YEARS 10 MONTHS DEBT FREE!!! (24 OCT 2016)(With heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before us & their indubitable generosity.)...and now I have a mortgage! (23 AUG 2021)Original End Date - Sept 2041 New projection - Dec 2039 (reduced by 21 months)7 -
@rtandon27 - It happens with cakes too! All the lovely cake recipes he could choose from for his annual birthday cake & what's his favourite? A victoria sponge with 'red or purple jam' & a bit of basic water icing! (though I insist on sprinkles). Sometimes he's been tempted by a birthday pineapple upside-down cake or something else, but 'jam cake' remains his favourite.
2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!7 -
Victoria Sponge is MrBC's favourite cake too. I find now that shop bought and cafe cakes are too sweet and have too much icing. I use my mum's mc dou gall flour recipe book which I guess mum got as a promotion with the flour and find that the cakes are not overloaded with sugar and taste nice and traditional. I really wish I had a slice of cake to have with my cuppa this afternoon!
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@Blackcats - I like to bake Mary Berry's coffee Victoria sponge. It really seems to rise nicely & although I do like sweet things, I think the coffee content balances it. I usually grate a bit of white chocolate on top to go for a bit of a cappuccino vibe.
2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!5 -
Haha - thankfully in this house the sweet tooth only extends as far as shop bought biscuits & the cheapest ones at that. OH's bday cake this year was a Dundee cake & it too was shop bought - he's slowly munching his way though it.
4 YEARS 10 MONTHS DEBT FREE!!! (24 OCT 2016)(With heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before us & their indubitable generosity.)...and now I have a mortgage! (23 AUG 2021)Original End Date - Sept 2041 New projection - Dec 2039 (reduced by 21 months)5 -
Hello Friday Frugalistas,
Nothing exciting going on here as I had already earmarked today for a much needed house clean. So much cat fur & gunk kicking around upstairs - re-roofing creates a lot of dust which we are still finding - that the triangular-finned beast ran out of charge & I'd only done upstairs & the stairs. Now re-charged for downstairs once I've finished chatting to you. Anyway, has there been anything on the budget-friendly front?
*Well, the cleaning has involved minimal products & washable cloths as usual, I suppose.
*Chipped spilled plaster off one of our spare folding extra dining chairs. While I don't have much experience of plasterers, I've never known one fling stuff around as much as the chap who was summoned to mend the hole the roofers inadvertently made in our back bedroom ceiling. It was everywhere. I lent him a dustsheet as he arrived without one, so the carpet was unscathed, but he appears to have stood his bucket of plaster on this chair without covering it & I have today spent 40 mins chipping off big lumps of set plaster & washing off the residue, followed by a little bit of beeswax polish as I'd done so much scrubbing. Anyway, chair saved.
*Tonight's nosebag is in the slow cooker - smoky pork chilli, which I made with the some of the chunks I froze from our last roast pork leftovers. Shall only need to cook some rice later.
*Entered a competition.
*Did 4 surveys.
*Wrote a list for tomorrow's planned city centre trip. Also remembered to put some vouchers in my bag. Mr F needs to replace a worn pair of jeans & some of them could be useful for that. Oh & just to say if anyone has a H&B loyalty card? They've just changed how the scheme operates (it sounds more flexible, I think) & as part of this, I've just received an email informing me I have been given £5 of points. Just flagging it up as the deadline for using them is short. I am going to pop in tomorrow & use it to buy next week's nuts as I like some with my lunch each day.
*Btw, my dispute with the book trading place over 5 items they declined to pay me for has been resolved in my favour by paying me the money I am owed. I did write 3 strongly assertive emails. I read them out to Mr F last night, who started laughing, then he said, "They've picked the wrong person", which reminded me of the 'Good Life' Christmas Special where the incorrect Christmas tree is delivered to Margot, & Richard Briers says to the delivery man "Wrong house, mate". At the end of the day, it was a very small amount of money, but I took issue with being made to feel slightly dishonest, as I knew I'd included all the items & also that the one reported as being in an unfit state was actually one of the best condition items in the box! Ah well, I thanked the customer services person for sorting it out but am glad I kept at it for the flippin' principle of the thing!
*Ash has been contributing to budget-friendly activity this week as he's decided he absolutely loves Waitbl00m own label flakes. They look rather like persian queen ones in consistency, but are much cheaper. Of course, I could be counting my chickens, as he may wait until we have bought another box then decide that persian queen is the ONLY thing. Soot has only contributed to my steps today……I saw how bad the rain was & squidged down to the shed in my waterproof in a downpour to fetch cat litter so as to make up a litter tray. Then naturally, didn't he decide he was going outside for ablutions in the rain anyway? But only after I'd been to the trouble of neatly laying down newspaper, getting wet & muddy fetching the new bag of litter & moving a few things to make room for the tray. Cats!!!
Ah well, time to go & finish vacuuming & then I can have some time with both my piano & book. I've just borrowed one called 'Bog Queen' from the library - a novel - looks interesting, anyway.
F x
2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!9 -
Glad you got your books money, always worth arguing as the nice interpretation is that they make it up as they go along (this is not the interpretation I believe to be true 🙄)
Well done sorting out the chair, and sounding like you kept your cool about it- I am not proud to admit I probably would have thrown a right wobbly!
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6466032/an-in-between-phase/p1
'aggressive safety shot' Ken Doherty7 -
Another one that would have thrown a wobbly. Definitely not to be invited back.
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Well he was employed by the roofer, not by us & we didn't find the mess until well after he'd gone. Mr F went ape as that room is the Man Cave but I (though usually quite a drama queen) took a more pragmatic approach on this occasion. Think I was mostly concentrating on that week just being over!
2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!11 -
As we’ve had our entire house replastered over the past few years that’s not how they usually operate. I’m glad you got the chair cleaned up in the end. Your experience with the book place is exactly why I don’t bother with them. Once read my books either go to a friend who I swap books with or are swapped at my workplace’s book swap.
I get knocked down but I get up again (Chumbawamba, Tubthumping)6
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