Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

PennysIntoPounds

Will have to assess the available space once we're in but it would be lovely if we could. We don't have much space or get much light, but no harm in trying. Thanks for the vote of confidence on it being a contender for large container grown

foxgloves

Hello Diary Friends,

Pleasant & useful day. Lergy has done the decent thing & retreated - just the gunky sinuses & energy levels to buck their ideas up now. Budget-friendly bits of the day as follows:

*Had my hair cut - £13. She always does a lovely job.

*Did 4 surveys.

*Managed to visit charity bookshop & only buy the birthday cards I went in for! Yes, I was tempted, but I have a big reading pile as well as my ongoing library wishlist, so didn't need anything.

*Did next week's meal plans, grocery list & shopping. Also been to Eco-refill shop to stock up on cleaning products & a couple of spices.

*More seed sowing. 3 types of tomatoes & several packs of flower seed. It was so warm in the greenhouse I didn't even need my hoodie on & the earth smelled of Spring.

*Jacket potato night tonight - a sweet potato with cheese & coleslaw for me, & there is a serious Epic Man-Stew under construction for the Man Himself, which I am assured will also provide 2 work lunches.

*Delighted to find only 3 items in the laundry basket required ironing, so very little energy used on that weekly tediosity.

Wishing everyone a peaceful evening.

F x

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,

A rather disjointed day as had got the electrician due late morning. I can hardly classify it as a no-spend day even though I won't be paying him until tomorrow. He is going to ping me a proper invoice (which I prefer) as he needed to source a long LED tube light plus a couple of small gizmos required for the outside lights. I am thinking that the House & Garden Pot should cover it, though it is currently lower than I like due to having skimmed it to help out with the bill for the new roof. Feels satisfying to be able to cross another post-roof job off the list.

Haven't done a huge amount of stuff other than deal with the above. Baked bread & got ahead with tonight's meal - spicy vegetable bulghur with home made falafels. I always use the old Cranks recipe for chickpea croquettes, which easily makes 16 falafels & they freeze ok so quite useful. Used up an annoying little amount of polenta for egging & coating them. Also peeled & chopped some tomatoes which very much needed using as I require some for tomorrow's pav bhaji.

Soot started lunch pester at 10.10 a.m but stopped when the electrician arrived an hour later. The big tube light for the loft came in a long box which was instantly of supreme interest to Soot. Not wide enough to fit a whole cat, but he certainly made sure none of his limbs missed out on exploring its cardboardy depths.

Well, tomorrow is my Big Budget Day so shall be busy with numberwang all day ..... have forgotten which comedy show featured 'Numberwang', which was an utterly unfathomable pretend game show, but I often find myself reminded of it on Big Budget Day!

Oh, & 1st teeny tiny aubergine seedling just poking through today.

F x

PennysIntoPounds

That Mitchell and Webb Look 😁

Glad to hear Soot made the most of the cardboard box. Well done getting the job done, a good quality of life task

foxgloves

@PennysIntoPounds - Oh OF COURSE it was them! Now that you've said that, I can actually visualise the pair of them doing the sketch.

Hello Rainy Money Savers,

And yes, it HAS been a case of me sitting at my desk playing Numberwang today! Honestly, I think even typing this is going to feel like viewing the metaphorical drying of paint, but I really am spending most of my time catching up with post-roofing stuff, including being behind with gardening, cleaning & probably various other 'ings'. I'm certainly behind with my 2026 writing plans. I intended to sign up for an online creative writing course at the start of the year but that was before I knew we were living under a pile of assorted rot. Ah well, 'tis still early in the year, so I shall cut the yak & get onto today's money helping efforts:

*Big Budget Day. Reconciled Feb's budget, no nasty surprises & pinged £23-65 to our new grocery budget underspend pot. We are still convinced that the monthly meal planning (with some inbuilt flexibility, of course) is what is making the difference. Haven't done March's master meal plan yet, just next week's meals, so will be getting onto that soon - it may involve a freezer inventory as I noticed we are quite tight for space again. Set March's budget. Remembered to include paying for our recent fish box & also to allocate funds to cover my annual supply of compost/grow bags. Paid £100 each into our EF, Car Fund, Regular Saver & Premium Bonds plus varied sums of money to our House & Garden, Meow, Presents, Holiday & Leisure/Entertainment Pots. The Meow Pot will take a hit next week as the Rascals have their vet check-up & boosters. House & Garden Pot will shortly be called upon to pay the electrician's invoice when I receive it.

Oh & I am slightly altering how I think of the buffer zone I leave in our budget every month. The amount of this has varied over the years but over the past year, it's settled at around £240. In my head, I am now going to treat this as £200 buffer zone & the £40 as sort of virtual 'petty cash'. I find it useful for those very small purchases we all make now & again…..I'm thinking of things like a leaving card, a pack of paracetamol, a pan scourer, a bar of chocolate to add to a birthday present, etc…..all little inexpensive things which it doesn't feel worth bothering the savings pots for. Having this now set at £40 max in my head, will ensure I don't get carried away with these little odds & sods, as we all know that regular amounts can add up.

Right, that's the Big Budget Day stuff…..anything else vaguely helpful?

*Baked bread rolls, two of which I require for tonight's nosebag…….

*Make a batch of pav bhaji which will feed us tonight plus provide further portions for the freezer.

*Did a couple of surveys.

*Entered 2 prize draws.

*Changed our weekend plans. Going to look at cars & getting ours valued has been bumped again, but only because we are raring to get on with loft stuff now that the electrician has fitted a new light up there & we know there will be a lot of knock-on jobs from this.

*3 little aubergine babies now poking through as well as the first pepper. I love seeds!

Ash has had to have 3 wipes & I also set about him with a wet flannel. He came in 1st thing, jumped on the bed hugely pleased with himself….which is when we realised he stank of petrol. Oh joy! Well, we don't want him licking that off, so although I couldn't see any, I decided I'd better try & clean him up. He thought this was one of the best games ever devised, although from what I could discern, the only rule seemed to be trying to savage the flannel before it made contact with his fur. The smell is on everything he has walked & sat on this morning, including his scratching posts. Mr F was worried about him going near lit matches but I assured him I'd be far too busy number crunching today to be f*nnying around with matches & the only time Soot shows any interest in them is if they are rattled because they then sound hopefully like biscuits. idk….can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.

Well, you don't need to hear any more of this rambling nonsense, so time to sign off.

Cheers all,

F x

Makingabobor2

Ooh no…hate the smell of petrol. It is so hard to get rid of. Wonder what he did to get covered in it?

Like the idea of the £40 petty cash. Might have to think of something like that myself, it might help things along. I am forever changing our budgets around and re-naming the savings pots etc. My big budget day in Monday when my 2 pensions land. So will be doing some number crunching and shuffling then.

foxgloves

Electrician's bill has just landed & is much less than I expected. He's charged us £170 which includes the 2 small parts he had to buy plus the nice long LED tube light for the loft, & of course the fitting of both the latter & the 2 outdoor security lights we bought. I THINK the only post-roof expense now should be 1 or 2 big rolls of loft insulation material which we have already priced up, & possibly another large plastic storage crate for Mr F's geeky collections. He seems to think that our recent 'shopping from home' crate investigations might mean he now won't need one, as decluttering & better packing meant we were able to free up some spare ones.

All I need now for March is plenty of dry gardening sessions, as the food we grow does impact positively on our budget & I'm sure on our health too.

F x

Makingabobor2

Yes eating home grown veg & fruit must be the best way to go. Pity we don't all have room for some chicken and a few pigs…LOL

Dakota_Rose

Great that the final bill has come through less than expected 😊

KajiKita

Does that mean you have come to the end of all the house works for now?

I’m with you on a drier March, particularly at the weekends please … 😉

KK