Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Sun_Addict

The electrician’s bill sounds very reasonable, I'd be happy with that.

Humdinger1

@foxgloves please - you never ramble. There's always method in the madness and we all love reading your pearls. Everything is coming together beautifully! Love Humdinger xx

foxgloves

Thanks all. Yes, @Kajikita that is pretty much all the bigger stuff we intend doing. Just the improved insulation to get into the loft, then it is just a matter of catching up with the usual stuff/jobs, esp in the garden where I am feeling very behind. Mr F does still need to prime & paint the replastered area of ceiling where one of the roofers broke through it. He has another few painting tasks lined up but these are just routine maintenance & I think we probably already have the paint in the shed.

@Sun_Addict - Yes, I thought that was a very good price. I know he'll have got the loft light & other parts wholesale, but nevertheless, I was expecting to pay a lot more. It was a pleasant surprise when the bill landed, particularly after paying out £12.5k for the new roof.

@Humdinger1 - "Pearls……" lol, never heard any of my utterances called that before!

foxgloves

Dear Saturday Readers,

Quick dash to town first thing, primarily to take advantage of our local butcher's multi-deal. He also had brisket on offer so we bought one of those for a slow cooker beef carbonnade at some point in March & also cashed in our full loyalty card for £10 off. He also had some (branded) butter at 3 packs for £5 so I had one of those as the dates are good enough for Easter baking. Our only other spend was £2.99 on a new dustpan & brush. The handle fell off our old one & the pan crumbled into shards….that's what I get for thinking I'd got a bargain from the £ shop! Swung by Waitbl00m as the cheapest petrol in town is still next to their car park & we called in to pick up our latest free 'Little Treat' which was a box of Tony Ch*c*l*n*y mini eggs. I spotted some yellow sticker large daffodil bunches so treated myself to one & it has generously filled 2 vases with floral joy. So nothing budget-defying there.

The loft turned out not to be a 2-person job, largely because one half of the relationship can just about get UP the ladder, but not down again, due to her short legs - so it was swept & vacuumed by Mr F & assessed for quantity of insulation required.

So I got on with random tasks so as to feel I'd still been a Very Useful Engine. Tidied, made a blackberry & apple crumble while kitchen-karaoke-ing through my late 1970s compilation CD, did some laundry with the hope of pegging it out but was thwarted by rain (just for a change) so heated airer it is, made a free cloche from a plastic bottle as my jalapeno seedlings are now out of the heated propagator & soaked some lupin seeds. Also did 3 surveys & cashed out my Feb PA earnings at £40-81. Not intending to do much more today as I'd rather be reading, but I do need to wash a very petrolly smelling cat blanket after whatever it was that Ash got up to yesterday & also to squelch down to the greenhouse to cut a bowl of rocket for tonight's salad.

Another tiny pepper has poked through overnight.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend,

F x

Sun_Addict

I wonder if Ash has been underneath a car with a bit of a leak 🤔 Cats seem to like hiding underneath cars.

foxgloves

@Sun_Addict - Yes, that's probably what he's been doing. He likes sitting under our neighbour's car spying on other cats.

Hello Sunday Savers,

Mr F had set off to the tip this morning before I was even dressed & has also made 3 trips to the village garden centre to ferry our annual supply of compost & grow bags home. I'd over estimated the cost of these by £10-14 so that will be some money back into March's budget. Also decided on how best to tackle a garden project Mr F has been indecisive about for ages. One of the materials required was on offer so we bought that, then priced up the rest of it. He'd been overthinking it & I think this had caused paralysis in terms of getting the job started.

Another greenhouse session for me. Sowed broccoli, romaine lettuce, mesembryanthemums, lupins & the last of this year's tomato varieties - 'Oh happy day" - (that's the variety, not over-enthusiasm on my part!), which have replaced the cayenne chilli seedlings in my heated propagator.

Cut all the remaining rocket which will be added to sarnies over the next few days.

Use-it-up meal tonight - 2 portions of leftover nut roast & onion gravy from the freezer so only need to do some veg to go with that, & leftover blackberry & apple crumble from yesterday.

Changed bed linen ready for laundering tomorrow - will check forecast before I risk pegging it out.

Chatted through our diaries so we know what we're doing over the next couple of weeks.

And that'll do for jobs for today. Anything else can whistle.

F x

Humdinger1

"Pan crumbled into shards". That's going to join another of my favourite sayings from here @ foxgloves: "Bees that are too angry to sell". That's from @Suffolk_lass I believe. Wallowing in the joy of all the different expressions on here and the attitudes underpinning them love Humdinger xx

Sun_Addict

Also changed the bed linen today but washed it and got it almost dry on the line.

So we are both sleeping in fresh bed linen tonight 🙂

foxgloves

Morning Campers!

Thanks for your comments & contributions. Have sketched out the shape for my week in terms of things I need/want to do. Today, as usual, will be all about setting us up for the week, so as well as having a no-spend day, I intend to:

*Do all this week's laundry & peg it out.

*Bake a loaf.

*Make a fish pie (enough to feed us for 2 days)

*Get all admin tasks up to date inc all the emails I have starred in my inbox for needing attention.

*Do my regular Monday morning budget updates.

*Write March's birthday cards plus a letter to enclose with one of them.

*Tidy the house as I go along.

*Check heated propagator for veg seedling progress, as well as the 2 lots of chillies which have moved to stage 2 (warm windowsill).

Having tackled all of the above, my plan is to progress garden & shed tasks tomorrow & Wednesday.

Ok, we're into a new week, let's set about making it a productive one .....that's 'productive', not spendy!

F x

foxgloves

Hello Daffodils,

Well, I did manage to have my planned garden day & I've thoroughly enjoyed it - both the fresh air, the free stretching & bending activity & the wildlife, as I have been entertained by jackdaws, a heron, Ash & the first bumble bee of the season. Tackled the following tasks:

*Cut back & forked over a section of border, transplanting a few self-seeded foxgloves as I went along.

*Cut back & top-dressed my potted heucherella collection (they grow well on our mostly shady courtyard). It looked as though it was going to be an Evil Weevil-free year, but no. I got to the final pot - a lovely one I bought last year, & it was chock full of the things. They had eaten virtually all the roots, so dealt with that, have replanted the remains as I have managed to re-root them before & felt very pleased that I remembered to order vine weevil nematodes yesterday as these have clearly kept all the other pots free as far as I could see.

*Arranged Autumn-planted bulb tubs so as to get maximum enjoyment of them when they flower. I have some extras this year as Mr F is so very adept at bulb tetris on those garden centre stands where you are invited to 'fill a box for £x'. Also moved my reading bench into position & gave the courtyard a good sweep. I also found more lumps of the dreaded spray-on foam from our old roof, so was picking that up too as I went along.

*Cleaned off last year's writing from a bundle of plant labels ready to re-use. I mostly make my own from spread tubs, etc, but somebody gave me a pack of bought ones a few years ago, so I am getting the most out of them before they will inevitably have to go in the bin.

*Not a lot of effort for tonight's meal as I made sufficient fish pie yesterday to feed us twice. Intend to round up the last of a bag of carrots & half a savoy to serve with that.

Still to do:

*Sort out a new monthly meal plan, then choose next week's meals from it.

*Write grocery shopping list. We front-loaded our Week 1 grocery budget as we went to the Eco-refill shop to refill cleaning stuff & a couple of other bits. We also stocked up for the month at our local butcher. I'm thinking we should be able to do a fairly short list for Week 2 (which in my grocery budget cycle starts on Saturday) as we have plenty in. The freezer is very tight again with quite a few batch cooks as well as meat & fish so we will make sure to include these when meal planning. For instance, I'd completely forgotten that I'd frozen 2 spare portions of a pinto bean chilli I made in the slow cooker until Mr F found it & declared that we should eat it! Well, yes, that was the idea! Still haven't got round to doing an up-to-date freezer inventory which would be helpful. There is also a single portion of ratatouille which I know I could make into a nice pasta bake for 2 with some grated cheese on top.

But apart from the meal planning/shopping list, I don't intend to do anything else today. Will doubtless be achy later from doing more 'bum in the air' type garden clearing today than I have for quite a while. Never mind though, as inroads have been made & I feel better for it. It will soon be time for me to go around the garden shopping for free self-seeded plants. I have already spotted a few more foxgloves, forget-me-nots, oriental poppies, sweet rocket, centaurea & a lone sweet pea, & I am sure there will be others too.

Oh, & no pence have departed from my purse today 😊

F x