Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

KajiKita

Thank you for the nudge on Easter cards - I need to review my stash to see if there is one in there I can send to my parents. 😊 🐣

KK

foxgloves

@PennysIntoPounds - It's Mr F who is the resident egg poacher here at Foxgloves Manor. I used to do them, but his are so much better. I cheat by making whatever it is....say avocado toast, while soft-boiling an egg, which I then quickly shell before collapsing it on top while the yolk is still nicely runny. It works really well x

Jellytotts

I poach my eggs akin to frying, a cm or 2 of boiling water in the frying pan and crack the eggs in. They like more like a fried egg shape than a regular poached one but taste the same.

kayannie

I use water that is just off the boil for perfectly poached eggs. I keep the water just simmering without boiling. I find that if I use boiling water, the white of the egg comes away from the yolk.

KA

foxgloves

Hello Tuesday Readers,

Thanks for your comments & contributions…..& a wave to @ziggy2407, as it's nice to see you back.

Well, absolutely NOTHING interesting has happened since I last posted, so I shall just do a general update of where I am with vaguely frugal & money stuff:

*All budget pots are up to date in readiness for Big Budget Day on Friday. I can already see that April is going to be that less than sparklingly helpful combination of a 5-week grocery shopping month, Easter & a mini-break. We will be self catering apart from one night so will make sure we take some useful supplies from home.

*Finally made contact with our favourite builders about 2 remedial jobs which need doing on our house. Visiting this week for an assessment & hopefully a quote. The worst job is from water ingress into our back bedroom which, now that I understand how bad the old roof was, I think was probably caused by that. This is why we want a builder, rather than a plasterer to do the job because if there is a structural defect somewhere, say with a guttering joint or a leaky brick or something, we'd like them to find it & sort it out. So it looks as though the poor old Emergency Fund is soon going to be groaning again. I really want to get these problems dealt with though.

*Garden stuff - am still grabbing every empty bottle & spread tub as they become empty to recycle into free mini-cloches & plant labels. I don't want to tempt fate by saying that so far, I have only lost 1 tomato seedling - & I have to say that I think it died to spite me. It was a bit more feeble than the others but I gave it chance, potted it up & it rallied…..before deciding yesterday to turn up its toes. Can't use the dining table as it is a halfway house for plant babies which are on route to the greenhouse but the nights are currently too cold. Free plants continue in abundance. A neighbour brought me a couple of plants yesterday & I have used them plus some self-seeded sweet rocket, foxglove, poppy 'tangerine gem' & centaurea to fill gaps in a front courtyard border. Also had a good bending & stretching session this morning clearing, cutting back & forking over that border so it looks much better without any pence being spent.

*Easter - Posted Easter present this morning, everything wrapped as usual from recycled wrappings stash stuff. Easter cards written & ready to post later this week. Box of decorations located & have decided on what Easter cake I;m going to bake. Actually, Mr F kind of decided. I pinged him a photo of last year's cake as I knew he'd remember us looking everywhere for small hollow eggs so I could break one & have a fluffy yellow chick popping out of the shells. He pinged back, "Ooooh, I could eat one of those again this year!". Excellent, choice made!

*General money saving - I managed to get 3 loads of laundry completely dry out on the whirlygig yesterday & it's so breezy today that a wool blanket I washed first thing was dry before lunchtime. There's definitely been less heater airer use recently. Number crunched latest energy bill & we have used £79 less than last month. Will be switching the CH off at the end of March & hopefully then starting to build a strong credit balance to help offset the horrible increases which will be upon us just in time for the colder weather. Still finding all sorts of things for using up in the freezer. Just a final week to come from our March master meal plan, then it will be time to write April's. I think we are going to come in under budget again for this month, although it isn't as clear cut this time around as we did the emergency pantry stock-up as a bit of added resilience for if the fuel crisis erupts, as it surely will do if the warmongering continues. Have done a few surveys so although I am unlikely to reach my £40 PA goal for the month, it won't be too shabby an amount.

I've baked a batch of Mary Berry's little jam buns this afternoon. Did I intend to bake? No. How did it happen? Well, Mr F informed me that there was no yoghurt left for dessert tonight, so I had a look when I was out posting my sister's parcel & the fridges were pretty much empty, awaiting delivery. So as I didn't want to go into town, I decided I may as well bake a little bit of something from stuff we already had in. Mr F is particularly fond of jam buns so I knocked up a batch then as I was putting the milk back in the fridge, I noticed there was clearly yoghurt left. His response? "Oh yes, there is some, I forgot!". Hmmm, I something here smells distinctly fishy & Soot says it's not his biscuits. I think SOMEBODY fancied some home baking & subtly engineered it. Never mind, the buns are nice, I didn't need to buy anything to make them & I listened to my audiobook throughout.

Well, it's not my cooking night tonight. I am instead lining myself up for a nice hair wash as am going out tomorrow & don't want to arrive looking as though I may as well have flown in on my broomstick. Then I shall enjoy some time with my book. Have just started the 3rd novel in Mick Herron's Zoe Boehm series. We still have some slices of that nice roast ham left so Mr F is going to do jacket wedges & poached eggs to accompany that. Got to love leftovers!

F x

foxgloves

Morning Campers,

Late night last night as went out. Mr F kindly fortified me with scambled eggs, toast & coffee before heading out to work so I'm rallying. So far, all I've done is get some bread dough proving. Everywhere I look, I can see a random job which needs doing so I think it had better be another day of tackling random tasks which tbf, can be a good wsy of staying on top of things.

Am in state of trepidation about builder's visit later today ....both their verdict on the main problem plus how much it's likely to cost us given the depleted post-new roof state of our Emergency Fund.

In the meantime.....all these random jobs better look out. I've had my caffeine & am heading their way. And a no-spend day will be welcome also, esp after £21 city centre car parking yesterday!

Chat later,

F x

KajiKita

Ouch to the parking costs! That's ferocious …

Good luck with the random jobs (I love days like that 😊) and I hope the builder is sensible, pragmatic and creative with his suggested solutions later.

KK

Makingabobor2

Oh my word….that's a lot of car parking. I don't remember the last time we went into city centre, so no idea what it would be here.

foxgloves

I know! The mitigating factor is that we rarely visit the big city centre these days, unlike back in the Spendaceous Era when I was there at least once a week. We tend to favour the smaller, eqidistant city for shopping trips these days as there is less traffic congestion & cheaper parking.

joedenise

Glad our parking is Free when we go into town! We get 3 hours at Mr Ts in the nearest town and 1.5 hours in L*dl in the town in the opposite direction. Only parking we ever pay for is for hospital visits and they can certainly mount up but at least it's not £21!!!