Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

EssexHebridean

I seem - touch wood - to have mostly grown out of migraines - here's hoping they don't make a return! Glad yours burgered off overnight Mrs F!

foxgloves

@badmemory - My sister has had migraines since her teens - she can be absolutely pole-axed by them. She gets the aura then the headache & is effectively incapacitated. I have occasionally had the aura thing, but not with a headache. I've had them separately, usually when under big stress, have low blood sugar & dehydration. My migraines are very rare & take the form of crushing pain in the crown of my head which as it goes on, radiates into other areas (though that usually means it is starting to get better). When I am at the first stage, I close the curtains as bright light makes me have nausea. After it has gone (or pretty much gone, anyway), I feel wiped out until I've had a good night's sleep. Horrible things, but I know mine are nowhere near what my sister has.

@EssexHebridean - Mine have become very rare - they were mostly hormonal & I am pleased to say I don't miss any of THAT sort of nonsense these days!

Makingabobor2

I find too much sugar certainly gives me bad headaches. Also too much screen time. Hope you are feeling better now. x

foxgloves

Back again, m'dears to report that I have got the straggly admin & budget updates up to date. Despite our April grocery budget looking as though it is on its way to hell in the proverbial handcart, I feel much better having done all the figures. So I'll start with that for today's money-helping activity:

*Did a good session of post-Easter budget updates & it was helpful to be able to include Week 3's grocery shop which Mr F popped out to do today - he does like those free lattes!

*Nobbled him over breakfast to do April's master meal plan & to choose next week's meals, from which I was able to write a modest shopping list.

*Annual interest has landed on 2 of our savings accounts (shall get the other two updated in town on Saturday). Now this felt fortuitous…..you remember we'd had the builder's quote & it was £450? Well can you believe that the interest on our Savings Pots account was £459? Of course that was a no-brainer. £450 has been added to our House & Garden Savings Pot to cover that bill as we have a start date now, & the oddment of £9 was pinged into the Leisure & Entertainment Pot, which has been rather sparsely treated so far this year. The interest on the other account was added straight to our Emergency Fund as we set ourselves the aim (post-new roof) of rebuilding that to a minimum of £5K by the end of this year. As the roof money was only withdrawn in January & the new car money is still sitting there until they can get their hands on one in June, it was still a decent level of interest. So that all felt positive.

*Dealt with a whole load of emails I'd yellow-starred for attention….then failed to give them any. Felt like this also removed mental clutter, as well as a couple of them having small financial implications which needed noting.

*Ordered a new charging cable for my Garmin Lily. The peg on the end which clips to the watch has badly cracked so will no longer stay in place. I have managed a low-tech interim solve by holding it in place with a big purple clothes peg. Under £10 for a new cable & free postage so I was happy to order one as I really like the watch.

*Submitted a complaint to a pet food manufacturer as we have now had 2 boxes of meat containing improperly sealed pouches which leaked their rancidity onto the others & obviously meant we paid for more than we were able to feed to the Beasticles. We noticed this swiftly on the 1st box & were able to return it to the shop to exchange it, but the 2nd time, we didn't notice it until we had used quite a few pouches so couldn't very well return half a box & expect a full one in return. In between this, we also noticed a box we'd put in our trolley was clearly leaking inside so we changed it for a dry one. I thought that as the pouches clearly hadn't been sealed all the way round, it was worth uploading some photos & complaining to the manufacturer so I'll see how that pans out.

*Watered all the greenhouse vegelets & flower seedlings. I really must do some serious potting up in there this week. Tomorrow maybe. A new hose reel & hosepipe may be yet another expense as Mr F has just come in soaked to inform me that it is not longer working properly & is spraying water out randomly from inside the reel rather than sending it down the pipe - very unhelpful behaviour now that we are on enforced water-metering.

*Did a few surveys just to feel I've got April's earnings started.

*Speedy nosebag tonight as I am using some of the leftover Easter lamb stir-fried with tandoori spices, onions & cannellini beans in pittas.

Feels so much better to have had a productive day with yesterday having been an unexpected migraine write-off. I think I'll aim to divide tomorrow into 2 halves, depending on the weather forecast, then tackle indoor & outdoor tasks accordingly.

OK, that's today's report. Keep it in your purses! Neither your cards or your cash can climb out unaided.

F x

Makingabobor2

Wow, that is a LOT of interest. You really do know how to budget well.

Sun_Addict

Great news that the interest covers the building work🥳 I’m glad you’re feeling better. My DD suffers from photo sensitive migraines so any bright/flashing lights sets them off. Thankfully I’ve never suffered from headaches apart from maybe hangover related ones many years ago.

PennysIntoPounds

Glad you're feeling better.

That's a lot of shoddy re the cat food pouches! Well done making the effort to highlight it to them

How very pleasing your interest covers the builders quote, nice when it feels like there's some positive synchronicity in the world isn't it 🥂

liselle

Very best wishes for the pouches replacements.I complained to Y—-shire T as the duo of teabags wasn’t perforated properly and it was very difficult to split into single teabags.It turned out to be a machine fault, they were most apologetic and I received several boxes in compensation!

foxgloves

Thanks for your comments. Will reply properly tomorrow.

Busy day.....no money has left my purse. Have had a good greenhouse session in which I potted up pepper seedlings & selected some tomatoes for my sister. I've used big recycled peanut butter/skyr/ice-cream tubs for those to keep them going a bit longer as there's still a month to go before our family meet-up. Also potted 20 lettuces into modules for planting out when they are stronger. As usual, I bunged the remaining lettuce seedlings into a pot for the kitchen windowsill as they are useful to snip for sandwiches, etc.

Used bathwater to water front courtyard plus a few larger containers out the back. We use fairly natural products & they are very diluted so I have no issues using grey water on ornamentals. As that bathwater had already done 2 baths & 3 loo flushes, I really did find myself thinking, 'Take THAT, Mr ST Water with your compulsory metering!'. Am starting to get my head in the game with careful water use now & Mr F has suggested we buy another bucket at the weekend (we really know how to live the high life, don't we?) to have by the kitchen sink to make use of water before it gets hot & other assorted H2O controbutions from rinsing stuff out, etc.

Have also baked a small batch of rolls & made a spicy veggie pizza for tonight.

Oh....& it was encouraging to spot on the Smart meter monitor half an hour ago that we had only used 43p of gas so far today. We turned the CH thermostat down a notch over Easter Weekend rather than go cold turkey, then turned it off on Tuesday. Can light the stove on a night if it drops cold in the evenings.

Also packed the Easter decorations away for next year & cut some more spread tubs up to make more free plant labels. A non-exciting but pleasant enough productive day on the whole.

F x

PennysIntoPounds

Hark at you Mrs and Mr Two Buckets 😂

Good on you for making the most of resources both environmental and financial, and not giving bar steward water companies any extra dosh 🥂