Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Oh, well bah to this week's weather forecast. I think yesterday's lovely Spring day must have been a one-off. No gardening for me today. I was intending to sort the chard bed out, but it'll have to wait.
Monday is usually based around setting us up for the week ahead, so I am intending to do the week's laundry & rubber chicken duties first. Then I shall do my usual Monday morning budget updates & a couple of minor online orders. A freezer list would be useful too. Laundry already churning, so I think I'll just get cracking & see how far I get. Never a shortage of stuff to do, I know that much!
Wishing everyone a good start to the week. 
F x

CRANKY40

Good morning F, 

The other problem with exercise is that people think you can eat more. You probably can if you run for miles every day like a friend of mine. I used to run every day but only for 30 minutes. It only ever made me hungry (and more toned), it didn't make me thin. It's wet and miserable here too. 
Take care  😊

Humdinger1

Yes @CRANKY40 you are absolutely right there.  As Dr MM also says, you can't outrun a bad diet.   I certainly used to view exercise as justification for habits that really weren't helping and were driving my weight up and me into diabetes.   Thank goodness I've been able to reverse it because it's not always possible and I would have only myself to blame through do acknowledge the background pressures on us all.  Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

foxgloves

Yes, you've done very well with that reversal, @Humdinger1. TRE is thought to help with insulin resistance/control, so I hope I'm doing myself some additional benefits as well as much needed weight loss.
F

foxgloves

How can it already be past 4pm? Where has today gone? It seems like only an hour since I was making cinnamon porridge with honey for my breakfast.
Unexciting day - the rain hung on until it felt too late to go out & do anything worthwhile. I seem to have spent a ridiculous amount of time arranging & re-arranging laundry on the heated airer. I really could have done with a pegging-out day today, as there were 3 loads (that's quite a lot for us in just a week) but it wasn't to be. Thankfully, it doesn't look as though there's much that will require ironing. 
Did my regular Monday morning budget updates - mostly grocery budget following Week 3's shop at the weekend, on which we were under budget by about £34. If we can have a similarly good meal plan/shopping list for Week 4, there should be a decent wodge of money left to offset the Grimsby fish box.
Not a no-spend day, though, as I ordered nematodes to deal with the latest attack of the Evil Weevil on my container-grown heucherellas & 2 more boxes of flea treatment for Soot & Ash - yes, what a lovely present that is for them. Their de-fleaing has now become the Monthly Sulk! Anyway, much as I usually prefer shops to online, as I like to support our local shops, the flea treatment was again a no-brainer. Our little indie pet shop doesn't stock the brand of flea treatment we use, so the only other local stockist is the large well-known retail park pets emporium. And like last time, the price differential was enormous. From the online site I use, a single box of 4 pipettes costs £12.15. From the large pet chain, the exact same box is priced at £21.50. How on earth can they justify a price differential of £9.35 per box?! Even factoring in the delivery charge of £2.49, I was way up on the deal. I did order 2 boxes though, so as to go a bit longer before needing to pay delivery costs again. 
Roast chicken leftovers successfully s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d to make further meals - It did roast dinner yesterday, will do chicken salad with home made cajun wedges tonight & a stir-fry with noodles on Wednesday. I've frozen some for next time there is an Epic Man Stew being planned & made a chicken dijonnaise sarnie for Mr F's packed lunch tomorrow. I've also frozen the carcass ready for when I have a 2nd one, when I will use them to make a nice double-strength stock in the slow cooker.
I also had salad for lunch with tuna, half an enormous pink grapefruit & a huge mug of herbal tea. It's weigh-day tomorrow & my thinking was that after all that greenery, I might manage to wee off an extra 100g! Oh the things we'll try to get any sort of vaguely positive results on the scales........
Well dear readers, I hope you've all managed to get off to at least a reasonably decent start to the week.
Talk to you soon,
F x

Blackcats

I'm sure all of your efforts on weight loss will pay off on weigh-in day but that bonus 100g wee'd off will certainly help.  Make sure you take off your watch, rings etc - every little helps.
drizzly and overcast here today.  We did go for for a walk which I was reluctant to do but feel better for it.

Suffolk_lass

I keep drinking black coffee as a mild diuretic in the mornings but it hasn't moved the scales here. I suspect my birthday treat-eating has done more damage than I care to admit. I have my asthma appointment a week today and could do with being lighter so I think a light week is in order (having failed miserably to reduce carbs) - rain and snow (and hail) in March? yep, a sure fire indicator that I am reducing carbs. Along with turning off the electric aga these are guaranteed to trigger a cold spell. I almost feel I should warn the Met office!

foxgloves

Lol, @Suffolk_lass...I know what you mean. I'm.progressing the veggie seedling conveyor belt process today, which means the biggest strongest ones (chillies) will be off to my unheated greenhouse. They will still be wearing their recycled bottle cloches & will be given a bubble wrap blanket at night, but just you watch the Met Office suddenly announce a final massive cold snap for March. I also started putting aside the first couple of winter garments ready for packing away until next Autumn.......so yep, snow it is then!!
F x

Jellytotts

Which flea drops are you using?  We tried several but keep having to revert back to vet strength ones which are a small fortune with 3 cats (even when we get the prescription and go elsewhere).  I’d love to find some cheaper ones that actually work.

foxgloves

@carmelbrulez - Yes, there are lots of opportunities for resourcefulness, I agree. I particularly like to see if I can shop items from home instead of buying things & it's often possible to solve whatever need it is by using something I already own.
F