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Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend
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The garden was lovely from dusk to dark last night & a nice cold seabuckthorn & orange gin just rounded the day off nicely.
Well, do stay hydrated today, m'dears. It is ridiculously hot here already. Three of us are already in the shade & Ash has trotted off to seek today's choice of sunny den.
Defo a no-spend day. I am making good use of the hot temperatures by baking bread (already proving), doing plenty of laundry (bed linen already changed) & I might pot up lettuce & rapini seedlings. If I have any energy left, as I am not a lover of heat, I will plant out some cosmos on the shadier side of the garden.
But apart from the above, I shall be sitting on our shady courtyard reading & knitting. Mr F cooked tonight's chicken on last night's BBQ coals & intends to make jacket wedges, so I shall only need to make a salad, & can see we have another cucumber ready to pick.
The swifts are glorious. I could watch them all day.
F x
2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!10 -
Hello Frugal Diary Friends,
Oh, it is as hot as a hot thing again today. Poor Soot doesn't know what to do with himself. He refuses to sit in any little cool place I make for him….i.e a cold towel in a shady spot, etc. I haven't bought him a pet cooling mat because I know he wouldn't sit on it. I've done all I intended today so shall be sitting in the shade shortly myself with yet another glass of water & a book. Anyway, today's budget-friendly efforts:
*Bailed out last night's bathwater which provided several very welcome cans for the front courtyard plants plus the containers & hanging baskets. No point paying twice now we are on metered water.
*Did next week's meal plans & wrote grocery shopping list. Also wrote a list of everything I could usefully do in town tomorrow, including a stock-up at the Eco-refill shop.
*Did deferred Monday morning budget updates - slight overspend of about £6 on May's grocery budget. First month this year we've gone over, so I huffed a bit about that, but there was no problem taking that small amount out of May's petty cash/buffer zone.
*Did a survey - am at over £50 on PA earnings this month & still a few days to go.
*Had a look at recent energy bill. Spend £35 less on energy than last month & less than the same billing period in 2025 & 2024. Taking the amount of credit currently on our account & adding around £50 per month until the CH goes back on in October, I think we should end up with between £500 & £600 credit to take us into the winter, which will at least help with the next jump in price cap, which could be worse than expected if the warmongers carry on too much longer. What a depressing & unnecessary situation…..& completely out of our hands of course.
*Tonight's meal is bubbling away in the slow cooker - pinto bean chilli….though as we never see tinned pinto beans where we shop, I use a tin each of red kidney beans & black beans. It is served very simply, topped with grated cheese & with a hunk of crusty bread, so very little to do later. Have made 4 portions so some for the freezer for a 'free' meal another time.
*Checked veg plants first thing as I don't really want to get into the habit of daily watering, but if anything looks as though it's struggling, I may relent. The tomato plants I planted out on Sunday all seem fine, ditto Mr F's potatoes which he carefully earthed up the same day. Because of miscounting, we have ended up with 19 tomato plants instead of our usual 12 - 14, so I am making sure I save some extra big mayonnaise jars/lids ready for all the bottling which I think I am going to be doing at harvest time.
Anyway, that's been the budgetty bits of my day. I think I will go & offer Soot a few treats now to see if they cheer him up. Do stay hydrated everyone, this heat really is so energy-sapping, we need all the help we can get!
F x
2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!7 -
I've watered mine the last couple of days, but need to make sure I am not overwatering. I never seem to know.
Making the debt go down and savings go up
LBM 2015 - debt £57K / Now £26,324....its going down
Mortgage Free December 9th 2024! 18mths ahead of schedule.Challenges
EF £290/3000
Studies/surveys July £31.90
Decluttering items 1400/2025. 345/2026
Books read 23 in 2025. 2026- 14 (target is 52)
Jigsaws done 20 in 2025. 3 this year.
My debt free diary...https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6396218/we-will-get-this-debt-d£own-the-savings-up3 -
Well the outdoor stuff is now sorted, @Makingabobor2, as we currently have thunder & a huge downpour.
2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!3 -
What mse excellence and on such a hot day! Hope Soot feels better with the storm
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6466032/an-in-between-phase/p1
'aggressive safety shot' Ken Doherty5 -
Evening Wednesday Pence-Wranglers,
Pleasant & useful day. Nothing of interest to report but I kept the MSE faith:
*Decluttered large bag of books to charity bookshop & 'freeposted' an empty cartridge for recycling.
*Remembered to withdraw money to pay builder at the weekend.
*June Week 1's grocery shopping will be over target spend when I add it up tomorrow but for a sensible reason in that olive oil was back on offer, as was cat food (meat & biscuits) so we took advantage of that.
*Entered 2 competitions.
*Rounded up a bag of library returns.
*Administered a few 'Chelsea chops' around our front courtyard & planted out the rest of its share of bedding plus a few verbascums & aquilegia. That's 'job done' now, only watering & basic maintenance required.
*Mr F watered & fed the veg. First chilli has set fruit & quite a few teeny tiny tomatoes. Cucumbers off to a great start. Picked 3 last night for a total of 6 so far. They are grafted plants - 'Merlin' is the variety but the rootstock will be some kind of vigorous generic squash.
*Topped up pantry jars & cleaning supplies with our haul from this morning's visit to the Eco-Refill shop.
*2 more magazines decluttered to my friend's bag.
*Another lovely bunch of sweetpeas picked for the house. Both varieties have come true from saved seeds - "Watermelon" & "Almost black" which make for a striking contrast.
*Completely effortless nosebag tonight....mostly as it's not my cooking night 🤣....but it is ultra-easy.….some of the big batch cook of bolognese I made a few weeks ago, so just heating-up & some pasta to cook.
Well, I did say I hadn't done anything interesting!
F x
2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!10 -
Morning Campers! And what a lovely day it would be for camping too. I'm just having my first coffee of the day sitting out on the reading bench & am enjoying the caffiene, bird song, flowers & the light breeze which is holding the rising heat back a little.
Laundry already churning, sourdough proving, kitchen tidied, greenhouse opened up & another cucumber picked. My sourdough starter escaped its jar overnight due to the heat so I had to clean it up first thing. Luckily it was standing in a bowl in case of any such naughty happening so not as messy as it could have been.
Another hot day forecast here (28° ) so I shall make sure I have both windows flung open up in Foxgloves HQ because today is Big Budget Day - deferred from yesterday as I wanted to get the front courtyard finished. Mr F is at work so no distractions & my thinking is that if I get my head down & finish it in good time, I will reward myself with some reading & knitting time in the garden.
Tonight's nosebag will be Indonesian tofu rice. I haven't made that for ages. It's nice cold too, so am already thinking that's tomorrows lunches sorted....with a hefty side-helping of cucumber!
Right, 2 more swigs of coffee then I must get cracking. I am wearing the cotton maxi-dress I made last year. Can't believe how cool it is swishing around my ankles! It cost £15 to make plus a reel of thread & some help from my sister adapting the pattern from a tunic dress to a tiered maxi-dress. Looking forward to getting my sewing machine out again.
Ah well, nice chatting to you but the calculator beckons.......
F x
2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!10 -
@foxgloves said:
Morning Campers! And what a lovely day it would be for camping too. I'm just having my first coffee of the day sitting out on the reading bench & am enjoying the caffiene, bird song, flowers & the light breeze which is holding the rising heat back a little.
Sounds lovely where you are, here is a little different 6+ hours of thunder and lightning 🌩️ I'm hoping it will brighten up
Fashion on a ration 2025 0/66 coupons spent
79.5 coupons rolled over 4/75.5 coupons spent - using for secondhand purchases
One income, home educating family5 -
Sounds like what we had here a couple of days ago, @Baileys_Babe. Hope the storms have calmed down now.
Well, Big Budget Day completed for another month. Nothing untoward found while reconciling May's figures. Grocery Budget went very slightly over, but I decided to absorb that & leave our new-this-year Grocery Underspend Pot untouched. June's budget was straightforward to set. I did wonder why Mr F's CC bill was quite a chunk higher than usual this month, but I think it was simply that there was still a bit of expenditure on it from him buying me birthday presents at the end of April plus extra fuel when we had our mini-break. It wasn't a problem, but I did go through it carefully just in case I'd missed something that should have been reimbursed from the Savings Pots & I didn't find anything. I was able to pay into Savings - the Car Fund (I MUST remind Mr F to contact the dealership about the progress of our new car…..ordered in Feb - trust us to choose something where there wasn't a single one in the country!), Emergency Fund, Regular Saver (that goes out automatically as a SO) & Premium Bonds. I also divided up £250 between the Savings Pots. I always start with the Holiday Pot as that aligns with my payment schedule which ensures we can pay for our holiday without recourse to credit (like in the Spendy Years) or going into general savings which are there for the future, not to bail out poor planning. I paid most of our Pots, but some got more than others, as will always be the case. The important thing (because these operate as sinking funds, really, don't they?) is knowing what is coming up when & having the funds there in each category to avoid pinchpoints. Anyway, job done for another month.
Received a policy reduction from our car insurance provider as they had not apparently applied a small discount to which we were entitled so £14 back into the kitty.
Anything else………? Entered 2 competitions, did 2 surveys, decluttered another mag to my friend, all the laundry got dry very quickly in the breezy sunshine, had the welcome news from Mr F that his work mileage rate is increasing from inadequate to not a lot more, but at least it's something.
Right, I think I shall enjoy some knitting time out in the garden before I need to re-familiarise myself with the recipe for Indonesian tofu rice. Soot has had his treats but really does not enjoy hot weather. Like his Meowmy, his favourite season is probably Autumn.
F x
2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!7 -
Cooling scritches to Soot (and his meowmy 😁)
Excellent getting things in order work and that bit of extra fuel allowance will at least add up as we know!
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6466032/an-in-between-phase/p1
'aggressive safety shot' Ken Doherty5
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