Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Humdinger1

@2Scratters yes totally agree re the penny dropping! Without wanting to sound like (or be!)a conspiracy theorist, there are vested interests with huge budgets wanting to keep us satisfied with endless debt at ludicrous interest rates. We know better now I think? Love Humdinger xx 

MissPennySave

Ooooh a new diary! I totally agree about being honest with yourself of how we get into debt, my lightbulb moment came, not when I realised how much debt I was in, but when I realised the reason I was in debt was because of me, no one or no thing, it was me and my frivolous spending habits, using stress or good/bad news as an excuse to "treat myself", buying unnecessary things for the kids and house that were in all honestly luxuries not necessities, and the real killer, kidding myself that the stress of debt justified the continuous spending, go figure! Anyway, that was the past, now is the future!  And following your theme of resourcefulness, today I avoided a spend, I used the "shop at home" method and found I already had what I needed!  I imagine for a long time to come I will be able to find something I need from all the silly purchases I've made over the last few years! Anyway, sorry for the rambling there, what I wanted to say was I would love to come along for this diaries journey! so have duly subscribed  MPS.x

foxgloves

Hello Diary Friends, What a lovely lot of comments to read while I had my afternoon coffee.
@2Scratters - Yes, it IS humbling at first, too right it is. Then it's frustrating, as having had the big LBM, one wants the debt gone instantly, while usually it has to be a gradual process. And I couldn't help thinking how much I wished I'd had the idea many years earlier.
@Deni_debt-free_dreamer - I too love our local zero-waste shop. It's particularly good for cleaning stuff, dried fruit & nuts & spices. One of the spice refills I bought cost 13p !! You just have as much as you want/need.
@ladyholly - Aha! Beat you to it, though thanks for thinking of me potentially scratting around candle-hunting next year.....I have DEFO packed it in the Christmas crate this time. I did it myself.
@Seasidegal58 - Thanks & welcome! A nice crowd on here - lots of discussions.
@MissPennySave - Yes! Frivolous spending....& many years of it. That was me too. I always had a plethora of excuses for why I should definitely buy something. Re shopping from home....as you've been a spender, you'll probably find lots of opportunities for this.
@marionmgcars - Re packing away decorations, etc.....I thought I'd got everything this time, then spotted all my Christmas music still sitting on the piano - shows I haven't done any practice this week, so I'd better buck myself up with that too!
F x

EssexHebridean

I don't buy the oft repeated argument about needing to persist with shampoo bars for ages because of "residues from commercial shampoos" - not least as the shampoo I use always is a clarifying one - and is silicone free. Another snippet I got from former hairdresser person though was that a lot of the "smoothing" type products coat the hair to make it look better immediately, but those coatings then form a layer over the hair shaft, meaning that pretty soon our hair starts to look dry and brittle again - so we apply more product to try to "cure" that - and so on. Without question since I switched to the silicone free products, and started just using Morr0can 0il after I wash it (just a tiny amount) my hair is absolutely miles better - it pretty much never frizzes now. Very handy. Although the oil is expensive a bottle does last seemingly forever, and the shampoo and conditioner is cheap as chips (actually, considering the price of chips these days, probably even less!) so...! 

You have also reminded me that we have oddments of dried fruit etc that probably need using, as well as a half-jar of mincemeat. 

foxgloves

Bet you can tell what I've been up to today? Well, first I revisited the meal plans & rattled off a shopping list, as Mr F announced over breakfast that he has an earlier finish time this afternoon & volunteered to swing into the supermarket on his way past to get the grocery shopping. Then, it was off up to Foxgloves HQ with the bin liner of wrappings I stashed on Christmas Day plus this year's pile of cards. My criteria are that salvaged materials have to be nice enough for re-use.....I love recycled stuff, but wouldn't particularly want a gift wrapped in something that looks like it's been plucked from a skip by a hungry weasel. And I only save paper sufficiently large to wrap a decent bar of chocolate, though the majority of today's salvage was a lot bigger than that. I ended up with
* A pile of Christmas wrapping paper
*A couple of pieces suitable for birthdays
*Gift-tags cut from Christmas cards
*Assorted ribbons, festive string, raffia, etc, some now attached to the punched tags.
*1 length of bubble wrap
*4 gift bags
* A modest pile of tissue paper sheets
* Shopping lists cut from the rest of the Christmas cards
*A small cross-stitch (rescued from a gift-tag - a lot of work has gone into this by someone, so I shall aim to make it into a card for next year).
*1 card with a cut-along line to enable saving the picture as a postcard (appropriately printed with space for stamp, etc, on the reverse)
* 1 card to use as a new bookmark in my Money Book (I like to have one & write a ready-reference list of our DD/utilities amounts on the back)
And I shall of course be re-using the black bin liner! I have also rescued a small box from one of Mr F's gifts to wrap some declutterings to post to a nephew.
Other resourceful activities? I caught up with an hour of TV over lunchtime (yes, still eating up leftovers!) & knitted up some of the "mystery-but-think-it's from-friend" sock yarn I found, It's coming out really nicely, like cheat's fair isle & will be a good addition to the presents bag when finished (no rush). Oh, & I've done a couple of minor surveys. Had to tweak tonight's meal as had planned to serve home made tomato soup with foccaccia, but an early forage into the freezer revealed that we only have a single portion. Roasted tomato sauce & leftover bacon bits defrosted instead for some pasta.....which saved me from making bread dough. The soup has been repurposed for Mr F's packed lunch tomorrow (along with more festive leftovers).
Right m'dears, that's me for the day. Love to all.
F x

foxgloves

@EssexHebridean - I'm sure the bars, like any product vary enormously, but I agree that the ones I tried did not improve their ability to clean my hair after continued use. I did stick with them for sufficient washes to be able to say I'd given them a fair trial, but in the end, my hair just looked so horrid, I didn't want to go out! And that's just a nonsense. I'm perfectly happy to by-pass the plastics issue by using refillables. I will try practically any eco-product (if the cost isn't stupidly prohibitive) but whatever it is has to do the job.
F x

Sayschezza

Foxgloves, I would eat the musli as soon as possible because the oats will leech all the moisture from the fruit and make it hard. I don't know why it doesn't happen with the original fruit but putting in extra dried fruit didn't work for me. I would hate you to break a tooth.

Crazycatlady2

Hi hope you all ok

i had to buy something as I’d tried to find an alternative I already had but nothing was quite right. I bought a silicone liner for my air fryer as I’m trying to use ready meals less and this will be great for things like pasta bake and hunters chicken type meals

QueenJess

Bit of a random question, but I’m sure someone on here will know… I opened a jar of sun dried tomatoes earlier. Since they are just in sunflower oil, can I reuse that oil for normal cooking?

Baileys_Babe

QueenJess said:

Bit of a random question, but I’m sure someone on here will know… I opened a jar of sun dried tomatoes earlier. Since they are just in sunflower oil, can I reuse that oil for normal cooking?

Yes, it is likely to taste faintly of tomatoes (unsurprisingly). We often use the oil in savory dishes.