Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

@Suffolk_lass - Yes, one positive knock-on effect of all the refurb work we did on our house is that we now know decent builders, decorators, a roofer & electrician. We also have a decent plumber. The only people I wouldn't use again are 2 plasterers. One kept cancelling appointments for no good reason & the other was a right messy b*gger, flinging plaster/slurry all over the place.

foxgloves

Hello Hot People,

Considering how cloudy it's been today, I am surprised at the level of heat & have felt like a damp dishrag for most of the afternoon. Quite a productive day though. We made use of a free coffee at the village farm shop cafe & used our Personal Spends to make it up to a breakfast while we discussed job priorities. On the budget-friendly front:

*Called at village garden centre to price up gravel & edging.

*Did bank transfer for new car payment & sorted out vehicle change with insurance provider. I was expecting a much higher premium but it has actually only gone up by £45 for the year. Looked out our breakdown policy so as to get that changed this week too.

*Today's garden pickings: Courgettes, rhubarb & blackberries.

*Sorted out frozen chillies with the aim of using up last year's leftovers first. Also found a big bag of last year's blackberries which I intend to use imminently.

*Low-effort nosebag tonight. Spicy leftover chicken & cannellini beans in pittas with stir-fried courgettes.

*Made rhubarb sponge - it's just having an extra 10 mins in the oven which is perfect for sitting chatting to you.

*Mr F has been happily busy all afternoon getting the furniture & man cave stuff back into the repaired back bedroom. From all the singing, stomping around & whistling I can hear, I think it's going well.

And Soot & Ash have had a positive but surreal experience today. Tbh I feel quite envious. How would you like to wake up & find you are actually 2 years younger than you think you are?! I tell everyone, as does Mr F, that they are 13 & 8 years old respectively & that we adopted them in 2020. Except.....we were talking about our previous cat today & how we lost him during Lockdown in June 2020. Then we were meowless until all the renovations were finished.....which meant we didn't adopt Soot & Ash until 2022. It was February 2022 to be exact so they are only 11 & 6. Soot had 2 extra treats to celebrate his new found youth. Ash was back in the catnip so will probably get the munchies later.

F x