Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Thanks, yes I am hoping that when the new chair arrives, it will be pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

Hello Readers,

Oh my life, it's hot! I ate my lunch indoors, curtains closed & fan on, so when I brought my coffee out here to our shady courtyard bench, the heat really hit me. Even the breeze is hot. Soot is stretched out by my side but has decided it's even too clammy & horrid for strokes. My sympathies to the millions of people working in buildings without air conditioning. Here in the UK, I think there are going to have to be moves towards much greater resilience to climate change-induced heat, as well as more joined-up thinking about flooding. It's too hot to mount the steps to my soapbox however, so I shall have a think about today's budget-friendly efforts.

*Tonight's meal is the rest of the pinto bean chilli I batch-cooked a while back. I only need to grate some cheese to go on top & butter some sourdough chunks to accompany it.

*Today's garden pickings: Blackberries.

*Bailed out 6 cans of bathwater for the thirstiest-looking plants. Everything is struggling so much. I want to cut back the brown top-growth but am thinking it might actually be offering a little protection to the crowns.

*Chopped back both hanging baskets as very straggly now. Fed & watered generously in hope of a few new blooms into next month.

*Washed another pillow. They are all coming up lovely, & in this heat they are back in use by bedtime.

*Did 3 surveys.

I've done a little tidying in the kitchen & conservatory but am intending to read in the shade now. I'm sure this library book is due back very shortly so I am aiming to finish it by tonight.

NOT money saving today: Received a very contrite ping from Mr F saying that he accidentally input our old reg. number into the parking app this morning so has acquired a parking ticket! It is £50, but £25 if he pays it within 7 days. I was annoyed at such a stupid waste of our money, but not as annoyed as he was! He says he is paying it tonight as soon as he gets in. It will come from our Car Maintenance Pot as we don't have a pot for idiocy!!

Right, time to tackle a few chapters,

Hope everyone is managing these energy-sapping temperatures.

F x

Sun_Addict

Oh no to the fine, but easy done with it being early days with the new car.

PennysIntoPounds

Oh no, I bet Mr F didn't enjoy sending that message! Maybe it can be a motivating prompt to do a survey session and some selling listings 🍻

rtandon27

Yikes! - we too have fallen foul of the idiocy tax on occasion - both recent times because the app took us to blue badge parking via time restricted routes.

foxgloves

Thanks, all. "Idiocy tax", I love that, @rtandon27, I think he expected me to go off on one, but he was more cross about it than I was, as it was his error. I did say that my attitude won't be quite as kind & fluffy if he forgets to pay in time & it increases to £50!

Good Afternoon Readers,

Another hot one here - not as bad as yesterday but I have been using the oven this morning & that's contributed to a sticky level of heat in the kitchen which doesn't seem to want to dissipate. I've opted for half jobs & half leisure today. Budget-friendly efforts not the biggest today but am perfectly happy with them:

*Baked a crusty loaf for the weekend.

*Money saving re-use of water wherever possible. I've had a watering can in the kitchen this morning & was surprised how adding all the reusable odds & sods of water which would have gone down the sink filled it up pretty quickly. There will be plant gratitude for that later.

*Made a batch of tomato ketchup - 6 jars - then sterilised them so that they'll keep for longer. I think it's tastier than last time - the only difference is that I replaced 2 tbsp of the red wine vinegar content with my homemade blackberry vinegar.

*Did 3 surveys - lots of PA ones available this afternoon but not all of them achievable on my laptop as they often specify levels of tech that according to Mr F, very many people won't have. I am really trying to get back to my £40 per month cash-out target, so I am currently logging on everyday & just doing what's available to me.

*Oh & the new chair arrived! Not money saving in that I obviously spent money on it, but I did get the 20% off & it is exactly what I wanted. Poor delivery driver (who has no air-con in his van) couldn't fit it in our front door - we have a large bookcase behind the door so it won't open quite all the way - as it was in the most humungous box, but it fitted in through our side door & I managed to unpack the chair from it while Soot did his utmost to get into the box & make a general nuisance of himself before I had finished. He isn't usually bothered about scratching wooden things - carpets & upholstery are his preference for naughty claw action, so fingers crossed that the new chair is safe from further shannanigans.

Not interesting, but I've mentioned over this week that I have made use of the very hot weather to launder some pillows. They just had a normal wash cycle with my usual detergent & were pegged straight out. I am just mentioning that they've come up really well - the filling has puffed up like new & it's well worth doing. The old spendy me would have binned them & bought new, so this is obviously a saving on that old behaviour. I am still intending to wash our winter duvet in the bath this month & lob it over the top of the whirlygig. Nothing high-tech here….I use the 'treading grapes' method & pretend I'm in Ancient Rome.

I just need to go & pull the last of the mini-carrots & start the maincrop ones if there's not enough littlies. I already have a box of french beans picked & in the fridge so nothing else to do except bake some salmon & cook new potatoes & veg. I do love to go & 'shop' fresh fruit & veg from our garden - I always think it's food metres rather than food miles.

Right, off to commune with the carrots!

F x

foxgloves

Hello Readers,

A fair bit cooler today so it's feeling much less sticky & exhausting. Am fresh from the shower as I felt a bit 'green' after tying in a row of tomatoes. Haven't really given money saving a thought today. I have.....

*Made a start on veg garden maintenance as above.

*Garden pickings: Lots of french beans, grapes (I'm snarfing a few every time I go in the greenhouse as there are so many. Mr F doesn't like them so all the more for me!)

*Dinner in the slow cooker & made good use of several of our home grown shallots. Meal-in-a-bowl so no further effort required apart from wielding of ladle later.

*Decided to cancel our planned breakfast out tomorrow. As we will also be visiting a coffee shop on Weds, we thought once would be better for the resilience of our Personal Spends. I am not making this up when I say that back in the Spendy Years, we'd sometimes have breakfast out, pop in somewhere mid-morning for a swift coffee & then have a late lunch out too! I know eating out wasn't as expensive then, but it was still very £££frittery behaviour. We were talking the other day about how a bacon & egg bap with a flat white for Mr F at our village farm shop cafe used to be under £7 about 3 years ago & now it's pushing £10. Cheaper for me as my preferred choice isn't for a cooked breakfast, but a noticeable example of food price inflation.

*This year's batch of blackberry vinegar currently straining through jelly bag ready for finishing off & bottling tomorrow.

*Mr F has made more progress on his big garden project & I salvaged the corrugated wrapping card from the new chair's packaging for the compost bins while Soot went crackers inside the box.

The rest of today will be spent reading the Saturday papers, finishing my book & trying to solve the last 3 pesky clues in a big crossword we've been trying to do all week. Last of the 'Black Forest Murders' to watch on Iplayer tonight so leisure time for the rest of the day.

Positive weekend wishes to you all,

F x

PennysIntoPounds

Cafè prices are astonishing, every time I walk by one I think 'how on earth are there enough people who can afford this to keep all these places going'

Glad to hear Soot got some quality cat-in-a-box time 🍻

Dakota_Rose

I think that’s plenty of money saving behaviour right there! Well done for such a productive day x

Sausageroll14

Hope it's ok to barge in.... 😁

So we moved recently and are just getting back on track frugality wise.

So today we released the cats for the first time in the garden. This is frugal on 2 counts. Barely the saving on litter tray usage and also savings on fans as all windows and doors had to be firmly shut while the fluffs adjusted. Never welcomed a breeze so much 😋

Also managed to avoid a takeout and do a simple tea instead.

We also found an apple tree and damson tree. I will be preserving what I can jam, pies or Gin!

Feeling productive! 😁

foxgloves

Thanks all! I think I was probably more productive than I felt yesterday but as long as I make visible inroads into what needs doing, I'm usually content with that,

Welcome @Sausageroll14 - Do feel free to come & join in. We've usually all got plenty to say on here! Some good money saves mentioned there. Outdoor cats save a fortune in cat litter, I agree. I only provide an indoor litter tray for persistent heavy rain, snow & poorliness now. Ash will go out in anything, Soot less so if it is very wet but they are not that keen on litter trays either, given the choice. Avoiding take-away is always a save - so expensive for a decent one these days. My Mum used to say that damsons made the best ever jam - they make a damn fine fruit gin too if you could usefully get any put away for gifts.

Today has been another mix of tasks & leisure. The budget-friendly stuff began with sticking to yesterday's decision not to go out for breakfast so around £17 saved there. Other stuff:

*Today's garden pickings: Courgettes, blackberries.

*Took down the jellybag, measured for sugar ratio & finished making my blackberry vinegar. Two bottles added to nicely-filling pantry shelves.

*Made a blackberry cake. I had no intention of baking today but Mr F kept dropping hints, which kept getting more obvious & at one point, he was pretending to cough loudly while saying the word 'CAKE'. He then bribed me into baking one by offering to clean the bathroom in return. Ah, well now you're talking. I had intended to do the bathroom today, but would I rather bake than be cleaning the bog? You bet! Bribe accepted. Blackberry cake baked in time for enjoying warm with post-lunch coffee, bathroom sparkling, Result!

*Quite blowy today so did all this week's laundry a day early which will free up some time tomorrow for other things, esp admin & Mid-Month Budget Check-In, which I have not yet done.

*Mr F announced he was placing a click & collect order to make use of current double credit card loyalty points & did I have anything to add? I have ordered a gift to put away in the present bag as I know it is something I'd have bought anyway, so may as well have the extra points.

Not my cooking night so I intend to decamp to the reading bench with the Sunday papers & possibly next library book from my reading pile. Forecast looking much cooler over the coming week so I am definitely aiming to catch up on much needed garden efforts. Am also wondering if my final work pension quote letter will appear this week, so there may well be steam coming off the calculator from that too.

Enjoy your Sunday nights, all.

F x