Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Makingabobor2

What a clever idea to clip pots on like that.

Are these outdoor, or in GH?

foxgloves

Outside. The wall at the back is the shed. I tried this method last year with yoghurt pots & they rooted well.

Makingabobor2

I shall be trying your method I think. Just showed DH the pic & asked him to build me something like that. Mine have been in separate pots but this is much better idea. . Might be able to squeeze one in between shed & GH.

foxgloves

We bought that tiered planter from our local garden centre. In fact. I asked for a small reduction as it was very grubby, which they were fine about. I lined each of the troughs with plastic sheets I cut from old compost sacks. When the runners are well-rooted, I will snip them off & use them to fill gaps. The rest will go into bigger pots & will probably overwinter in the cold frame.

PennysIntoPounds

Lovely pics. And what fun (hopefully) to be hosting Christmas! Looking forward to hearing about all your lovely seasonal home and mse festive doings.

I know you're very experienced in domestic stuff, but there's supposed to be a hole in your bath, it's called a plughole or summat 😁

Sun_Addict

Oh no to the hole in the bath 😞Hopefully a simple solution and not too costly. There’s always something 😬

2Scratters

Window shopping pays off in more than one way. I had been perusing aimlessly of an evening and spotted someone was selling a job lot of approximately 40 linen tea towels. (Bit of a penchant here) was seriously considering making an offer. Fortunately had delayed any action. Today whilst looking for an un-connected item (which I did find) in a large chest which came from parents house I found 30+ of them in there, all brand new 😃 That makes me sable (Stuff Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy) and money still left in my purse.

Yesterday I traded in a pair of gold earrings that were quite heavy for me which got me £150. That went straight to my cash stash 😉

2 Scratters xx

2Scratters

Forgot to mention when I did a Big butchers shop shop last week. I had purchased sometime ago a little gadget and the plastic bags that go with it, where it sucks out the air and seals it. When I got back I separated the meats into portion sizes and bagged them up with my gadget. When I got some meat out yesterday and put it on the side to thaw out I remembered that vac packed items will remain fresh as long as the bag remains sealed. So if there is any disruption of supply to us I am not needing to panic as much. This now means I need to eat the un vac-packed food and replace with sealed items. This will also help with the rotation of stock in the freezer 😉 Time to get busy in my new kitchen.

2 Scratters xx

Makingabobor2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82143491#Comment_82143491

Ooh that sounds like an interesting gadget. Will have to look for one of those

foxgloves

Hello Sunbeams,

Glorious sunshine here. I am still wearing my summer maxi-dress. It is a good early autumn outfit with my denim jacket over the top. Enjoyed a coffee out on the reading bench at lunchtime with Soot at my side. Surprising how much colour has reappeared in the garden following such a parched summer.

Right, it's Monday so nothing of ANY interest whatsoever going on here. It's my 'getting us set up for the week' day. On the budget-friendly front, I have…….

*Had a no-spend day.

*Baked a crusty loaf.

*Done 3 loads of laundry to make continued use of free line-drying while we have the weather for it.

*Made tomorrow's packed lunch.

*Found a use for a lone smoked haddock fillet which has been lurking in the freezer for a while. It's going into a kedgeree tonight. A good way of stretching one fillet into two good portions.

*Today's garden pickings: A few more pears & a courgette. Yesterday, I spotted a small bunch of grapes I'd missed, right at the top of the vine through the greenhouse window & Mr F reached them down for me. Nice surprise & a bit more free fruit as the vine is very low maintenance. It's provided lots of bunches this year.

*Did my usual Monday morning budget updates. Grocery budget still has 1 week to run & is unlikely to cover everything. Decided our best option is to use a £12 off a £60 minimum spend voucher which was sent to Mr F. We will come in a bit over budget but not by much & as it's for an online shop only, we can control the amount by seeing the cumulative total as we go along.

*Did a couple of surveys.

*Dismantled the hanging baskets & packed them away for next year. Only cheap ones but they have lasted well. I composted the 2 geraniums from them as I've been overwintering them for several years & they were looking tired of life after a flourishing summer. I have others doing better from which I can take cuttings if I want more.

Oh & I perused a letter & pdf from the Cephalopods received today concerning energy price rises. We are on the cheapest gas tariff. Small possibility of saving £10 a year by changing to a different electricity tariff but I can't see the point for a tenner as I can save that by just being vigilant about wastage. While the letter said there was no need to increase our monthly DD payment, I hopped onto their AI payment tool which suggested I'd need to increase our DD by £33 per month to cover our usage over the coming year. Well, I have increased it so we can get ahead of the bigger price cap rise which is due in the New Year, but not as much as suggested. We were paying £117 (dual fuel) per month for ages but they reduced it, then reduced it again. I have increased it so that we are paying £3 more than that per month but will be monitoring it. I decided I'd rather pay a bit more now so that the monthly DD increase in the New Year isn't such a shock to the system. Still on the topic of energy, Mr F reckons it may still be warm enough not to switch our CH back on on Oct 1st, which is our usual date for this. We have the warmer duvet back on the bed - his idea, most unlike him as he's always too hot - but I think he is also thinking we can help offset the initial price cap rise by delaying our switch-on date a little……something which the Cephalopods also mentioned in their letter.

Right, I did say it's been an uninteresting day, so I shall just check if any further surveys have come in while I've been chatting to you, & if not, I shall go & begin fetching in my mammoth amount of laundry. It's been so good for pegging out this summer, I shall really miss going back to the heated airer.

Cheers m'dears,

F x