Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Thanks, @PennysIntoPounds. Yes, problem resolved but very concerning & irritating while it lasted. Haven't the time to post the sorry saga as I've still a few things I want to get done this afternoon, but I'll try to remember at some point.

The phrase to which you refer is well-used in our house. It is reserved for those situations when other phrases simply will not do & this was very much one of those occasions!

Sun_Addict

Glad to hear the issue has been resolved. Sounds like a bit of a mare 😞

foxgloves

Hello Sunbeams,

Another bright, warm day, though chillier first thing. Even Mr F who is a central heating boiler in human form had his hoodie on this morning when he set off for work.

Some useful stuff achieved. I have had a no-spend day, however the household has not, as SOMEBODY forgot to mention yesterday that he'd require a packed lunch today then had no time this morning to make a sarnie himself. He's had a sub-optimal week though, so I told him to go & get a meal-deal from somewhere. Anyway, back to today's money saving efforts:

*Finally got round to logging into the BBC Maestro courses I signed up for (I felt if I didn't get cracking soon, I wouldn't get my money's worth). I subscribed to take advantage of some of the creative writing courses (one in particular) so naturally started off with some classic displacement activity by doing a couple of sessions of Tim Spector's course instead!

*Did another triage of the tomatoes, 600g of ripe ones from the fridge were peeled, chopped & used in tonight's smoky black bean chilli. Replaced them with the newly red ones from the ripening tray. I will wait for another kilo or so to ripen then do some more bottling.

*Entered a competition.

*Wrote to a friend - have been using up various oddments from my stationery basket & while I was delving deeper looking for my wallet of stamps, I found a……..

*……Lovely card, just perfect for sending to my nephew who has just started at uni this week. I had forgotten I even had it & have now crossed 'Buy card' off my Saturday shopping list.

*Added two further work pension letters to my folder of such things. It is all going ahead (end of October). I am just waiting to hear absolute full & final figure from my AVC provider (I didn't pay into those for very long as it was in the Spendy Years & I hadn't discovered budgeting) then I can give more thought at where best to target that sum. Replenishing our Emergency Fund post-new roof is obviously going to appear high up the priority list.

*Made a sourdough ready for baking tomorrow. The resident bread hoover has been mentioning that I hadn't baked one for ages, though he HAS had the nice crusty white loaf currently in the bread bin plus a wholemeal seedy loaf & some rolls. Hmmm.

*Did a few surveys. My September PA target of £40 probably won't be achieved as I have had too many days when I haven't engaged, but once I've received a few outstanding payments, I shall be over £30 so I will keep at it.

*Did some budget updates, mostly grocery budget (overspent by £17-96 this month due to stocking up on excellent offers on 40-box cat meat & olive oil plus the first few festive baking ingredients).

*Perused water bill received this week. You'll doubtless remember (because I keep wanging on about it) that we were put on a compulsory water meter last December. The billet doux announcing this said we were paying a lot more on the old water rates system than we were actually using & so we began the changeover with a refund of over £400. Monthly payments were set at £38 so over £200 less per year than the old system. We have both been much more water-aware since becoming metered. Water prices have gone up because those new reservoirs need building….oh, hang on, no silly me, I meant those bonuses & telephone number salaries need paying, so our monthly payment is increasing next month but only by £2.27. Given that we are gardeners & obviously had to water our food crops as a bare minimum, plus a couple of necessary top-ups of the wildlife pond, I think this increase would have been quite a lot higher were it not for the water saving measures I've been implementing. As even with using the hosepipe, we only used a very few extra square metres of water compared to the previous 6 months. I feel more confident now that we can do it. Obviously the current HOLE IN THE BATH is saving us water atm as we are having to have brisk strip washes (Oooh er missis, matron will be gentle!) Needless to say one of Mr F's tasks tomorrow will be to procure a bath mending kit, which our plumber recommended, neither of us even knowing that these were 'a thing'. If it works, it'll be a damn sight cheaper than a new bath. Fingers crossed!

*Tomorrow is my Big Budget Day so have got everything ready on my desk so as to get a decent unfaffy start on this.

Right, nothing exciting there, but that's the nature of everyday routine money saving, is it not? Dull, but better than the alternative. I did very many years of the latter & I know which I prefer!

Cheers,

F x

PennysIntoPounds

Blimey that's a productive day. Will be interesting to hear how the bath repair kit doing goes, good luck!

Blackcats

"Oo err missus" made me nearly snort out my mouthful of tea 🤣

foxgloves

Greetings Friday Frugalistas,

Both of us at home today as Mr F lost his usual day off to a combination of work & this week's annoying issue. Soot & Ash under the impression this change to routine means they get 2 lunches. Nice try, mateys!

Productive day: Mr F to town & red DIY place where he discovered that the bath repair kits they sell are only available online 🙄. He's now ordered one. He also picked up the last brisket from our local butcher - I'll get a lot of meals from that next month. He's also vacuumed & cleaned the bathroom.

Me: Well, it's Big Budget Day so I've been busy with that. No nasty surprises & was able to pay our Regular Saver & purchase this month's Premium Bonds. I decided not to pay the Emergency Fund or Car Fund this month because I am planning to prioritise some of my imminent AVC fund to strengthen these, so I have instead favoured some of our Pots, which were looking on the low side. While doing this, I spotted that the £300 surplus from buying our car was still sitting in the Car Maintenance Pot doing sweet f*nny adams. I popped it in there as we had budgeted for dashcams to be installed but we think we're unlikely to do this before well into next year, so I've split the money between 3 Pots which were more in need of it.

Also baked the sourdough I made yesterday, darned a sock, decluttered my half of the bathroom cabinet, edited my list for tomorrow's thrice-deferred city centre trip, chucked 3 not-even-that-old pencil sharpeners in the bin after my nifty attempts to sharpen the blades failed to effect any improvement to their pencil-butchering abilities & Mr F donated an actual working one to me. I love pencils, but I also love them to have points!

I am now heading for a hairwash at the kitchen sink (we are making-do while waiting for the bath-mending kit). All I need is a bottle of Vosene & my Mum winding horrid pink foam rollers into my hair ready for church on Sunday curls & I'd be back in circa 1973!!

Mr F's cooking night - salmon & Cranks macro-rice. I'm really enjoying my current book, so shall get on with that plus a bit of TV later with some present knitting. Enjoy your Friday nights, all.

F x