Sepa seeks freedom

Sepa74

Hi Mortgage Girl, thanks for reading through my long, long rambles! and thanks for the tip about the strawberries. I don't seem to have too many issues with birds getting at my raspberries and the wild strawbs - I wonder if it's all the cats around here? - but if the strawberries are hanging up they will be very tempting for the birds.

I discovered the real seed company yesterday, so I purchased my seeds for this summer. Last year I was very money saving and used up a lot of what I had in stock or had seeded itself, so I didn't spend too much. But I looked in my seed tin this year and I think it's time to get some new seeds. Hooray!!!!

The real seed company was really cheap. I got tomatoes and beans and courgettes and some other stuff to try. At least 7 or 8 different seed packets for less than £20 incl postage - very impressive. They also positively encourage you to save your own seed, which is nice as it's illegal for the commercial seeds. Some of the stories about how seeds have been carefully saved and handed down through generations were really interesting. I really like their attitude, because it's so important to keep the gene pool as broad as possible so that our food crops have a greater chance of being able to adapt to new pests and different climates. Some of the world's most important food crops - banana and cassava in particular - have a very limited gene pool and are very vulnerable to harvests being dramatically reduced by new pests. Not that anything I grow in England will help support the banana and cassava gene pools, but it's the principle of the thing!

<Rant over>

Have just used up the last tea bag of another box of herbal teas... that makes two boxes broken up for recycling in one day. How impressive is that!!!!

Radish72

I went through my kitchen cupboards the other week, I now have a "special shelf" for things that are due to go out of date

I discovered the joy of spaghetti hoops on toast the other night

Sepa74

HI Radish, that's a great idea. When I get my new kitchen I might do something similar, although I generally pay very little attention to use by dates... and it ain't killed me yet!!

Haven't had the best money saving week - I've been treating myself to lots of chocolate and a couple of coffees to get me going in the morning. I also checked my electricity meter against the estimate in my bill, and my meter is significantly higher! I think it must be due to working from home so much and heating my office. The electric radiator I purchased is in theory energy efficient, but it is still obviously eating electricity!

Who would have thought going to work saved you so much money!! I also get through heaps of milk and tea bags when I work from home, which at work are both free.

But I've been very good this week and not bought lunch once. Strangely, the thought of going out and buying lunch doesn't appeal any more - I would prefer to take some of the yummy soups and casseroles I have stashed in my freezer.

I've succumbed and have just done an internet shop, as I've run out of basics like tins of tomatoes. I'm about to run out of peanut butter, which is the last straw!! But I have resolved to be good and continue to try and use things up before opening anything new, and resisted buying tea bags as I have LOTS of loose tea that needs using up.

I have managed to swap an old packet of marshmallow seeds (they won't grow in my garden as it's too dry) for some columbine seeds, which is pretty cool. I'll pop them in the post on Monday. The only thing is, the swappee is in Ireland and it will cost £1.31 to send the seeds, and I could probably get the columbine seeds for about that anyway!!! But at least I can feel the marshmallow seeds won't go to waste.

My seeds for this year arrived today. Yippee! It's a little early to start planting, but I had fun looking through them all. I'm VERY tempted to buy a propagator, as the courgette and squash seeds need to be 25c to germinate. Now I'm not convinced because I have germinated squash seeds in the UK, but it would be very sad if I planted them and they didn't grow. The other thing I would use the propagator for would be for sweet pepper seeds, which I KNOW won't germinate in a low temperature because I've tried. I will have to see

Those cats cost me £20 yesterday - it's obvious they are much happier with two litter trays, so I went and bought a Van Ness tray from my local pet shop. Their prices are pretty comparable with online, so I don't feel bad about wasting a £1 or so to support a local shop. The van ness tray costs about 6 times the other trays, but the sides are really high so there is much less mess, so it's worth it.

Well, I'm off to the pub now as they're having a folk night and a friend is playing. I hope everyone else has had a good MS week.

cha97michelle

Just wanted to say, my best success with courgette growing was planting a seed in a yoghurt pot and then leaving it on my south facing living room window with no propogator. We had loads that year.

Sepa74

Hi Michelle, thanks for the tip. I'm sure they don't really need 25c to germinate. But it would be cool to buy a propagator. But note how I'm being MS by just talking about it, not actually going out and doing it!!!

Just raised an invoice for the first three articles I've written. YIPPEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

It's exciting because as the sole shareholder in a personal service company I'm very vulnerable to being asked to pay loads more tax under the IR35 regulations. It's not the extra tax that worries me so much, it's the uncertainty (I could get hit with a bill plus interest years down the road) and the fact that if you get caught under IR35 you suddenly can't claim for training or other perfectly legitimate and necessary expenses. Having another source of income doesn't kill off the risk, but it significantly reduces it.

Hooray!!

mortgage_girl

I agree with Michelle - just keep your courgette seeds on a sunny windowsill and they'll take care of themselves - mmmmm, I love courgettes The Real Seed Co sounds fab - i've got all my seeds for this year but may stock up from them next year.

mortgage_girl

Uh oh Sepa...I realised I needed a few extra packets of seeds and I ended up having a mini spending spree on the Real Seed Co website. I ended up buying some Nigels Outdoor Chilli, Sweet Chocolate Sweet Pepper (couldn't resist the name!), Minature White Cucumber and Finissimo Small Leaved Basil (reckon it'll be fab on pizza). Couldn't resist - whoops!

Sepa74

lol... I find seed catalogues are a bit like book shops... it's really difficult to control yourself!

Speaking of, I just signed up to Green Metropolis, the book site. It's not charity shop cheap to buy books, but I'll use it if I'm looking for a particular book. I have one or two series where I'm missing a book, so I might see if I can find them there.

I might also thin out my own bookshelves, although I don't tend to buy books unless they're 'keepers', so I don't know how many I will have to sell.

i often take spare stuff to charity shops rather than trying to sell them, but I'm thinking I might try and ebay one or two things. I have some furniture that I was going to give to the heart foundation, but they have new delivery / pick up contractors who were unwilling to come and pick my stuff up at a time I could actually be around to give it to them. They've always been good in the past (eg picking things up before I go to work) but if they can't be bothered picking stuff up at a time I can be around, they'll just have to make do without the donation. Last time I donated to them I got a letter saying the furniture had earned over £150, so it's their loss and my gain.

The only thing I'm a little nervous about is that the buy would have to come and pick it up - I live alone, so it's not ideal. Has anyone else had experience in selling large items on ebay?

Sepa74

I am having an expensive month. Luckily it's short!! I accidentally took out £200 cash a couple of weeks ago, and of course it's just disappeared! I used half of it to pay my annual choir fee, and I also got the zippers on two coats replaced, which cost £77. It adds up! I also have to take the cats to the vet for their annual checkup, but that can wait until next month.

On the plus side, my mobile phone bill was only £18. Yippee!!!! I renewed my contract in December, and the retentions dept in Orange gave me a fantastic deal, but because I was overseas at Christmas I didn't notice the benefit and was beginning to wonder if the deal was that great after all!

My 'using things up' blitz is going well, and my freezer is now stocked with around 3 weeks worth of HM soups and casseroles to take to work for lunches. Despite the demise of our soup club, I am still be very good about taking lunches in to work, and can't remember the last time I bought lunch!

I am VERY close to deciding on the final plan and colour scheme for my kitchen. It's an expensive beast - I've had two quotes, both coming in at around £12K. I should probably get a third, but I'm actually really happy with one of the two quotes I have now and I HATE putting people to all the trouble of providing a quote for the kitchen. Because it's such an awkward shape I have to have a bespoke kitchen and it's such a waste of someone's time to come around and measure up and draw up plans when I strongly suspect no one will be willing to do it cheaper - it's just too risky for them as nothing is straight.

The garage roof should go on this week - weather permitting!! I CAN'T wait!!

Sepa74

Just changed my sig to include my age when the mortgage will be paid off... I'll be an old lady!!! Crikey! I'd better get cracking!