From debt to freedom...

lucielle

Also regarding banana skins, if you bury a skin before you plant a tom ato plant it really helps them because of the potassium in the skin.
L

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you CCL, Janb5, SH, SA & Lucielle.

Its the first I’ve heard of using banana skins when someone locally told me, but planting underground makes sense as I guess it must be a slow release of potassium. Will try that next year! Thank you Lucielle.

I’ve spent most of the day trying to finish this CPD course. It is slow going as it takes so long for each page to load. On a plus side I’ve worked on a document I need to get done for work while I’ve been waiting for each page and have made  good progress on that!

Lunch was tasty and I didn’t have to do anything !! DD2 had made some butternut squash and sweet potato soup and DD4 had to make a focaccia bread for her home learning project for DT. The combination  of the 2 was delicious.

I took some time to sort out the budget for the rest  of July and into August. It’ll soon be my busy time when there are 6 birthdays in as many weeks! 

Spendless

Hi, Just been having a catch up. DD3's bus fares for college, do you not get any help with that?  At the colleges mine and friend's kids attend, there's a bursary available dependant on household income. My friend's son had a choice between free bus(coach) fare to and from college or a set amount for a canteen meal and at daughter's college they get both. The qualifying amount is more generous than the rules surrounding free school meals in schools and the colleges I've mentioned one is in a deprived area, the other in an affluent so that doesn't seem to make any difference either. Worth you checking the college website. 

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you Spendless, I will look into that. I  got help with DD2’s bus pass, so hopefully will get some help again. DD3 just needs to make a decision on which college she wants to go to!

Work  and continuing this online CPD course has taken most of the week. I did another hour early yesterday morning but was starting to feel quite headachey from so much screen time, so gave myself the rest of the day off and cracked on with house jobs instead. 

I washed the walls of the en-suite shower room with sugar soap in preparation for painting it. It’s the coldest room in the house and gets black mould in the walls so scrubbing it off yesterday made a big difference. I had bought a can of bathroom paint last week, so hopefully it won’t take too long to paint. I’ve got half a can of paint that is designed to be anti fungal - is that the right term, so will use that on the ceiling.

The weather was glorious yesterday so got out into the garden too. The back garden which is a narrow strip has nettles growing, very frustrating after I pulled out so many last year and thought I had cracked it! The nettles were absolutely crawling with caterpillars so DS3 had fun watching them. I left a few for them but pulled out a fair amount. Still more to go later. My plan is to look for a summerhouse type structure to be a studio room for DD1 to be able to use for her projects and hopefully work . I need to make sure the area is clear and be able to get an idea of size. When we first moved here there was a potting shed in that area of the garden but it was rotten so had to be taken down, so I know that a shed / summerhouse will fit!

I potted on some echinacea plants. They won’t flower this year but if I can make sure they are strong plants before winter, they should then flower every year. I got the rudbeckia sown that  I found last week and potted up a blackcurrant. I cut back part of a blackcurrant that was overhanging and popped it into water. Two weeks later roots were growing out of the base of the cutting, so I've potted it up and will see what happens! The blackcurrants at the allotment are ready to harvest. We’ve picked 2 big tubs already and popped them into the freezer.

The children wanted to go to the beach yesterday which we did but not until 8.30. On a sunny day like yesterday the main beaches would be crowded, so we waited. It was lovely when we got there - only us and one other group of people. We saw the sunset and stayed until about 10. This particular beach has a timed dog ban so after 6pm, dogs can go on, so I took the elderly lurcher. It’s the first time he’s been on a beach since his operation but he seemed to enjoy it and was running at one point!

£180 paid off a debt this week - it’s slowly going down. I can see progress when I check the credit club each month as the debt figure is decreasing month on month.

janb5

Love hearing about your planting -it is so inspirational.  My cerinthe plant shows signs of starting to flower so has a new name HSL!  I also bought some strawberry plants today from a local grower- lovely family who I found on FB marketplace for my son, a friend and also my neighbours so all delighted.

Well done with the progress re the debt!

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you Janb5 - the compliment is returned - your apple cake recipe is enjoyed by all in my house and is known as Jan’s apple cake and copied out as such in my recipe folder😀!

I’ve had a bit of a stop start day today. Some things I’ve been able to crack on with but procrastination  with other jobs. I’ve been very thankful for the dry weather and got 3 loads out and dried today🙂. I got to the allotment and got some watering done, the sunflowers are really gaining  height now and the sweet peas are flowering away. There is the first dahlia bud to be seen now and the hollyhocks have tiny flower buds forming at the base of each leaf. There are a shameful amounts of weeds though but not got the time at the moment to be there as much as I’d like. Hopefully in a couple of weeks time, I’ll have a bit more time.

Todays tasks have been carried out to the hum of my neighbour in his tractor, cutting  the field behind our house. When the sun shines, the work gets done, even late into the night. As DD2 and I took an evening stroll after her work shift, we could see the lights of the tractors working in the fields on the other hill. The walk was lovely and cool after the heat of the day. We did our lockdown loop finishing in the very last vestiges of light. We saw the last of the beautiful orange and grey sunset and the almost milky blue  colour of the sea in the distance.  

thriftyish

Just popping in to say hello! I have started reading through your diary and we sound very similar with what we are planting, although your plant knowledge definitely beats mine. I have a block of 9 cerinthe too, and the bees love it more than the borage. Lots of the people on my allotment are quite traditional, and can't understand why I grow flowers and have a pond. I have a shameful amount of weeds too, but the veg and flowers are still growing well, and that's what I keep reminding myself. I would love to take on another allotment just to dedicate to fruit like raspberries and strawberries! I have to say reading your diary I am thankful that I am starting to watch our finances now, I had no idea the unexpected finances would be so expensive for the children as they hit college/uni, huge well done for balancing all that and still making good progress! 

savingholmes

Good luck with the bathroom it sounds like quite a project. The sea walks sound amazing though.

Cherryfudge

I've just caught up. I did the same with cuttings of currants but I can't remember if they're red or black. Oops. They've rooted beautifully, though, and the parent plants were also grown from cuttings.

I just love your descriptions of your walks.

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you Cherryfudge and SH and thank you for dropping by Thriftyish 🙂.

Its been a bit busy here - I’ve spent much of the last week desperately trying to finish off the CPD course that I’ve been doing. It was quite a chunky course in the end with various units of work , so I was very glad to get to the end of it on Sunday.

Moneywise I’ve been able to save £25 to the help to Save account and paid another £30 off a debt. Another £30 has gone on uniform costs for September for DS3 ( still can’t believe he is due to start school this year!). 

One more day at work for this term - Just as I’m finishing work, the older DDs’ shifts have started coming in fast, so DD3 has helpfully made a chart to help figure out who is here so that no one misses  meals. DD1 starts her summer job on Friday too to give her some income as she looks for post degree work.