From debt to freedom...

Cherryfudge

DD's cooking sounds expensive but lovely! Could you persuade her to make shortbread to give as gifts and enhance her skills/solve some gift dilemmas at the same time?

I find I can always buy for the females in my family. It's the men who are so tricky! Of course, should you chose to keep your head in the sand, Christmas will just go past eventually and you won't be out of pocket. I think that might not work as a long-term solution but meanwhile you can always console yourself in the knowledge that Cherry hasn't bought a single card this year.

Honeysucklelou2

I finally got the Christmas cake baked on Saturday. I usually make a 10" square cake which goes very quickly! I've bought some more fruit so that I can make a couple of cakes for friends and family as part of their Christmas gift.

That's a good idea to ask DD2 to make some shortbread. Thanks Cherryfudge.

I had quite a busy baking day on Saturday. I got round to making a carrot cake that DD4 had been begging me to bake, ever since we took one to DD1 in October. I made a batch of flapjacks and a lemon drizzle cake, after which DS2 made some muffins. Needless to say the tins don't stay full for long so willneed to make some more soon!

Yesterday and today have been NSDs, thankfully.

Spendless

Agree that DD2s cooking sounds delicious though expensive. Don't know what you do when an ingredient is expensive. Does it matter what the wine tastes like as a drink if it's going into cooking? Just trying to think if any cheap plonk would do. My Mum is/was a hairdresser, but only retired this year, she'd always have bottles in, most of which she wouldn't drink bought as presents. One year she passed me on a bottle of sherry. As I was unlikely to drink it and because DH was getting on my nerves after his Xmas eve drinking session, I popped to an elderly neighbours with it. She offered me a glass with her, so I agreed. What I didn't know was she only owned one sherry glass which she had, she poured mine into an oversized red wine glass. When I eventually returned DH wasn't as annoying to me as he'd been when I went out. :rotfl:

Honeysucklelou2

Another busy week has flown by! Payday was on Thursday so all main direct debits went out yesterday. I have been able to pay another £150 to the family member which is a relief, and get the nursery fees paid for the coming week.

I did have a surprise when I opened my pay slip. It showed arrears in basic pay which came to about £35 after tax and NI had been taken into consideration. I thought I'd use that to make an extra payment on the home improvement loan, as the interest rates are horrible.

Looking forward this week, I have DD2's bus pass for the Speing term to pay for and extra food for DD3 who is travelling to London for a school trip.

MeandO

Nice little bonus in your payslip HSL

You've inspired me to get Christmas-cake baking too!

X

louby40

I had a bit extra too backadated from September. It was about £50 and very welcome.

Honeysucklelou2

All the nicer when it's not expected!!
Glad you feel inspired to bake MeandO!

Finally got the first Christmas present sorted...should be arriving by post at the end of the week. That's the toddler done, just got the others to think about now.

We have a staff Christmas dinner this week so will need to get a secret santa present sorted out but am hoping to get that done on my day off.

Menu is sorted for this week:-
Sun- Roast chicken
Mon - Chicken stir fry
Tues-Vegetable curry
Wed - children eat with the ex.
Thurs - Lasagne
Fri - kale hash

I was happy to discover frozen kale in Mr T's so I can have the kale hash more regularly:).

Honeysucklelou2

NSD yesterday...sadly not today though as I had to top up diesel and get more milk. I'm sure a house cow would be cheaper!

Cherryfudge

Honeysucklelou2 wrote: »

NSD yesterday...sadly not today though as I had to top up diesel and get more milk. I'm sure a house cow would be cheaper!

Possibly... or possibly not! Maybe a goat?

And please may I ask your advice oh grower of plants? I started two amaryllises around the beginning of October and both are alive (sending out roots). The one that's from last year and has been in a pot out of doors all summer is about two feet tall. The other has no top growth at all.

They've both been on the same windowsill - west-facing. The room is heated but not hot (around 18 degrees usually). It was indoors in the shop but I don't think it was particularly warm in the room. The only thing I can think of is to move the non-starter in case it didn't like the pelargonium and Christmas cactus either side. Micro climate and all that. But honestly - the non-starter cost £10 and the nursery was one we visited on holiday and I may never get the chance to go back, so I can't wave it accusingly under their noses and demand a refund, and I wouldn't want to as it's rather a beauty when it emerges.

So please GQT (Gardener's Question Time :rotfl:) - what do I do or do I just keep it in the garden all next year in the hope it will at least grow leaves and bulk out the already fairly substantial bulb?

Honeysucklelou2

Oooo interesting question! I have an amaryllis in flower at the moment but it's only the second I've ever grown so not got a lot of experience with these...however the only things I can think of is that perhaps it has had a little too much water? It's obviously alive having put out roots but see if not watering it will cause any growth and then resume watering when growth is seen. Is it in a pot? Is the pot a snug fit for the bulb? Apparently the bulbs like to be contained a little for best growth.

The only other thing that I can think is if the foliage was cut down too soon ( in the shop) before the bulb could store nutrients, that would cause problems ( in the same way that cutting daffodil foliage down too soon causes "blind bulbs" where the bulb fails to produce a flower the following year as it hadn't had enough time to store nutrients in the bulb).

As a first measure I would stop watering to see if that makes a difference. After that I would give it time and see if it puts on any growth in the garden next year. Amaryllis bulbs are tender so I wouldn't put it out in the garden until Spring. A useful site for bulb know-how is Sarah Raven's site.

Hope that helps.