£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Treadingonplaymobil

Thanks for the gardening chat. Food for thought (literally!).

Absolutely exhausted today, not sure why. Have done some things on my list though, and the car is all loaded ready to see clients in the morning. Also made a potential good business contact, which is always nice.

Not a wildly over-achieving day to be honest, was hoping to get more done from my list. Humph.

Savings/Spends:
- January 'rounding down' overpayment pot = £6.27/£8 (£30 per month pro rata for the rest of Jan )
- 2018 debt repayment goal = £656.48/£5,000

To do today
1. Plan week's work. This already done, efficient or what?
2. Make ghee. Done.
3. Buy oranges and sugar for marmalade. Done.
4. Have a browse for budget recipes. Not done.
5. Make sourdough. Proving in the fridge, all ready to cook tomorrow morning.
6. Prep for clients tomorrow. Done.
7. Clear the laundry. 'Clear' might have been a bit optimistic, but I have done two loads.
8. Clear the ironing. Not even slightly.
9. Do some more decluttering. Not done.
10. Thank you card for the weekend. Not done.
11. Make more granola. Done.
12. Decide whether to grow some veg this year and check what supplies we have (I think we have reusable grow bags somewhere, maybe some seed trays. Would need seeds/seedlings and compost). More as a good activity for the children than money saving, but needs to pay its way (ie not spending £50 on seeds, which obviously I have NEVER done ). Done. DH thinks we still have the growbags, so he's going to hunt on the weekend.

To do this week
1. More decluttering - particularly the lego!
2. Brainstorm ideas for architect - particularly in the light of the new extension information from the planners.
3. Finish planning any handmade gifts for birthdays/Christmas 2018 so I can ensure they are done well in advance.
4. Plan and book some campsites for summer hols.
5. Do birthday cards for the month and a thank you card for the weekend.

To do in January
1. Review 2017 spending and try to improve 2018 plans by being more prepared - plan big spends like holidays and Christmas now and be realistic about the cost. Done with DH before doing SOA.
2. Redo SOA once the remortgage is through. Done.
3. Make a 2018 business plan that is less frenetic than originally (I think I had too high expectations of myself, leading to much stress in Nov/Dec). Done.

Honeysucklelou2

Blueberries do quite well in pots, as long as you use ericacious compost ( unless your soil is already acidic). The flowers look lovely in Spring, the fruit does well in summer and the colour of the leaves and stems in Autumn make it a valuable plant in the garden!

Look for mixes of lettuce seeds. Some have an oak leaf type lettuce mixed with a variety such as Navara so you get green and red salad leaves growing together. Courgettes can be good value but make sure you get a variety like "Defender" rather than the F1 hybrid varieties that will cost £3.50 for 6 seeds.

I'm looking forward to the beginning of Feb when I can get going on the sowing!

mfmaybe

Honeysucklelou2 wrote: »

Blueberries do quite well in pots, as long as you use ericacious compost ( unless your soil is already acidic). The flowers look lovely in Spring, the fruit does well in summer and the colour of the leaves and stems in Autumn make it a valuable plant in the garden!

Also - blueberries are ruinously expensive, and young children tend to devour them like sweeties :eek:

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 51: Day 3

I'm guessing it's only a matter of time before my diary disappears if the forum team don't make some fairly major changes to the site imminently - I'm horrified that they seem to have no ability to override the trollers reporting threads until they get deleted. A ridiculous problem to have. I'm not remotely wedded to my diary, so I won't give up if it gets deleted, although some of the tips (and washing-up-bowl-gate) would be a shame to lose . It's not so much one diary being deleted that bothers me, but if it kept happening without the forum team being able to change the site so it isn't possible, the diary community will eventually weaken, which is a shame. I’ve started saving to PDF, but don’t have time to sit and do it for hours. At least I’ve got a record of where I started from.

Last couple of days of January - I am itching to put in my invoice for contract work this month, as it's a bit higher than normal and I really want to get paid! Business account continues to look good (currently about half way through saving for April) and I think the invoice will do the rest of April and a good chunk of May. If I can get the whole of May in the next few days, I can start doing something interesting with any extra I earn, like overpaying debt, which would be amazing.

Hadn't thought of growing blueberries! We don't buy them much, the odd punnet in the summer when they are cheaper, because they are so expensive they always throw off my whole budget!

Savings/Spends:
- January 'rounding down' overpayment pot = £6.32/£8 (£30 per month pro rata for the rest of Jan ). Don't think this will quite get there, as there just aren't many budget pots left that I'm spending on to round down! Better than nothing though.
- 2018 debt repayment goal = £656.48/£5,000
- £41.99 DH on day out with the DCs. I gave him a budget of £30, which I thought was really plenty (although it did include entry fee to somewhere which was planned in advance, maybe £15?). They had a massive picnic with them. Slightly underwhelmed at this, but he was doing me a favour and keeping my friend's husband out of the house with his children for a full day so I could spend time with my friend.
- £6.40 DH on screen wash - unavoidable, but DH had to buy ready diluted stuff as he ran out on the dual carriageway because he forgot to fill up in the morning, which I suspect is more dear than concentrate and diluting at home.

To do today
1. Make marmalade if back from client in time.
2. Browse for more budget recipes to add to our repertoire.
3. Cook the sourdough.
4. More laundry.
5. Some/any ironing.
6. Thank you card for the weekend.
7. Have another look/get DH to look for the growbags - I really need to see if they're there before I go into the city tomorrow, as I don't want to overbuy seeds.
8. Get back to the planners about the pre-application for the extension - need to suggest a couple more variations and get feedback.

To do this week
1. More decluttering - particularly the lego!
2. Brainstorm ideas for architect - particularly in the light of the new extension information from the planners.
3. Finish planning any handmade gifts for birthdays/Christmas 2018 so I can ensure they are done well in advance.
4. Plan and book some campsites for summer hols.
5. Do birthday cards for the month and a thank you card for the weekend.

To do in January
1. Review 2017 spending and try to improve 2018 plans by being more prepared - plan big spends like holidays and Christmas now and be realistic about the cost. Done with DH before doing SOA.
2. Redo SOA once the remortgage is through. Done.
3. Make a 2018 business plan that is less frenetic than originally (I think I had too high expectations of myself, leading to much stress in Nov/Dec). Done.

DawnW

Blueberries are a great idea TOPM. They grow well in big pots (the bigger the better), they are easy to look after, perennial, so once you have them that is it, and pretty plants in an understated kind of way. The blueberries are easy to pick, so the children can pick their own Patience is needed though, as the berries appear ages before they ripen.

They need ericaceous compost rather than ordinary compost / garden soil, and you need to do a bit of research on varieties as with most of them you need 2, to pollinate each other. You can get self fertile ones though (which is what I have), as I only have a small garden and like to have lots of different things in it

enthusiasticsaver

Lots of diaries were deleted yesterday by these malicious attacks so at least recording the data somewhere other than here is good. I guess with your lists you copy and paste but you can save a printable version which is what many diarists are doing now.

Frustrating and makes you lose confidence in MSE to protect the threads.

I had an allotment for a while years ago and it was very time consuming. Things like tomatoes and strawberries are good for young children to get a feel for growing their own food. Never thought of blueberries but it makes sense. If done with seed it should not be too expensive. Buying the plants though makes it costly.

cocalls

you could ask for a blueberry bush (or something else useful) for mothers day!

Verbatim

raspberries are easy and prolific. My Autumn Bliss fruit early and late into Nov/Dec and will propagate themselves if you let them

DawnW

cocalls wrote: »

you could ask for a blueberry bush (or something else useful) for mothers day!

Good idea - I am not sure it is particularly easy to grow them from seed, and the plants aren't that expensive - they can't be, or I wouldn't have one! Someone mentioned on another thread seeing them for sale for about the £3.99 mark.

A quick google shows that a company called Primrose has them for £3.99. They are perennial, so not really that big an investment.

The self fertile variety that I have (with most other varieties you need 2 plants, but not this one) is Sunshine Blue, if anyone is interested I can't remember where it came from, as I have had it for several years now.

Treadingonplaymobil

Good idea re the mother's day blueberry plant! I like the thinking.

Have printed my diary to pdf - slightly worried that I would regret it if it disappeared, so at least it's there if I wanted. Thirty minutes of my life I won't get back, but never mind.