Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Honeysucklelou2

Bedding is the one section of laundry that I do iron. I can't bear crumpled sheets!! I used to iron everything but lots of children = mountains of laundry and I simply don't have the time.. except for bedding!! By the time I've done everyone's sheets and duvet covers it feels like a workout!

foxgloves

Honeysuckle - I'm the same. There is just something so lovely about getting into a bed freshly made up with crisp cotton sheets, so its worth the stultifying boredom of ironing them for that small pleasure.....though I have been known just to do a brief skte over a duvet cover with the iron in winter, when I know I'm going to cover it with a couple of pretty crochet blankets anyway.

foxgloves

Greetings Campers,
After the fog had cleared this morning, things warmed up & it actually is nearly nice enough for camping now, though it's a long time till we go off in the tent. I overdid it in the garden yesterday. I was only out on our front courtyard taking out some manky privet, digging over a small border & planting out some (free) plants, but I got a bit carried away with pulling out weeds & grass from between our block paving & although I felt fine when I went indoors, by the time I came to move off the sofa later, I'd stiffened up like an ancient crone! Decided to do activities today that are useful, but don't involve me trying to bend my body in half in the process!
So it's been a thoroughly pleasant morning in the kitchen - I've made jerk-style lamb burgers for tonight, which I shall serve in homemade garlic flatbreads from the freezer, with a salad.....that's going to have a lime dressing as I have 4 little pots of frozen leftover lime juice which need using up. There was enough lamb mince left to make a shepherd's pie base, so I'll freeze that & it will do us a meal over a couple of days, as it's quite a big one. As I'd planned to make bread anyway, & had my glass kneading board out, I decided to make use of a lonely red onion in the veggie basket & some of the lush rosemary in my herb bed by making a focaccia too. It's just on its 2nd proving. I shall cut it up into portions, individually wrap them & freeze, as they are really useful for packed lunches, picnics, etc, as well as turning a bowl of home made soup into a meal. While cutting the rosemary & some coriander for the lamb burgers recipe, I noticed how big the sorrel was getting, so I cut a bunch of that & have made soup. I like to use the Cranks recipe book for that, as their recipe for watercress soup can be made with any similar green leafy offering, it's low calorie because I make up powdered skimmed milk to make soups, & it freezes really well. I bought that sorrel plant absolutely years ago. It dies down in winter, but comes back reliably every early spring with fresh lemony-tasting leaves which can be used for soups, in quiches, salads, etc, & they'd probably make a nice pesto too, but I've never got around to trying that, as we both like this very simple soup, which only requires the addition of stock, milk, onion potato & seasoning, so we tend to use most of it for that.
The greenhouse veggies need watering in a minute, so I intend to spend a couple of hours pottering around out there, doing jobs which don't require too much physical activity. I think I will start planting out my pot marigolds & woad plants, & select the next trays to go outside for hardening off. I also want to see how many squash/courgette plants have come up, in case I need to do an emergency 2nd sowing.
But first I have to rescue a bee. There is a honey bee somewhere in here, buzzing away & sounding as though it's getting very stressed & anxious, only I can't see it. I'm going to go & fetch the pond net in the hope that I can sort of waft it back outside. Bees are so precious these days, I don't want him to end his days trapped in here all by himself. Freedom for bees!!! (FOllowed by coffee for bee-rescuers.....)
Cheers all,
F x

Blackcats

Hello Foxgloves and co. Like you I have overspent in April. It was always going to be an expensive month with birthdays and Easter. The planned entertaining actually came in under budget and the spontaneous entertaining blew the budget. There is, of course, a lesson here that is so obvious that I shouldn't need to be still learning it but planning is the key. Also I ordered and paid for some items for someone using my card and they paid me in cash ...... your signature is very correct about money not jumping out of your purse by itself but guess what? I allowed that cash to jump out and spend itself on frippery and odds and ends etc. Not a plastic cactus in a sparkly pot though, so maybe there is hope for me yet. May will be a better month!

foxgloves

Lol, Blackcats - glad to hear that plastic cactus hasn't yet lured any cash from your purse. Let's hope it stays that way!
F

HairyHandofDartmoor

I've just subscribed to your diary Foxgloves and I'm going to start reading it from the beginning . You're right we do sound very similar in our past silly spendyness but luckily we've reformed our ways

PurpleFairy26

Well done on all the May budgeting, we do sometimes borrow from our future selves rather than put on a cc, but then it gets a line on our Spreadsheet and we pay it back. We don't do it often but it works better for us than just over spending in one month.

All your herbs in your garden sound lovely, I can't wait to do a proper herb garden when we've got ourselves straight. I'll add sorrell to my list to source.

foxgloves

HairyHand - Yes, better late than never!

Purps - You will love having a herb bed. There is nearly always something to snip for the pot - rosemary & bay will survive the winter, though admittedly I did lose both mine back in that really cold winter of 2010 - normally they are ok & can still provide leaves. Sorrel is a great one for your list. I like to use it in soup as I would watercress mostly, but I also put the young leaves in salads, have used in frittatas,, etc, even stirred into curries, anything really where you would use spinach. Another useful addition is winter savoury. I think the summer version may just be an annual, but the winter version is great dried & used in stews. The flavour is kind of between sage & thyme, & it can be cut back to get rid of wiry bits of straggle, but it always seems to come back with a flourish......that's probably just given it the kiss of death now.....I'll go out there tomorrow & it'll be a droopy mess with the last of it just hanging out of the resident naughty wood pigeon's beak!
And if you haven't already got some, don't forget comfrey, as it's a good free plant food. I shan't bother with stinky liquid comfrey feed this year.....my best performing squash plant last year was the one where I just mulched it with cut comfrey & it broke down & fed the squash as I watered it over the season. Much less stinky.....especially as I kept watering it over my feet! I used to like welsh onion too, lovely in omelettes & stuff, but most of my clump was eaten by allium leaf miner, a tiny pest from hell.
Anyway, you will enjoy planting it up when you reach that stage in all your home improvements work.
F x

foxgloves

Ey'up Campers,
This morning first thing didn't look that promising, but we have lovely sunshine here now, & I'm hoping I will have time for an hour out in the garden later, to plant out the rest of my pot marigolds.
Today Mr F has a half day. Traditionally, back in the Spendy Years, half days were a bit of a trigger for us, for some reason. I think it was that thing of 'Yay, we're not at work!', 'Hey, let's do something!' 'What?' 'Well, how about we go into town & have a look round'..........?
Only of course it wouldn't be the type of 'looking' done with eyes only, it'd be very much the kind involving browsing, impulse buying, stopping at a favourite cafe for lunch & coffee, or if we'd already had lunch, additional coffee & cake...........then as that had nicely set the mood for spendyness, so many times, we'd go home via the supermarket to pick up something for our evening meal. Oh, we'd have food in, of course we would, but once you are in that money-frittering mode, you go full on, don't you? You don't fancy the perfectly good selection of food you already have at home as much as you fancy the expensive selection you are just about to pick up at W*itrose!
Well, this is NOT the Spendy Decades & we are NOT going to have an afternoon like that described.
I'm going to take the opportunity to get a few useful jobs done in town while I have access to the car......see if I can sort out a repeat prescription, post some letters, that kind of thing.......& while we will be popping in the aforementioned supermarket to purchase a small item we require, we will also be taking our bamboo coffee beakers so we can have a free coffee while we are there.
And then I do have to make a purchase........I promised Mr F, one of my friends & my Mum just before she died last Autumn that I would absolutely definitely 100% buy myself a cycle helmet.
And I still haven't got one. No good reason. I don't really fancy wearing one....too hot....squashed hair, etc, but I am not so silly as to go out on busy roads without one. I have been using cycle track from our village into town, but have realised this is also a risk, as there are lots of side roads which exit across the cycle track onto the main street. I don't know why buying a helmet has become one of those 'Frog swallowing jobs', but it has. This afternoon, if I am able to find a suitable one at a price I'm prepared to pay, I will buy it. The weather is nice enough for cycling again & it's great for fitness, as well as really useful as Mr f's new job requires him to have the car even more in the week than his old job, so I need to make use of my nice shiny bicycle.
But there will be no silly spending this afternoon.
I wouldn't enjoy that these days anyway.
My whole attitude to money & sustainability issues has just changed too much.
Hope you're all seeing some of this sunshine,
F x

foxgloves

Greetings Frugal Readers,
Busy day so far, lots of frugal bits & pieces achieved, including next week's meal plans, but the one I'm most pleased with is a bit of make do & mend.
I've had a particular top for about 4 years - a tunic style, sort of a bit hippyfied & in all honesty, it's been worn to death. The fabric is just starting to get a few teeny tiny holes (currently invisible unless you take the top off & hold it up to the light) but it still looks nice on, goes with loads of my stuff & is still perfectly good to wear. or it would have been, had I not ripped the neckties off by accident the other day, when I was fishing around trying to sort out a malfunctioning bra strap! I've mended them twice before & the fabric is too fretted to re-attach again, so I was looking around for non-spend ideas. I didn't want to go to our local fabric/haberdashery shop, as there's a lot of tempting yarn there & as you know, I'm on a Stash-Knitting Challenge this year & am trying to avoid temptation.
Had a ferret around in my sewing box. Nothing suitable.
Ditto my general craft box.
Hmmmm.
Found a ball of sort of organza ribbon yarn in my stash, which would theoretically have worked, but it's a goldy colour & not really 'me' for adding to a top.......I don't want to look like I'm about to embark on a pensioners' cruise (am still a good few years off such delights, I might add!)
I was just popping it back on its hanger until a solution presented itself, when 'Ping', lightbulb!! The two black satin ribbons inside for securing to the hanger were still there & in perfect nick!
Scissors.
Two snips, needle, thread, & a bit of stitching later & new replacement neckties are now re-attached & I was even able to put the little silver bell/bead thingies back on the ends. The top is predominantly black, with a pattern in dusky pink shades, so the ties match & look fine.
The best thing is that they were FREE & recycled a little resource I already had.
Felt so chuffed with myself, I left my box of threads out, found my hole punch & recycled a few Easter cards into gift tags.
Simple pleasures!
Love F xx