Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Hello diary readers,
I've had the most enjoyable day today & I haven't even been out anywhere! Mr f is on the last day of his long weekend of annual leave & we'd intended to pop out to buy a couple of gas cannisters for the tent & pop to the supermarket which does the free coffees. Over breakfast, however, we decided the gas cannisters can wait till next week & the coffee can be made at home to stop any little spendy temptations creeping in. So we've had such a pleasant & productive day at home. I've got a big load of laundry dry outside for free & baked flapjacks to go with our morning coffee. Mr F has been up at the very top of the garden (the bit we 'expanded' into earlier this year......long story) & taking out more overgrowth. I've harvested the last of the red spring onions, which have been really good & tasty in salads & another punnet of beans. I've also weeded the spinach bed & dealt with all the salad troughs which have now finished for the season. I've saved some of the compost though, as it will be fine next month for planting up big pots of spring bulbs. Then I gave the outdoor tomatoes a going over with the secateurs.....taking off the lower leaves so the fruits ripen more quickly. While doing that, I spotted a little free gift from Mother Nature in the form of about a dozen sturdy little self-seeded foxglove plants, so I potted them up to grow on & will replant in a month or two for some free colour next year. As I make inroads into cutting my big flower borders down over autumn, I'm bound to find some more self-sown treasures, so will pot up anything useful. I particularly like foxgloves, as do the bees, so I always look out for those. When I first started posting on the MSE forums years ago, I had just potted up heaps of free foxgloves plants, & that's what triggered me to use this as my user-name on here, as I was coming out of the Spendy Decades & was feeling proud of myself for making use of free plants rather than fall into my naughty old garden centre habit, which was a significant contributor to the overdraft back pre-LBM. Alongside my rescued foxglove freebies, I also have a big tray of young delphinium plants which I grew from one of the many packets of old seed I found when we were clearing out Mum's under stairs cupboard following losing her last year. They will go into my borders this autumn & providing our birdy friends continue to keep the mollusc population under control, they should flower next summer & I'll think of Mum when they do, like I do with the very many plants she gave me over the years, as she was a fine plantswoman & taught me most of what I know.
I'm intending to have some leisure time now......I want to finish my book, maybe knit another couple of (very long!) rows of the Christmas gift I'm currently working on & a hot bubble bath is also calling my name.
I think I will need to do a serious triage of the fridge & greenhouse tomorrow to see where we are with supplies because as I think I already mentioned, we decided not to meal plan for this week but to concentrate on using up leftovers, etc, so we shopped only for the long weekend our guests were here & every extra day of not needing to buy any food since Sunday has been a bonus.
Oh, I do go on, don't I?
Best wishes to all my readers.
Hope you've kept it in your purse today! If not, just zip it up & try not to open it tomorrow instead!
Love F x

Kantankrus_Mare

One of the old chaps on the allotment gave me some foxgloves off his plot last year and I decided I would have a go at growing some.

I never did. So thats something for next year.

We had a hotch potch tea. Made some courgette, carrot and feta fritters the other day and some chilli jam. (allotment produce) so had them, and some poached eggs. Was lovely!

I totally agree with you walking out that shop. How do people get and keep jobs with that attitude? And there is no wonder shops close.

Another of my pet hates is staff that serve you at a till and hold a conversation with their colleague the whole time. So rude!! :mad:

My 24 year old daughter has just got the old scalextrix out the loft.....(still calling it scarey lectric like she did as a kid :rotfl:
If it works.....the 5 yeear old next door but one can have it........something else out of the way.

We've got loads of lego and K'nex. I was hanging onto the good stuff in case I ever get grandchildren, but its not likely to happen. Son says he doesnt want kids and is just splitting up with his girlfriend and my daughter has a girlfriend so Im wondering what to do with it all. Its not cheap to buy so must be worth something.

foxgloves

Oh that winds me up too, Kantankrus......I have no illusions of grandeur & as a committed 'leftie', I'm big on equality, but you know, when I'm a customer in a shop, I do expect the member of staff at the till to give me their attention & not ignore me in preference to chatting to colleagues. As you say, it's incredibly rude. It's paying customers who are keeping these people in work. I think retail training must cover this issue though, as it's nowhere near as bad as it used to be.
Could you advertise the K'nex for sale? I know it isn't cheap as I seem to remember we bought one of our nephews the ferris wheel when he was younger & into K'nex & Lego, etc.
I have still got the decluttering bug. I got so used to getting rid of my daily quota of stuff during my July challenge, that I'm still moving things on & feeling all the better for it. Two old pillows last week.... taking up so much space in the linen cupboard 'just in case', even though we can only put up 4 guests at a time & have absolutely all the spare bedding we need. I think that challenge has just made me look at things with a fresh eye!
F x

wishingthemortgaheaway

Foxgloves, we use a canary yellow trug for a washing basket too - snap.

You made a comment about 'waffling on' please do waffle on, I love hearing about your garden, it is inspiring as I read (then I remember how green fingered I'm not) the Konmarie method talks about things sparking joy - if I were to declutter my social media life, your diary would not be decluttered as it sparks joy when I read of your little adventures. It's especially helpful in these wee small hours when I just can't sleep due to a mixture of illness, stress (work issues) and a snoring hubby.

Wish.

Blackcats

Foxgloves - I agree with Wishing -your diary updates are fun and inspiring and motivational.
On the subject of shops and poor customer service .... as I work from home, I do treat myself to a coffee at a local independent coffee shop as a change of scene. Recently the owner is there less and less and it is staffed by 2 youngsters. They have their own choice of music on which is loud enough to be an irritant. They chat incessantly and loud enough to be able to hear their full views on cars, girls etc. When I have the audacity to interrupt and place my order, they are not concentrating at all and I have to repeat the order which is as simple as "a regular Americano with cold milk on the side". There is no longer any pleasure in going there so I've stopped going. It's a shame because the owner worked hard to build up the business.

foxgloves

Wish - Well that's lovely feedback so thank-you. I do sympathise with the sleep issues. I'm. Much better now, but I had terrible insomnia while I was working. It peaked during a few years when there was an intensely difficult colleague whom Senior Management didn't have the guts to deal with properly. I used to fall asleep fine, but would wake up every day at 3.15am & not get back to sleep. I don't know how I used to drive the 20 miles home without falling asleep at the wheel. Snoring husbands? Well a judiciously applied kneeling in the buttocks is as effective as anything.....

Blackcats - What a shame about that coffee shop. But it's true....a change of staff can really alter the dynamic of a place. I don't mind who serves me, but I do require polite & accurate service given that I'm paying. You'll have to sample other establishments now, to see what the coffee & cakes are like. Shame I don't live nearer..... road testing coffee & cake... there's an activity I could enjoy!

foxgloves

Lol, Wish.... that should read 'kneeing' but was unhelpfully changed by my phone, thus inventing a Husband Snoring Cessation Method I've yet to try!!
F x

foxgloves

Evening diary readers,
After clearing a pile of post-guests ironing that was so high I didnt know whether to iron it or climb it, I decided to spend the rest of the day on leisure activities. I've just been down the garden for veggie-watering & I shall have to do some picking tomorrow, as well as probably make another batch of pesto before the basil goes over.
So this week, I haven't done a meal plan, which is pretty much unheard of since I discovered budgeting. The idea was only to shop for food needed while our guests were here, then to use up leftovers, garden produce, freezer supplies, etc, for ourselves for the rest of this week WITHOUT going to the supermarket. So far, so good. We've eaten up BBQ leftovers, we've had jacket potato night, we've had spicy chickpea burgers from the freezer in leftover rolls with homegrown salad and we still have plenty of food left. We have lots of fish.... our latest Grimsby fish box arrived last week.... & 2 huge baking potatoes left in the veg basket, so Mr F is going to do fish & chips on Friday night. I haven't decided what to cook tomorrow. I think I'll see what's ready for picking & decide then. Meal plans have become such a way of life that it seems really odd not to have one, but it's also been quite good being able to use our fresh produce as & when it comes. Apart from milk, which we now have delivered because we prefer the returnable glass bottles, we haven't bought a single grocery item since last Friday morning. We don't generally do top-up shops, as they were a shocking way to leak away our money in the bad old days, but I did wonder if we might be tempted without the discipline of a meal plan.
So, Mr F asked me earlier what I'm doing for dinner tomorrow, & I said it was a wait & see, but may possibly include the fabulous big green pepper I've just seen in the greenhouse when I went in to snaffle some grapes.
I feel so relaxed tonight it's ridiculous. I think I'll put a stop to that by reading the news headlines, then crack on with the humungous Christmas present I'm knitting.
As always, remember your money doesn't leap out of your purse on its own......although back in the day, I'd have sworn it definitely did!
F x

wishingthemortgaheaway

I shall try the kneeling on the husband I just hope I sleep tonight.

Ps: where's this road testing of coffee shops? Happy to travel if it's needed...

foxgloves

Lol, Wish.... I think it should definitely be an actual job. Can you imagine the amount of job applications there'd be for that?
Good luck with the zzzzzzzzz's tonight.
F x