Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Awww, it is absolutely wazzing down with rain here. I'd hoped for another couple of hours sorting out the veggie garden. Bah! Oh well, Friday is my regular house cleaning day, so I'll set about getting that done, then see if the rain has stopped. Cat has already attempted to get on our bed. Thankfully Mr F noticed the state of his paws from the trail of muddy prints across the kitchen floor, so the bedroom door has been shut to him. He's not happy about this at all.
OK, the sooner I start the weekly cleaning, the sooner it's done & I can crank up the coffee machine.
Stay dry everyone.
F x

Kantankrus_Mare

Have a good day foxgloves and hope the weather fines up for you.

Im aching all over as I did a weights based class at the gym which I havent done for 4 weeks for one reason or another. The trick is to go every week but life has other ideas!

Have got some lovely butternut squash drying in the greenhouse. The ones still on the plant are a bit of a strange shape. Long, thin and bendy. I'm assuming they will still be ok to use as once cut up and curried.......who would know?

I havent had chance to get to the allotment apart from watering my greenhouse courgettes but my Dad has had a surge of energy! Dug up some fruit trees that werent really doing anything and the spent courgette plants. He also cleared out the tomatoes so saved me a job.

Will go in a week or so and get my sweet peas sown for next year and keeping a look out for garlic to get in at the end of the month.

Got the over wintering onions in last week. Went slightly over the top with amount but one can never have too many onions!

foxgloves

KantankrousM - Wow! Your good old Dad. That's a real help on the allotment. I don't think you'll really know what the bendy squash are like until you cut one open. I can't see why they wouldn't be fine? I wonder if that seed had reverted back to a slightly different type of squash from somewhere back in the butternut lineage?
So your greenhouse courgette plants are still alive? I wonder if you will get fruits before the really cold weather. Defo worth doing the experiment. I've left just one jalapeno chilli plant in situe because it's still fruiting & I'm considering cutting it back afterwards & bringing it indoors to overwinter on an upstairs windowsill. I've managed to overwinter chillies before. I'm not so bothered about the earlier crop you get the following year, as the fact that I will be able to grow some different chillies from seed in Jan, but still have a few jalapenos if my freezer supplies are getting low by then, They're moody bug*ers to overwinter. I've successfully done it a couple of times, but have also had a big fail too.
Even the thought of going to the gym makes me ache! All my exercise is walking, cycling to town & the local shops & gardening. I do hit my daily target of 7000 steps most days & sometimes 10,000. If I have a busy day with loads of gardening, I can reach my target without even going out of the front door. It just shows that every step counts!
F x

foxgloves

Good afternoon my soggy little campers,
A useful day today. I set about the cleaning, as it was so wet first thing, but after a while there was a little break in the rain. I grabbed the shed key & made a run for it. I do very much feel that getting out in the garden helps keep my head in a good positive space, so decided that as it was looking like more rain any minute, I'd just choose one single task to do, to allow me the satisfaction of having done SOMETHING outside towards our major autumn clearing this year. I chose dealing with the courgettes. There were only two plants left, so I collected the remaining fruits - 3 normal size ones & a handful of titchy-tinies - swiftly uprooted the plants & chopped them into the compost bins.
Hey, & despite the state of the sky, the rain held off, so I chose another little job........weeding the spinach bed & clearing off fallen leaves to stop it going soggy. Job done. Most pleasant.
And STILL DRY!! Fetched secateurs & fork & tackled the rhubarb bed.......a good weed, a trim of anything looking soggy & removal of rogue brambles.
And then a few splashes, so a quick put-away, including a couple of hanging basket foliage plants which I potted up to try over-wintering so that I don't have to buy again next year, & a couple of geraniums I missed yesterday. Then I did have to run for cover, but no matter as I felt I'd made progress.
I've also baked a few pear & orange muffins, & the house is clean too. I, however am not. Nothing to do with the gardening & everything to do with a freak gust of wind this afternoon. Honestly, the air has been as still as a mill pond today, not a breath of wind, but for some reason best known to the universe, when I went outside to the wheelie bins to empty the Dyson, there was a big gust of wind exactly as the dust & fluff was falling.......so it didn't fall........it headed my way & although I'm feeling nicely angelic from having done the cleaning, it's a very dusty angel indeed! So I'm going to sign off & head for a hot & bubbly bath. It's the Beloved's cooking night, so I have nothing else to do today except deal with the fact that I'm wearing most of the contents of the vacuum cleaner, knit, watch 'Extra Slice' & knit Christmas presents.
Wishing everyone a relaxing evening.
F xx

HairyHandofDartmoor

Oh dear to your Dyson mishap! You got a lot done in the garden in your dry window of opportunity. I feel much better when I get outside too, whether it be out in the garden or walking to work. Fresh air and nature are very restorative.

I hope you manage to get your knitting sorted out, it sounds very complicated but then I've never managed to get the hang of knitting as I always dropped stitches without noticing so I gave up on it!

foxgloves

I agree, HHoD. I do tend to go into a bit of a slump, both physical & mental, when I can't get outside. I have to be careful now I have arthritis starting in my hands, that I don't spend hours working in the garden, as I suffer for it later, but little & often is really helping. Everyday, I can see I've made a bit more progress.

I think the knitting horror is sorted out now & growing again at last. My only worry now is running out of yarn. Fingers crossed I'll have enough. I just want to get it finished now. My aim is definitely to have completed it by the end of this month...... then deal with sewing in about a zillion yarn ends!
F x

foxgloves

Hi Diary readers,
I have to say it would be very nice to do a few jobs & not end up slarmed in something....... first things first, however, as I've had a therapeutic, thoroughly bulbmongous day.
I've planted up 3 big tubs of daffodils - variety 'Red Devon', chosen because they looked so cheery. They're not red, of course - they're yellow, but with a really bright orange centre. Also 4 tubs of 'Princess Irene' tulip bulbs - my favourite & I haven't managed to find any the last couple of years. I've watered & labelled them, but they will now just sit out the winter tucked up by my greenhouse, ready to be moved in early Spring to wherever I think could do with a pop of colour.
I've also given my little stone sink garden a makeover. I thought this would require a modest spend, but no, once I'd cut a thug plant down to size & added some sempervivums (all mine have had copious amounts of babies this summer) & popped in a few mini-daffodil bulbs ('Sundisc' as I think they're cute) & a handful of snowdrop bulbs dug up from a corner where I've got too many, I was confident I could do it without a tempting garden centre trip. The only thing I thought I might struggle with was gravel for the top layer, but I found some in the shed. I'd completely forgotten about it. A few years ago, somebody gave me a candle in a large glass container full of gravel & small shells & I saved it in case I could use it in the garden. So that was a useful bit of shopping from home.
I'd got all my agapanthus pots lined up ready for feeding prior to final storage in the greenhouse until Spring. I was very careful NOT to splash any home made comfrey liquid on my feet this time, as I keep doing this & then having to change my tights/socks because it is absolutely the most malodorous concoction ever. Success! Then..... can you guess what's coming? I lifted the biggest agapanthus pot to move it & of course the Comfrey Stink allover its leaves transferred itself perfectly to my jumper. I was perfectly happy in this outfit today - little denim skirt, black tights, DM Mary-Jane's & my favourite hand-knitted baggy jumper. Which now pongs. I don't really want to change into another outfit, so I'm intending to blitz myself liberally with perfume. If the Beloved gets home from work & says 'You smell nice, Babe', I'll know it's worked. If he says 'Can you smell something a bit drainy?' I will concede that a change of clothes is necessary. He says he's treating me to pizza & wine tonight and has a film lined up. That will be a romantic evening, won't it, snuggled up on the sofa with my stinky jumper?! Let's hope a few good bursts of Paul Smith will do its thing!
I'm off to fetch the laundry in as soon as I've got the bread out of the oven. Clouding over big time now & rain definitely forecast for later.
Love & peace,
F x

foxgloves

Hello Diary readers,
I hope you've been enjoying the weekend. It's definitely chillier this evening. No heating on yet, but it won't be long. I've just switched on the over-mantle fairy light & lit some candles. I do love their warm glow this time of year.
Today I've bought a new coat. I have been looking online, trying on & generally trying to find exactly what I want, & today I found it. It wasn't from the sale rail & I had no discount code, but I was happy to pay full price for the exact thing I'd been looking for, which will be worn for 3 out of 4 seasons & which will go with absolutely all my stuff. That's one of the major differences between how I approach these things now, & how I used to be in the bad old days.
Back in the Spendy Years, I had very poor impulse control with clothes buying. I might do the research now, but back then, it was pretty much a 'See it, wannit, buy it' approach, a methodology which led to some shocking cash wastage. On one occasion, when I needed a new coat, I chose a huge over-sized cashmere cream cardi. It was advertised in a glossy magazine at around £90. That's pretty expensive for a cardi these days, but was a LOT of cashola at the time. I couldn't afford it, of course I couldn't, as I didn't have any spare money, I just spent till I had none of my monthly salary left, then used my overdraft or other borrowing streams.
So what happened to this fabulous cardi/wrap creation? Well, it was certainly high quality, but it came with a few issues.. Firstly cream is not a colour that suits me. Second, what I needed was a warm coat. This might have been the size of a coat, but it was bloody freezing wearing it outside in winter, which naturally meant I later bought a coat AS WELL. The most annoying thing about it was that it made me look like a polar bear. It completely enveloped my short frame & was utterly, overwhelmingly cream.
It was relegated to bathrobe status within three months & then to the Salvation Army, when they were having a clothing appeal.
There have been far too many of this type of ill-conceived purchase during the Spendassic Era. It just wouldn't happen now. I brought my new coat home today, tried it on again in front of my bedroom mirror, & the Beloved said 'Are you pleased with it, then? " And I was able to say" It's perfect. Just what I wanted".
But I have very much been that person in the past who impulse bought the cashmere wrap thingy
a. k. a the polar bear costume.
I've said it many times on here, but for anyone at the start of their debt-busting, who might just happen to be dipping in to read, I'll say it again, change is definitely possible!
F x

Dottles1

oh Foxgloves, that story brought back a similar memory for me. A few years ago I paid £100 for a fine knit wrap around cardigan with a leather fastener with buckle (it was truly beautiful I promise). It was a bit too small, definitely too short and didn't suit mw at all. I just wanted to be the kind of woman who it did suit !! Suffice to say I never wore it and eventually gave it to the charity shop. Did I learn my lesson I hear you ask.....did I heck !!
I still have a way to go but already I lookback and wonder who that woman was.

foxgloves

Dottles1 - Yep! That's a very similar story. And no, I didn't learn from it either. I can remember ordering an equally expensive linen skirt on a later occasion, not once factoring in that these lively garments were pictured on stick insect models much taller than me. It hung in my wardrobe for about 4 years. Then, having lost a lot of weight, I did fit into it & it looked nice. I got a bit of wear out of it, but then the zip broke & I hate putting zips in as can't seem to do it neatly, so that was the end of another expensive impulse buy. If I'd been able to wear it sooner, it would have been within the guarantee period for the shonky zip. I never buy clothes online or mail order these days. I am much shorter than model height & therefore differently proportioned to the standard figure ratios used in garment sizing. I don't find it difficult to find clothes, but I do need to try things on, because in some styles, the waistline doesn't fall in the right place for me. I've always known this, but still used to order stuff which then turned out not to be right.
I do usually enjoy trying stuff on in shops, so this isn't a problem.
F x