Put away your purse & become debt-averse

HairyHandofDartmoor

foxgloves wrote: »

P. S..... HHoD - Eeeewwww, liquifying onion, yes that would have smelled vile. I nearly called the plumber out once because I just couldn't find the source of a horrible smell & then I discovered some liquifying carrots in a half opened plastic bag which had fallen down the side of the fridge. No idea how long they'd been there, but they were stomach-turningly disgusting. Good job it was pre-LBM & I always had heaps of scented candles!
F x

The smell was truly awful :eek:.

:eek: to your liquifying carrots :rotfl:.

foxgloves

Yes, HHoD, rotting veg is a horrible smell. When we had a new kitchen fitted about 9 years ago, I chose wicker pull-out vegetable baskets so I could store fruit & veg loose. I prefer to buy from our local market when possible, as the stallholders either put our purchases straight into one of our bags for life or into a paper bag for delicate things like peaches. It's plastic bags which causes that liquifying kind of veg rotting, so I'm pleased to say we haven't experienced it since.
The biggest Serious Stinky Danger in our household is when I realise I've accidentally watered my feet with my home made comfrey plant feed....... that stuff is great in that it's organic, free & effective, but ohhhhh..... it smells soooooo bad. I'll be glad when I've used up my current bucket full & can give this virtuous but stenchy activity a rest until next year!
F x

foxgloves

Oh good, a useful day to report. I got the evil ironing out of the way first thing - actually there was only a small amount, but it was still ironing.....& therefore evil!
Straight down to the shed after that before the forecast rain could set in. Tools out & cleared, weeded & dug one of our big raised beds ready for planting our garlic in the next few days. I was rewarded for my efforts with a free pear! Mr F did miss 2 or 3 right near the top of the tree when he went up the stepladder for picking & one of them, a lovely juicy ripe one plopped off its branch onto the grass right as I was passing, so was quickly gathered for my lunch before our blackbirds could snaffle it!
And knitting progress......at last just TWO more rows to knit, then casting off, so I will DEFINITELY have finished all the knitting on this item (for a Christmas present) this evening. There are hundreds of ends to sew in, but I will set aside a time for starting that. Just one more small gift to knit, then at last I can start my lovely jumper - I haven't been out for a little bit of a naughty yarn shop spendypoos, by the way, the beautiful wool for this jumper was gifted to me last Christmas.
Next week's meal plans done......Mr F is very keen to have an Indian take-away for our anniversary & I like to cook a special meal for the 31st, as we tend to celebrate Samhain rather than the Festival of Plastic Tat that our traditional Hallowe'en folk traditions seem to have become, so once we'd kind of had a thought about what we might like to do at the weekend, it made meal plans a bit easier. I've written the shopping list, but I like to go through it again after a pause to see if there is anything I can cross off - there almost always is, after I've checked supplies, freezer, etc.
The clocks haven't quite changed yet, but I'm already back to my winter routines of drawing the curtains late afternoon/early evenings, putting the draught excluder sausage up to the door & lighting a candle or two. The heating is on at a very low level & the fire is lit when we both feel we're cold enough (NOT when cat demands it & definitely not if anyone is sitting around in a t-shirt or nothing on their feet........& I don't mean me!)
Talking of cat, he is yowling his head off for me to open the front door, so I think I'll do that to save my eardrums & go & get tomorrow's packed lunch & tonight's salad made. So glad I used that l/o mince to make a couple of quarter-pounders the other week. Something chucked in the freezer one week is a 'free' meal the next, isn't it, & I'm serving them tonight in the bread rolls I baked yesterday, with home grown corn on the cob & a big salad. I do love to roll something forward to contribute to another meal..
Oh my days, he's off again. Must go..........I am clearly being a Very Bad Meowmy indeed!
Love F x

crazy_cat_lady

I do love reading all about your lifestyle Foxgloves - it's the kind of thing that I wish I could do, and enjoy doing. I feel like Christmas is very much creeping up on me now, and I feel as though I'm a long way behind with my home made stuff. I might be nagging you lots about jam recipes very soon - I have never successfully gotten jam to set - even with the proper sugar, and I was wondering if I could use booze soaked fruit to make a nice jam... and how to get the blimming thing to actually set.

foxgloves

Do you mean jam for presents, CCL? What about pink grapefruit marmalade? Just uses ordinary granulated sugar & pink grapefruits are sometimes 3 for £1 on our market. I don't suppose you managed to pick any blackberries? Blackberry & apple is a reasonably good jam for setting. The problem now is that apart from citrus & apples, there's not a lot of fruit in season......although it might be that I'm too tight to pay for it, lol.
F x

foxgloves

I've never used booze soaked fruit for jam, but I do always save the fruit left from straining my fruit gins/vodkas. I freeze it, then when we want a pretend posh pud, I heat it up with a bit of extra sugar & spoon it over ice cream in a meringue nest. It is a matter of minutes & feels very festive.
F x

foxgloves

Hi Diary readers,
Well, it's absolutely plibbing it down with rain here today & that's probably just as well, as I have somehow managed to plan both my Big Budget Day & big weekly house clean on one day. It's been a bit of a Budget sandwich, with cleaning 'bread' if that makes any sense, as I made a start on cleaning out the bins, sorting out the kitchen, etc, then had a long session at my desk number crunching. I've fortified myself with some cheese on toast, crisps & a massive apple, done another Prolific survey - that's two good ones today - & I'm shortly going to leave cat in charge of the sofa while I get the bathroom cleaned & gear up for a bit of 'dysonnage'. Slug trails on the kitchen mat this morning. Very annoying as I saw the slug the other night.....approximately the size of a small hippo - I had, had a bath & was ready for bed so I asked Mr F to pick it up in a tissue & eject it onto the courtyard. He refused. His reasoning?
"It will just come in again because it knows where the air brick is".
I kid you not!!
"It knows where the air brick is!!!!!!"
I don't care if it's made a map of the location of every single bloody air brick, door, window, crack & fissure in this house, as long as it doesn't use any of them!! So I have written myself a post-it note & stuck it on the loo door. The slug is not in the loo, but it is the one place I can be sure to see the note, probably because I drink too much strong coffee! The note says. 'Check for slug. Eject!' There is a pair of old rubber gloves waiting beneath the note. Tonight, dear readers, he will meet his match & find himself swiftly reacquainted with the chill night air & feel of a damp concrete slab. (The slug, not Mr F!) If my throwing arm is in good fettle after all the dysonning, he may be lucky enough to land on the lawn. How did I get onto this topic? I can't remember now......Oh yes, cleaning day.So I am going to get that all finished first (that's the 'stick', although I do like a clean & tidy house) & then I intend to watch some catch-up TV while I make a start on sewing in all the squillions of yarn ends on the present I finished knitting last night. When I deem sufficient ends to have been darned in for me to feel like I've at least got cracking with it, then the 'carrot' is a lovely hot bubbly bath while I ponder what needs to go on our Christmas shopping list tomorrow. We have a wet weather option planned - a city centre trip - & as I no longer pop in twice a week spaffing cash all over the place like the bad old Spendy Years, I may as well plan properly & make good use of the car parking fee! I have already put all relevant vouchers in my purse & will be taking a packed lunch to call a halt to any hungry little lunchtime temptations in eateries. We'll doubtless have a coffee out in the morning & maybe a pastry, but I've no problem with that because we'll use our Personal Spends money, which exists very much on a 'When it's gone it's gone' basis. Amazingly, I still have £11 left from last month's spends, so that's my caffiene & cheese scone paid for.....with change to spare! Go me!
Big Budget Day has gone ok. I can really see the difference in our available spends now the mortgage has increased. I am having to accept that we are 'between systems' & that once the solicitor gets our payment sorted, I will be drawing up a completely new budget. Naturally nothing in the post again from them. Giving them until this time next week then we are escalating it. I've had to leave Mr F's car park season ticket on his CC, whereas I would usually clear the bill in full every month. This is because we assumed the money would be through by the time the transaction appeared on the bill. He's happy to find street parking on the outskirts of town & walk into work in the drier months, but it can be a long wet walk this time of year, as well as not always the best area to be out alone after dark,hence paying for a 6-month pass. Ah well, I'd best get on with the rest of this week's cleaning before I launch into a moan or think of some other daft happening to write about.
At least it's the weekend.
F x

DawnW

We get slugs in the house too Foxgloves (yuk!!!)
Sometimes we get toads too, who presumably come in after the slugs.
Toads are carried very carefully and gently out to the raspberry bed and released, but slugs I'm afraid get chucked outside and murdered with the trowel!

foxgloves

I want toads in my house now, Dawn! We do get the occasional one in the garden, but our wildlife pond has been so taken over my frogs that I don't think toads get a look in any more.
Wouldn't you know it, that monster slug failed to appear last night. Rubber gloves still poised for action though.
F x

foxgloves

Hello my dears,
Well, has it stopped raining for even a minute today? I don't think so! I felt soggy just having from. the car to our first shop & dispensed with the umbrella after that, as it didn't seem worth the hassle. Lots of floodwater building up on the more rural roads on our drive home, too.
But that is my only moan, as it has been such a useful city centre trip this morning. I've crossed heaps of things off my Christmas presents shopping list & also managed to find a gift for Mr F that I honestly thought no longer existed at a price I'm prepared to pay. But no, good old John L*wis, there was 20% off all their Molten Br*wn today & as I also had £15 in vouchers from my 'Just for points' credit card, it was a no brainer.... gift bought! I also used £20 of W*terstones vouchers earned on a survey site to buy two books for people on my list, & a £5 voucher on my B*dyshop loyalty card took care of a little item for a nephew. Then I found a gift for another nephew at around £4 less than its usual price, so that was another bargain. The final items on my list from L*keland were helped along by a £5 off voucher too. One of the little gift items I wanted from there (had seen it in their Christmas catalogue) for nephews & friends was nowhere to be seen. I enquired & before I was halfway through describing it, the assistant said she knew exactly what I meant. They are out of stock everywhere & the company has bought up all existing supplies & hoping they'll be back on the shelves at the end of next month.
Anyway, I was pleased to be able to use so many vouchers. We did take a packed lunch & yes it did stop us buying sandwiches or paninis as we felt hungry after walking the length & breadth of the city centre.
Oh & I was given a free drink too! I called into a wholefoods shop for a Christmas cake ingredient & they were giving away bottles of dairy-free coffee & almond drink. I quite like it..... which is just as well, as Mr F looked at it as though I was passing him a glass of arsenic with a bin scrapings chaser!
Home & dry now. Have had a massive coffee & am ready to plan the rest of my day.
And I've just had an alert on my phone to tell me there's a yellow warning for rain in my area. Yeah, we know that. I've been out in it all day so far, mascara down my face & wet almost right through to my pants. Yellow warning indeed!
F x