Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Evening m'dears, 
Have had a productive day & am now ready to sit down by the fire with my book. Apart from the usual household running tasks, I've had a really busy day in the kitchen. The time has flown as I've been listening to my audiobook & thinking about how the main character's lover has managed to get himself murdered. It's shaping up to be a good story so far. So while doubling up as amateur sleuth, I've also baked the sourdough I mixed up yesterday - it turned out of its banneton perfectly this time with a bit more flour - & divided up the chicken stock I made for freezing. Then I set about my pack of supermarket beef bones. There were quite a lot so I roasted them in a hot oven which melted a nice lot of fat out, then I simmered them in my big cauldron with plenty of stock flavourings. Once the meat was tender, I removed it & as I suspected, there was enough to make a big cottage pie base for the freezer, so I went ahead with that & it's easily sufficient to feed us for 2 days. I froze a couple of containers of the beef stock - or bone broth if that sounds more trendy - but made most of it into French onion soup. So I think that was a decent return on the £4 I spent on those beef bones. Tonight's meal was Meal 3 from Sunday's roast chicken, so I am feeling 'proper frugal' today. 
Oh, & the first 3 cucumbers have come up & there seems to be a good germination rate on my tomato seeds so far. Eh? There appears to be football on our TV...... must just go & deal with that..... 
Love F x

PurpleFairy26

Did you just ask for beef bones at the counter or are they called something more technical? 

Glad you've had a productive day. Enjoy your evening. 

foxgloves

Hi Purps, 
Yeah, I did really. I've bought smaller pre-packed amounts of what M*rrisons label as 'meaty bones' before for soup making. There weren't any on Saturday so I asked at their butchers counter & they fetched me out a big vacuum pack for around £4. These were beef, looked like bits of rib, but I've bought lamb before too.
F x

Onebrokelady

I tend to shop every few days for my food and don't do proper meal plans, what ever I cook usually divides into four so I just eat that for four days then I will make something else,I sat down and came up with a loose meal plan and then went and bought what I would need for those meals plus cleaning things etc,I didn't buy anything in bulk but I felt like I was buying a lot because I don't do big shops normally,I had already bought 24 loo rolls when we did our last online shop,I buy them in bulk as it bumps up the bill for the delivery, it's easier than carrying them home on the bus and it normally works out cheaper to buy in bulk, looking at my supplies I have enough of everything to last about three weeks,I will go out as and when to replace things as I use them

Im interested to see how it pans out when they move us to the delay phase because they are expecting us to stay at home even if we just have cold symptoms, but what about healthcare staff,I've had cold symptoms for all of February and I've still got a cough now,I'm not allowed too much time off sick and the NHS has very stringent sickness monitoring, nurses go to work now with terrible colds because they get in trouble if they are off 😟

foxgloves

Glad you've bought in some extra supplies, OBL. There is so little that is actually within our control in this virus situation. One thing we can feel in control of is ensuring we have sufficient supplies for 2 or 3 weeks if we have to stay at home, along with the basic medicines which help us manage flu-type viruses.
F x

foxgloves

Pleasant day - nice to have the company of Mr F who has annual leave this week. Went for a walk around local gardens & lake to burn off a bit of podge (hopefully the bit which is making me not be able to fit into my green top). Busy afternoon - Mr F had another bonfire & thus dispatched another large pile of felled tree plus a few shonky old rubbish shelves. I had a greenhouse session & sowed celeriac, coriander, cosmos, ipomea, echium, teddy bear sunflowers & cornflowers. Apart from the cosmos, all this year's flower seed is from the large stash found in Mum's understairs cupboard. She must have meant to sow it herself, but didn't get round to it when Dad got so ill, & then with her own medical emergency, she never got the chance. It feels quite nice that I can sort of sow them for her.
A Shopping From Home win today. I'm working on an ongoing project & needed black card. I had a sudden thought that I'd got some somewhere & I found it at the back of the printer paper box. Mentioned my find to Mr F, saying I'd only need to buy 3 document files now as I'd found the card & he disappeared into the Man Cave & emerged waving....... 3 document files which he was quite happy to declutter. So that was all four items shopped from home. Result!
Not an NSD though. Have treated myself to a 6-month magazine subscription...... which comes with a free £45 set of Orla Kielly cake tins. Oh my! That will be a little bit of a fresh look for my kitchen.
Only plan for tonight is a lovely bubble bath to remove a bit of the wood smoke. 
Take care all..... & keep washing those hands.
F x

foxgloves

I thought I'd come & put a calming post on my diary having just listened to the news headlines about the latest Virus measures. It's reaching a stage where it's impossible not to worry, isn't it?
But what can we do? While following all the official advice, we feel we need to carry on as normal, so this morning, I decided to do exactly that. I had an hour in the garden, clearing one of my big borders & forking it over. This afternoon, I went back out there & re-planted the gaps with the self-seeded foxgloves & sweet rocket I potted up in the autumn, as well as a couple of the delphiniums I grew last year from one of the old seed packet stash I found at Mum's. I enjoyed both the 'green therapy' & the exercise and it did my mood good. Once a string of sharp rain showers put an end to my gardening endeavours, I came indoors & got on with a major ongoing sorting/decluttering project. I need to start thinking about next week's meal plans tonight, as we have £50 of supermarket vouchers which I intend to use tomorrow. I've been sitting here on the sofa wondering why I feel so tired, but really there's no mystery to it, I've been applying my border fork, trowel & secateurs with vim & vigor, along with all the traipsing up to the compost bins with trugs of weedy gubbins.
Easy night tonight. Book. TV. Stroke snoozy cat. Repeat. Bed!
Look after yourselves please, m'dear.
F x

HairyHandofDartmoor

It's definitely important to keep calm and carry on, as the cliche goes . Worrying doesn't get us anywhere.

Well done on your gardening endeavours. I'm getting so much pleasure from looking at my beautiful daffodils nodding in the breeze, I shall be quite sad when they go over but hopefully something else will start to flower then. From the playground today I could see a tree coming into pink blossom, some daffodils and some primroses. All very heart warming .

Your evening sounds similar to my planned evening apart from my not owning a snoozy cat. I need a virtual cat 😂 🐱.

Dottles1

Well I have succumbed to flu symptoms, so I'm resting and taking meds as needed.  I would normally see how I am on Monday before deciding about work but rand 111 and have been told to self isolate for days.  Given that I work in a college it's probably for the best but I can't help wondering if this is all a ploy for some large pharmaceutical company to make a wad of cash by us all having to be vaccinated... or am I being cynical?

foxgloves

Awww, Dottles - Sorry to hear that you are poorly. It could be flu or a fevery cold, or it could be CV. That's the tricky thing with it being a similar virus symptoms-wise to those already circulating. Do take the opportunity to rest & take care of yourself, won't you. I came back from our Christmas break in London with an odd lergy. I assumed it was the one my nephew was getting over as he was certainly still coughing like crazy while we were staying there. The point I'm making though, is that I didn't really have much in the way of a runny nose. It was a sore throat, bad cough, feeling hot & cold & just generally tired. I did what I always do & took it a bit easier & dosed myself up with the usual paracetamol, cough sweets, etc. But if I went down with those symptoms this week, I'd assume it was CV & stay home, as testing is now only going to be done on hospital patients..... which as things progress is probably a lot more realistic. Anyway, I hope you feel better soon. 
F x