Put away your purse & become debt-averse

PurpleFairy26

Hope you have a productive day foxgloves and the fresh air helps. 

crazy_cat_lady

Take care foxgloves. I have some days great and other days feeling nothing other than despair about the people in charge and what they're doing, or not...

Onebrokelady

Hope you are feeling ok today Foxgloves,it's certainly draining on the mental reserves isn't it, my surreal moment of the week was the day before yesterday when my local shop posted on FB that they had had a delivery of flour and people were replying asking them if they would put a bag back for them, I never thought I would see the day when a basic food stuff was like gold dust 

I actually think this lockdown is easier for those of us who can still go to work because it doesn't really seem like a lot has changed, My DD2 is struggling a lot now it's been extended because she is just stuck in the house all the time and is spending a lot of that time on her own

Also the fact that the powers that be seem wholly unprepared for any of this and are being really cagey with details about how it's going to be resolved
I put the news on this morning while I ate my breakfast but turned it off after five minutes because it's just boring listening to the same things over and over again, my current plan is to pretend nothings happening while I'm not at work and to try and ignore it as much as possible, easy for me to do because nothing in my life has really been impacted apart from my stupid need for retail therapy, I'm still able to work so still earning the same amount,I never used to go out lots anyway, I do miss the DGC but I'm enjoying not having to babysit,so I have lots of silver linings

Hope you enjoy your day xxx

foxgloves

Thanks, all of you. I perked up as the day progressed. OBL - I'm not doing badly with having to stay in because having a decent size garden means I can get plenty of fresh air & exercise, even if I don't fancy going for a walk. It's odd, really. I think I sort of feel a bit guilty because I'm not a key worker & I'm not ill. So many people are having such a horrible time & I'm at home doing most of the normal stuff that I enjoy.
F x

foxgloves

Anyway, back to today. 
Greetings diary readers, I hope you are all managing to stay well & telling yourselves, as I am, that we will eventually come through this. I decided to have a busy day & was pleased with what I achieved. I yakked to my sister for half an hour on Skype, sorted out what I want to do for my lockdown birthday next week, wrote the shopping list & did the ironing. Then I decided to tackle a problem corner of the garden where part of the hedge had sort of 'dropped' onto the flowerbed & become very tangled with ivy & several years of hedgecuttings. I wielded my secateurs like a woman possessed, got the hedge back where it should be, raked out 4 trugs of twiggy crud & dug out a whole lot of evil bindweed. A good fork over & I'd recovered a bed fit for planting. I started its regeneration by planting out snowdrops & crocus I grew in pots this year. The crocus bulbs were very congested & I managed to divide those into 5 clumps for planting. I have plenty of summer bedding to add next month. It took a while wrestling ivy & ancient prickly stems out from under the hedge & I spent rather a lot of time bent double. I shall doubless be achey later, so I think I will have a glorious soak in the bath tonight.
Oh & another useful thing.... Mr F decided to do the supermarket shopping tonight. He was 27th in the queue but it moved quickly, he said. No baking powder, but he did well in the yellow sticker fridge & came home with a big bag of beef cheek (well over a kilo) for about £4, so that will make a fab slow cooker stew at some point. 
Anyway, I think I'll run that bubble bath now, 
Take care all, 
F x

foxgloves

Hello Treasures,
Woke later than usual & made sure I got up straight away, as staying in bed is a pretty cast iron route to a headache for me. Mr F went off to the market for our weekly fresh fruit & veg. He'd intended that to be his only job today but when he got home & topped up his caffiene levels, he decided he was going to clean the entire house & empty all the bins. Well, I wasn't going to argue with that, was I?!
I've spent the day tackling Annoying Jobs, starting with putting a colour on my hideous roots. What a morale boost that has been.... simple things. 'Annoying Jobs' are all those things I walk past multiple times a day, but STILL ignore & the other ones I did today included replying to an email, cleaning & disinfecting bird feeders, composting a rotting amaryllis bulb on the grounds that not even the greenest fingers will coax that into bloom again next year), feeding all houseplants & making more recycled cleaning cloths.
I did a bit of admin too. I just intend to change the bathroom towels to get a wash on overnight on the cheap rate. Rain forecast on & off from Sunday so I thought I'd make use of a good pegging-out day tomorrow.
Then I might watch the next chunk of 'Vikings'. Now't like a bit of hair & trousers to gladden a girl's heart.
Take care, m'dears.
F x

Onebrokelady

I must say I'm quite partial to a Viking myself 😍I wish I could have watched the series but it's too violent for me 😟

foxgloves

Lol, OBL. It is a bit of a gory series, but those Vikings didn't sit at home doing embroidery, they were a warrior race. Didn't watch anything in the end. Finished knitting a sock instead!
F x

BalanceBy50

Hi foxgloves! I finished all of your diary last night - it's been my go-to lockdown read and I have loved it! I have some debt and we are (well were until these crazy times started!) doing well at paying it off but there is always room for improvement.  I have been taking lots of inspiration from your diary. Lots of seed growing going on with my five year old, too much home baking going on for my waist line but my boys love it and it's cheaper than buying treats.  We had got into the habit during lockdown of having a takeaway on a Saturday night but I actually thought forgives wouldn't be spending ,,£20 on a takeaway so for the last two weeks we haven't bothered and I have bought some freezer party type  stuff and shoved it on a baking tray and everyone has enjoyed that - much cheaper and still very little effort and washing up and feels like a treat ☺

Please can I ask how you would make chicken stock? I am decent cook and make most things from scratch and put extra portions in the freezer. We are having roast chicken tomorrow and I always throw the carcass away. We are having carrots and cauliflower cheese with it too - would you use those peelings? What about potato peelings? Herbs?

As a stranger so sorry for the long post without getting to 'know' you first. Hope you don't mind if I hang around. Hope you are having a lovely weekend too xx

foxgloves

Hello Balanceby50 & welcome! Thank-you for your nice comments about my diary. I think more than anything, I just wanted to share my simpler life & show that it is absolutely possible to change even really longstanding bad money habits.
Chicken stock is easy-peasy & is useful because even if you don't use it for much else, it does make lovely chicken gravy with a few juices from the roasting pan, etc, although Mr F is the gravy maker in this house, not me!
Do you have a slow cooker? If so, put the carcass in there with 2 or 3 black peppercorns, a bay leaf & whatever you can manage of the following - couple of sticks of bendy celery, celery trimmings or celery leaves, parsley stalks or any wilty parsley which needs using up, the top & tail of an onion (use the actual onion for something else), a couple of carrot tops & tails or some clean carrot peelings, green leek trimmings/root ends. Oh & pop in the brown onion skin.....I always do this because I remember my old-fashioned school cookery teacher telling us that it imparts a richer colour.  Put lid on & cook for 4 or 5 hours on high or 7 or 8 hours on low. Strain, cool & freeze. 
If you don't have a slow cooker, do all of the above but use a big pan. Bring to boil & simmer very slowly for about 3 hours.
If I don't have time or inclination to make stock at the time, I just bag the carcass & freeze it. Then next time we have roast chicken, I use both carcasses & it makes a richer stock.
I never include chicken skin in mine because of the fat content. I'm sure some people do, & then skim the stock, or scrape off any solidified fat when it comes out of the freezer. 
Hope this is helpful. I know what you mean about take-aways just gobbling up money. No, you are right, we haven't had one during lockdown, but I have to admit it is more to do with me not feeling I can control the hygiene measures around them during these virus-ridden times, rather than me feeling angelic in either the money or waistline department! 
Do feel free to chip in, as we like a discussion on here.
Cheers,
F