Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Morning Monday People, 
It doesn't feel like a bank holiday, but it is a nice sunny day & after yesterday's laze, I am intending to get lots done, both inside & out. Will pop back later wirh an update on progress to hold myself accountable.
Have a good day, m'dears,
F x

HairyHandofDartmoor

Have a lovely day Foxgloves.

foxgloves

Thanks, HHoD. It's not been a bad day at all, all things considered. Mr F is just firing up the BBQ to cook all the un-used stuff from the last one, so it hasn't been too spendy either.
F x

foxgloves

Afternoon Sunbeams, 
Decided my main target task today would be sorting out the wormery. A bit of a slow start. The idea, when harvesting the compost is to tip it out & cover half of it. Worms don't like bright light so they move under cover pretty swiftly. Except these worms hung around for so long, I started wondering if this was a new phenomenon - sunbathing worms! I did eventually manage to get the compost into a bucket. It's very rich so I mixed it with a bit of bagged & used it on a big hydrangea that was in need of some serious TLC. Then I added a big wodge of shreddings (shredded bank statements) to the next layer for bedding & got it all started off again.
Something I really noticed was how many bits of plastic there were in that newly harvested compost. I'd estimate about half a teacupful. This surprised me as I feed kitchen scraps & other suitable waste such as flour baga & egg boxes into the worm composter & I obviously don't include anything containing plastic......only I must have done. I avoid all shiny types of cardboard as these are often laminated with plastic film, but there must be something else I'm adding which contains some or other plastic elements. It just makes you think that plastic really IS everywhere, isn't it?
Enjoy your evenings all, 
F x

teapot2

Plastic Is definitely in more things than we realise  I always used to wonder why the bag bit of tea bag didn't break down in the compost bin.  It didn't occur to me that it was made with plastic.  I've gone back to using loose tea instead these day.

foxgloves

Teapot2 - Yes, I think that a lot of teabags are still fused together with some kind plasticky glue, which doesn't compost. Actually, I can't say I'm exactly raving about having it in my tea!
F

foxgloves

Well m'dears. Today has been a day which I shall remember as being stymied by avines! Builders arrived smack on time to perform the planned chimney chop-out (which they did). They also did the brickwork & new slate hearth and re-sited a gas pipe. But the job could not be finished due to an active jackdaw nest in our chimney. We had one back in March. We could hear the chicks beeping & being fed. Then they fledged & all was quiet. Jackdaws only have one clutch of eggs per year so clearly a new pair has rocked up, seen a ready made nest & moved in. Builders said they could hear chicks so legally, the chimney nest site can't be disturbed until the end of July. So although the plasterer is coming tomorrow to finish off the chimney breast prior to a beam being fitted, our lovely new stove is sitting in its box waiting for chick-fledging time so that the flue can be sorted out. Grrrrrr. Ah well, it's not a massive problem in the scheme of things. Room looks a bit odd, but it's not as though we're inviting anyone round at the moment.
Well, I must pop down the garden to pick some rocket & radishes. Tonight's meal is a leftovers buffet type affair & I want a nice big bowl of salad to go with it.
So cheers for now, 
F x

crazy_cat_lady

Hey foxgloves - does your cat not torment the life out of all of these birds? 
We have a nest of something in the eaves right outside my bedroom window and the cats fight to sit on the windowsill and yowl at it. And if birds fly into the garden they don't always fly back out again.
I love reading about it all though - and have been trying to learn more about birds. I downloaded an app that was meant to identify birds by song or picture. I gave up when it said that literally everything is a robin - even a pigeon I saw on my walk the other night was apparently a 94% chance of being a robin  

foxgloves

Lol, CCL..... My cat is so idle he makes Boris Johnson look like a hive of industry! He might aim a semi-threatening meow in the direction of our local birdlife, but having to get up & run or anything else resembling cat PE, & he really couldn't be less bothered!
F x

foxgloves

Hello Buttercups!
Pleased to report 2 areas of progress today:
1. Veggie garden - Have stepped up hardening off my first sowing of French beans, planted out 6 tomatoes in the strip of bed alongside the greenhouse. I always grow tomatoes in bottomless pots. I have 4 extras so asked Mr F to punch the bases out of 4 more large pots - shopped from home rather than buying purpose-made pot rings. Also decided on priority jobs for tomorrow morning, which will be planting up my first half a dozen courgettes then clearing a strip of bed for those remaining tomato plants.
2. Budget - My Big Budget Day today & it took most of the morning because I wanted to have a look at our 10 Savings Pots in detail. With a bit of input from Mr F over coffee, I decided to make a payment into 7 out of 10 of them this month, then to close 5 of them temporarily. As someone who came to saving much later in life than sensible non-spendy people, I sometimes find it hard to judge 'How much is enough' in terms of these pots. For instance, the Meow Fund now has £1000 in it. I have never had any savings for vet emergencies so as our cat is about 14, it does feel like progress to be prepared for vet bills. But I found myself thinking 'What if he has an emergency & it's £1500 or £2000? We all know how vet bills can quickly stack up. But I think a line has to be drawn somewhere. I've also closed our Opticians/Dentist Pot at a level which could cover both of us needing new varifocals at a similar time as we are both long overdue for appointments. So I went through all our Pots applying the same rationale & decided that 5 of them could be closed until it becomes necessary to resume payments. I am still going to pay Car Maintenance, Clothes, Holidays, Presents & House and Garden as normal. My aim (& I hope I stick to my budget so that it happens) is to use the share of money which would have gone into the 5 closed pots to boost our savings. With the economic recession, I really mustn't dip into our emergency fund, as we are aware that Mr F's job could become very precarious again as local authorities will be worryingly short of funds. So I did spend an awful long time up at my desk number crunching, but it was one of those things where you feel better when there's a plan.
I'm still not happy about the ridiculous amount we are spending on food. We are not buying many multiples now, but as someone else said on here - it might have been HHoD or Dawn or both - there are a lot of own label & more affordable brands still missing from the shelves..... yoghurt is a good example of this. I'm getting to try all sorts of fancypants posh brands & they are lovely, but much more expensive than those we would normally buy. Ah well..... meal planning time tonight so I'll see what I can pull out of the bag.
Must get back to budget on this. 
Love to all, 
F x