Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

I'm going to have white painted walls in there, Dawn, but I'd like to leave the shelves as plain wood because it looks nicely simple & I like the patterns in the grain. Mr F is wanting to wax them though, for a bit of water-proofing. Not that I'm planning on spilling lots of stuff in there.......but then again, I do still have rhubarb on the kitchen celing from my last incident. So embarrassing when the electrician came to look at our kitchen lights! Hoped I might get round to getting my steps out & climbing up to remove it today, but have been side-tracked by needing to deal with another huge pick of beans. Maybe later. 
F x

Baileys_Babe

Waxing the shelves will mean they will be easier to wipe down.

foxgloves

Bailey's Babe - Yes, I think you're right. I do lots of preserving & while I wipe down the jars with a hot cloth as soon as possible after filling, they can inevitably still feel a little bit sticky, so I think that waxed shelves will just be that much easier to keep clean. That's the plan, anyway. Still trying to decide on a colour for the door......I seem to choose a different colour every night, but I think I've finally got it down to 2 or 3. 
F x

foxgloves

Hello m'dears,
A glorious sunrise over the village this morning......kind of followed by a grey day, but the garden will be very glad of the showers.
Well, still tidying up after the building work- the skip's been collected, so glad we managed to wedge a few more bits of our own tat into that. Tackled the ironing first thing, then decided I needed to have a serious think about meal planning in a way that will prioritise our own fresh produce. There's no room left in our freezers, so I took a bit longer with planning meals today.,,,,for instance tonight I'm making rustic sausage casserole - I've been making this for years - it's very simple just with a chunk of crusty bread, but one of the best things about it at the moment is that in addition to cider, it's cooked in tomatoes & contains french beans!! That can only be a good thing, as I picked another kilo of the fiends this morning! Recipe makes enough for tomorrow night too, which means we can both crack on & neither of us need cook. I've also put on next week's menu Delia's Provencal style veggie stew which is basically ratatouille but is the nicest one we've eaten & that will make good use of our homegrown aubergines, red peppers, courgettes & tomatoes. I've also included meatballs as the recipe I usually do also uses tomatoes & courgettes, as well as breadcrumbs.......so something at least out of the freezer, all be it a titchy bag! Fish on the menu too, so that will be another couple of bags coming out. I ordered our next Grimsby fish box today, so I shall need to have magicked up some space before that arrives.
This afternoon, I've been up in my little HQ trying to find where everything got moved to while the floorboards were up. Tomorrow is my Big Budget Day. I'm very conscious that a couple of things have conspired & I am much more behind with regular budget updates that normal - Firstly, I have simply not been able to get into my HQ where all my budgetary/admin stuff is, let alone to my desk or even dining room table. There was also a problem with quite a large payment I attempted to make to a credit card a couple of weeks ago. It failed because 'Verified by Visa' was down, wouldn't accept my password, so the payment remained unauthorised & didn't get made. I had already logged the amount in my budget, so I need to do a very careful September budget reconciliation tomorrow to make absolutely sure I start off with the correct amount of money on paper......I don't want to think I've got a lot more than I actually have. I've warned Mr F (it's his day off tomorrow) that I may be glued to my desk for a long time & will need plenty of coffee to keep the ageing synapses firing!
Planning an ENORMOUS post-builders clean-up this weekend & have promised Mr F I'll budget for a takeaway on Saturday as we'll have earned a treat. We've vacuumed several times, but more dust has settled. We'll get there.
Anyway, I'd better go & get those sausages browning or it isn't going to be a very speedy casserole.
Love F x

ladyholly

Probably not a help but my Mum used to salt beans - Layer prepared beans and salt in K*****R jars or similar. I think thats all there was to it. I am sure Google can tell you. I believe you can do some other veg that way. Just make sure they are ver well rinsed unless you like salty food.

foxgloves

I think bean salting must have been the preserving method of choice before home freezers were widely available, Ladyholly. A friend of mine could remember her granny doing them. I'm not sure I fancy them to be honest, but I always like to know how these things are done.
F x

DrCarrie

@foxgloves loving the tone of your diary!

foxgloves

DrCarrie - You are? Well that's kind of you to say so. I've been a silly frivolous spender in the past, but I did finally effect a reformation & I am far happier for it. 
F

ladyholly

foxgloves said:

I think bean salting must have been the preserving method of choice before home freezers were widely available, Ladyholly. A friend of mine could remember her granny doing them. I'm not sure I fancy them to be honest, but I always like to know how these things are done.
F x

I am obviously showing my age   Yes this was long before the days of home freezers. I also refused to eat them unless they came from the garden so we had the longest picking season you have ever heard of. As far as I remember they were ok. Better than tinned but not a good as frozen. I just thought it might help your glut.

Pixiehouse55

Hi Foxgloves and Gang. Sorry busy here lately. our Gent had a small op last Friday, then yesterday he had a app with GP. then  our lady had an app at her GPS in the afternoon. 
Well. I think ive been good...ish... Went to Curry`s looking for Chip Fryers. We came out with a 65inch latest up to date television plus insurance.....It didnt go on my Credit Card, they are doing a 9 months interest free plan.. Checked it all out...Made the first payment already... Am i good or bad?  
  Apart from that The Brick wall in our garden has been built. All the work from the Burst Pipe all finished... I can relax now lol 
Well i hate to mention it but it looks like Lockdowns are about in some areas because of COVID19 such a worry. some believe its happening and some dont. I would rather be safe then dead dont know about you.? Keep safe everyone