Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

DawnW - I sometimes sow lemon basil too, & one year I made a really different flavoured pesto using that, with red chilli. It was good with pasta, but also stirred through warm couscous & bulghur & left to cool.

foxgloves

Ok, well today saw the final shop of our September grocery budget. Decided to meal plan for roast chicken on Sunday, a further two meals from that, then all other meals for next week will again come out of our freezer. Despite needing a few household items & buying extra coffee & cat food, we have come in at £3 under our budget of £200 this month, & we've eaten both well & healthily, so I'm pleased with that.
On the trail of bargainaceous prices today, it was win some, lose some. For ages, the best price locally on our cat's preferred brand of stinky meat has been at Wilko's, but today we found it had increased by £1 a box. That's a steep jump, so today, our best price on the same fishy gunk was at Waitrose. Another win at same shop was popping down the beauty aisle to pick up my favourite cleanser & finding it on a 2 for 1 offer!! Was so pleased as a tube lasts ages & it's very effective. So with that & 2 boxes of aforementioned cat stink, we also qualified for a free 'Guardian' so I shall stick my feet up later & thoroughly wind myself up about the parlous state of the country!
Oh.... & remember I was making space in the freezer? I've had to backfill a fair bit of that today. Discovered that the same overnight gales which ensured I only got 4 hours sleep (though 'Mum stress' didn't help either) had also completely flattened our sweetcorn. I'd intended to pick it on Sunday, but there was already a snail taking advantage of not having to climb a tall stalk which was tucking into a corn cob in the most audacious manner. So I had a soggy session in my cagoule (is there anybody anywhere who looks good in one of those sweaty horrors?) & brought in a big basket of corn cobs which apart from the couple we will eat tonight, have been foiled & frozen. Then squished back out there to pick up a large colander of windfall pears. And another 2lbs apples.
And 4 more courgettes.
And now I intend to do nothing else tonight but read, knit & eat a nice meal currently being prepared by the lovely mr f. Chilly tonight with the strong winds. Is the heating going on?
You're having a laugh! Just off upstairs to fetch warm cardi. 2 blankets poised on coffee table if needed, too.
Cheers all - f x

foxgloves

Got back from hospital visiting & thought the house felt really quite chilly, but once I'd replaced my leather jacket with a jumper & had a mug of nice piping hot coffee, I warmed up. I feel perfectly ok temperature-wise now. Since my transformation from Mrs Fritter to Budget Woman, I find I have very low tolerance of people who sit around in a t-shirt mithering that they are cold!
Unsurprisingly, the hospital visits are sad & stressful, but I don't want not to see Mum in her last days of life. Tonight, I'm intending to tuck up on the sofa with my book & my knitting or we might watch a film or continue with a series we're watching on Prime. Slept better last night. Took some valerian tablets which have been sitting in the cupboard for ages. What a waste of money they were, up to now! I don't know how I thought they would help with my insomnia from inside a cupboard......psychic rays, I suppose!
Pretty much our only spend today has been a birthday present for a good friend. I was aiming for something around £15, & spent just over £16, so I'm fine with that, & I already have a perfect card in my stash.
And, importantly, we remembered to take 2 portions of meatballs in sauce out of the freezer first thing, so there is no intention to order pizza or other spendy temptations.
Wishing everyone a peaceful evening,
F x

1LuckyLady

Hoping you get some sleep tonight Foxgloves :grouphug:

crazy_cat_lady

Lots of love Foxgloves. Really stressful time for you at the moment, and I really admire the way that you're just getting on and not letting it stop you live your life the way you do.

foxgloves

Thanks both for your kind words. My sister is doing today's & tomorrow's visits, so while I can't switch off how I feel, I'm going to have as normal a day as possible. Mr f brought me coffee & a bacon sarnie in bed, so I'm fortified for the morning. I'm going to bake a sourdough loaf today & make some apple chutney to use up some more of our windfalls. If I can find a teeny tiny space in the freezer, I may stew some apples too, as I like them with pork, on porridge or just with yoghurt or heated up for a 'free' dessert on a chilly day. I'll need to put the washer on timer for cheap rate laundry overnight, but that will be it for jobs, as mr f is cooking tonight. I'm also looking forward to a bath & using up a couple more nearly finished products - might have a proper soak with a magazine or candles. I definitely won't be going out today, so spending won't be a possibilty. My September 'personal spends' money has been spent up - 91p left, lol, until new budget day on Thursday, so if I had planned to go out today, I think it would just have been a walk or other free option!
Anyway, I must dislodge cat (who thankfully WASN'T one of those involved in the loud 5am fracas on our street this morning) & go & get that sourdough mixed up.
Have a peaceful day yourselves,
F xx

PurpleFairy26

Hope you have a relaxing day, I appreciate the stresses are still there but Hope you can get some relaxation through cooking and and a nice long bath. Sending love and best wishes across the EM.

foxgloves

Thanks PF. I think I'm holding up as well as can be expected in the circumstances.

Monday......in the words of Supertramp (I'm showing my age here!) "has come around again"....& my Mondays tend on the whole to be pretty frugal. For a start, I always do a big load of laundry overnight on Sun to make use of the cheap electricity tariff. Then I sort remaining laundry to extract everything that can go in another cheap cycle - a 30 mins at 30 degrees wash. No tumble dryer here so all pegged outside if dry (looks promising so far) or on the heated airer where again, I try to maximise the cheaper night time tariff.
As we often have a roast dinner on Sunday, I then crack on with divvying up the leftovers for usually 2, occasionally 3 further meals, including making stock in the slow cooker if we need it.
Then a round-up of anything that needs picking in the garden. Today I'll be gathering more apples & as the stewed apple-making fell off the list yesterday, I'll be doing that today. And then I have a coffee while filling in my bullet diary for tge week ahead with what jobs need doing. I'm not on full 'foxgloves productivity' at the moment because of all the hospital visiting & telated stress, but I know when the time comes to say goodbye to Mum, I won't be down there fretting about heaps of stuff that needs doing up here, so it does feel as though I'm helping myself & my budget with keeping on top of things.
Well, I must crack on now. Wishing everyone a good start to the week,
F x

foxgloves

Managed to use up a couple more apples - decided to get this year's slurpy nom noms on the go! Blackberry & apple gin this year. Our blackberries from freezer (they were helpfully poking through from neighbour's hedge), apples from our tree, sugar & gin from Mr A*di. Concoction now sitting on kitchen dresser. I love how it gets more purple as the weeks go on. It'll do us a big bottle to keep out the winter chills & a couple of tinies for Christmas gifts. And when I strain & bottle it, the fruit gets frozen to heat up with a bit more sugar to serve over ice cream & meringues at new year. Very boozy, but a pleasant dessert & taps in well to my zero food waste philosophy.
Better go & fetch the laundry in now & cut some lettuce for tonight's salad.
Cheers all,
F x

Toni'sfriend

You are so clever. Apple and blackberry gin. That sound fantastic.