Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Right, well I've re-jigged veg growing plans this afternoon. Had planned lots of space for beans & sweetcorn, but due to the incessant cold of Spring this year, I only have half as many young bean plants as usual and the sweetcorn germinated so poorly that I have decided not to bother with it this year. I am going to put squashes under the spare bean frame & use the sweetcorn bed to space out the remaining courgettes better. I've also decided to grow more salad as we are eating our way through heaps of it atm. Felt the inevitable call of the garden centre luring me, but fetched out my seed box instead to see what I already had. Worth doing, as I have sown more lettuces, rocket, dragon's tongue rocket, radishes & coriander. I also have enough seed to sow more spring onions & parsley. While I was already covered in compost, I also potted on the young echinacea plants I grew from free seed. They are a bit of a fancypants variety which should flower next summer. Hope so!
Ok, I've yakked on enough & there are a few spots of rain starting, so I will say bye for now, keep your pence in your purse cos that's how they grow into £££s & enjoy the start of the weekend,
F x

foxgloves

Well m'dears, here I am again.... on our courtyard coffee bench with a very unglamorous bag of frozen edamames on my sodding ankle!! Have been properly productive today, but it hasn't helped the wretched ligament or whatever it is.
Baked a loaf this morning plus a batch of garlic flatbreads as noticed some yoghurt in the fridge on its last day. Then a big push in the garden which means we've nearly caught up. I planted out a double row of basil in front of the greenhouse tomatoes, moved everything in there to its final place for the summer, planted out a tray of asters & a crate of rudbeckias (all from free seed) & did a bit of weeding. Mr F banned me from digging over our biggest veggie bed because of my ankle so he did that & when he'd finished, I planted out the remaining 6 courgette plants. The only veg still to go out are french beans - a little behind because of the cold spring, & 2 squash, so another couple of areas to clear & dig over before I can say we are at the maintenance stage. First tomatoes, chillies & courgettes appearing & we won't need to buy fresh coriander for a while as my greenhouse tub looks lush. 
Well, time to pop these beans back in the freezer for more ankle therapy later. Mr F is cooking pea & beef kerala later. A free recipe which arrived years ago in some junk mail promoting frozen veg! It's tasty & a good stretch of 250g steak to feed two people generously. He really likes making it because it has a fakeaway' vibe. 
Enjoy your Saturday nights, money savers,
F x

Sun_Addict

Sorry to hear your ankle is still playing up. My coriander has done well too, along with the tomatoes and courgettes. Going to plant out the courgettes tomorrow.

Onebrokelady

Boo to the ankle, it's so frustrating when things keep flaring up. If it keeps happening I would get it checked out . 

foxgloves

Yes, @Sun_Addict - looking promising for veg. Hope we get some decent crops as it is all good on the money saving front. I love going down the veggie garden first thing on summer mornings to see what's ready for picking.
@Onebrokelady - My ankle doesn't hurt all the time. It seems to go only so far with full recovery because I will over-stretch it again in rhe garden or struggling upstairs carrying way too much stuff or going up the stepladder, etc. I am truly hopeless at sitting resting & even that isn't the best idea as the strained ligament or whatever it is stiffens up if I don't move it frequently. My arthritis (in my basal thumb joints) is bad this morning..... prob did a bit too much yesterday, grrrr.
F x

foxgloves

Hello Sunday Savers,
Over this past week, I've found myself thinking about lentils (!)& how they used to be symbolic of the parlous state of my finances back in the Spendy Era. Every so often......& the old volumes of journals I still have in my Treasure Box under the bed bear this out in some detail......I'd have a financial 'crunch' & would have to pull in the proverbial horns before the bank (which I naturally regarded as an unhelpful enemy) stopped my card & withdrawals. Of course it was more of a 'debt crunch' really, as I had run out of my money halfway through every month & even that wasn't really 'my money' because I permanently owed it to the bank anyway due to the revolving door that was my Flexiloan, one of the most unhelpful products ever devised for non-budgeting persistent over-spenders. So, as I had all the necessary skills for living more frugally - as in I could grow food, bake, had quite good foraging knowledge, could sew & mend things, was generally practical & could make a tasty meal out of very little - I would give myself a strict talking to & embark on a programme of frugality designed to wrestle my finances back into more manageable shape. Why have I been thinking about this & what does it have to do with lentils? Well, last week, we had a lovely red lentil bolognese cooked by the even more lovely Mr F & I really enjoyed it. It probably costs little more than pence to make. Back in the Spendy Era, whenever I had one of those scary financial crunches, I would make a big pan of lentil bolognese, portion it up & freeze it to help with food budget over the next couple of months. And there it would sit, as my 'OMG I have to do something' moments would, like the dullest lightbulb flicker, last for all of 2 days, maybe 3 or 4 at most, before I would be lured by a 'B*nus time' offer on my favourite make-up/skincare, some or other vintage artefact from an antiques fair or a pair of boots in the sale (therefore an essential purchase), etc. I don't think I will ever sit down to a nice warming bowl of Mr F's veggie bolognese without my mind going back to those days when I appeared to think the very act of making a cauldron of the stuff would automatically make me have more money!!
I don't know.....I can usually laugh about it now, but there are of course times when I think about how much I could have in savings had I not been so damn spendy. Ah well, lentils were never going to be more than the teensiest, most inperceptably tiny tool.....problem was that I wasn't interested back then in any of the other tools in the debt-free box! We only really change when we are ready to accept we genuinely have a problem, don't we?
Lentils........my thought for the day, lol.
F x

Debt_Me_Out_Of_Here

Foxgloves, I just love the way you write. You sound like you'd be a great person to go for a pint with!
I too struggle with the guilt of being entirely responsible for my own financial mess but I know now that I genuinely didn't have the tools to make a change at the time. We can only do what we know about. I try and focus on how much I've learned along the way and be proud of myself for constantly trying to better myself. 

Sun_Addict

I’m a massive fan of red lentils, great in soup and dhal. Oh the Clinique Bonus Time, my downfall on many an occasion 😆 The old you sounds exactly like the old me, I can really relate to what you’re saying. Thankfully I’m also a reformed character. 

Onebrokelady

When I was with my ex we were so broke one month we lived on Cuppa soups for every meal,we were allowed one bread roll with it and that was all, I can't look at a cuppa soup now without thinking about that time😀and how I worked out afterwards that we would have been better off buying a big sack of spuds instead at least then we would have had a bit of variety 😀

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

i had to make lentil bolognese for tea as it sounded so yummy - it was very nice
Deni x