Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Baileys_Babe

Thanks, @foxgloves for the tip about mint to deter ants, I have plenty of dried mint and ants seem to like it here.

My sage is a withered pile @CRANKY40 I wonder if that was because of the ants, it was lovely last year 😞

CRANKY40

I've just been out and picked loads of mint. It's in pots, under pots and spread around the garden. Let the battle commence 😄 It could have been @Baileys_Babe. Mine was huge and then.....dead. The blueberry bush was the same. Fruiting then the fruit began to shrivel up and it was just dead 😕

foxgloves

Hope the mint helps @CRANKY40. Ants are usually quite benign in the garden. I've had a couple of years where they nested in the greenhouse, but exposing the grubs & letting the blackbirds in soon put pay to that. I think the trouble with ants getting into pots is that they keep excavating their tunnels & I suspect this un-anchors the roots from a stable soil/nutrient source, weakening the plant. My biggest problem with pots is defo vine weevil. We are organic gardeners & although I did once try some vine weevil pesticide, it was so horrible (like diluted white emulsion paint) & came with so many warnings re toxicity to wildlife, I never used it again. Nesting blackbirds dig around eating vine weevil grubs near the soil surface but I defo need nematodes to see off the hoards of rhe bloody things further down scoffing my heucherella roots as fast as they can gobble. You only know there's a problem when the plant collapses.
Anyway, good luck with mint-based ant repulsion!
F

foxgloves

Morning m'dears,
Just having an extra large coffee to deal with brain fug. Have been awake since 4 am - woken by a big storm, including lightening flashes lighting up the room. Each time I almost dropped off again, the thunder returned. Never mind, the rain is badly needed, & the only jobs I really intend to do today are Big Budget Day (at desk number crunching until it is done) & making a big fish pie. A good chance to rest my dodgy ankle too, as did over 10,000 steps yesterday & it is feeling tight & sore today.
Well, those numbers aren't going to crunch themselves, so must get a shift on.
Wishing everyone a good productive day. Remember to shop it (whatever 'it' is) from home if you can.
F x

foxgloves

<Sigh of relief> Nothing dodgy discovered during reconciliation of July's budget & the setting of August's. It wasn't that I was particularly expecting there to be problems, more that despite having been a reformed character for several years now, it is still kind of in the back of my head that I was a silly spender/non-budgeter for many more years than that, iyswim.
Anyway, all as expected......oh, except that Mr F's £300+ car parking permit won't need paying for until September's budget cycle, so that was a welcome discovery, as I already have a deferred bill to pay in Aug due to payment collection arrangement changing for Covid reasons.
I had a good look at our 10 savings pots too. We agreed maximum holdings for all of these for 2021 when we had our annual money meeting back in January, but I decided today that it seems pretty pointless having £700 in our Appliances Replacement Pot atm when all our big appliances are pretty new. I have skimmed £200 from it & redistributed to other pots from which spending is more imminent - i.e car maintenance, clothing, opticians/dentist and am continuing to build the Presents Pot as I like this to be at a certain level by end of October to tackle Christmas presents plus all the winter birthdays in our family. Kept everything else real today & made sure I will still be able to pay £200 into the ISA this month. I will make sure I do that this week while I'm in town, so that I can't find myself tempted to use that money elsewhere. Saving is absolutely our key financial goal for the next decade or so. At the moment, I am budgeting so as to put all the money we used to spend on our mortgage into savings, but obviously that only works (like any other financial ideas!) if budgets are realistic & we adhere to them. 
I've just got a bit of filing to do, then my only other must-do tasks today will be kitchen-based plus garden pickings - I think it will be spring onions, maybe lettuce & rocket today, as I did everything else - including 3 aubergines & 500g tomatoes, yesterday. 
Well, m'dears, caffiene is calling, so I'll say love to all,
F x

foxgloves

Hello Rainy People....or is that just us? Thunder rolling around in the distance & showers on & off all day. No problem though, as have stayed in all day & have therefore spent no money! Today's main frugal win was pulling another almost 2kg of rhubarb & turning it into compote for some of this week's fruit (to avoid top-up shop) & another batch of rhubarb & date chutney. If anyone has a surfeit of garden rhubarb & fancies making this for festive hampers, or just to stock up the pantry with good things, the recipe is online. It's the one which contains a tablespoonful of curry powder & is very easy to make as it's so well behaved. I didn't faff around with adding rhubarb later in the process. It all went in together as I would make any other chutney. Usually by this time of year, rhubarb is about finished, as it doesn't like overly hot weather & it is important to leave some stems on each plant because they feed the crowns ready for next year. This year though, despite the heat, our rhubarb is still pickable. I shall aim to pull some more next week so that it doesn't go to waste. I've put bright red labels on the chutney jars as I can add matching paper toppers for gifting at Christmas. Very little effort required tonight as I made enough fish pie yesterday to feed us today as well. Like @DawnW, I'm a bit fan of cook once, eat twice. Veg will be french beans from our garden & some of those carrots I blanched & froze recently rather than wasting them. Courgettes could do with picking again, but both my baskets are full of the fiends, so they will have to lump it & wait.
Looked at possibility of getting some CBD cream for my dodgy ankle......£64. HOW MUCH???!??? I don't think so! Back to an ice pack from the freezer for the no-pence-whatsoever option. 
Cheers everyone,
F x

foxgloves

Hello Diary readers, Well, wrong diary m'dears, if you are wanting excitement, as I have had a pleasant but very low-key old-style sort of day. Courgettes are still advancing in their droves, so I turned 3lbs of them into pickles this morning. They are nice on burgers, with salads, etc. I also sorted a few out for stir-frying tonight with our meal. Felt proper pleased with myself for making good use of them while simultaneously getting on top of our current glut........then went down to the shed to fetch a spade for removing the ridiculously large heap of poo some or other local moggy had decided needed depositing on our lawn (the glamour of my life truly knows no bounds....), passed the veggie plot on route & had to go back out to pick the additional EIGHT courgettes which were ready! Honestly, I swear there are curcurbit goblins sneaking in at night & glue-ing the bug*ers on!!Never mind, I was pleased with my jars of pickles as I am like a squirrel from this time of year into the autumn, getting things gathered in, made, preserved, etc, & arranged in the pantry both for winter & foodie gifts. 
The other financial win today was revisiting the grocery shopping & realising that we don't need to do our planned stock-up at A*di this month. We tend to prioritise shopping there for our first shop of the new grocery budget cycle so as to re-stock with all the store cupboard items which are generally very well priced there......tinned stuff, rapeseed oil, tomato puree, pasta, peanut butter, dried goods for baking, all that kind of stuff. I disappeared into the pantry with my pencil & when I emerged, my re-stock list had precisely 3 things on it, none of them urgent. Well, it isn't money saving sticking to routines which aren't required, so we are just doing our normal modest shop for fresh stuff & the big re-stock can wait a bit longer. 
But that's about it for financial wins today. Mr F seems to be receiving quite a few packages in the post this week, but he assures me they are all 2nd hand items & tbh, I don't care what they are, as long as they are coming from his Personal Spends, which they most defintely are!
Enough of my ramblings,
F x

Blackcats

What a wonderfully productive garden you have - I know you invest lots of time and effort into it and you seem to get really good supplies of produce - especially courgettes!  

Have you tried Jamie Oliver's courgette carbonara?  It's yummy.  

Pixiehouse55

Helloo Mrs Foxgloves and Gang.  We are still busy sorting/selling or throwing out.  Sent all the forms back to our solicitor about what's saying or not staying In the house. All certificates for everything etc. Never sold a house before so I don't understand it all. Just hope it all goes through OK. 

We've brought a motor home drive around looking for our dream narrowboat. (Worked hard and saved hard for it) 😊😊

Mrs F we love courgettes and mushrooms fried in a little bit of butter. Lush. Oh and have you ever tred Ginger and Marrow Jam? Lovely 😊
Off I toodle again. Love Reading your diary when  I get 5 minutes. 

Keep safe everyone it's still about X 

QueenJess

foxgloves said:

Did today's garden pickings: strawberries, courgettes, spring onions, lettuce, rocket & watercress using my new trug. It made me think of @QueenJess talking about 'shopping from other people' s homes', lol, as my sister offered me "a basket which is going to the charity shop if you don't want it". I'm a bit of a sucker for baskets so said I'd have it. Turned out to be a long flat trug-shape, perfect for gathering fruit & veg. I have been thinking about buying a traditional trug for ages but haven't succumbed as the big ones are rather pricey & now I have no need to be tempted.

I've been at it again. A friend came round and gave us a load of old toys/books/puzzles that their DD had grown out of. All great condition and some not even used. Stashed it temporarily and then will go through it when I get some time. It will appear as Xmas presents for DD later in the year.

My parents also have all my old toys/books still, so I've requested a number of books for them to look for. They will appear as Xmas and birthday presents for DS.

I've already bought a couple of things from the present list second hand online. Been great recently as no one has been bidding on anything as I guess everyone is otherwise engaged or on holiday. Meant I got some great bargains. Will be a very cheap year for presents!