Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Tescodealqueen

I am with your mum on the stewed Rhubarb front

Baileys_Babe

I use to stew rhubarb, but now I roast it as recommended by DawnW I think, it is so tasty.

amber03

Love rhubarb, gave up my allotment earlier this year which had two lots of rhubarb on, that’s the only thing I miss off it. Debating whether to get a crown and finding somewhere in the garden to put it. I also stopped a subscription the other day, I was paying for a monthly magazine when I found out that as I have a library card I could read the magazine for free on the library website. Saved myself around £50 a year. Plus all the other magazines I can read on the website for free.x

foxgloves

@Baileys_Babe - Yes, I do sometimes cook rhubarb like that, mainly the new Spring rhubarb, which I cook in the oven with orange a la Delia summer recipe book. V nice - a different vibe to stewed, but I do stew it into compote if I have loads & want to freeze it.

@amber03 - That was a good saving. Agree no point paying if you are able to access that content for free online.

I'm hoping as I work my way down this large mug of coffee that I will be struck by a surge of energy. Have arranged to skype my sister mid-morning & am aiming to have written the grocery shopping list, made bread dough & done today's veggie garden pickings before then at the very least. Also want to wash a couple of coats for the charity shop - I had a no-spend, shopped from home rearrangement of the back lobby yesterday while I was waiting for builder to call & identified 2 coats which are taking up space but only really ever get worn to walk down to the shed if it's raining. I'm sure someone will find them useful as tge colder months hove into view.
Also aim to finish B-in-L's Christmas socks today & to cast on next project.
Ah well, coffee well & truly finished. Off I go with my good intentions.
Wishing everyone a pleasant productive day, 
F x

foxgloves

Well, I got those socks finished & popped them in the presents bag. Garden pickings yielded 3 more courgettes (I used 3 in our evening meal so that was 'courgette neutral' as the mountain went neither up nor down), 1kg tomatoes, a cucumber & 800g french beans. Beans prepped & frozen. Freezer space is going to be a problem as I have a fish box arriving on Monday. I'll have to look at that today.
Mr F's credit card statement arrived & we had a look at it together as he needed to add a few items to his Spends spreadsheet & I thought overall the bill was around £60 more than I expected. Realised that a payment I made into the card account wasn't showing as statement had already been prepared. No problem, will deduct it from balance as shown.
Back in the day, I never queried anything because I barely looked at statements. I think I shared the story from the late 1990s when my overdraft was just getting worse & worse. I increased my Flexiloan (dreadful product if one has no self-discipline) but I was still overdrawn the following month. Finally got my bank statements out & went through them & discovered my mortgage had gone out twice 3 months running!! Hot-footed it to the building society to arrange a refund. But even the fact that it had happened wss technically my fault. They had sent me a letter telling me that my mortgage payments were shortly changing from standing order to direct debit & that I needed to cancel the S/O with my bank before a deadline. I had opened the letter but not read it properly & just stuffed it in a drawer with my bank statements.
It couldn't be more different now as I go through all statements thoroughly, checking off receipts, DDs, etc. In fact I've probably gone completely to the other end of the spectrum on this, but I know which system has both got us & kept us debt-free! 
Right, must get a bit of productivity & calorie burning going. Mr F has lost another 1kg. I'm not weighing in until next weekend so am on last chance burn off over the next week.
F x

foxgloves

Evening m'dears,
Achieved a few things once fuelled up by that coffee. Cleaned the kitchen & bathroom - usual minimal products - emptied bins & tidied.
Rounded up all the windfalls I've been saving plus a couple more which had come down overnight, weighed them & even with the bruised bits cut out, managed to get the 1.3kg I needed for my planned cranberry & apple jelly. So my kg of yellow stickered cranberries came out of the freezer, went into the cauldron, double double toil & trouble, & it's now all dripping through the jellybag ready for jamming tomorrow. Then made a batch of garlic flatbreads to use up elderly yoghurt & froze them.... thus filling up the little bit of space vacated by the cranberries, so am no nearer fitting Monday's fish delivery in. Bah!
Mr F quite keen to go & look at cars tomorrow. Only for research atm to see what deals are around. I will take my notebook with me, but intend to play very hard to get.
Had better make at least a small effort at piano practice, then it's sofa time.
Love to all, 
F x

foxgloves

Bit of a rum day initially, but it improved. Hello Saturday Savers......Decided to get into town good & early today to sort out the new flooring for our conservatory & back lobby. Trogged across to the other side of town.....Oh joy, flooring shop closed at weekends until further notice. Quick strop outside shop then we decided to drive over to a neighbouring town to look at cars. Well worth doing, as once confronted with the model of car we had pretty much decided to buy, it was definitely too big for just the two of us. We had been very much influenced by fitting all our camping gear in the back, but hadn't thought to look at more suitably sized cars (for two) but with roof bars to take a box. Chap at the dealership gave us lots of info with (unusually for a car showroom) no hard sell, & we are going to pursue a different model of car which will mean we get more for less money. Mr F now progressing all the logistics & I shall sort out the financials (as well as making sure I also test drive it). So if that all comes off, it should save us at least a couple of grand, which is not to be sniffed at. 
Since then, I've jammed the cranberry & apple I left in the jelly bag overnight & have made 8 jars of the brightest most festive red jelly. Glad I was a cheapskate & got yellow stickered cranberries after last Christmas as with some of our windfall apples, it has been a cheap 'make' & as I've put holly berry labels on the jars, will be nice in festive present bags/hampers.
Charity stall knitting tonight & a film, I think.
F x

crazy_cat_lady

Sounds like it worked out well in the end foxgloves.

foxgloves

I think it has, @crazy_cat_lady. Good job we always go & see cars 'in person' rather than order from the internet because I was pretty much set on that bigger vehicle, Mr F said he'd 'love one', but once we were standing in that showroom right up against our chosen model, we were both struck by the size of it.....that for the convenience of getting all our camping gear in the back (no more than twice a year max), we were about to buy something which wouldn't fit on our front drive should we wish to use it, & wouldn't be able to guarantee even being able to park it outside our house, with one set of neighbours having 3 cars & the other side two. On the money side, we are now buying a new car for less money than a 2nd hand one of the model we had previously intended to buy. I suppose the lesson here is that it is always worth going into these things with an open mind.
F x

foxgloves

Hello Tuesday People,
A busy day so far, although I have just sat down with my current charity stall knitting project & as Mr F says he'll sort dinner out tonight, I feel some leisure time coming on.
Our big home improvement project has felt like it's been in limbo most of the summer, & that will be a little longer, as our builders who were due to start last week are delayed by 6 weeks on their current project. I had hoped we may be able to squeeze in the return of the decorator before then, but he also has 3 weeks longer to run on his current job, so we are now kind of re-jigging our plans to see what jobs we can fit in between now & then. Now that Mr F has painted the conservatory wall, we have been to look at new vinyl flooring this morning. Money-wise, it's covered from our Home Improvements Fund, but it's the usual dilemma of do we choose a cheaper option so as to spend less, or do we have something better quality which stands a chance of still scrubbing up decent in years to come when we will be looking to sell the house? I was glad I had Mr F with me as the 3 sample books I chose to bring home to test a few out are so big, I don't think I could have lugged them back to the car. I am thinking I do want to chose a good quality one for longevity, but will choose carefully as I always do these days, as mistakes can be expensive, can't they?
Veggie garden still very productive. Our food growing operations are nowhere near the size of an allotment (I think about a third of a standard allotment plot) but we still do well for a range of crops. Today I've picked a cucumber, 500g tomatoes, 6 aubergines, 500g windfall apples, blackberries, about 300g jalapeno chillies, 1kg french beans, a lettuce, a bunch of spring onions & 5 courgettes and could barely lift my basket! Harvest time makes all the hard work earlier in the year feel worthwhile.
Mr F has been a very useful engine on his day off & ran me into town early for my hair cut appointment, lugged massive sample books of vinyl flooring around, watered & fed all the veg, paid off our holiday balance & sorted out some concert bookings before my Big Budget Day later this week, so that I can incorporate them into my calculations. He also scanned all the car docs required by the car dealership for our part exchange/new car purchase. We are splitting labours on that - he's doing all the logistics & I will deal with the financials. 
Just one more little financial win this morning. I popped into B**ts to see if there were any new offers on a brand of make-up I like, as I have been using stuff up ready to treat myself to some new colours for autumn. There weren't any offers on what I was looking for, but my favourite foundation was on offer just till today at 2 for £12 instead of £9.99 each. I couldn't leave that there.....make-up is always bought from my Personal Spends anyway, so is budget-neutral......so that's two bottles gone away in my toiletries/beauty stash & £8 saved. Got to love a bargain once we've jumped off the debt train & embraced common sense!
Well, time to crack on with my promised charity stall items. I re-wrote the knitting pattern yesterday because it was faffy & annoying. It is now much quicker & I'm hoping I will be able to deliver on the items I've promised.
Enough of my woffle - I probably spend too much time with courgettes!
Your Frugal Friend,
F xx