Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Onebrokelady

foxgloves wrote: »

Evening debt-busters,
I've hurt my hand - feels like an RSI-type thing & have compounded the issue by deciding to chop back a huge buddleja this morning. I was so raring to go today, I'd got a sourdough loaf in the oven before I'd even brushed my hair, & was in the shed before it was properly light searching for my secateurs!
Naturally as my hand is quite painful, esp if I twist it, tonight's meal plan offering was an admittedly delicious, but quite labour intensive Hairy Biker curry. It's easy peasy to make, but involves lots of chopping - onions & garlic, fresh ginger, butternut squash, french beans, carrots & tomatoes and my poor hand objected vehemently to this. On the positive side, I've got 2 generous portions to freeze for another day & while it was all bubbling away on the hob, I rinsed the squash seeds & have spread them to dry ready for sowing next year. I used one of our homegrown squash instead of butternut. A fellow contributor to the DFW Small Things thread kindly sent me some saved seeds from her squash crop a couple of years ago -'Guatemalan Blue' - & they are really nice squash - big, sweet & can be used in any recipe requiring butternut. I saved seed from my last year's crop & shared it with a friend who has an allotment. I shall enjoy drying this year's ready to sow next May. Seeds & bulbs hold so much promise, don't they?
Well I must rest my hand now & stop typing, so will read my book.
Cat disgusted there is no downstairs heating on. It just hasn't felt cold enough yet, but it will go.on when I'm chilly.
F x

Oh dear,I hope your hand gets better soon, when we had our allotment we grew Patty Pan squash and they were lovely and tasty, we also saved some seeds to grow pumpkins the second year we were there and we won second prize in our allotment pumpkin competition,I've never been so excited to win something :rotfl:

foxgloves

Pattypsn squash are attractive too, aren't they? Like little shells when they're growing.
I love the idea of an allotment but we have a big garden so I don't really need one & I think I'd struggle to tend both.
I love growing food though. As soon as January arrives, you can bet I'll be sorting out my seed box & perusing seed catalogues.
I don't seem to have much 'ooomph' today, but mr f is off as he's owed time & has just announced that he will do most of my usual Friday big clean because of my bad hand. I think I can go with that as a plan!

Onebrokelady

foxgloves wrote: »

Pattypsn squash are attractive too, aren't they? Like little shells when they're growing.
I love the idea of an allotment but we have a big garden so I don't really need one & I think I'd struggle to tend both.
I love growing food though. As soon as January arrives, you can bet I'll be sorting out my seed box & perusing seed catalogues.
I don't seem to have much 'ooomph' today, but mr f is off as he's owed time & has just announced that he will do most of my usual Friday big clean because of my bad hand. I think I can go with that as a plan!

Yes they are quite attractive,we had to give our allotment up because we didn't have time for it
It was badly neglected when we took it over and we cleared it all and got it going again but keeping it going while working full time just wasn't happening,whoever took it over after us inherited some lovely soil though and I hope it went to someone who got a lot of use out of it

I still look at seeds but at the moment don't have much space to grow,the back garden is taken over by the chickens and they would eat anything I tried to grow now,but I have my pallet which I WILL get set up one day,maybe in time for next season if I pull my finger out,I've got the stuff to do it just not the energy

I like the sound of Mr Fs plan too,take it easy and have a relaxing day

determined_new_ms

Ha I've just brought home one of those yesterday foxgloves! It's massive. I only had one of those this year, as was a bad year for the allotment. Too wet, then too hot and I was very absorbed with sewing!

Was just having a nosy to see how you're doing

foxgloves

Ha! Well then, good job you did, DNMS, as you had a mention! I had 3 off 2 plants this year & 2 were a really good size. I ran a little experiment with them using comfrey. The liquid feed is good but so stenchy & foetid - admittedly watering it over my jeans & sandals was my own fault - & I wanted to try some orher ways of using it that I'd read about. So Squash 1 - comfrey chopped up & dug into the soil then squash planted.
Squash 2. Raised bed. Whole big comfrey stems laid 4cms deep as a base, covered with soil then squash planted.
Squash 3. Planted squash in ordinary garden soil. Chopped up a load of comfrey - a couple of buckets worth - & spread on top of soil. Didn't dig it in. It rotted in naturally as I watered.
Results : Squash 1. Carked it early doors!!
Squash 2. 1 fruit (the smallest). And took a long time to get going.
Squash 3. Two fruits - 1 very large & 1 even bigger. Very vigorous plant indeed. Will try this method again next year & extend to other crops.
So thanks for those original seeds.
F x

foxgloves

And I need to have a think about this morning's shopping. Chose Mr M's today & had done a good list, based as usual, on my meal plan for the coming week. Target spend £50. Actual spend £72.
Ehhh?
As mr f is Chief Bag Packer (He says I only make an effort with the first 3 items then just chuck it all in anyhow.....which in fairness, is true), he dealt with the transaction & I went off to the loo (which was quite amusing as there was someone with a voice to put foghorns in the shade in one of the cubicles having a long phone conversation while everyone else queued......I spent my entire wee trying to think if I've ever phoned anyone while on the loo & was pleased to conclude that I hadn't!) Anyway....I digress....when I came out, all the bags were packed & mr f was having a look at the receipt as he was surprised we were £22 over budget on what seemed like a fairly un-enormous shop. No errors or mysteries that he could see. We doubled up on cat meat as it was a good price, I bought a couple of bags of nuts for Christmas, 3 items for the food bank, some 'meaty bones' to make soup & he had a bottle of beer - but apart from that, we stuck to our list. Defo not as cheap as A*di but prices still edging up everywhere.
So I needed to think of some positives after that & here they are:
*We both had a free mince pie with our coffee in Waitrose cafe.
*Picked up Waitrose lovely free food magazine.
*Local farm had a stall on the market today & I bought a beautiful big red cabbage to make my Christmas Day braised cabbage with apples & spices. It will make loads & freezes well.
*Finished our Christmas present shopping. As we got a 3 for 2 on some festive chocs, we will use the free one to fill our advent calender instead of buying something else.
*All my outstanding online gifts also arrived today so truly a job done. I wssn't wildly happy with Postie leaving one of them in the wheelie bin while I was out - It was right at the bottom & as I'm only a bit over 5'3", I found myself practically wearing the damned bin.in order to get it out!
Oh, & I walked past 'Monsoon' without being tempted. Admittedly this had more to do with our car park time running out than angelic intent on my part, but still, it was a non-spendy result.
If only the groceries had come in closer to budget, I could have called that a good day all round.
Cheers all,
F x

Onebrokelady

Why on earth would you put it in the bin,good job it wasn't bin day:eek:,my postie has a key to my meter cupboard so if I'm the order fits in there he leaves it in there,I also have an old cupboard out the front that is waiting to go to the tip and he sometimes leaves larger items in there
I went to Mr M the other day and although a lot of it was cheap some of it cost more then Mr S which I was surprised about

foxgloves

Yes, OBL. It's definitely worth shopping around. The own label butter I bought yesterday was the same price as Waitrose's, which surprised me. I think that with everything I've had to deal with since August, especially being away from home for hospital visiting & all that followed, I haven't been able to do my usual levels of batch cooking - in fact, there is space in our freezer atm which is most unusual. This will also be impacting on grocery spends because I can usually plan around 4 meals a week from the freezer & then often just need a Sunday roast to provide the makings of the rest. I am continuing to get back to normal as things settle down - in fact I'm planning a bit of a cooking day tomorrow.
F x

Toni'sfriend

*All my outstanding online gifts also arrived today so truly a job done. I wssn't wildly happy with Postie leaving one of them in the wheelie bin while I was out - It was right at the bottom & as I'm only a bit over 5'3", I found myself practically wearing the damned bin.in order to get it out!

I frequently find things in our recycling bag which is outside the door. To be fair our postie isn't the culprit. He usually asks the neighbours who are particularly friendly with one another to take things in but the courier drivers are really bad for leaving things in the most inappropriate places.

foxgloves

My biggest annoyance with couriers is not giving people sufficient time to open the door. I told one off earlier this year. I was only sitting about 4 metres from the front door when he knocked. I jumped up immediately & went straight to the door to find him already back down the drive making a note that I was out!! To get there that quickly, he must have knocked & not waited any time whatsoever. Anyway, he got short shrift from me when I called him back!