Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Yes, I completely agree with all your comments. Only 10 days to get 800 foreign agency staff in place? I'd be concerned about safety. How much training can realistically be delivered in that time? And the cheek of that MP turning up to protest when she voted against banning 'Fire & re-hire'. It beggars belief that these people can't connect the dots between a mean-spirited horrible system  they voted to keep & the actual consequences! 
F

foxgloves

Greetings Saturday Savers,
Productive day (until cat escapade...). Mr F had to work this morning. I got some bread dough going then set about some gardening. Watered seedlings, moved autumn-sown sweet peas outside under bubble wrap to harden up a bit, weeded bean bed, started transplanting self-sown poached egg plants around veggie garden for pollinators, litter picked & then sorted out & decluttered my half of the shed, potted up penstemon seedlings & found all the trays/pots/trough I shall soon be needing.
Would have done more had the afternoon not been taken up by cat stress. 
Soot & Ash's first afternoon outdoors. Soot loved it but thankfully had his sensible head on. Ash last seen rolling around for joy on neighbour's path before disappearing. An hour & a half later, there's me walking up & down our street & a neighbouring one, rattling bloody 'Dreamies' - an endeavour which did flush out one hopeful moggy, but not ours! Ash strolled back a whole 2 hours after going out, looking for his dinner! He's flat out now, after his adventures & our blood pressure has dropped a couple of notches.
After all this, Mr F suddenly realised he hadn't put the chicken in the oven so he's gone off to get fish & chips. Not a spend I intended! After a sunny day, it's dropping cold here now. Extra socks for me because no way is the thermostat going up. Still determined to have used less energy than last month. Shall soon find out, as statement should arrive next week.
Take care,
F x

Four_Seasons

Oh dear Foxgloves what a to do! my Mom always buttered the paws of any kittens we had before they went out, haven't a clue why but she swore by it and they all came back.  We are using £10 a month less electric than this time last year, we had a very old tv and that broke so perhaps the new one and all my switching off plugs/lights and shorter clothes washes etc., are making a difference its a work in progress we just have to keep it up. Have a lovely Sunday x

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

Hi foxgloves

What a stressful afternoon!  Glad your 4 legged friends are both safe and well.
I haven't had my heating on at all this week; I've been working late at the office on a couple of nights and then going to bed with 2 hot water bottles
Agree re others about P&O.

hi pixiehouse, lovely to hear your news

Love Deni

Sun_Addict

As you know from my diary I’ve also had cat escape stress 🙁 Glad it ended well for you as did mine. 

slm6002

Four_Seasons said:

Oh dear Foxgloves what a to do! my Mom always buttered the paws of any kittens we had before they went out, haven't a clue why but she swore by it and they all came back.  

My Nan always used to do this.  The cats lick the butter off their paws and transfer their scent onto their pads.  They then go off and play leaving their scent trail and find their way back.  Well that is how my nan explained it to me

Honeysucklelou2

Just caught up on your diary Foxgloves. The rising costs of living are worrying. I have a 30 mile a day commute and the rises in petrol are shocking. At the beginning of the month I was shocked when petrol hit 150p a litre, now it’s over 170p for petrol and over 180p for diesel 😳. I’m thankful that enough of my older children work within walking distance of  or are able drive, allowing me to run a small car rather than the people carrier I used to drive.

Love reading about your gardening...

foxgloves

Hello Sunday Savers,
Interesting to read about the paw-buttering. Both my grandmas also talked about buttering cats' paws.....one said it was because they instantly got so busy slurping off all the lovely butter that they didn't bother going anywhere, & the other one said it was so that wherever they went, they'd return in the hope of more butter! I suspect however, @slm6002, that your Nan's rationale is much closer to the mark.
Agree about all the price rises @Honeysucklelou2, some of which are really scary. I know they will affect our current budget even though we no longer have a mortgage, so I really feel for people who have high &/or rising accomodation costs as well. We still don't know what our monthly energy dd will be, but the letter citing the estimated annual costs of course points to a significant increase.
Useful gardening morning. Mr F cleared a space under the apple tree to start off a wild garlic bed, so we planted those. I did some maintenance on a big flowerbed, forking out thug plants, stray bluebells, weeds, etc, & identifying gaps I can fill for free with stuff I grew from seed last year.
My throat & nose started feeling 'coldy' tonight & as I was at the opera a few nights ago, I thought I'd better do an LFT. Negative. Mr F's cooking night & he thinks it's all the chilli he's put in his spice paste that's kicked my throat off, lol.....& I haven't even eaten it yet! 
Would dearly love a productive week but think I will have a builder for 3 days which is welcome, as work will be finished earlier, but it is harder to get immersed in stuff. Ah well, I'll see what I can do.
F x

QueenJess

I had a @foxgloves moment this week. Decided to cheer myself up, I would fill my patio containers with flowers, herbs, fruit and veg. I dug out my seed box and planted loads I already had inside using plastic pots I saved in the past from plant purchases. As they are being started off inside, I needed a tray or something to stop them leaking water all over the windowsill. I didn’t have anything specific and thought “I wonder what @foxgloves would do”. So I wandered round the house and it turns out a large plastic box lid works fine 🙂

foxgloves

Too right, @QueenJess. I know garden centres do sell shallow plastic trays for holding pots & trays, but I wouldn't buy them because plenty of other stuff does the job for free. I'm currently using a tea tray & the lid from an old ice-cream tub. I've also used large shallow meat trays. Last year when I had heaps of small pots on a windowsill, I made 'saucers' by cutting down large size yoghurt pots. They worked well & so I saved a pile of them in the shed with my seed trays in case I need them again.
F x