Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

Hi foxgloves

That's really good news on the energy saving front, very inspiring I haven't had my heating on for the past couple of weeks except for one evening when i hosted my book group.  Fingers crossed your freezer is now recovered and you are not stuck in a field of chard !
I'm trying to only use my car to drive to my jobs, I drove to one of my PT jobs yesterday but get paid mileage which lessens the pain

love Deni 

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

Oh i forgot to say - i found my cats' fave cat food brand at 20p less per box of 12 than in my local SM, still chuffed at that saving!! I used my c00p vouchers to get 25p off baked beans and 50p off veggie mince .
All helps

Baileys_Babe

@foxgloves did you survive the chard harvesting?

Sun_Addict

I had to buy an emergency box of cat food from L!dl today, own brand and they devoured it. It’s a lot cheaper than their usual brand but they’re so fickle with food that I dare not hope I can change it for good. 

QueenJess

Cats are so random with food. We had a cat which got more and more picky until she was barely eating anything. We then got a kitten and that made her eat again (because she might not want it, but there was no way she was going to let a subordinate have it). She was always skinny, but healthy enough.

My parents have another cat now who thinks about food all the time and pesters. They have to give him the right amount otherwise he gets chubby. Whatever they give him it’s never enough and he continually complains about it.

foxgloves

@Deni_debt-free_dreamer - I think it helps that our current heating system (installed Sept 2020) is on an automatic thermostat so it only comes on when the temperature falls low enough to trigger it. We can over-ride it, but somehow psychologically, that feels more like saying 'I want to pay more' than going with the temperatures we set. Without the automatic thing, I think I'd be far more likely to be switching it on whenever I felt chilly. As the weather warms up, it will cease to come on at all as ambient temperatures will be less likely to fall below 18 degrees, although we will switch it off altogether once we get past the cold spell which the forecasters are predicting for next week. We are also maximising vouchers to help offset rising prices. It's worth doing. 

@QueenJess & @Sun_Addict - Oh yes, they can be notoriously fussy. We always notice how the cat food aisles in the supermarket are beset by people sighing over what to buy, trying to balance cost with what it is that their little devils are deigning to eat at the moment. We once met a woman shaking all the tins......they were identical tins but she was taking each one off the shelf, holding them up to her ear while she shook them before putting them back. Her reason? Her cat likes gravy & would waste its meat unless there was loads of the stuff. Apparently some tins contain more gravy than others, so she was shaking them to determine the sloppiest contents within! 

@Baileys_Babe - I'm pleased to say that I did not get stuck bent double in the chard bed. I did, however, need to lean on a nearby spade in order slowly to get myself upright again. The stir-fried garlicky shredded chard was lovely though, so I was glad I'd picked it.

F x

foxgloves

Morning daffodils,
Another slightly odd day today as have a builder here so am confined to barracks. I can't hear anyone knock or call if I am in the veggie garden as it's furthest from the door, so it easiest to stick to indoor jobs......not that I should be gardening today anyway, as my back, while better than yesterday, isn't back to normal yet. Last night i sat as upright as I could on the sofa with a hot water bottle behind my back & I think it did flex my sore muscles up a bit as I feel more mobile today & they are not going into spasm as frequently when I perform a movement they don't like. So am being Mrs Sensible today. All gentle tasks, punctuated by walking around & gently stretching. So far, I've liaised with builder, done meal plans for next week, tackled emails, tidied the kitchen, blitzed litter trays (the bending wasn't too good on that job so am avoiding more bending for the rest of today), defrosted soup for later (freezer seems to have righted itself now, thank goodness, as don't want the expense of a new one) & written Easter cards (the ones I bought last year from the 10p box in the charity bookshop). I shall be baking soda bread later, but apart from that & very little tasks like making tomorrow's packed lunch, doing surveys & casting on next sock, I intend to concentrate on resting my back. I can't have a dodgy back during growing season. It's a busy time of year for gardeners & with the price of food going up, I feel it's important to grow as much as we can. 
So that's my gentle day. No sudden moves. Sensible Foxgloves. Hopefully tomorrow, my back should have improved even more. Time to go & fire up the coffee machine & make some builder's tea.
Take care m'dears,
F x

Baileys_Babe

Pleased to hear you managed to get out of the chard bed and it was worth the effort of harvesting.

foxgloves

Thanks, @Baileys_Babe, it was. I've grown chard before but up to last year, I always grew the multi-coloured or ruby red varieties. While they are attractive in the veggie garden, I didn't find I was using them as frequently as the variety I started growing last year, which is called 'White silver 2'. This has white stems & glossy green leaves and unlike its brightly coloured cousins, doesn't stain sauces etc a red colour. What we're cutting at the moment is still last year's crop. It stands through all but severe winters & gets back into growth as soon as the temperatures rise a little. There's still plenty to use. I expect it would bolt this year if I left it, but I have already sown a new batch & intend to use all of the existing crop before that happens. Mr F can't stand beetroot (I'm sure he must have been force-fed it by an elderly granny at some point in his childhood, though he says not!), not just the flavour, but the red juice leaking onto everything on his plate, so the 'White Silver 2' variety is perfect for us & very easy to grow. I use the leaves shredded for curry greens instead of buying bags of baby spinach & it's very nice stir-fried with garlic &/or chilli or steamed as a dark leafy green side veg. I haven't tried the stems in cheese sauce yet or making it into pesto, but I do intend to do so this year.
Actually @Baileys_Babe, as I type this, it's occurred to me that I think you have said in the past that you're not really a gardener? If I've remembered that correctly, this will be a very boring post to read - sorry!
F x

QueenJess

Very useful post for me though as I've just discovered a pack of Chard seeds hiding at the back of the cupboard.  They will definitely get planted out this year!