Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Hello to all my favourite diary-reading pence wranglers,
Have kept the faith today. Mid-month budget check-in complete with no nasty surprises. I'm about £6 adrift, but I'm pretty sure this is to do with the change in our milkman order. It'll all come out in the wash, as my Dad was fond of saying. Did a few surveys & paid across that  holiday cottage deposit, having transferred the funds from our Holiday Savings Pot. Now I just have to stick to my Holiday Pot payment plan like glue until Feb 2024 & everything will be covered.
Baked a weird loaf.....opted for stiffer dough as it's been rising too swiftly lately. Naturally today it barely budged! I'm sure us two toast hoovers will manage to eat it though!
Wrote meal plan for next week, focusing heavily on freezer stores & home grown produce, followed by grocery shopping list.
Today's garden pickings: 2 courgettes, coriander & another bunch of sweet peas. Also side-shooted greenhouse tomatoes again & staked aubergine plants. Gathered woad seed & collected up stray gubbins to put away in the shed. Strung our homegrown garlic bulbs for hanging as they have dried beautifully. May step up garlic production to our pre-allium.leafminer levels now that we know enviromesh-type stuff keeps the fiends out.
Very little effort required for tonight's meal. Am making Kedgeree to use up the last pack of smoked mackerel from our previous fish box.
Time for a couple of chapters of my book now.
Cheers m'dears,
F x

foxgloves

Dear Diary Readers,
Have just come in from my pondside bench after an hour with my book - currently reading 'The Pleasures of men' by Kate Williams. Blissful cool breeze today - I'm dreading the horrendous temperatures forecast for early next week. 
Anyway.....has there been any thrifty activity? We revisited the grocery shopping list over breakfast & crossed off one item that we had in stock after all (my fault for not switching the pantry light on!) & another it turned out we don't need until after our next shop, so that was worth doing. I also crossed off washing-up liquid as we'd got much more left than I thought. Realised later that Mr F had thriftily diluted it......thankfully not to his usual homeopathic levels of actual product left in the solution.
A 'from stores' meal plan & tight list meant we came in about £40 under budget. If we can do the same next week, I could put the underspend to good use. No other money spent in town as I used my Advantage card points for a box of hair colour & we used a free supermarket carpark. 
House cleaning done, vegetable garden checked. Today's pickings = spring onions. No effort required by me for tonight's meal. Jacket 🥔 night. I'm having cottage cheese & coleslaw on mine. Mr F is constructing Epic Man Stew, which judging by the amount of containers of odds & ends defrosting on the worktop this morning, is going to free up some very welcome space in the freezer.
Right....I'm off to march up & down the garden as my step-count is woeful today. Maybe Soot will join me, as his hasn't been much better!
Love F x

ladyholly

Another here dreading the high temperatures. I dont think we will be able to take the dogs out on Tuesday a even at 10pm its giving a temp of 31. Too hot for those wearing a fur coat. I am not sure about early morning temps so I might have to set the alarm.

foxgloves

We've been warned it is going to hit 38° here, @ladyholly. I would prefer it if summer days never went higher than 25 & would be perfectly happy with low 20s. I am sure it's going to be utterly horrid.
F 

Chrystal

Also have to remember that these temp forcasts are for 'in the shade' ... it'll be much higher in the sunshine!  Take care everyone.  XXX

ladyholly

Our highest forecast temp is only 36. I dont think I will be able to do anything much or I will disappear in a puddle and  be hardly able to breathe. We get the afternoon sun in the lounge so even with the curtains closed its going to get very hot. I am hoping for a little breeze which may help a little. We gain from being  a terrace in the winter but its no help at all in the hot weather. I was talking to a friend who is going with his family  to the air show in Fairford Gloucestershire. I think they are mad. A huge expanse of concrete which will reflect the heat and from what could see on TV very little shade. I dont think I would be taking children there today  even though its a great show.

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

Morning foxgloves and friends
I don't like the heat either i have to go into the office on Tuesday but we have aircon so I'll be glad of that.
I've ordered my next book group read from the library rather than buying it, which is a small saving.
I also had a meeting yesterday followed by lunch so I got a free meal. My parents have visited this week and left yesterday but they had brought butter and milk and some salad bits  which they've left in my fridge rather than take home with them (they live in your favourite county!) - I like all these small money saving wins
love Deni x

foxgloves

@ladyholly &@Chrystal - I think we have to try & mitigate the horrible heat situation in whatever practical ways we can. I defo wouldn't want to be at a big event with little shade in these temperatures. We are often at a festival this weekend but we didn't book tickets this year for various reasons. I notice they've put an outdoor shower in this year so people can cool down. 

@Deni_debt-free_dreamer - Air-con will help you at work. Mr F (worse than me in the heat) is working both Mon & Tues all day. No air-con in his work building despite it being a relatively new modern build. They can't have fans running either because they overload the electrics! (multi-use building) so he's not happy at all. He's going to relax some of the working practices/rules so his staff are more comfortable but I think it all comes down to the fact that the UK is not geared up to any weather extremes. 
F x

foxgloves

Afternoon Sunbeams,
I have achieved very little today, but as I pretty much only intended to read my book in the garden, I'm not fussed about low productivity.
Not a no-spend day, as much to my surprise, I managed to order a fan! Had to pay an additional £2 for click & collect, but the fan itself cost much less than I expected & it will be covered from our House & Garden Pot.
I've done 2 loads of laundry to make good use of such good drying weather & we've saved a tidsy bit of energy bill by getting two baths from one fill of water & Mr F remembering that he can make a perfectly good chilli con carne in daytime without the kitchen lights on!!
I've been doing a bit of prep for these very hot days , as 40° now forecast here for Tues - I've never experienced temperatures as hot as that & am not looking forward to it at all. Have stocked the pantry/fridge with plenty of drinks & ice lollies, dug out additional ice cube trays, ordered aforementioned fan & put extra ice packs in the freezer for offering to Soot & Ash under towels for lying on to cool off. Summer duvet already jettisoned in favour of a cotton sheet. Intend to keep windows & curtains closed until evening on both days, as recommended. It can't be over quick enough as far as I'm concerned. 
Will need to do some garden picking tomorrow morning as a few things seem to be ready.
Enjoy your evenings,
F x

Baileys_Babe

Today we have closed our windows, black out blinds and curtains and will do the same tomorrow at about 11 pm we are planning on opening the windows upstairs to further cool the place down.

Currently the house is around 19.5°C except our bedroom where it is closer to 18.5°C. We too have frozen various things for keeping us cool, we made ice cream today and we have meal planned taking into account the extreme temperatures that are forecast.