Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

And now for today's post. Hello everyone, I have been boiling hot all day until now, when I actually think the temperature here has started to drop a little - there's some cloud building up, but no sign of any longed-for rain yet. I so hope we do get some as the garden badly needs it. 
Spent a good wodge of this morning up in Foxgloves HQ sorting out our financials. I did my usual Monday morning budget updates (grocery budget still on track), then sorted out my credit card bill & applied for the new version, as the current one is due to become obsolete. I didn't have to do it until later in the year, but they tempted me into becoming an early adopter by offering me triple loyalty points at their stores for three months. Then I tackled my mid-month budget check-in, which I have always done since we first started budgeting for debt-busting purposes, & still do. It 'does what it says on the tin', just offers a chance to look through the figures & make sure we are on course to finish the month in credit. If there are any nasty surprises, the reformed me (the budgeting version) would much rather know before the end of the month. I did discover an anomaly.....we have £91.63 more than I think we should have. I had a good look through August's original budget, double-checked all my arithmetic, but couldn't see that I'd overlooked anything. I actually think it stems from Mr F's credit card bill. We only really use CCs for loyalty vouchers, so his usually has groceries & petrol on it and stuff he's ordered from his Personal Spends. I am pretty sure the extra money is because I deducted the cost of some items he'd bought with his Spends from the budget twice. I've left the money in place just in case anything should rear its head over the next couple of weeks, but if it doesn't & my diagnosis is correct, then I have plenty of Savings Pots to decide between for its eventual resting place.
Other stuff: Have baked bread -  a loaf from the last of the lovely Norfolk Crunch flour I bought on our day trip, done garden pickings (courgettes & blackberries), done the ironing (iron off for the final item as is now habit) & am now half way through making a batch of pickled courgettes. I've got the courgette & onions slices brining in a huge bowl, the vinegar is waiting in a jug & the flavourings/sugar are all measured out ready. I've fetched in & washed some jars in from my stash & they are about to go in the oven to sterilise. 
Minimal effort for tonight's nosebag as Mr F made enough lovely lamb & marrow bake to feed us for 2 nights, so I only need to make a bowl of salad.
Oh, there's a fabulous breeze blowing through the kitchen window now.......still so hoping for a shower, though I think the thunder looks set to miss us - shame as I think it would help to clear the air.
OK, I must hie me away to my awaiting courgette bowl......
F x

milann

Thanks for the courgette advice. I suspect it is a pollination problem too, although we do get a lot of bees and have flowers right next to the pots. We have a garden railway so lots of alpine style plants, pansies and and lots of thyme which the bees absolutely love……the train track (only a small G scale track….not a sit on one) has rather taken over our small garden though - hence my vegetables in pots 😏 The courgette seeds this year we’re given free at a rhubarb festival earlier this year……I wasn’t sure if they might have been old seeds, but they wouldn’t have taken had that been the case I suppose……ds hasn’t had any success with them either though 😏
As usual you are very organised with the finances 👍

marionmgcars

snap, spent an hour sorting finances and paying off card out of different pots.  Two weeks into month and food and petrol budget spent.  Freezers full & petrol tank full so fresh food spends out of my personal money for next two weeks.  Definitely noticing that I don’t get as much food for our money.  Onwards and upwards for good meal planning to come.  

foxgloves

@milann - If they weren't in a commercial seed packet, it's possible they might have been saved seeds. I do save flower seed & sometimes beans, but you can find the overall quality can be more variable. 

@marionmgcars - Yes, I'm an utter convert to meal planning, which I've now been doing for a few years. It all starts there, doesn't it? If grocery budget is looking a bit (or very) low, then there's zero point planning steak, salmon & prawns. I think we are much more likely to 'cut our coat according to our cloth' if necessary frugalities kick in at the meal planning stage.
F

foxgloves

Morning Campers, 
🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 
F x

Four_Seasons

Hi,  thank you Foxgloves and sun addict,  we are so very grateful to the. Air ambulance in Cornwall for their amazing care. No rain here still hoping we might get some the farm desperately needs a drenching. 
Have a lovely day everyone x

foxgloves

No rain here either, @Four_Seasons, so if you see any your way, can you please send it in a westerly direction a little over the county boundary, where this gardener for one, will be gratefully waiting!
F

P.S Agree re air ambulance. They do a fantastic job. Hope you daughter is taking things easy.

foxgloves

Greetings from Tomato Land,
At 8.30 this morning, I was out in the garden Doing Stuff With Tomatoes. It's now approaching 3pm & I am still at it, although my efforts have moved indoors. I've side-shooted & tied in all 19 plants, done some leafing (my first job was during tomato season on a land settlement aged 15 & I thought this was by far the worst task) & picked all the ripe fruits. I've skinned & prepped 3kgs of them - some to use in tonight's tamale pie, a container in the fridge ready for the slow cooker black bean chilli I'm making on Thursday & the remaining 2 kg into the cauldron with other ingredients for a double batch of smoky tomato chutney from Joanna' Farrow's GH preserving book - well worth looking for next time any would-be preservers are perusing the cookery shelves at the library. It's still simmering & smelling lush. I will be bottling it pretty soon after I've finished chatting on here.
In non-tomato news, I've strained & bottled the rhubarb & ginger shrub I made last week & done a survey for £5. 
Still not even a single drip of rain - very disappointing, as it did look as though the showers would pass over us when I looked at the BBC weather map this morning. It's a little bit cooler though, which is good as I find very hot temperatures uncomfortable & tiring.
Well, I must get my warmed jars out of the oven & give the chutney pan a final blast before bottling it. Then, apart from washing my hair & making dinner later, I intend to do nothing else apart from retiring to my new bench area with my book.
Hope at least a few of you are getting some rain.
F x

foxgloves

I spoke too soon! Just popped down to shut the shed in what I can only describe as an absolute deluge, & am now wrapped in a bath towel because my hair & dress are soaking wet! There was a standing sheet of water on our lawn as it is too parched to take up that amount of rain quickly. I bet the beans & squashes are smiling!
F x

Four_Seasons

We are still waiting, just had a handful of spots and thats it!!  x