The thriftyish way to debt freedom

Kakiste

What colour is your chicken coop?
I had soup planned for dinner but ended up going to our friends - husband was needed to help fix the decking and they ended up feeding us lasagne!

thriftyish

@Kakiste That's the best kind of deal, help in return for delicious food - and the best bit is skipping the cooking and tidying up! 
Its a grey colour - we bought the paint when supply & choice was limited but I really like it! I need to paint the run before DH fixes the chicken wire on, then its almost finished. They are old enough to explore outside for a short time when the weather is warm (the chicks, not the kids ), so when the run is made I can lock them in there safely and let them enjoy the grass. (I wish I meant the kids!)

In other exciting news.
- I've also been invited to join the Niels3n shopping scan panel, I should receive my welcome pack in 10 days.
- The strimmer did limp into action, and the garden looks much better, I need to watch a few videos and see if replacing the primer pump is an easy job. Starting the strimmer with a broken primer pump is not an easy job.
- The air fryer roasted potatoes are amazing
- We had another fire to clear some more wood, and I sat and read the children some more famous five, 3 books down - 1023 to go. It's really nice to find something that all the children want to do together. Although DS keeps getting mildly frustrated that DD1 keeps falling asleep and missing bits, then needing explanations, and DD2 & DD3 like asking questions and chatting mid-book, interrupting the story.
- I'm considering parenting Enid Blyton style, does anyone know of a small island where I can send my four children and dog for a week?

Baileys_Babe

We each have a couple of sets of thermals. I usually buy them in Aldi or Lidl when they do their winter bargains.

We also have ski jackets, trousers and snow boots from there. Which we used a lot when the children were younger as we had quite a few years with good snow days. We made the most of it wrapping up warmly and going out to build snowmen, have snowball fights, sledge or find animal tracks, then back home for warming cocoa. Their cousins lived in walking distance and are also home educated so there was always someone to play with even if the roads were so bad people couldn't drive to join in the fun. We have only been dry slope skiing.
We have also used our ski wear to keep warm and dry on trips to the play park on winter days.

MagicCat

I'd never heard of a ninja foodi, had assumed it was some sort of blender so looked it up and now have major gadget envy

I've got an instant pot type thing that pressure cooks and slow cooks which is extremely useful, but one that fries too is amazing, looks a great buy!

thriftyish

I am going to keep an eye out on the bay of ee, and lookout for the special buys for thermals - thanks @Baileys_Babe I definitely want to get out more in winter with the kids this year, now they are all a bit older! 

I was always a bit apprehensive about gadgets @MagicCat, I went through a minimalist phase a few years ago and got rid of everything that wasn't used regularly, we only kept the slow cooker & a hand mixer, we didn't have anything else gadget wise. In the last 18 months, we have added a stand mixer, a Nutri-bull£t blender and this - but we do use everything at least 3-4 times a week and I guess that's what's important? The multi-function sold it in the end, I had been reading about the instant-pot on a money-saving blog and wanted one to try and DH had been talking about preserving with a dehydrator. We cooked rice in the instant pot function tonight and it was super easy - just need to get the water balance right as I should have added more and the rice at the bottom was slightly overcooked! What kind of things do you make in the instant pot?

Food Yesterday 
I had leftover Sunday roast dinner which has to be one of the best things in life. A full cooked dinner that's ready in 5 minutes, without any work. Its the stuff dreams are made of! If I could get away with it, I would make enough meals to last me a week. The kids had sandwiches, salad, fruit and raspberries. The little two were still eating 40 mins after everyone else had finished and managed to clear 2 salad bowls, a full punnet of raspberries, the rest of the pack of ham and the leftover cheese. 

Dinner was gnocchi from the tgtg box, which we have never had before and I had to ask in my family whatsapp group how to cook and what to serve with! In the end we had it boiled, with hm pesto, feta and almonds. It probably won't be on the meal plan again unless it's reduced, but it was really nice!

Today
Dinner was peanut butter or cheese spread sandwiches, with fruit and a side salad. Tea was hm sweet and sour chicken with (tiny portion) leftover chicken and some sweet peppers from the L1dl box. I managed two L1dl boxes yesterday, whooo!

I bought two bunches of bananas yesterday, all of which were gone by dinnertime today.

Food budget: £91.74 so far. Might need more bread and milk before Friday, hoping to stay below £50 a week.

Allotment
Squash mountain is looking rather full. This photo was taken last week, but it's now almost completely covered the paths both sides and it's climbing along the back fence and into the sweetcorn and sunflowers either side - I am trying to stop it invading my neighbour's plot. I've just harvested about 7 mini pumpkins, a giant courgette, and two other mystery squash - so my target for tonight is to find out what the mystery squash is by looking back through seed orders.

DH took the kids to the park while I weeded. They all helped harvest and carry the things home, I daren't risk the park during the day and we desperately needed to get out for our sanity, it was a lovely evening even though we didn't get home till past 9 pm!

More sowing
I have now sown another 4 rows of french green beans, and have a list of things to think about sowing in the next few weeks. I am thinking: spinach, winter lettuce, chard, cauliflower, beetroot, spring cabbage and maybe some more basil to try and make some more pesto. Its the first time I have (successfully) grown sprouts and broccoli before and I am really impressed with them so far. Now I have said that the pigeons will descend tonight and eat everything!

Smaller beds
The beds I made this year are far too big, and I am finding myself walking on the soil to do the weeding, so I am slowly working down the plot as things are harvested, trying to make the beds and paths smaller and more manageable. It feels a bit odd in places because I have to wait for things to be harvested before other things can move.

Allotment purchases
I have almost used the last of the shop-bought bay leaves, and have just bought some bay seeds to try and grow my own bay tree for the allotment and garden. I find I am using a lot of bay leaves now so hopefully, if they grow, it will save some money in the long run.
I have also ordered some comfrey seeds - and although I think its technically a weed , I am hoping to make my own fertiliser next year - organic and free, perfect! I've also spotted a huge bunch of nettles I plan to harvest on our allotment path to make some nettle tea fertiliser too at the weekend.

The bay of ee addict
I feel a bit like my spending has been a bit out of control on the bay recently. But I have almost bought most of our winter coats, some xmas presents & shoes/wellies. I am over the clothes budget this month but I shouldn't need to buy much else before I buy the usually Xmas stuff (underwear, socks for the stockings, jumper if needed for jumper day and a nice Xmas outfit) 

Surveys
I've done a few more pr0lific surveys, but only for pence. I need to go through my emails and catch up. 

Washing
I made some washing gloop, to see if it was worth making to save money. I used the recipe from the notjustgreenfingers blog and will see if it works over the next few days. DH mentioned again he misses fabric conditioner, so that might have to be one of the compromises we make. if anyone knows what's nice smelling and cheap I would love recommendations.

More veggie meals
I asked what he thought to all the different meals we had been trying recently, and he's a-ok with food, which has been the biggest change for him and the kids. I was wondering if he had noticed we have upped our veggie meals, we have gone from 1 veggie meal a week (if that!) to 2-3 veggie meals. Last year we went veggie for August and DH absolutely hated it. I want to live more sustainably and reduce our meat intake, so I am happy to carry on and not mention anything 

Happy debt busting!

f0xh0les

Shhhh! on the meat  reduction plans.   A fait accompli is better than dug in heels.

If it is the smell of fabric conditioner he misses, zoflora could be the solution - literally 2  drops in the dispenser will scent the whole wash, and there are lots of smells to choose from. Even one called clean linen or somesuch.  I do not like fabric conditioner, I think it feels sticky iykwim, well, it feels sticky to me.  I suppose you could just buy a bottle and water it down and use it sparingly. He seems to be mentioning it quite a bit.  Or maybe he just wants a new smell.  Boy-perfume time!  

Aldi tend to do thermals coming into Autumn if the Bay of E does not yield fish.

thriftyish

@f0xh0les He's worried that he smells at work. He works in ICT so not exactly an active job and partly due to COVID he is choosing to spend most of his time at work at the desk in his server room which is airconditioned at 16 degrees. I think that's same motive as the lyynx obsession. I had no idea that people should be close enough to smell the Eau de fabric conditioner, though someone walked past me in the street last week and I could smell fabric conditioner. Maybe it's the new perfume? 

He smells of himself, but never bad (and I have a sensitive nose!). I will try the zoflora & maybe buy some conditioner for his washing (though I am not sure I will be inclined to sort the washing out to just his pile, we are already like a laundrette) He usually chooses not to wear aftershave, I will  offer that as a solution and buy some he likes (if he decides he doesn't like any of the zillions of Av0n stuff in the cupboard from SIL & MIL)

I like a good fait accompli! - I honestly don't think he's realised 

f0xh0les

Well, if you want a woman you have never met before to suddenly gives you flowers (in your server room) he might want to be wearing impulse.   He must have smelled other people's fabric softener - that is another reason I don't like it, it smells like it is trying to hide something.  I get suspicious when I smell Febreeze.

thriftyish

  I don't think he would know what to do with himself if someone ran up to him with a bunch of flowers! At first, I really missed the smell but I can't say it makes a difference to me now, but I don't like the ones that smell really strongly. We stopped using mostly to be more eco-friendly, and reduce the chemicals in our house, the money-saving was an added extra! When you think about it, it is a little odd that we are engineering chemical fragrances that cling to our clothes in the wash. I have tried to add scent before with essential oils and found it almost impossible. Fabric conditioners were really only developed in the early 1900s to soften clothes after a harsh dying process, and now its a culturally accepted thing that people do automatically. I would love to know the % of households that do not use fabric softener in the UK.

Kakiste

Ive never used it. I was too naive about how to run a house for years to know what it was and then savvy enough to realise that if I hadn't used it in 7-8 years then clearly it wasn't a necessity!