Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

Suffolk_lass

I do exactly the same as you, @KajiKita with buying and not planting. We have two places where we have ground elder and I keep digging and killing and not replanting one of the places, in the (perhaps futile) hope of clearing it. I want to restore a lovely cottage garden here but just not making the progress I need to. 

KajiKita

Suffolk_lass said:

I do exactly the same as you, @KajiKita with buying and not planting. We have two places where we have ground elder and I keep digging and killing and not replanting one of the places, in the (perhaps futile) hope of clearing it. I want to restore a lovely cottage garden here but just not making the progress I need to. 

Argh ..... I feel your pain!!  Sooo frustrating isn't it. I'm guessing you don't want to use weedkiller?

Could you cover it with membrane or similar and bark for a few years to starve it of light and put some pots on the area in the meantime so at least it looks tidy and you aren't never-endingly weeding it?  

Suffolk_lass

We did spray once but we keep bees and they were here at the time, so trying other things. Amazingly a few things survived the spray and also loads of poppies came up with the demise of other plants. I may give it one more go as it seems to be concentrated in one area. The second area I suspect I spread it to, moving some Red Valerian and oriental poppies. I need to dig that out before it spreads further

KajiKita

I have a fair few of MSE type plans / actions to do, so I think it would be good if I pulled them all together here:

1. Vegan ingredients / foods over and above weekly grocery shop:
- Make list of what I use - chilled & store cupboard
- Google alternative names for them e.g. my last bag of farro wheat turned up labelled as 'wheat grain'
- research online and shop costs (e.g. H&B, MrS, MrT, other sites i will google - see next point)
- ask in my vegan FB groups where they buy their 'obscure' items
- do a (discreet!) price comparison v. research above in my local health food shop

This is going to take a while to complete but it's one of my biggest spends so worth the effort I hope.

2. Making existing food go further:
- Dig out steamer for cooking veggies again for more flavour & nutrients - never really got the hang of this before but I want to try again
- Try some of the recipes / overall approach to creating meals from 'what's left' that I have been learning from @redofromstart's posts  Proper inspiring!  The one challenge is when in the week to do this .... we usually have a shop delivered on a Friday evening ready for batch cooking on the weekend. I suppose, as part of my 'check the cupboards for what we need' routine on a Thursday I could identify things that need using up in a meal on the Friday evening or even Saturday ....? This will take some trial and error I think. 
- Freezer audit / list, plan meals and shopping to these lists (meat based one for hubby, vegan one for me). 

3. Earning more money on the side:
- Research paid survey sites
- Research cash-back sites
- Look at Ziffit or similar for all the books that are surfacing as 'not essential / life enriching' that are surfacing as I rearrange declutter the book cases, surfaces, floors etc etc   (Spendthrift?! Me?? used to be ....!!  )
- Claim my fuel expenses back for December - just sent off to my boss for authorisation, £17.33, sweep that into savings and record, happily, on my spread sheet 

KK

KajiKita

Suffolk_lass said:

We did spray once but we keep bees and they were here at the time, so trying other things. Amazingly a few things survived the spray and also loads of poppies came up with the demise of other plants. I may give it one more go as it seems to be concentrated in one area. The second area I suspect I spread it to, moving some Red Valerian and oriental poppies. I need to dig that out before it spreads further

Awwww ... for the bees ....  I grew up with them as my dad keeps them. We'd like to have them where we are but I don't think I can find a clear flight line for them that won't interfere with us or the neighbours .... <keeps dreaming>

Ah, yes, the dreaded 'spread' .... what the woman who lived here before us did with Japanese Knotweed, so we have it in two locations in our garden not just one .... sigh ....

themadvix

Aah, but you can eat the shoots of Japanese knotweed! Apparently very tasty, according to my Forest Gardening book, although presumably only cooked as they contain high levels of oxalic acid - same family as rhubarb. Probably best not to eat if it's been sprayed though.

On the paid survey sites, Prolific is the best, I think most here would agree.

KajiKita

Thanks @themadvix - prolific is the one I keep seeing references to - I shall google .... 

KK

KajiKita

There's a waitlist for Prolific but I am signed up to that now ....

themadvix

There's a waitlist? Wow, I had no idea! Sign of the times maybe.

Onepoll is good for filling in five mins (short surveys, 10-20p most of the time) - and they have an app (cashout at £25). Yougov takes a long time (£50 cashout), but they don't waste your time with disqualifications. Some, including me, also like Populous (also £50). If you can find an invite for Pinecone, they are great, but very hard to come by.

fannyadams

Now that the 'MySupermarket' comparison site is no longer going, I have been using
https://shelfscraper.herokuapp.com/
It's very basic and only does one item at a time and you need to know how to spell it (I struggle with Aunt Bessie's), but it does compare some of the supermarkets most of the time.