Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

themadvix

@Suffolk_lass, speaking from the experience I of being the owner of a plastic-muncher, it can definitely make them throw up - always a relief to see it come out though, one way or another!

Glad Ash seems to be much better - it’s such a worry when they are ill.

foxgloves

Well, I'm glad I decided to bump my mid-month budget check-in till tomorrow morning, as I have made useful inroads into gluts with a bit of kitchen witchery. Today's money savings positives as follows:
*Made rhubarb & ginger jam.
*Made more courgette fritters, batched in 3s & froze for Mr F's packed lunches (I should add that there was no visible difference to the veg basket after I'd done this....recipe takes 450g of courgettes, but basket still overflowing with the fiends.
*Used up 200g last year's jalapeno chilli crop (in freezer) by adapting a recipe for sweet chilli sauce & making a green jalapeno version instead. I like it. If Mr F likes it, which he almost certainly will, I might make another batch as could do with freeing up space in the freezer chilli bag for this year's crop.
*Sorted out my tin of preserving bits & pieces as couldn't get the lid on properly. I was given a big pile of labels, jar toppers from a friend which I have now integrated into my existing stocks so it's much easier to see what I've got. I shouldn't need to buy any more cellophanes, waxed circles, labels or similar this year.
*Also in above tin....half a dozen upmarket-looking card luggage-type labels which I shan't use on my preserves, so I have purloined them for labelling the socks which I have made/am making for the presents bag. I like to handwrite a label with laundering instructions, fibre content, etc, when I am wrapping my hand-knitted socks, so these will be perfect & as it's a shopping from home item, I shan't need to buy any.
*Jacket potato night tonight so 2 containers out of the freezer (trying to free up space for new stuff going in). I am having a spare portion of quorn curry & Mr F is making ManStew.
*Did a little more knitting for the presents bag over lunch.
*Did a couple of bits of financial admin.
*Ditto a couple of surveys.
*Will try to crochet the last 5 cat blanket squares required this evening. I haven't bought even a scrap of yarn for this project & hopefully I will have sufficient leftover to make the 2nd one.
*The free pod thingy from our internet provider arrived today. If it results in us being able to get internet in the conservatory (which is our dining room), it will be so useful, esp for wfh as that is where our big table is. Will report back, as if it is successful, then it will have saved us the cost of buying some sort of wifi extender gizmo.
NOT money saving - Mr F phoned to book Ash in for his follow-up appointment next week & to settle the vet bill, which was just shy of £340. I will definitely be visiting the pet insurance claims process after next week's appointment. We do have a Meow Fund which will cover the portion of it we need to pay ourselves. Having said that, the beasticle in question seems to be feeling better. He is very much back onto his food, his breathing is much more normal & the wheezy coughs seem to have stopped.
By the way, @CRANKY40, we too used to have a cat who could do fake coughs. He would do them when his begging for extra or early food had failed. He would emit little faint feeble meows as though he was about to fade away from starvation, then step up the performance by adding in some truly pathetic weak consumptive-sounding coughs. This drama would stop instantly food appeared when suddenly the cough would vanish & meows would return straight to their normal robustness & volume. He was a beautiful & charming cat, but as Mr F put it, he had the mind of a criminal genius.
Can't believe it's after 4pm already. I think I will go & get a bit of sunshine outside on the bench with my book.
Bye for now,
F

foxgloves

@EssexHebridean - Forgot to say.....what a good find those plum trees were! I expect you will be revisiting those, especially as you will be living so close. I grew up in the fenland county & we used to buy fab boxes of plums & damsons which a local orchard owner (known for miles around as 'the plum lady') would sell from the back of a van in a lay-by. My Mum & Dad always used to buy me a box when they visited me around plum season, right up until Dad was no longer able to drive. When my Mum was in palliative care, & was starting not to know who we were, she still had a full conversation with me about plums! She didn't know what day of the week it was, but somehow, she did know it was plum season & wanted to know if I'd got any. Mum avoided cooking whenever possible, but she taught me to make jam when I was about 12 & I have been making it ever since! I am going to look for some nice Victorias to make some plum jam next time I go to our local market. I love plum jam in a sponge cake to which a tsp of almond extract has been added - so nice with coffee.
F

foxgloves

Ooooh, the free pod-thingy from our broadband provider seems to work! It has been plugged into a socket in our back lobby (between the kitchen & conservatory dining room) & I have been testing out various internet searches, emails, accessing my MSE diary, etc, & have had a very good signal. If it keeps up the good work, that is money saved as we will not need to buy a wi-fi extender.
F

kayannie

@foxgloves. I really envy you your glut of rhubarb & courgettes. Since moving from the fertile soil of the English/Welsh border to the north Wales coast, neither of these will grow in our sandy, stoney soil. I used to make rhubarb & ginger jam every year. I also make courgette fritters (supermarket courgettes nowadays though), & always make extra to freeze as they make a quick lunchtime snack, reheated & put in a bread roll with some home-made pickle. I am missing the plum & damson trees too, there were plenty to forage from in the area surrounding our old home. Looking on the bright side though, we have a lovely beach within walking distance, & I am happily foraging for samphire from the nearby salt marsh. Blackberries grow well here too, & I discovered a gooseberry bush growing wild in a hedgerow while out walking.
KA

ladyholly

My courgettes have been a total disaster. The flower grow but then nothing. If anyone has words of wisdom please let me know.

Kantankrus_Mare

Cant help with the growing of courgettes. I just stick mine in the ground, water well and then cant give the bu**ers away when they all come at once.
Have been picking brambles here and had the obligatory crumble but have found another use. I made a compote and layered them with home made granola and greek yogurt. Delicious! So as brambles are everywhere on the allotments, guess what I will be picking to freeze to use through the winter. Also looked up what nutrients brambles have and was surprised to see them as some kind of superfood with lots of benefits. Win Win!!
Pleased ash is ok Foxgloves....isnt it awful when your pets arent well? We have had our own pet scare the last few weeks. We rescued a Beagle in December last year. Very lively and gets us out walking. She really scared us though when she bacame lethargic, wouldnt eat, do her business and had tremors a few weeks ago. After several vet visits and a Sunday morning emergency call out, it was revealed that she had meningitis which she had when she was younger. Two nights on a drip at the vets and steroid treatment has returned her to full vitality with a raging hunger. We are insured but as its a pre existing condition not sure if the insurance will pay anything out so we are looking at a £900+ bill . Back at vets tomorrow to hopefully lower the steroids. Great to see her back to normal though.
Todays job......do something with the mounds of raspberries I have sitting in the fridge.

Suffolk_lass

ladyholly said:

My courgettes have been a total disaster. The flower grow but then nothing. If anyone has words of wisdom please let me know.

@ladyholly I find they usually get going after an initial spurt of male flowers (the thin stalks). It can mean they are not getting pollinated so maybe remove some of the underneath yellowing/browning leaf stalks. It's a funny year for them here with all the wet and by snipping off some leaves the plants will "leak" some of its' stored water and be persuaded to reproduce by fruiting. However, it's really strange here as my yellow ones are coming from what look like male flowers and are thin and a bit less plump than normal. And very late to get going thanks to a cold wet year, unlike @foxgloves bumper crop. I also may have duff compost as everything stalled after planting out in June, almost as though it was March!

foxgloves

@kayannie - That sounds like tricky soil. I suppose a few choice vegetable or fruit plants in containers would be a way forward? I think that's what I'd do, but I would be making plenty of compost to try & offset the cost of filling large pots/troughs.
@Kantankrus_Mare - Sorry to hear you have had a poorly dog. Yes, it is such a worry, isn't it. It's that thing of them not being able to tell you & you having to figure it out through observation, kind of knowing what is normal for your animal. I was quite assertive re getting Ash seen on Sunday afternoon & secured the last appointment of the day & the first thing I said to the vet was that I really hoped we weren't just being over-anxious owners, but she listened to his lungs & said we had done exactly the right thing. 
@ladyholly - I think (much like @Suffolk_lass) that there are probably 2 possibilities re your courgettes. First, that the flowers are currently all male ones - they tend to appear first on stalks with no sign of any little swelling fruits behind them OR they are for some reason simply not getting pollinated. I wish you weren't so far away or I'd drop you a bundle of them off. We are inundated. I have had experience of the problem you describe though, mostly with the yellow varieties & not for a long time, but it is frustrating when it does happen. 
@suffolk_lass - Thanks for mentioning 'duff compost'. I had every intention of contacting the compost company from whom we bought ours & asking why transplant shock is so much greater with peat-free. I still haven't done this so will add it to the list.
F

foxgloves

Hello Wednesday Pence Wranglers,
I intended to sit outside this afternoon & crochet together the squares for my cat blanket, but I have only just had my bum in a chair this last 10 mins & an hour for lunch. Didn't feel I'd done much, but when I started thinking about it, it actually hasn't been too shabby a day. Small positive money saving wins:
*Did my mid-month budget check-in. Am £7.15 down on what I thought we should have, but that's a fairly specific amount & sounds like a small overlooked transaction. I'm not going to faff around on the forensics of that. All otherwise ok.
*Picked a week's worth of meals from our August master meal plan, then tweaked to add in the customary (at this time of year) WW lamb & marrow bake to use a mammoth courgette.
*Wrote grocery shopping list. 
*Did a few surveys
*Bath & hairwash - I include this only because I was able to continue with several last little bits of 'use-it-up' products, which I am determined to do, inc cutting tubes open, before I open new stuff.
*Today's veg pickings: Courgettes, blackberries, 1.2kg french beans
*Dealt with the above.....2 portions of beans into fridge to eat with tomorrow's meal & 3 containers prepped, blanched & frozen. Blackberries have had to go into a bigger box as they are ripening well now. 
*Did triage of courgettes - 2 tromboncino sliced up for wokking tonight as a side veg, a small one diced to add to the tamale pie I will shortly be making & another one grated, wrung out in a tea towel & used in a batch of courgette & cheese muffins, currently cooling on rack & smelling rather inviting.
*Made tomorrow's packed breakfast. No need to make lunch as apparently leftover ManStew has been set aside for this purpose.
*Took advantage of the sunny weather to wash a load of towels & kitchen linens along with a dress I might want to wear at the weekend if it's hot. I love free line-drying & fetching in clean laundry which is still warm from the sun.
No more jobs for me today apart from making aforementioned tamale pie & washing up. Mr F has volunteered for veg watering tonight as he's been in the office all day & says it will sort his head out. That's fine by me as I shall whizz through the dishes & finally get onto joining my crochet squares to see what my freebie stash project looks like.
Right, I'm off to chop some shallots. Hope everyone has managed a decent day. If not, there's always tomorrow to start things again.
F x
Oh, just to mention the sweet jalapeno chilli sauce I made yesterday - Mr F loves it! I adapted it from another recipe, sort of hoping it would come out like one we bought from a chilli festival years ago, which we really liked. We both agree it is a great use-up of last year's remaining chilli crop to make space in the freezer for this year's, so I aim to make another batch probably this week.