Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

marionmgcars

good to have you back FG.  I’ve been productive this morning making beetroot chutney .  I cheated and used ready cooked beetroot, to go along with some apples I was gifted on Olio.  Also collected lettuce, mini cucumbers, bananas (for banana bread) and lots of veg & bag of potatoes.  That will supplement our food supply this week.  

Lots of laundry done today, and the sun is just starting to shine 👍
Leftovers from last nights meal for tea tonight, so time for a knitting hour before we eat.  

Not a no spend day, as I noticed someone had a discount on sock pattern I wanted to support, so treat myself to that.  The designers are lovely ladies who donate lots of their income to charities.  

Less_Talk_and_More_Action

I feel the same as you @foxgloves.  I have the same birthday in a year as I am 59 next week.  I had the experience of losing my only sister 2 years ago.  She had a brain tumour.  I see how close you are with your sister and it reminds me of mine to be honest, but in lots of good ways as well as with sadness.  It seems a cliche but I feel that every year is a privilege.  I am now older than she was when she died so I'm not too worried at hitting another decade - looking forward to it to be honest.  It will bring retirement for me at some point - as yet undecided as I love my job - and lots of other opportunities I'm sure.  Mr L is already retired but that works well (a bit like you and Mr F in reverse - he took redundancy and took over the house - it definitely reflects our respective skills).

L x 

PennysIntoPounds

Am now picturing your car in a cafè sipping a coffee and telling a pal 'the stress I've been having!'

Looking forward to hearing what you decide for the trellis

foxgloves

@marionmgcars - That was a good haul on the Olio!
@PennysIntoPounds - Well, the car had its first appointment today & there was some good news, which I will include in today's diary update.

@Less_Talk_and_More_Action - Yes, I can understand that losing your sister has made you regard getting older as a privilege she wasn't able to enjoy. I only have 1 sister & would miss her enormously if anything happened to her, even though we live a long distance apart & don't see each other often. We are a very small family. Our parents are no longer with us & Mr F & I don't have children. My sister has 2 boys so I do have nephews, whom I love to see. I have no cousins, as both my parents had no siblings. Re the privilege of getting older being denied to people we care about. I lost a dear friend at the age of 52. We'd known each other since university, met up regularly, as well as writing letters monthly. Her birthday was exactly 1 month to the exact day after mine, so we always joked about me hitting the big landmark birthdays first......until we didn't. She sadly died, so I reached the grand old age of 53 & she didn't follow with her birthday. She didn't have cancer or meet with an accident, she simply came home from work feeling ill, went to bed & didn't wake up again. So I do see where you are coming from, in that it doesn't behove one to fret about being 60 when people like my lovely, funny friend, who was (unlike me), a keen walker & twice-weekly gym-goer, didn't get to have the chance to make it to the same landmark. Difficult as it sometimes is, we don't know what's round the corner & should try to make the most of every day.
F x

foxgloves

Well, after a lovely week away on the coast for my birthday & the bank holiday weekend, it was time for Mr F to return to work this morning. Neither of us awoke feeling particularly bright-eyed & bushy tailed thanks to Soot's nocturnal shenanigans which resulted in me being out in the garden in my nightie at 2.20 & again 10 minus later! He has got around his own lack of sleep by snoozing in an armchair all bloody day whereas Mr F had to have an early start & I had got a lot more planned than I've actually done, grrrr.
Anyway, that's a digression, so onto today's small budget-helping things:
*Not quite as much ironing as anticipated so it wasn't plugged in for all that long. 3 garments went straight into my winter clothes storage bag so pointless ironing those, & there were 3 of Mr F's cruddy gardening items which don't need pressing either. 
*Did belated Monday morning budget updates & it was good to see that we were just a little under target for Week 2's grocery shopping. Hope it continues for Weeks 3 to 5!
*Good car news first thing! Mr F called in at the garage as arranged for them to remove the locked info-tainment screen & send it off to Milton Keynes where we were told it would defo have to go to be unlocked & re-set. However, when he got to the garage, they had procured some info from the MK end of things & 'tried something', which unlocked the screen without it having to be removed & sent off. The best thing was that the quote on the MK solution was £120, but the garage staff in a neighbouring town did it for free. As I had already put the money aside, I was delighted to be able to reallocate it to the Clothes, Presents & Leisure/Entertainment Pots.
*Free fitness session trying out a 'Get fit with Rick' walking video. Spent most of it feeling glad I wasn't wherever he was, as it looked terribly hot! Didn't get puffed out. Either I am slightly less shockingly unfit than I think I am or I didn't put in sufficient effort. It was only 15 minutes. I felt I probably required 30, but will do this one for another fortnight or so to see how I feel giving it a bit more welly.
*Did a few surveys. 
*Sorted out the triffid rhubarb as I could see it had developed a problem. Delved right underneath & discovered that with all the rain we have had over the past few months, there has been rotting & as stems have gone soggy, they have flopped down onto & around the crown & caused a general rhubarby sludginess. Cleared that away & composted, then harvested plenty of good stems......
*Made a base for a large rhubarb crumble for the freezer - I think we are due a nephews visit over summer so it will make a good dessert with some nice ice-cream. Another kg macerating in sugar with root ginger ready to make rhubarb & ginger gin. 
*More sleeve knitting.
*Made tomorrow's packed breakfast & lunch.
Right, time to get myself moving.
F x

Sun_Addict

Rick lives in Dubai. He likes the sound of his own voice doesn’t he 🤣

Good news about the screen being unlocked without having to send it away and paying for it. 

Makingabobor2

That was very sad about your friend, even though a long time ago. Was it a brain bleed? Someone we knew collapsed in our garden 2yrs ago, suffered a brain bleed at age 47 & passed away, despite DH's & the neighbours efforts at CPR. Certainly puts your life in perspective. 

foxgloves

@Makingabobor2 - No, it was an infection. V sad.
F

themadvix

Thanks for the reminder - I must bottle my rhubarb and ginger vodka. (Have a feeling I said similar on someone else’s thread recently but still haven’t done it!)

foxgloves

Hello Sunbeams,
Fab sunshine here today, but well within my heat tolerance. Have been generally busy pottering about  - today's money saving bits & pieces as follows:
*Added gin to overnight macerated rhubarb/sugar/ginger mix. Was 100ml short of the amount required for recipe, so instead of buying another bottle of much cheaper own-label (but still £15), I made up the difference with 100ml of my gin of choice. I shall doubtless be drinking plenty of the finished product. It will also provide a couple of presents as I've saved some small bottles.
*Started meals plans for next week, just need to get Mr F's input for his cooking nights.
*Started shopping list for town on Saturday.
*Did veg maintenance - watering mostly today as well as standing the outdoor tomatoes outside again. Some of them are already in bud. They are desperate to go outside, but I am giving them a little longer while I assess any ill effects on the couple which have been left out overnight since the weekend (like those poor canaries down the mines).
*Didn't fancy stepping with Rick this morning, so today's fitness has pretty much just been endless trips up & down the garden & a decent weeding session.
*Planted out another 2 trays of summer bedding. Hardened off & has survived a couple of frosts so I'm going for it as they (nemophilia 5-spot) are well ready to come out of their modules now.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Knitted a few more rows of sleeve & will get more done tonight while watching TV.
*A good often-used use-it-up recipe tonight - tamale pie. Feeds 2 people well on just 100g mince. I have chopped peppers in the freezer, half a tin of leftover cannellini beans, some of our home grown bottled tomatoes, other veg from stores & the cornbread topping is all store cupboard ingredients plus a tiny bit of milk & an egg. A Patrick Holford recipe - but much adapted with whatever veg I have to hand & have also made with lamb mince & quorn mince. Mr F has requested shredded spring greens stir-fried with garlic with his, which is just as well, as there are plenty of them for using up & that's what he was getting anyway!
*Did a couple of surveys, but not spending long on those today as have another job to do in the garden. My May PA earnings are currently at £28-11 (largely because I cashed out pre-holiday) so I am thinking I ought to meet my monthly target of £40.
And.....that garden job I'm just off to do is to plant out some autumn-sown hollyhocks, which were grown from saved seed, so that's defo a saving on buying a similar 5 from a garden centre.
Not money saving, but if I type it out, I will hopefully remember it.......it is cat flea treatment night, so we will doubtless be ignored until at least tomorrow morning.
Take care all,
F x