Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Sun_Addict

I have just started the Charlotte Slater book. Enjoying it so far. 

sarah_diamond

I've just placed a hold on the Charlotte Salter book from the library.... it sounds intriguing, not my usual type of book but interested to see what it's like!

foxgloves

@sarah_diamond - Hello, & welcome! I hope you like the book, if not, well you will have borrowed it from the library & not spent money on buying it. I enjoyed it because I like trying to solve mysteries & the short chapters gave a sense of urgency which kept me turning the pages. I often borrow books from the library first to see if I want to buy them myself, & I find this works particularly well with subjects like cookery & health books. It gives me a chance to see if I am likely to make a good proportion of the recipes, rather than just buy the book on impulse, as I would have done back in the Spendy Years.
F

foxgloves

@Makingabobor2 - Re your question about bread making/oven.....no, not really. The bread has to be the priority as once it has finished its 2nd proving, then it needs to go into the oven & can't wait around for something else to be ready or it risks collapsing through over-proving. So I suppose I do it the other way around. If I know I am going to be baking bread, I might decide to bake something else, but I wouldn't do that if it wasn't planned baking. I start my bread in a no. 7 oven, then turn it down to 6.5, so that is quite hot for a lot of stuff I might want to bake. I did try to synchronise baking a standard loaf & a sourdough simultaneously on a few occasions, but it was too much faff as they have different proving times, with sourdough being a lot more dependent on conditions & vigour of that particular portion of starter. 
I think the best way for me to save money on gas costs would be to buy another large loaf tin & bake 2 ordinary standard loaves together side by side, then freeze one so as not to need the oven for it again the following week. I started doing this, but you can guess what stymied me......yep, freezer space! So I have to say this isn't something I worry about hugely. I suppose I have mentally filed it under 'Could do better, but not too bothered!'
F

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
I intended to type this post much earlier, but got side-tracked in the garden testing out my newly arrived grabber on various weeds. Half a trugful later, I remembered I was supposed to be chatting to you!
Quite a useful day. Mr F has so far pinged me 3 times from Waitbl00m so I know he's checking prices, lol. He is hoping to be able to use a couple of money-off vouchers, including one for coffee, but he says customers of this particular shop just clear the shelves like gannets when there's an offer on, so it remains to be seen if he was successful.
Anyway, today's small budget-helping activities:
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Garden pickings: 2 bunches of grapes, basil, lettuce, an aubergine & spring onions.
*Started off a batch of blackberry vinegar.
*Tweaked meal plans for tonight. Was supposed to be pesto pasta but the pesto will be quite happy in the freezer while I have loads of homegrown produce to use, so I have made a veggie pasta bake instead, which I've topped with cheese & just needs to go in the oven later. I think I am going to do the same tomorrow & bump our planned Friday meal so I can make something which uses up plenty of our vegetables while they are nice & fresh. It will save money because every bumped meal will be a 'free' one on a future week's meal plan.
*Had to wait in for parcel so cracked on with my recipe file cull & copying more of the definite 'keepers' into new notebook. I've enjoyed doing this, as very relaxing, but also found myself discovering old favourites we haven't had for ages, some of which are pretty economical.
*A good day for surveys - managed to boost my Aug PA total by over £25. 
*Am now going to knit a few rows of Mr F's socks for the presents stash before he arrives home. Once we roll into September, I must unpack the presents stash & make a list of exactly what is in there, as I suspect there may be a bit more than I think. Hope so!
Ah well, that's my day. I think I shall file it under 'perfectly pleasant but unexciting'. Am happy with that.
F x

Sun_Addict

Does the grabber have a good enough grip for pulling weeds? A pleasant but unexciting day is good 🙂

PennysIntoPounds

An extra £25 in surveys is very exciting! And the September anticipation of assessing the presents stash! *fans self*

foxgloves

@Sun_Addict - Yes, it will pull out small or shallow rooted ones, though my methodology while I am avoiding bending over too far is to use the grabber in tandem with my long-handled garden fork. I shall loosen the soil in an area with the fork, then collect up/pull out all the weeds with the grabber. I think we are going to be on for some joint weeding this weekend as Mr F mentioned this morning that he's pulling the garden wheelie bin through to the back garden 'ready for the weekend'. That suits me fine! He can be dealing with the thuggy stuff while I make inroads into the borders with my Not Bending Over Long Fork & New Grabber Method! 

@PennysIntoPounds - Lol, I reckon if anything exciting ever turned up on my Diary, you'd all think I'd been abducted & an imposter had taken over!
F

foxgloves

Greetings Friday Frugalistas,
A lovely sunny day here - warm rather than hot, which is my favourite kind of summer weather. The blue sky is cheery & the cats are making the most of it by......staying indoors snoozing (rolls eyes....). Anyway, today's budget-helping activities:
*Did a really good harvesting session first thing & came back in with a full basket. Today's pickings = Coriander, grapes, an aubergine, 2 small peppers, chillies, 600g french beans, 1.35kg tomatoes, a courgette, a marrow (from the mystery plant that is no longer a mystery!) & a bunch of carrots.
*There followed triage of the veg, allocating it to meals for the next 2 or 3 days, prepping & freezing as necessary, etc.
*Based on Mother Nature's largesse, decided definitely to tweak tonight's meal plan. I have found a recipe in one of our Indian cookbooks for a mixed vegetable curry. It is one of those where as long as one has the basics, any seasonal veg can be used, so as I have all the spices in stock, I am going to make that. It does make sense to use our fresh stuff as & when it's ready as the original planned meals can just be bumped to another week, saving money as we go.
*Postie brought my deodorant refills  - I tried 3 new scents this time - glad I remembered to order them in the sale as I got £4.50 off.
*Did 3 surveys.
*Wrote brief shopping list for C**p for tomorrow. 
*Updated grocery budget with Week 1's spend so far. I was right in my prediction that Mr F would be very motivated by any underspend from Week 1 & 2's groceries being added to the amount I have put aside for our mini-break expenses. How could I tell? Well, it was when he started converting potential underspend amounts into actual cups of coffee, seaside fish & chips & pints of 'Oystercatcher'.......
*Continue with today's quota of recipe copying/recipe culling from my old enormous file which became too big & heavy & needed updating. (That's my next task)
*A little knitting for the presents stash depending on how much time is left after that.
Hope everyone's having a pleasant day. I can hear a cricket happily chirping away just outside the conservatory. I might see if I can relocate him to the safety of a border, as unfortunately, one of Soot's favourite summer activities is tracking crickets. The joy of putting his paw on one, then taking it off & the cricket does a massive jump is just written all over his furry face! They usually, but not always, get away, so I sometimes give them a helping hand into the undergrowth.
Right, onwards with today,
F xx

Elisheba

foxgloves said:

Hello Diary Readers,
What a glorious day! Couldn't quite manage the planned all-nighter, so went to bed at 1am & got up again at 4.30 for some jolly viewing. Started feeling tired after about 4 hours, but Mr F brought me some toast, scrambled eggs & half a pint of coffee & I rallied. Had planned to do absolutely nothing today, except read, smell the flowers, smile, that kind of thing, so have managed only minimal budget-helping things. I like to post them though, as it does help me keep the money-saving faith:
*Baked a cake - semolina cake - one of Mr F's favourites. Very simple & lovely warm with a snowy dredge of icing sugar. Filled it with some of my friend's home made blackcurrant jam as am making sure I use up supplies in date  order so as to make room for this year's jams in the pantry.
*Sorted out a huge pile of magazines given to me by a friend. Nice gardening ones. Decided to put them in month order starting with this month so that I can read them during the relevant month & feel as though I have bought new ones. There are 2 year's worth, so I will have 2 to enjoy every month & have already spotted a project I fancy doing on the front cover of a December issue - a heart shaped wreath made from bright cheery rosehips.
*Checked for surveys but nothing doing today. Will step up my efforts next week.
*Entered a competition.
*Trimmed the garlic crop which Mr F lifted last weekend. It has started drying well, but I always find it dries better with the stem cut back to halfway to get rid of the foliage & allow the air to start drying out the inside of the stems. When they are properly dry, I'll string & hang them. Always worth drying alliums properly so that they will store well without losses to rots & mould.
*This doesn't involve me, but Mr F appears to be putting together a Z*ff*t trade, so that will also count as money saving action at Foxgloves Manor. 
*Dinner tonight will be jerk chicken pieces (leftover from the bargainaceous BBQ deal Mr F managed to buy last month) with home made jacket wedges & salad.
And that's it from me today. I shall be taking my book off to the reading bench shortly, carrying on knitting BIL's present bag socks & will sit down for the News later as it will be nice to re-watch a couple walking through a door & to feel a level of hope that has been missing for a very long time.
Oh & I need to do cat treats before Soot remembers he hasn't had any this afternoon!
Cheers,
F :-)   xx

Just catching up on your diary. That was such a good day 😊. I think I went to bed about 7am for a couple of hours and then got up again and watched the couple you mentioned go in a door.