Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Hello Monday Money Savers,
Started the week with a small amount of ironing, just to get it out of the way before it started getting a bit potentially froggy. Had planned a huge garden session today, but have had to bump the clearing/weeding tasks to tomorrow as I ended up having to wait in earshot of the door for a parcel delivery & lost a chunk of my outdoor time. Budget-positive stuff as follows:
*Did my usual Monday morning budget updates & this took longer than usual as there was a lot to do. I didn't do as much admin last week while Mr F was on annual leave & I could tell, as there were more updates to do today than usual. July's grocery budget more heavily frontloaded than I would have liked, so this will be addressed with some nifty meal planning for the next fortnight.
*Garden pickings: Cucumber (no.12), courgettes, tromboncino, a few strawberries, spring onions, french beans (1st pick), lettuce & jalapenos.
*Kitchen garden maintenance jobs: Side-shooted & tied in tomato plants, pruned a few gribbly bits off this & that, staked the cayenne chillies, direct-sowed the last of a packet of french beans to extend the picking season & fed some choice scraps to the worm composter.
*Made tomorrow's packed breakfast & lunch.
*Effortless nosebag tonight - gigantes plakis from last batch-cook with homemade crusty bread.
*Decided it wouldn't be practical to order another fish-box (it was ordering day) as we already have some left & the freezer is very full. It will also be a saving we can usefully put towards hosting guests at the end of this month.
Either Soot, Ash or both of them created an extra unwanted job when I discovered (thankfully in time!) that the little Bs had mined the area behind the large raised bed with stealth poo. So that was a clearing up job followed by strewing some teabags soaked in olbas oil as a deterrent. See how you like THOSE, Soot & Ash!!
F x

kayannie

@foxgloves regarding courgettes, have you tried growing the round ones? I've grown some this year for the first time & they have been a great success. They grow to about large cricket ball size & are perfect for stuffing. 
I've also got a glut of normal courgettes so have dug out a recipe for courgette & pineapple cake to make tomorrow. I made it last year & it was lovely. 
KA

foxgloves

Morning, @kayannie, Yes, I have grown all sorts in the past, including the round ones, but they didn't do as well for me as the standard shape ones. I do have a free pack of seeds for a round variety in my seed box atm so I could try them again next year or might give them to my sister, as I know she's had success with them in the past.
F x

EssexHebridean

We've got some flatter type courgettes this year - Sunburst I think they are - so I'm looking forward to seeing how those perform. 

Also - olbas oil soaked teabags as a cat deterrent is a new one on me, might use that to put off the next door furries if they decide that our garden makes a good toilet again! 

themadvix

We're having B&W cat peeing issues again (he's decided the carpet halfway up the stairs is the best place to pee), so tempted to try the olbas oil there (it's a new one on me too), although I worry that he'll just find somewhere else in the house and ruin more flooring 😩

foxgloves

Well, all of our cats have been repelled by the smell of Olbas oil, as well as which ever little herbert on our street was using one of our front courtyard borders as an overnight latrine. I read somewhere years ago that used teabags are a good carrier for the oil....I suppose they will pretty much biodegrade as long as they don't contain that annoying plasticky glue (why would anyone want THAT in their tea?). They do need topping up every so often though as of course the aroma decreases over time. 

Very little to report today......
*A no-spend day.
*Took advantage of the sunny breeze to launder & peg out pet bedding.
*2 hours of free fitness activity clearing the back of the ongoing problem border. Involved a lot of digging (bindweed & hawkweed removal) as well as some weightlifting as I've moved some large dahlia pots into better positions.
*Today's garden pickings: Bunch of carrots & 6 more courgettes.
*Knitting - 2nd sock of a stash pair for the presents bag.
That's pretty much it on the frugal front. Isn't it lovely to have more butterflies around this summer after their sad absence last year? Today our garden has been visited by large whites, peacocks, small tortoiseshells, a red admiral, a comma, meadow browns, gatekeepers & a holly blue. More damselflies too.
Right, let's get back to clacking those needles.
F x

Makingabobor2

Yes, we have noticed a lot more butterflies this year. I don't know what they are all are, but now you've mentioned a tortoise shell, I suspect that some of them are of that variety. 

rtandon27

We've had so many this year too!  Both our neighbour's buddleja & ours are alive with fluttering wings.

Suffolk_lass

Cats peeing in wrong place
Some years ago when one of our two rescue cats was peeing in strange places, we were told it was because the other cat was guarding the litter tray as her territory and stopping said culprit from using it. We were advised to have three for two cats.
Our current (Stealth Cat) cat suffers from periodic stress-related cystitis and when she does, she pees on the black leather sofa, in empty laundry trugs, in the shower and the bath - we just need to notice. A plug-in Feli-thing and a capsule of "cys-tease" mixed into wet food is how we combat it. These latter solutions might be a bit too chemical-based for your liking @themadvix but they do work (as long as we don't leave it too long, if we do, she has a £100 trip to the vets for a jab).

sarah_diamond

As a sock knitter (not that I want to wreck your budget), have you seen the WYS butterfly range Foxgloves?
I did succumb a couple of weeks ago and buy the blue-y one, a Chalkhill Blue apparently. I'm still very slowly making my way through my first two pairs of socks, I have shorties, 1 of each pair done as I put off the toes and kitchener and started a second sock from a different ball. Will need to go back to them soon as they don't match at all, one blue, one purple, so they need distant cousins - I'm never going to expect siblings let alone twin socks!