Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Thanks all xx

PennysIntoPounds

Hope Soot continues brightening up. Maybe he ate something daft in the garden and it's working its way out of his system 

foxgloves

@PennysIntoPounds - Actually, I'm wondering if it's a hairball issue. He is usually a master of hacking these out, but he is also an over-groomer, so I am thinking this is a line worth investigating. I am 50:50 on keeping the vet appt tomorrow as he clearly isn't feeling well. He has eaten a little more today, so I hoped he might be starting to perk up but he does look fed up & miserable.
F x

Makingabobor2

Poor Soot. Hope he's ok. Our cat used to have lots of hairball issues. 
Sounds like you had a good weekend & back to being productive today. 
My tomatoes are doing well, aparr from the 2 plants I bought from well known large garden centre...their strawberry plants were rubbish as well. Will be avoiding them next year. 

ladyholly

I hope Soot is feeling much better very soon. 

I understand what you mean by family get togethers being precious. You are right it was me with a small family but at least I have my dd and 2 dgds. The advantage of a small family is it is very budget friendly come Christmas.

weenancyinAmerica

Sending hugs to Soot and hoping he is better soon.

Suffolk_lass

Fingers crossed that Soot is back to normal by this morning, but you are right to get him looked at, if it persists. Glad you had a good weekend with your Sis. 

I need your advice about Guatemalan blue squash (as you may recall, it is my first year with them!) - well I put one plant in the under-planted fruit cage, along with six courgette plants beside the two gooseberries that did make it in there. I have blackcurrant cuttings in a coldframe that have rooted, for next year, but this year, my other gooseberry cuttings failed, so I filled the cage with squashes. I don't know what I was expecting, but the GBS is a triffid! It's all over the walls of the cage and I had to cut one fruit because it formed on the outside and the stalk was about to tear a big hole in the (new) cage netting. Unfortunately it fell into the gooseberry immediately below it (I wasn't expecting the weight) and that scratched the skin and punctured it in one place. That was a week ago. So yesterday, I located a second, similar sized fruit, hanging on the inside of the cage wall, so I cut that too, thinking it was quite big enough. And then a third wall-fruit became evident. It clearly has ambitions to be the size of a small house extension, enormously heavy too. So I cut it. Will they ripen? I have them on the window sills in the dining room now but I took a couple of photos, to show their size... (the jars are 12oz 340g size) - the middle one was the first. I have never grown a squash that big before!

Makingabobor2

Wow...those squash are massive. 

foxgloves

Hello Diary Friends,
Thanks for your good wishes to Soot. I cancelled this morning's vet appointment as he ate 3 breakfasts & seems much more like his usual self. Hope it continues.
Productive day but ran out of time for all I thought I might do. Budget-positive stuff:
*Baked bread
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Added our July PA earnings to our Personal Spends & another £10 survey cashout to the House & Garden Pot.
*Did 3 surveys to start off August's earnings.
*Entered a prize draw.
*Did next week's meal plans.
*Wrote grocery shopping list ready to place an online order tonight (we have a decent voucher).
*Weeded the 2 small raised beds.
*Garden pickings: Lots of blackberries, a big marrow which had snuck past me, courgettes, french beans, jalapenos, a tromboncino & our 1st 4 ripe tomatoes.
*Present stash knitting over my lunch hour.
*Wet-blocked the lace shawl I knitted back in winter, weighting the back point down with 3 pegs. It looks lovely. Now in my wardrobe waiting for autumn.
Easy nosebag tonight - veggie fajhitas. Ready to sit on the sofa in a heap!
F x

foxgloves

@Suffolk_lass - Oooh, am intrigued by your squash pictures. They look a different colour to mine. I will reply properly tomorrow & maybe put up a photo too.
Yes, I'm sure John Wyndham had Guatemalan Blues in mind when he came up with the Triffids! Good to eat though.....the squash, not the triffids, which I'm sure would have been perfectly horrid.
F