Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

@weenancyinAmerica - That's interesting about the banana......I think there was a similar practice among Native Americans, which involved popping a fish into planting holes for particular vegetables. Of course, we can buy fish meal for fertiliser, so there must have been plenty of truth in that old practice.
@Moorviews - Yes, while I too have spent eye-popping amounts of (the bank's) money at garden centres during the Spendy Years, I do agree with you that gardening does not need to be an expensive hobby. There are so many resources which can be collected & re-purposed so as to save money on things like trays, pots, modules, labels, cloches, etc. I once (years ago) even asked Mr F to do an abrupt stop on a country road because I'd spotted a discarded zinc bucket in a ditch. I retrieved it, took it home & to this day it is one of my patio containers. Cuttings, divisions & seed saving also help to spread the planty love without recourse to cashola.
F

foxgloves

Afternoon Campers!
Well, typically, we have blue sky & sunshine here now it's too late to do anything. It absolutely pelted with rain all morning while we were in town. We didn't stay in long as just wanted to get home & spread our coats out to dry.....in fact that probably saved us money, as I was too soggy to think about cheese scones & cappucinos. 
Today's small wins:
*Bought the rest of the groceries & although I haven't done the sums, I know we will have come in under budget.
*Exchanged our full butcher's loyalty card for £10 of free meat (4 of his lovely Aberdeen Angus burgers, a pack of minted lamb chops & some lean pork steaks). We also paid £5 for a pack of 4 little gammon joints which I will cook as one in the slow cooker at some point when the meal plans can lead with gammon as a roast dinner & I can assign (or freeze) some of the leftover cooked meat to other meals & sandwiches that week. V good value anyway.
*Kept my hair appointment - I did wonder if I'd have to cancel it, as wasn't feeling great first thing, but I perked up & was glad I went. £10 for her usual lovely cut. I commented I don't know how they do it at the price but she said the costly treatments are the colourings (products have gone up) & things involving blow-drying because of the electricity, also hot water - I always have a dry trim as I get fidgety if I have to sit still for any longer than that.
*Cleaned the house between us. I opted for kitchen & bathroom if Mr F did all the vacuuming & we got through it very quickly with the usual minimal products. So much cheaper just to buy 2 or 3 good ones, rather than all those silly sprays & bottles each 'designed' for a different surface or area of the house.
*Perused the Cephalopods' statement which landed in my inbox today. Yes, as expected, we have spent less during this period (March 21st to April 20th) because we switched the central heating off BUT we didn't do this until during the 1st week of April so next month's should see a greater drop. Anyway the current figures tie in very much with my twin aims now of 1) Keeping our DD stable at the current amount 2) Building credit back up ready for this Autumn & Winter. Amount used this period (dual fuel) was £128-32. Current monthly DD is £173-73, thus £45-41 surplus which has been added to our credit balance, which now stands at £330-27. Even if our usage didn't fall any further (which it will as the next billing period will be completely CH-free), & we stayed around these same charges, we would have 5 months of further credit building & end up with around £580 by October. I think it's quite easy to take our eyes off the ball with energy use during the warmer months. We are not seeing these huge amounts on our bills & probably don't feel quite as focused, but I am determined to keep up good energy-saving habits because the more credit I have by October, the more secure I will feel. My most silly annoying energy waste is STILL overfilling the kettle, which I have to work on permanently. I'd say Mr F's is rinsing dishes after washing them with hot water. Drives me mad when all he's doing is getting soapsuds off. He has picked me up a couple of times recently for leaving items charging long after they've finished, so we are neither of us in a position to be polishing up our halos just yet!
*Did a few surveys but am nowhere near Mr F's impressive PA earnings so far this month so will have to see what next week brings.
It's not my cooking night, so I will squelch down to the greenhouse to cover up the plant babies, then enjoy some time with my book. I picked up the free Waitbl00m weekend paper too, which often has some nice recipes so will peruse that too.
Hope everyone's had a decent day,
Love F x

foxgloves

Morning Sunbeams,
Garden Show today. We were trying to work out how many years it is since we last attended this event & think it was actually towards the end of the Spendy Era. I hope I can be suitably restrained today. I would like to buy a couple of pond plants, there is a specific pelargonium I would like, & I could maybe be tempted to buy one hardy geranium or other perennial for my new stretch of border. There is also a food hall, which means Mr F will be on full alert for free samples. We are a little underspent on this month's grocery budget so could potentially treat ourselves to some nice local cheese or some other goodies, but I don't intend to go mad, as will have to cannibalise another budget pot to cover unplanned levels of spending.
To get off to a good start, Mr F has made a couple of filled rolls & flask of coffee so we don't have to pay for breakfast - (still doing TRE so we don't have breakfast until 10 am).
I've popped this post on to see if it helps keep me accountable, or whether I shall have to 'fess up to box-loads of planty purchases later on. Hope not!
F x

Sun_Addict

Enjoy the show 😃

foxgloves

Well, the Garden Show was worth a visit & we enjoyed it. The sunny morning brought folk out as well, as by the time we were leaving late morning, the roads to the showground were very snarled up with traffic. There were too many dogs there for my liking (there was a separate event - stalls selling dog stuff - on the same site) but they were all on leads. As someone who is neither fond of, nor confident with dogs, the worst thing a dog owner can say to me, as their dog lunges towards me or tries to jump up (& this has happened a fair few times) is "Aww, don't worry, s/he'd lick you to death first". Thankfully nobody said this to me this morning!
Anyway.......did things get spendy?
Well......maybe spent just a little more than intended, but certainly not garden show spending like the old days. I wasn't able to purchase my target species - the specific pelargonium variety I wanted wasn't on sale anywhere, & while there was an interesting stall selling pond plants, on closer inspection, they were all marginals, many of which I already have. Instead, I chose 4 perennials for £20 from a stall which looked so pretty & cottage garden-like that I knew they'd fit right into our new length of border alongside the new fence. I chose 3 geums & a large-flowered aquilegia -a bi-coloured purple one with the old-fashioned long spurs. Hadn't intended to buy any more plants but then Mr F spotted an unusual one he liked. I liked it too (sorry have forgotten name & label is not in reach), especially that its good for bees & flowers from February until early
summer. It's not often I see a plant at these things that I don't know, so nice to support a nursery propagating something a bit different.
Mr F & the food hall? He can get the red mist at these things, esp when free samples are liberally being handed out. I suggested that instead of buying random items, that he choose us something nice to take home for lunch. We took a packed breakfast & flask of coffee, so hadn't spent anything on that. Anyway, he chose a lovely selection of pakoras, lamb samosas, bhajis, etc, from an Indian food stall, which we enjoyed for our lunch. He then decided he might have been a bit of a gutlord with his own plate, & boxed some up for the freezer to do him a packed lunch for work at some point.
So.....all told, £28 spent on plants (which will be financed from the House & Garden Pot). £12 spent on food, financed from April grocery budget underspend. I didn't think that was bad at all.
Have had an hour in the greenhouse potting up larkspur babies. I was going to tell you the story of how their very lives were saved by a scary spider, but I've already yakked on quite long enough, so will say bye for now & read a chapter of my book before the last of the late afternoon sun gives up.
F x

ellenvan

Just a quick tip on yesterdays confession re the kettle overfill - put some sort of marker felt tip or similar on the kettle to the point that fills 2 mugs. Easy to see then if you are overfilling.

Moorviews

weenancyinAmerica said:

I had a neighbor who used to wander the neighborhood and ask if she could take cuttings of their roses.  She had over one hundred growing in her yard. One of the magazines here noted that if you took the flower tops off of the roses you are gifted, you can actually grow plants from them. And there was a video on how to use a banana to help rose cuttings grow. Rose cuttings seem to do really well.

Very interesting information @weenancyinAmerica. I am certainly getting inspired to take some cuttings now!

Foxgloves, glad you had such a good time. I would call that a very satisfying and controlled Garden Show visit! It was a good idea to enjoy buying a treat lunch as everything is so very tempting at a Show. Everybody works so hard too at these events, that it is nice to support and make it worthwhile for the exhibitors by buying some produce, yet still staying within one’s own means.  

foxgloves

@ellenvan - Thanks for your suggestion. I don't think it would quite work on my kettle (Le Creuset gas hob one) which has no transparent section to indicate water fill, as the electric ones do. However, your suggestion did give me an idea, that I could measure exactly 2 mugs of water into the kettle, then use a spoon or other cutlery item as a dipstick to check the amount, that then being the fill amount required in future. I will aim to try this & I am guessing that it will save quite a lot of unnecessary water being boiled.

@mooview - I felt we were quite controlled too. I knew Mr F would enjoy choosing something nice for lunch, but that as it was only lunch, that would limit potential spend. We would have spent a lot more if we'd just bought random nice foods i.e packs of posh sausages, cheeses, artisan brownies, flavoured oils, etc. I agree about supporting exhibitors. One of the things which really winds me up about the town we live in (well, technically we are in a neighbouring village), is all the moaning which goes on about the local market "not being as good as it was".......this then followed by variants of "so I don't bother going". I want to shout, "Yes, that's why the stalls you liked have gone. The stallholders could no longer make a living because of people like you moaning about the mythical good old days, rather than supporting those who turn out 3 times a week often in awful weather bringing us lovely fresh foods & useful goods"!!
F

foxgloves

You know how I hate top-up shops? Well, there's been one this morning because of a maths aberration on my part when I was writing this week's shopping list. I dutifully counted up cat food pouches in stock & deducted it from the amount of meals required until our next shop. Only, I based my calculations on the resident pouch-scoffers eating 4 a day between them, whereas as Mr F informed me this morning while peering into a swiftly depleting box, they actually eat 2.5 pouches a day each. Well, I think that will have swept up the last bit of April's grocery underspend, so instead of sending it to a Savings Pot, I shall be sending it to Soot & Ash's ever-hungry tummies.
It's pouring with rain here today, so they are both on 'wet playtime' & getting very bored. Ash has already dried his soggy fur on Mr F's top & Soot pounced on my rubber the minute I dropped it on the floor & has knocked it I know not where, grrrrr.
No gardening today because it's so wet, so I shall make some more coffee, read the Observer & decide what to do with the rest of my day.
Hope somebody somewhere is seeing a few rays of sunshine,
F x

badmemory

Re the kettle - don't forget to refill the kettle straight away so that the residual heat in it can take the chill off the water for the next brew.