Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

lucielle

On the radish front, apparently they're very nice roasted.  Can't verify if that's true as I've never done it.
L

Moorviews

I do love radishes and was very intrigued to learn about the origins of the French Breakfast variety. I always thought it was a strange name for them! 

@lucielle I’ve roasted radishes a few times and also enjoyed them that way as they become milder but keep a nice crunch. 

What a beautiful weekend it is for us all to enjoy our gardens. 

rtandon27

@lucielle - we add halved radishes to Mediterranean style veg & roast them - think sliced peppers, courgettes, mushrooms & red onions - they keep a bit of crunch and add lovely colour - still needs a bit salt to enhance the flavour, but we also sprinkle with dried herbs and drizzle with olive oil before roasting

foxgloves

Lol, it's turned into the World Radish Forum on here! Interesting idea to chuck them in with roast veg. I'll remember that.

Hello Sunday Savers,
Not a lot to report on the money saving front. My back was particularly bad last night so we worked as a team in the garden this morning, with Mr F doing all the parts which involved bending. We managed to get the greenhouse border topped up with home made compost & 6 indoor tomatoes into their bottomless pots, then 6 in the narrow tomato border outside along the length of the greenhouse & the last 3 in a raised bed currently surrounded by oodles of flowering poached egg plant. I also have 3 in a grow bag up on the greenhouse bench this year - 7 or 8 varieties in all.
Also sorted out french climbing beans & got rid of 'no-shows'. Stood outside for their first day of hardening off. Mr F also weeded the shallots & a couple of other beds & I watered.
Not bothering with a Sunday roast today, as we are working on using up our stores, following doing that updated freezer list. We just bought some nice local butcher's sausages & will have those with some mash (use-it-up yellow stickered potatoes found in Waitbl00m) & a carton of home made onion gravy from the freezer. 
I'm just off to pop the beans undercover for the night, then round up the laundry for first thing tomorrow morning, as it looks to be another good drying day.
So all very routine here, but we've enjoyed tackling the garden together & we haven't spent any money, despite Mr F realising halfway through the day that he doesn't have any beer.
Enjoy your evenings. 
F x

~FlowerPot~

hi, dipping my toes in here!

I didnt think I liked radishes, too peppery, even the so called mild ones, BUT they are delicious roasted, in a splash of oil and a bit of salt.

Flowers x

curiosity

Sliced radishes are a good substitute for water chestnuts in a Stirfry too…

2Scratters

Well DH is more on board with NSD and making do.
 We have decided a back gate is needed to access out newly erected compost corner. We re-potted a jasmine plant whilst tidying up the garden which didn't seem that bad yet there was more debris suitable to go in the compost heap. His brainwave whilst we were wrestling with an 8 x 4 pallet that is used as a temporary privacy screen that he could make a gate with pallet wood. I had been thinking of just getting someone in to sort and make it for us or make a purchase on FB MP for a tall metal gate. 
Whilst being selective when clearing out parents home some strange bits have been coming home. I have ended up with many many various candles (I don't do candles really) due to future proofing and the cost of electricity, needs must. So we now have a considerable amount of tall candles. I also acquired, as planned, a couple of glass vases that are suitable for holding candles. Some of these said candles are a little curved shall we say due to where they had been stored and the temperatures that have reshaped them. DH had suggested we use them instead of putting on the light in the living room. Yesterday I got him to make bottoms for the 2 candle holders that had a slim nail it so the wonky candles can be secured to remain erect. They were made from an incomplete wooden coaster set that came home to be burned. Very MSE 

2 Scratters xx

foxgloves

Some excellent MSE-ing there, @2Scratters!
F

foxgloves

Morning Diary Readers,
Off to a good start this morning. Have already achieved a few small wins on the MSE front:
*Laundry done & is blowing dry on the whirlygig for free.
*Put a hair colour on my yukky roots as was feeling very faded. Even after years of home colour, this still feels like a saving, as I remember how much (of the bank's) money it used to cost for my regular salon colour.
*Did my regular Monday morning budget updates. Not much required, mostly grocery budget updates. If we don't need to buy anything else this week, & I don't think we missed anything off the shopping list, then we should finish May's grocery budget with a £19 underspend. Hope so, as I can find a use for that in the savings pots.
*Feels like a free meal tonight - turkey bhuna & rice - a 'forgotten find' from turning out our freezers last week. It was made with Christmas turkey leftovers!
*Made tomorrow's packed breakfast & lunch (managed to use some tasty leftovers)
*Did a few surveys.
*Studied this month's energy statement from the Cephalopods which arrived yesterday, & updated the section of my Money Book where I track our gas & electricity costs, as well as our account balance.
Just for information - energy bill summary as follows:
We used £45-53 of electricity over the past month (our billing cycle runs from 21st to 20th) & £34-32 of gas, making a total cost of £79-85. Our credit is re-building nicely & is currently sitting at £424-15. 
Our monthly direct debit is £173-73, which means that over this past month, we used £94 less energy than we paid for. Prices are widely tipped to fall this summer, but I gather there is still a degree of uncertainty about winter, as there are still some unknowns/variables hovering around. We went into last winter with a credit balance of around £600 & still had some left at the end of March, by which time we were just a week away from switching off the heating. Have discussed with Mr F & we intend to let our credit balance re-build to around the same level so as to ensure security over next winter while the market hopefully settles. However, it is likely that on the current trajectory, we will have a bigger credit balance than that by the end of September. If this is the case, I will arrange for a refund & a reduction to our direct debit. If energy prices are genuinely noticeably lower this coming winter, then it is likely that we will restore our thermostat to its pre-cost of living/energy crisis settings & have the house just that little bit warmer, so things may yet balance out. Much as I feel more secure going into the colder months with a decent wodge of credit on our account, I am not minded to let it get to the stage where we are losing out on money which would be of more use in our own bank account, rather than our provider's. It's that whole thing of balance, isn't it, like so many financial things.
Well, the bin lorry has just been down our road, which I think means we will shortly have a visit from the wheelie-bin cleaner man. The cats are utterly fascinated by this & sit on the front windowsill ogling the proceedings as though it's the best netflicks boxset ever! Soot in bad books again yesterday. Mr F heard a noise in the pantry, opened the door to investigate & it was Soot mid-way through staging another biscuit heist. The biscuit bag is rolled down & secured by strong pegs since his last efforts, in which he broke the seal & chewed big holes in the bag. He had got the bag onto its side & removed the pegs. I think it was the noise of him trying to unroll stiff plastic which alerted Mr F. Anyway, he was busted before he'd managed to gobble any biscuits, so no need to go out & buy emergency supplies & grocery budget underspend still intact!
F x

foxgloves

@curiosity & @flowerpot - Hello & welcome & thanks for pitching in to the radishes conversation!
F