Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

@Blackcats - I think our thermostat changes & decision to switch the heating down very low overnight (so that it didn't come on unless to avoid a frozen pipe situation) did make a difference. I think all our good habits start to slip after a while. Every so often, I find myself having to tighten up on energy use behaviours. Like you, our main aim atm is to get a really good level of credit built up for winter. I think also we are all less accustomed to thinking about saving energy in the summer months. It's worth it though, as every bit of credit we see building on our accounts is money.

@Makingabobor2 - Re the bottomless pots. This is how I do it (if this is helpful). I fork over the beds where I intend to grow tomatoes, add some home made garden compost & rake it level. Position large bottomless pots where I want them, then I go along the row taking hold of each one by the rim & just screw it a little way into the ground. The compost will start to come up a little way through the base. Then I add bagged compost & plant the tomatoes. I like to get them in at quite a good depth as the bare bit of stem should start to put out extra roots. I leave about 1cm at the top so I can get water & food in without it flying off everywhere. I then put a cane right through the compost in the pot & tie in the plants. Hope this helps. The idea of using bottomless pots is to get that extra depth of root run through nutritious compost, or at least, that's why I do it. When I have time, I will cut some comfrey, chop it up & strew it around the pots on top of the beds, as it breaks down very quickly & releases nutrients which hungry plants like. Courgettes, squash & beans also get the comfrey treatment. I haven't made liquid comfrey feed for ages as I kept accidentally watering my feet & it is quite honestly THE vilest stinking stuff EVER!
F x

foxgloves

Morning Campers!
I am going to start with a bit of a moan about my back, which is pretty bad this morning. On Monday, I deliberately stuck to upright garden jobs....things I could do standing at my greenhouse bench, stuff that involved wandering around, apart from a period of I would say less than 5 minutes, when I was bending to remove the net from last season's chard to cut a bunch for wokking with garlic to go with dinner. Result from that barely 5 minutes? Back complaining for the rest of the day & needing painkillers & a hot water bottle. So yesterday, I thought "Bloody sod it!". I was careful, my back still hurt, so I may as well just have a normal gardening day. I did a bit of weeding & planted out all but the last 3 trays of bedding plants. Owwwww.....well, that was my back by the evening & still quite ouchy this morning, when I spotted those remaining 3 trays of plants & decided that as I was already in painkiller territory, I might as well put them in. So I did, & am now firmly back on hot water bottles. It's infuriating, as I have other health issues to worry about at the moment without stupid muscle spasms in my back, grrrrr.
On the money saving front today?
*Last of the home grown summer bedding planted out. None wasted.
*Swapped a spare cucumber plant with a neighbour for a stack of seed trays (in much better condition than most of mine)
*Did a few surveys - am up to over £20 now this month on PA. As I am on 'light duties' with no bending for the rest of the day, I will see if I can chalk up a few more.
*Ordered Mr F some high-top canvas shoes online. He has always had the well-known branded ones in the past, but when he looked to see if JL stocked them so he could get them on click & collect, he spotted that they do their own brand ones for quite a lot cheaper, which also happened to be reduced by £11.70. I have ordered them using the £10 voucher I cashed out from Ips*s recently to reduce the cost further. That will mean less of a hit to the clothing pot than anticipated. Thank goodness the blimming things are ordered. Conversation went like this:
Him: Are there any funds in the clothing pot?
Me: Yep!
Him: So it's ok if I order some [usual well-known brand] for summer?
Me: Yeah, no problem, go ahead.
Him: Only I've only got one pair of shoes [mostly true, he has his everyday DMs, & his hiking boots) I've got nothing for summer.
Me: Well, there's a reason for that, isn't there?
Him: What reason?
Me: Well, I'd say it's something to do with the past 4 years when I've asked you if you want to get a nice new pair of [insert well-known brand] & your reply has been "I'm not paying THAT!! Summer will be over in 2 months & I'll be back in my boots.Waste of money!" 
Him: Oh yeah, I did say that, actually, but I really could do with a some.
SO, I have ordered him a pair this morning before he talks himself out of it again, or alternately starts going around telling people he's only got one pair of shoes!!
*Use-it-up meal tonight......this week's meal plans still very much based on 'finds' from when we mined the depth of the freezer. Tamale pie, using 100g of leftover chicken mince, a pot of diced frozen peppers & a half tin each of tinned tomatoes & red kidney beans frozen for just this very purpose. Also intend to do a round-up of salad stuff to serve with it. Will also add baby chard thinnings to the base or salad as I saved those the other day when planting up a dozen plants from this year's sowing.
Very warm day here - pure blue sky & sunshine. Hope it's fine where you are too.
F x
Oh, & it was weigh-day yesterday - another 0.4kg off, making a total of 7.7kg. Tbh, although I have stuck to the TRE, I haven't been as dilligent about counting my amber traffic light portions, so I must get back to doing that properly. 

Suffolk_lass

Just a quick point about Comfrey from me. Rekha Mistry, the allotment holder who presents on Gardeners World occasionally, suggested that she puts a layer of Comfrey into her large pots (she was talking about aubergines) and when you water, it rots down, and releases its nutrients without the smell

foxgloves

Yes! @Suffolk_lass, I saw that too & thought it was a good idea. I usually strew it directly around the plants or on top of the pots, but the only time I've put it in deeper has been in bean trenches.
F

Moorviews

I have a bottle of comfrey liquid that I made a couple of years ago and I can’t bring myself to even open it. I worry that it might just explode one day 🙀 I was pleased to hear that tip about burying the leaves. 

Sorry to hear that your back is in spasm. I hope that the painkillers can ease it off. I find that some yoga stretches also help me. Currently I am having to resort to this, due to having overdone it in the garden at the weekend. I never seem to learn, despite my best intentions. 

I’m very impressed with your electricity usage as ours is certainly more than that. There are four of us, with one person working full time from home. I do have two fridges but I am thinking that maybe it is the extra washing machine usage that bumps it up most. Maybe also the work computer and phones. We cook and boil the kettle mainly on the oil fired stove which doesn’t use any electricity at all. That’s predominantly used for drying washing too whenever we can’t line dry. I have a tumble dryer but that is barely ever used. 

Funny conversation about the shoes! It sounded somewhat familiar when discussing clothing with Mr MV 😂

foxgloves

@Moorviews - I think that comfrey tea sounds like a veritable Pandora's bottle & I would be inclined to drop it into your wheelie bin & start again. I can remember the first year I brewed a bucket of the stuff. I'd used it on the veg plot, then gone about my other tasks indoors & after a while, I realised there was a nasty whiff sort of following me about. I had managed to drizzle it all around the hem of my jeans.....not even a lot of it, particularly, it is just extraordinarily smelly stuff. Much more pleasant to use as a green mulch.
Re energy use....yours is bound to be higher for a 4-person household, especially if there is also working from home to factor into the mix. I think the best thing atm, is not to take our eyes off the ball during the warmer months, when I think we are far less attuned to how much things like heating & hot water are costing, so that we can really maximise some good chunks of credit for the winter. 
F

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
The sun is just breaking up the clouds here in the murky midlands, but very little in the way of gardening for me. I bogged up my back good & proper over the last two days. Last night, I had to have some co-codamol so as to hear 'Sewing Bee' over my moaning. I was awake again at 1.30 because I couldn't get comfortable & eventually got up to make a hot water bottle & spent the rest of the night sitting up. Naturally as soon as they saw the kitchen light  Soot & Ash wrongly deduced that their super-kind Meowmy had got up to give them an early breakfast. It was 2.23 a.m!! Only got a little more sleep after that so let's just say I started today on a promise to Mr F, best friend & myself that I would have a back-care day with no bending. 
Anyway, enough of the yakking. Is there any money saving?
*Agreed on next week's meal plan first thing. Based around a weekend BBQ, BBQ leftovers & mostly the rest of the meals will be from the freezer.
*Wrote grocery shopping list as Mr F was keen to call in to pick up the Waitbl00m part of the shopping when he calls in to pick up his click & collect order later.
*Wrote list for town tomorrow. Hope I am not feeling too cronky to go, as I could do with getting a few bits & the change of scenery would be good.
*Made dough for bread rolls - shaped & on their 2nd proving. Had got them on the shopping list, but it seemed a waste of money when I have all the ingredients here at home & it's a non-bendy task (apart from putting them in the oven).
*Updated the Money Book to show I have today paid the wheelie-bin cleaner, as I do sometimes forget to look at online receipts, with getting so few of them.
*Am keeping up with surveys today - again it's something I can do standing up when I need to stretch my back out a bit. Too much sitting doesn't help at all. Nice to see May's earning total slowly going up, as I shall cash out at the end of the month.
*Use-it-up meal again tonight. I've defrosted a container of diced slow-cooked gammon & another of roasted tomato pasta sauce to which I intend to add a few other bits & pieces including a small tin of sweetcorn to make a pasta bake. Will do a salad round-up from fridge too, but will have to wait till Mr F gets home & I can ask him to get the salad drawer out as it's too much of a bend for she-who-is-banned-from-bending.
*Ideally, I would like to plant a geranium into each of the hanging baskets. While not a bendy task in itself, as I can use the greenhouse bench, I have a feeling that the compost is on the floor, so I may wait until tomorrow. I can't have another day/night like yesterday with spasmy (if this isn't a word, it should be) back pain.
*Lunch will also be use-it-up. I think I will make a cheese omelette as we seem to have lots of eggs & there is a chunk of cheese in the fridge which is annoying me. 
Sorry nothing exciting. The only thing that's happened this week is getting referred back to gynae clinic (for the 3rd time in my life, beginning at the age of 29), so necessary, but not exactly joyful. I am however enjoying watching the village swifts & one of our swift boxes is occupied already.
Love to all,
F x

Sun_Addict

Sorry to hear your back still hurts ☹️ Hope it eases after some rest today and you get a better night’s sleep. 

foxgloves

Thanks, @Sun_Addict. It isn't too bad at all atm because I'm being so careful with it, but my problem is that I am hopeless at sitting around doing nothing. I love reading & knitting & will do some of both this afternoon, but while I am nowhere near as fit & active as you (am a lifelong exercise-dodger really), I get up early & am usually pretty much 'on the go' all day, just being generally productive & busy. I do always stop for a proper lunch hour, but apart from that I'm usually bustling around doing stuff. 
I do think now though, that if I don't give this stupid muscle group a longer chance to recover, the problem is just going to continue throughout the summer.
F

Makingabobor2

Have you thought about trying a good qualified massage therapist. I go to a lovely one and there is no ache or pain that she can't fix. Not sure where about in the Midlands you are, but if you're anywhere near me, I can pass on her details to you.