Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

scandimore

Hi foxgloves, hope all is well with you and best wishes for the further investigations. 
My rocket is starting to bolt so I think I'll take a leaf (ha!) out of your book and make some pesto and freeze it. I must admit I just love the taste and smell of basil so I can't imagine it will be quite as tasty but we will see! On a bit of a slow-mo here due to pelvic pain, no diagnosis yet 😞 but we must listen to our bodies, I suppose, hmph.

themadvix

@scandimore you can always add a bit of basil for flavour - I make carrot top pesto and the carrots provide the bulk but the basil adds flavour.

@foxgloves, I hope you get answers, and positive ones, soon. Sounds like you’ve got a good doc there though.

rtandon27

FG - your description of Mr FG made me giggle! My OH is much the same in size and manners - would rather 'pay full price than stoop to their levels' - he does however have a protective streak in him and if I decide to wade into the foray he'll use the size factor to literally protect my back- LOL

Thank-you for the alt pesto recipe and pics! What a lovely way to use up greens - I may be tempted to claim some from Ol1o next time round and give it a go!

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

Hi foxgloves
Thanks for that recipe, sounds delicious.
I was recently browsing a trolley full of yellow stickered bakery products in the supermarket and was about to take a bargain loaf when I realised it was someone's actual trolley!! 
We have glorious sunshine in the NW again
Love Deni 

Baileys_Babe

foxgloves said:

@Makingabobor2 - Yes, the temperature has definitely dropped. The thermostat in our hall first thing was only on 16.5 degrees, which had the central heating not been switched off in the first week of April, would have been cold enough to trigger the boiler & the radiators on....in June! Ridiculous!! The french beans & courgettes will be planted out at the weekend whether it warms up or not, as much as they don't like the cold, they don't like being confined to pots either. I don't like it too hot - low 20s is fine for me - but I'm ready for more reliably warm days now.

Yesterday, it was cooler here than recently, our house was between 15-16°c. Due to various medical conditions, OH is very susceptible to the cold and is not able to do vigorous exercise to get warm. He ended up lighting the multifuel stove and managed the fuel very well so the temperature in the living room rose to a comfortable 19.6°c. It is lovely we can do this but ridiculous for the end of May. I hope we don't need to light it again until the autumn.

Like you @foxgloves I prefer it when outside is in the low 20s, ideally with a gentle breeze and bright.

foxgloves

Me too, @Baileys_Babe. The only time I can remember EVER lighting the stove in June was when we got absolutely soaked to the skin at a festival one year & just couldn't get warm when we got home.
F

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, thanks for the recipe foxgloves- if I ever else round to growing anything in my garden this year I'll try to make some! 

Hope you're not waiting too long for news. I hate waiting too xx

I confess I'm enjoying our holiday flat this week - it's properly insulated, plenty of sunshine, and warm enough that I'm currently sat around in nightie and flimsy short dressing gown - in short, not at all like our house 🙄😂 House barely gets up to 17 degrees even with the heating on 🙄 and in the summer I often have to put a cardi ON when I come in out of the garden 😂

If we ever move again (and I have on several occasions vowed that we would NEVER move again) I'm going somewhere that (a) doesn't need any DIY except perhaps a bit of painting, and (b) isn't over 150 years old and has decent heating and insulation and will actually get warm 😂

foxgloves

@Cheery_Daff - You're welcome. And don't forget you could make some classic basil pesto if you happened to see some yellow-stickered supermarket basil plants. 
Doesn't it feel ridiculous seeing these low indoor temperatures in June? 16.5° again in our hall first thing. Between October & first week of April, that would have triggered the central heating on. What nonsense!
F

Makingabobor2

@Cheery_Daff, your house sounds like ours. I was in the garden earlier and sun has come out in back and really warm out there. Now I'm indoors in a fleece top and body warmer and my hands are still cold.  Our house is just so cold, even though we have all sorts of insulation and double glazing etc.   It was very cold here first thing, but does look like we might have turned a corner, although it is still windy.  Last night in bed I actually had long pjs on and even put an extra cover over my legs as I'd woken up with cramp in my calves the night before.  Its just mad. 

foxgloves

Hello Friday Frugalistas,
Another chilly, grey start, but by the time we were getting ready to go into town, the sun was trying amidst some welcome patches of blue. I decided there & then not to write off a gardening day. We decided to divide our labours.....Mr F did the local.market & quick supermarket visit to pick up the (luckily only) 2 items he couldn't get yesterday, due to Waitbl00m's current crazy stock shortages, when he was given a £5 voucher for the inconvenience. then he vacuumed the entire house. While he popped out, I cleaned the bathroom, conservatory, dusted, emptied bins & blitzed the sinks with soda crystals. Small wins:
*Mr F came home with an absolute chonk of a chicken, so I shall be getting plenty of meals from that.
*Another £1.60 added to C**p divi total because we had some vouchers. Remembered to get my magazine from there so we met the minimum spend.
*Potted on another late-germinating squash (guatemalan blue).
*Tied in tomatoes again.
*Fed & watered conservatory plants as the over-wintered geraniums will shortly be moved to outdoor containers for a bit of free colour.
*Pruned overly exuberant bits of grapevine & thinned just-forming bunches by about 50%. The idea is to take off the smallest ones, which puts more of the plant's strength into the larger, better bunches. I had too many bunches on the plant last year & struggled to est them all. Mr F (poor delicate little soul) doesn't like grapes which have pips (eye roll). I made grape jelly one year, which was quite nice, but I have to be realistic about how many preserves we can get through. I no longer have Mum, Dad & a dear friend to gift them to, & there is also a degree of ....shall I say....'estrangement' on the other side of the family. Another relative -very elderly- who always loved to receive a jar of my marmalade & jam, is now in a care home over 100 miles away & no longer has a clue who I am. So I am having to try to remember to make sensible amounts!
*Bath night.....two baths from one fill of hot water with me going in first, ...which isn't really fair given that I've been doing composty jobs, lol.
NOT money saving.....I am sure we will have gone over our grocery budget this week.....there were bargains but there was also a 40-box of cat meat when we only needed a 12-box, some bacon (not on the list), some BH beer.....um, hang on....& a couple of little treats. On Weds, which is my usual meal planning day, I think I will plan meals up to the end of the month, as we still have plenty in.
Right, am loving this sunshine. Ash has made a little den in the triffid rhubarb near my reading bench. Time for a couple of chapters. The library had the first book on my wish list this week - 'These Darkening days' by Benjamin Myers & I'm enjoying the writing style.
Peace & sunshine,
F xx