Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

@Milann - Thank-you! I don't spend much money at all on it these days - I grow from seed, lots of it saved seed from existing plants or swapped with friends, & divide perennials regularly to get free extras. I think that's how people would have made their cottage gardens in the past, before the heady lure of garden centres & ringing of tills!
F x

themadvix

Very interesting thoughts Cheery and Foxgloves... much food for thought.

milann

Foxgloves ….that’s exactly how my parents did their garden. We were trying to decide when garden centre became a thing. I don’t remember going to one as a child. I remember buying bare root roses in Woolies and dad buying some plants at a gardening club but it was mainly swapping with friends and family.

rtandon27

Lovely post FG!

Very similar reasoning on dividing of house hold 'work' here, but with OH taking early retirement, some of the things I used to do have gone to him, the bulk of the cooking & the cleaning for instance.  I still fiercely retain the washing and caring of clothes & often have to remind OH of things that need doing, but he does these happily once he knows they need doing.

Cheery_Daff

Lovely post indeed Foxgloves, thank you for adding your ponderings! I confess things aren't always divided up in the manner I would choose in this household for various reasons... which probably doesn't help with my feeling that sometimes things feel like work when they really 'shouldn't' 🙄 

Also there is the business of leisure-based work - the admin type stuff that goes along with a cheerful activity that you're doing for fun...

Anyway, I am currently sat in the greenhouse with a nice cup of tea, talking to my seedlings, and about to do some banking and a blog post, so the blurring of boundaries continues apace on the Cheery Homestead 😂

ladyholly

things in this house are very 1950s plus  Mr LH does  all the car stuff (I dont drive now) other than if I have put stuff in it which makes a mess, he trims the couple of trees in the rockery and does the odd bit of diy.  I think thats about it. Its always been that way even when he retired and I was still working full time. Having said thats its partly my own fault as he says I should ask him to do things but while I am asking I might as well do it and know its done. Case in point about three weeks ago he said he would cut the grass after 2 weeks I gave up waiting and did it myself. If I remind him I am nagging if I dont I should have done as he had forgotten.  I cant win but after 50 years I dont think things will change.

badmemory

My DS who lives with me, knows I have problems with walking & part of that is bending to pick things up off the floor.  I once left something for 2 weeks in an obvious place that he walked passed several times a day.  I'm sure it's a man thing.

2Scratters

Morning Peeps,
the weather is grand at this time. However, it is also the downfall to getting the garden watered where needed.
 I made a purchase from shopping at home for a particular item.  It turned out we actually had 2 black tubs (those that builders seem to use with handles on - can't think of the name right now) that were stored over the fence at the back of the workshop. I chose the best one to work with and have now used it 3 times this week by catching the shower water with it in the bath. We previously left the shower water in the bath and drew it from there. I clearly spend too long in the shower as I am nearly filling it up at the moment. Need to get the timer back out    DH is not too sure about standing in the bucket, he'll be fine is only takes a size 7 (and that only because he can't get a 6.5  )
Re the house v leisure I suppose it can vary may depend on your mood - it does with me. Days I enjoy ironing, days I don't, same with anything that needs doing. I do however sort the finances out, do budgets run the house. This has ended up as my job. I really don't mind doing that but DH shirks money responsibility, why? I have no idea, yet he has always tipped up all his money which I had never asked for. 


2 Scratters xx

Suffolk_lass

@2Scratters in our motorhome we have a limited fresh water tank so the protocol is get yourself wet, water off, get washed, water on, rinse and off in about 4 minutes.

I was busy with bees so didn't initially see the garden pics but it is lovely - very cottage garden! We used to have loads of honesty in with the stocks and foxgloves when we moved here but two people helping me with the garden confused it with garlic mustard and systematically eradicated it (and the persicaria I was allowing to spread in a shrub bed to keep down the nettles). Our garden used to be a chicken farm and the nettles still fight to come back every year.

2Scratters

@Suffolk_lass envy of your motorhome already  I really can do the 4 minute shower I get everything all ready and then go! Fortunately I have short hair and can still do that in 4 mins. Last year I had got it down to a fine art even by getting in the cool shower straight way and I mastered 90 seconds (no hair wash in that one!) need to get my act together again. This also reminds of a time we were competing in motocross and we had a assemble yourself shower enclosure and a 5 litre garden pump spray put in some warm water and 2 families we took in it turn to support each other in outdoor showering. We felt like royalty at our resourcefulness and cleanliness 

 2 Scratters xx