Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

And now for today's post......
Despite feeling generally p*ssed off these last few days, I have been reasonably productive. I've made really good progress with my genealogy project, finished my green shawl (& I love it) & am making headway with the first of my knitted gifts for the presents bag. Getting on with the genealogy project has a bit of a money saving element, as I pay for the ancestry-type subscriptions from my Personal Spends, but only on a month by month basis. My plan is to get this project finished, then cancel the subscriptions for a few months while I concentrate on other things. This will put around £20 to £40 back into my Personal Spends each month so a big yay to that!
Anyway, today's small money saving wins:
*Securing that local appointment - as I said, 40 miles of petrol saved there, as well as a fair bit of time getting there in rush hour traffic.
*Did meal plans for next week (well, actually our meal plans go from Friday to Friday, but you know what I mean).
*Started writing grocery shopping list - intend to finish that next.
*Mr F received an offer from Sains0's of £10 off a £75 minimum spend plus free delivery. As that is about the amount we have left for the final week of July's grocery budget, it seemed a good way of getting a little bit more for our money. Will place online order tonight.
*Sorted clean laundry & ironed only what needed it, which thankfully was very little.
*Did my mid-month budget check-in. No nasty surprises, so hopefully none will rear their heads before next Big Budget Day on 27th. I had a dizzyingly enormous £2.75 more than I thought I should have had, so used it to offset paying Mr Wheelie-bin cleaner. I did have some transfers of funds to do following our city centre trip on Saturday when I bought a few presents, so I got all those done first, & while paying these transactions off my credit card, noticed that despite only receiving a £10 voucher from loyalty points fairly recently, I have over £6 again already. 
*Was invited back to do the 2nd part of a survey - £3 for a very few questions - putting my July PA earnings total so far at over £25.
*Use-it-up meal tonight as it's jacket potato night. I intend to have houmous & salad on mine as we have plenty of both. Mr F is apparently "doing something" with a box of lamb leftovers for his. Dessert will be the leftover jelly I didn't eat yesterday when it became clear that I wouldn't need to eat the 'prescribed diet' for dinner because there would be no scan. Mr F insisted on trying a tsp to "see if he still likes jelly".....& guess what, he does!
*Made tomorrow's packed breakfast - there is a container of leftover cheese-topped pesto & courgette pasta in the fridge which will make a good 'free' lunch.
I'd been intending to make some pesto if I had enough time left, as there is loads of basil, but it is a bit late to start all the prep for that now & it is also absolutely chucking it down with rain so I don't fancy squidging down to the greenhouse. It can wait till another day.
Right, I must get out the July meal planner bit of my diary & get on with the grocery shopping list. 
Onwards we go,
F x 

PennysIntoPounds

How incredibly frustrating, I would have been extremely p*ssed off too. Fingers crossed for third time lucky! Well done on all your productivity despite the very trying circumstances

EssexHebridean

Oh Foxgloves - I'm just catching up here, what an awful lot of faffing and nonsense you've had to go through. Bad enough feeling anxious and apprehensive without the whole process being stretched out for far longer than you were expecting. Nothing useful to add, but do please take a virtual hug. 

milann

Will you need to retake the lovely medicinal drink? Totally rubbish that it couldn’t have been done after going through that performance. I’ve got it to look forward to next week 🤢 

Makingabobor2

So sorry to hear the scan didn't go ahead again. Think you have more patience than me,  I'd be telling them what they could do with their procedure and giving up I think. Seriously though, hope they sort you out soon. 
Nice to have a bit of money left over mid month, even if it is only £2.75. I am sitting down with my newly budget book tomorrow and finally sorting it all out before pension day on 24th, been saying that for a while, but real life things kept rearing their head and I never found the time. I have cleared several hours tomorrow, so will get on with it. 

ladyholly

I am so sorry to hear of your latest health trials. It is incredibly frustrating especially when you have to make preparations for tests. Glad you got the more local appointment as it saves so much in time and fuel.

scandimore

Sorry foxgloves. Hope you have something nice to look forward to after the appointment finally does happen. You've been very productive despite riding the rollercoaster, there's no keeping you down!

foxgloves

Thanks for your supportive comments. I started typing a post which sounded a bit too medical for my liking, so am going to tell you how our veg growing is progressing instead:
Tomatoes - 18 plants. 8 different varieties: Beefmaster, Costeluto, Alfresco, Roma, Tigerella, Alicante, Shirley & Oh happy day. All seem to be setting fruit well. 9 in greenhouse & 9 outdoors. Have picked first few ripe fruits this morning.
Cucumbers - Variety 'Telegraph'. 3 plants. Have picked about 20 cukes. There will defo be another 2 but then I think the plants may be done, as they are succumbing to mildew. Fussy b*ggers, cucumbers. If it is rainy & damp, they can get mildew, if it it blazing sunshine they decide unhelpfully to crisp up & get red spider mite, but I am certainly not complaining at 20+ fruits.....salad drawer is full of them!
Aubergines & peppers - Unusually a complete fail this year. Nice sturdy seedlings but once transplanted into their usual 9cm pots, they completely & utterly went into stasis & point-blank refused to put on even half a cm of growth. After many weeks, I composted them. I do have a theory about what went wrong so will see how we go next year. 
Courgettes - 6 plants - 3 varieties - Black beauty, Lebanese & Trombochino (the trombone shaped ones, which we are growing up an archway). Oh. My. Days! Somebody invent a Pill for courgettes.....they just keep coming. I am picking them most days. Good job we like them, esp stir-fried with lots of garlic as a side-veg.
French beans - A few of an earlier yellow variety (seeds leftover from last year) already at picking stage. The main ones are just at the flowering/starting to set pods stage. Hope to get a few bags of these into the freezer as nice to have some 'free' veg once it starts getting more expensive off-season.
Rhubarb - It has Triffiditis. I need to get more picked & processed. Have made chutney. Deciding whether I should make more rhubarb & ginger jam.
Strawberries - Didn't like the hot weather, have finished now, so waiting to harvest some runners to boost stocks next year. Picked about 3 colanders- very nice.
Coriander - Good. 1st sowing has had lots of cuts, 2nd sowing almost at cutting stage. I like this variety - Calypso - it doesn't bolt so quickly & as it has a lower growing point, it provides about 3 cuttings because it re-grows.
Basil - Plenty. A good year for it & very lush-looking atm. I need to make this year's pesto very soon. We have nearly eaten the chard pesto I made back in Spring, so we will be ready for some more to freeze & take us into Winter.
Chillies - Didn't buy new, decided to use up old seed leftover from last year. 5 x Fuego plants are producing well, & 2 x jalopenos are setting fruits quite well.
Squash - We like to grow 'Guatemalan blue' - someone on here years ago gave me some saved seed from her allotment & I have grown these every year since then. They look like huge greyish, pale green/blue rugby balls. Inside the flesh is bright orange & they are very like butternut squash to use. Sweet, mellow & versatile. Hope we get at least 2 or 3 big fruits as they produce a fair few meals. 4 plants.....2 late-sown ones are small & sulky, the 2 earlier-sown ones are romping away & will probably be half-way to Skegness by the time you read this!
Spring onions - 2 varieties. First trough of White Lisbon almost picked & eaten now, North Holland blood-red being left to get a bit bigger as they can be picked at any size. 2nd sowings of both have germinated & will do a final sowing for the year imminently.
Carrots - I don't have huge success with carrots so have just grown a very small trough of the round ones. haven't pulled any yet, but will try them soon.
Rocket & lettuce - Not a great year for either so far, due to NAUGHTY BEAKS!! 2nd lettuce sowing is in modules & waiting to be planted out imminently. Rocket will now wait until Sept for another sowing as I find it does better from an autumn sowing in a re-used growbag in the greenhouse.
Radishes - Have eaten the first pot of these. 2nd sowing looks sturdy but not for long as has flea beetle. Not too bothered about this tbh. I eat them but Mr F only thinks he does & when he finds them in a salad, I've noticed they get picked out.
Chard - Variety 'White silver'. Plants now rallying. Fine when they went out & as we have a problem with sparrows shredding leafy greens, we covered them with netting. Ash then rolled over it....it can't have been comfortable.....slept on the plants, which lowered the netting, putting the plants in reach of beaks........now re-netted, they are rallying. Plenty of time to put on growth as chard is winter hardy - in fact I make our chard pesto in spring with the last of the leaves before putting the new sowing out.
Artichokes - I had 3 on the plant this year. I ate 2 (they make a nice lunch dipped in melted butter) & left the 3rd one for the bees, who love them when they flower into a humungous purple thistle.
Garlic - Best ever. Variety = French topadrome. Mr F says he will grow double the quantity for next year. We sow it in October & it is ready for harvest end of June or first week of July. Now strung & hanging from kitchen beam,
Shallots - Another of Mr F's projects. varieties 'Yellow moon' (?) & 'Red sun'. Very good quality bulbs. Now lifted & drying off in the shed.
Grapes - Fewer bunches than last year as I had too many, so have thinned them & they are swelling nicely.
Blackberries & pears - Blackberries just starting to turn red. Not many pears this year, which usually means we will have a lot more next year. I think the tree will really benefit from all the rain we have been getting. I don't think the heatwave last year will have done it any good at all.
I will put a post on for today, but must go & deal with some pizza dough first.
If you are not interested in growing food, I do hope you scrolled past this to a different diary. I know it's not for everyone!
F x

foxgloves

And now for today's post.......
Have spent quite a bit of time on my genealogy project as......
*Both subscriptions expire on 5th Aug. I am paid up until then. This is ample time to finish my current research project, meaning I can cancel the auto-renew (which I will do in advance) then I can start August's Personal Spends without any prior draw on funds.
*Made bread dough for pizza tonight (already topped with various veg  - inc courgettes! as well as anchovies & cheese. Have done a round-up of salad in the fridge to eat with it.
*Today's pickings = a marrow (whoops, that one got past me!), lots of courgettes, bunch of spring onions, first few ripe tomatoes, a chilli  & some basil.
*Tried a new recipe which I found on BBC Good Food's website - Courgette, potato & cheddar cheese soup. Best thing about it is that it uses a whole kilo of courgettes! And it's yummy! Recipe said 8 portions but as I don't want 'starter' type sized portions & prefer to eat soup as lunch or dinner-sized portions, I reduced this to 5 generous portions. I hope Mr F likes it too, as if so, it'll defo be one to make during courgette season.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Fed a flour bag full of veg scraps to the wormery. They are scoffing their way through everything & I really must harvest the bottom layer of compost as I think most of them will have eaten their way upwards by now,
NOT money saving......missing out on an £8 survey because I don't have an actual physical mouse for my laptop. Never mind, I am intending to step up survey activity tomorrow & Friday, so I'm sure there will be more.
Looking forward to Sewing Bee & an early night. All the screentime today spent on research & typing has made my eyes feel really tired.
 Keep it in your purse, m'dears,
Love to all,
F x

themadvix

Oooh, thanks for the lovely run-down of the veg garden Foxgloves! Although I can't imagine a circumstance where I had too many grapes! 😮 Love your 'naughty beaks' comments - I have that problem at my allotment, although I suspect you view it slightly more fondly as you might actually see the birds that do it.

Re courgette recipe inspiration. Riverford's recipe section is excellent - I particularly like the slow-cooked courgette pasta and the courgette kuku. Not sure if I've shared this before with you, but it's good for (small quantities of) rhubarb and it's savoury: baked salmon with rhubarb.

It has never occurred to me that recipe books are giving starter sized portions - makes me feel so much better when my soup never goes as far as the book suggests!