Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Hello everyone. Thanks for all your comments. Interesting to hear what people are growing & about compost problems too. I think these issues are quite widespread. I wonder if the big brand manufacturers of peat-free acknowledge them. I might write to them & see what they suggest......though they will probably say it's marvellous stuff & I'm doing it all wrong. I'll see if I get round to writing a letter.

Pleasant day so far, &  few money saving wins.....
*Grocery online order arrived & was a couple of quid lower than we expected. Think something must have gone on offer overnight, probably a fruit 'two for' or similar. All put away. Soot couldn't understand why, when a nice man brought 80 pouches of Persian Queen to his door, he hasn't been given any. He is still puzzling over this outside the pantry door even now, an hour later!
*Watered greenhouse veg. 
*Finished my family tree research so definitely will not be paying any related subscriptions next month. 
*PA July earnings up to £26-71. Must remember to check daily. 
*Fed sourdough jar ready to bake a loaf tomorrow.
*Making tuna fish pie for tonight & instead of the carrots & french beans I intended to serve with it, Mr F has requested stir-fried courgettes! What a result, as I have heaps of the fiends in the veg basket & there will doubtless be more to pick tomorrow. Have I told you about my tuna fish pie? Well back in the cretaceous era when I was at school studying Food & Nutrition O-level, we used to have occasional weeks where we were told to devise our own version of something we had learned to make. On this particular occasion, when we'd been making fish pies, our mission was to make a variation which would feed a family on a budget. I decided to use 2 tins of tuna & a hardboiled egg in parsley sauce, topped with mashed potato......or course as it was 1978, I also garnished the top with sliced tomato & a sprig of curly parsley. Anyway, it turned out that even my fussy Mum & even fussier sister would eat this with enjoyment, & my Dad (& later, my student housemates) loved it, so it has remained in my repertoire & is brought out occasionally when we have plenty of tins of tuna in the pantry & sprouty potatoes which need using. I think I will go full la-di-dah fancypants today & add 2 or 3 chopped homegrown spring onions too. You can be sure I've made up some powdered milk too, so I can make sufficient parsley sauce without raiding supplies required for coffee. I always have an own-brand bag of powdered milk in as it is useful if I suddenly decide to make soup or something.
*Postie brought my July CC statement this morning. I will have a proper look at it tomorrow, but I have cast a quick eye over it & I can't see any nasty surprises. balance looks higher than I expected, but I have actually paid off a couple of those transactions already, so no problems.
*Caught the early morning weather forecast & as there was no rain expected, stripped the bed & washed everything so as to get a good free blow-dry out on the whirlygig.
Well, I am off to the reading bench for a little while with my book.
Take care everyone,
F x

foxgloves

@themadvix - Thanks for the recipe links. I like the idea of salmon with rhubarb (I know mackerel with gooseberries is a bit of a classic) & the kuku frittata thing looks lovely. I have a veggie moussaka recipe somewhere in which courgette slices can be used instead of aubergine, as well as a spicy chickpea stew & a meatball recipe which features courgettes in the sauce. Courgette recipes do tend to catch my eye, as they do insist on arriving in gluts. I do sort of like gluts though, as turn into a squirrel at this time of year, getting stuff put away for winter. Maybe I was born about 6 centuries too late!
F x

ladyholly

Funnily enough a friend and I were talking about peat free compost last night and we said the same as everyong here. I will be trying different ones next year. My main problem is it doesnt seem to hold the water so I am having to water much more and it doesnt seem to provide what the plants need to grow properly.

Humdinger1

@foxgloves thanks for the gardening and cooking chat, as ever.  You must be feeling chipper about a certain by-election result in Selby, no?! I helped with the result in the south-west and do feel that things are now heading in the right direction.   Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

starnac

Hi foxgloves, just popping in on the suggestion of EH after I mentioned a glut of courgettes. Just wanted to thank you for the recipe suggestions you've posted. 

foxgloves

@Humdinger1- You're welcome! Yes, you are right that my mood had a lift as soon as I heard the election results. Uxbridge v disappointing. So many people voting on a single issue does skew the results. Mr F & I were discussing this while waiting at the x-ray dept earlier to collect more horrid medicine. I can understand lots of families will be struggling financially atm & changing their vehicle for a greener model is a scary unwanted expense. However, as Mr F said, it can also be interpreted as how very far away we are from making the kind of changes to our daily lives which will be necessary from a climate change point of view. I would like to see a broader range of ideas tested out where vehicles are concerned, starting with a 25% reduction in annual car tax for households who have only one vehicle.
But yes, both other election results.....fab!
F x

foxgloves

Hi Starnac, You're welcome! I love growing, cooking, preserving etc, so these topics do feature quite often on my diary. I think it's a good year for courgettes. Even the pale, creamy Lebanese variety, which I sometimes find can be a bit grumpier than their darker green cousins, are busy producing fruits like mad. Hope we get some Guatemalan blue squashes swelling too, as they make fab macaroni cheese, Hairy Biker curry, etc, as well as being lovely roasted as a side veg.
F

foxgloves

@ladyholly - Yes, I think many gardeners are saying the same. I have found pots utterly dried to a crust on top, but at the bottom, the roots have been sitting in mush. I would like detailed info from the manufacturers on using these peat-free formulae effectively. 
I hope Bear is more comfortable in the cooler weather. Soot certainly is. He had a small slice of ham this morning as a treat & spent the next 5 mins racing up & down the garden meowing at woodpigeons.
F

CRANKY40

I make courgette soup, let it cool then add some garlic flavoured soft cheese and blend. It makes a delicious creamy soup. I freeze courgette "soup kits" by slicing 3 courgettes and 1 onion per freezer bag. 

I like the gardening and cooking chat here - it's never boring and I frequently learn something new. Good luck with the nasty medicine.

foxgloves

@CRANKY40 - What good ideas! I might try both of those. I'm glad you like the gardening & cooking chat on my diary. I do too, & always enjoy reading everyone's comments & ideas. I do sometimes type my daily diary post though & think it sounds 'samey' compared to the last one. That, however is my life. Back when we we were both agonising over the pros & cons of me taking VR, one of the deal-breakers (as we still had a mortgage & no savings) was that I would need to be putting my time into running the house in an old-style way......budgeting, cooking from scratch, preserving, growing food, making presents, planning, energy saving, all the usual stuff, etc. I had worked in a management role which required a strong level of organisation so I just applied this to my new daily role & it has worked for us. It does mean, however, that my diary tends to cover the same range of activity. I don't have a problem with this in that I have learned that it is the regular small good habits which combine to make a difference to our finances (gone are all those years where I grumbled that I just didn't earn enough to save......rubbish, I did earnt enough, but chose to spend it all & more, every month)....but I do sometimes wonder if people are thinking "breadmaking, picking courgettes, knitting socks for presents, budget updates,,,,,wasn't she doing all that yesterday?"......actually, courgettes v bad example as am having to pick them almost on a daily basis atm! I enjoyed my job very much before all the austerity cuts & vanity project restructures, but I do like my old-style, simpler lifestyle too. It fits in very well with the rhythms of the seasons & the ebb & flo of natural life.
F x