Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

starnac

foxgloves said:

.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?"......
F x

This is the content that will make me come back have subscribed!

@CRANKY40 I love the idea of soup kits, thank you

Makingabobor2

Interesting opinions about the peat free compost.  My potatoes in large tubs have done ok, but the carrots in a very large veggie trough are not very good at all this year, and I did buy peat free compost,  but a different brand than last year. I don't know much about it all TBH, I'm a novice really, but trying hard to learn more. 

foxgloves

@starnac - Well, you are very welcome. Do feel free to chip in. We like a discussion on here.
@Makingabobor2 - You will find that as with many practical things, gardening involves a lot of trial & error - also there can be things which fail when they have been perfectly successful in previous years. I had heaps of aubergines last year & the year before, but this year, the plants just said they weren't growing & that was the end of it (& eventually them!)
F

foxgloves

Well m'dears, only a short post for today as I haven't really been up to much in the way of money saving. Here are today's small wins:
*Haven't spent any money today.
*Went out early to collect my horrid medicine from the X-ray dept, which meant we were able to find street parking nearby, thus saving us the grand sum of £1.80.
*Sat down at my desk up in Foxgloves HQ & went through my credit card statement properly. It was showing a balance of £140 but I knew I had already paid some of those transactions off since the statement was issued. As expected, there is actually only £7.10 outstanding, which I will deal with next week on Big Budget Day. Mr F's credit card statement also arrived, so he went through it & added the relevant online transactions to his Personal Spends before passing it onto me for paying the household stuff (i.e petrol, groceries, etc) off when I do the budget.
*Lots of PA surveys around today. I'm now up to £38.05. Mr F also over £30.....he got a £15 one this morning. I have ordered 7 certificates from the GRO (part of my genealogy project) which costs £49. My aim is to use my July survey earnings to off-set as much of this as possible, I wonder how close I can get to the total?!
*Have borrowed 3 cookbooks from the library for perusal over the weekend - all are middle-eastern cookery themed as I wanted to look for a few different things to make. Love a good cookbook, but I don't buy any these days (I have heaps) unless I have borrowed them from the library first to assess just how many recipes I am likely to make.
*Picked a few blooms from the garden for my purple flower bottle. This was a present from Mr F a few years ago from D*rtington Glass. I absolutely love it - both the purple colour & the fact that the narrow neck means that even a single flower, small posy or stem of winter berries or trail of interesting ivy look good in it.
*Feels like a free meal tonight, as I made sufficient tuna fish pie yesterday to feed us for 2 days. I reminded Mr F that there are carrots & beans ready prepped in the freezer if he wants a change from courgettes, but he apparently DOESN'T want a change from them as he is really enjoying them. At this rate, there will be room in the vegetable basket for the ones I will almost certainly need to pick tomorrow after all today's rain.
Oh I can hear Mr F splitting up a cat squabble because it sounds as though Soot & Ash both wanted to be first into the kitchen for their dinner. Soot is very keen on winning this daily contest & will leap right over Ash in order to get ahead! They are both given their bowls at EXACTLY the same time, so why this is still such a thing, I don't know. They both love their food, but Soot's machinations to try & get extra food by fair means or foul is something to behold.
Anyway, I am yakking on much longer than I planned, 
Peace & solidarity amongst all money savers,
F x

milann

Good luck with the horrid medicine…..I’m assuming it’s the same as mine….2 packs with an A and B. It’s truly horrid. I take mine on Thursday. I had a phone call today to check I’d received it…so can’t even cop out saying it didn’t arrive 😂😂
I didn’t do well with my courgettes last year but I haven’t done well with anything this year. I’ve been away a lot but paid the teenager next door to water for me….and his mum will have been on the case. Even my sweet peas haven’t done as well as usual in the rubbish compost…and I always use peat free - this is just a different brand which nearly had half trees in it 😡

Sun_Addict

I’ve heard about the horrid medicine from friends. I’m assuming this is the one where you can’t stray far from the bathroom 😬

On a separate note, how many pouches of cat food do yours get through? My two got through a whole box of 40 in just a week! Having said that the young cat is still growing and very active. 

ladyholly

A sriend has reccomended Westland John Innes compost from various diy stores. (they do John Innes  1, 2, & 3). I havent tried it myself yet but thought I would pass on the info. It is peat free.

foxgloves

@milann - My horrid medicine begins with 'G', thankfully only one bottle, because apparently some people get two! And 3 different nurses warned me of its......er.....shall we say effectiveness? 

@Sun_Addict, our cats eat a total of 35 pouches per week. They have 2.5 pouches each per day plus 15g of Perf*ct F*t  biscuits, which according to the info on the biscuit pack is the right amount for their size. Soot is 8 & Ash is 3 & they both adore food. Soot thinks he should have waaaayyyy more biscuits than this, but he has no brake on them. I honestly can't imagine an amount of these particular bics where he'd decide he'd eaten enough & walk away leaving some in the bowl. He thinks 15g is me taking the p*ss but it is genuinely the recommended amount with the addition of 2.5 pouches.
F 

foxgloves

@ladyholly - Thanks, I haven't tried that one. I've found the peat-free I bought this year to be ok for most things, except the transplanting of certain things already mentioned. I think I will write a detailed letter to the manufacturer & see if they respond.
F

Debsnewbudget

Tried John In number 1 - not recommended