Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

P.S. Still have lots of 🥒🥒🥒 left & doubtless more of the fiends to pick tomorrow after all today's rain.
I shall soon look like a 🥒!
F

PennysIntoPounds

I'm most envious of all your delicious-sounding courgette meals. Nice to hear from you, hope the unexpected visitors were a pleasant surprise. 
Very annoying about the leak though, possibly plug it with a courgette? 

Sniblet

Hello there @foxgloves! How lovely to have happened upon your fabulous diary entries which are as amusing as they are edifying. I am relatively new to the forum and not a regular visitor but I will make time to come and see what you are up to more regularly. I love the idea of frugality and as a Finance Officer I love nothing more than finding ways to make my cash go further. 

Today I decided to open a new (Issue 9 if anyone is in the least bit interested!) Instant Access Secure Trust savings account so that I can port my old one (Issue 7 which has not seen an uplift in AER% this time around) into this new account. Bit of a faff, if I'm honest, but probs worth it in the long run. As a keen lover of an Excel spreadsheet (other spreadsheets are available)  I've devised one which works out my total AER% equivalent across my tax free (ISA) savings and taxable savings accounts and I love playing the numbers as I open accounts and move things around. Yup, I'm scintillating when I'm in the zone!!

I've also just opened a new First Direct bank account and with the switch I'll earn a lovely £175 for the privilege. 
Plus I'll get access to a 7% regular savings account to boot. 

I've also made justified complaints to the bank etc. when there has been call for it and have bagged £100's - with a smile- over the years.

Meanwhile I'm sorry to hear about your white goods carking episode earlier this year; I had a dishwasher break on me over Xmas and managed to buy a new one with some John Lew*s vouchers, using a cashback site and a card with rewards. On delivery and removal of my old machine, JL managed to scrape the wall and I got £ back from them. The delivery driver also failed to take the entire dishwasher (he left the top by accident) so that saved me again on the recycling cost. I should also add that said dishwasher was a close relative of a Which best buy so I called up Bosch to ask what the difference was between the best buy and the model I was going to purchase - they told me the one letter difference in the product code was that mine had a cutlery basket instead of a cutlery top drawer, but IT WAS THE SAME DISHWASHER!!
In addition the dishwasher was discounted by JL, so that my new dishwasher which should have been £630 ended up costing me an equivalent of £215 - total bargain! 

Sorry to witter on... I shall now leave with a cheery wave and say how lovely it is to pick up tips from yourself and the other good people on this forum. Thank you to everyone for making this forum just priceless! 

Swayingseaweed

Wish our courgette plants were giving more, think it's to do with the constant rain and lack of sun. We make courgette, mint and feta cheese cakes - Delia smith recipe. 
Seaweed x 

carolbee

foxgloves said:

@Sun_Addict - If you lived nearer to my bit of the county, I would be leaving stealth packages of them on your doorstep in the dead of night!
F

I think it’s worth travelling many miles to deliver the little/medium/large green zeppelins. I’m going out in camouflage later...  

rtandon27

I've very envious of your homegrown bounty FG!  If only you were closer, we'd be by to take some of the blighters off your hands!  As it stands, we are buying ours from Mr S - currently on special a pound for a pound, very reminiscent of our in town market stalls

Coincidentally, we also had courgette fritters tonight SK style - but without the creamy garnish.  They are so easy to make, that OH promises he'll do them on his own next time - we used ours as a side with a Charlie B!gham tikka masala as the main - a bargain from a Waitflower 2G2G bag clocking in at a whole 72p!!!

Suffolk_lass

I like to have 15 or 20 bags of three prepped courgettes in the freezer, all quartered lengthways and chopped ready for winter soup-making with two carrots, two onions, a stock pot, some herbs and about a quarter teaspoon of lazy chilli - makes 8 lunch portions, and warrants a shared boursin in foil or a little swirl of single cream, to make it extra special to serve.

I also make courgette and lime cake by Nigella (it freezes well without the frosting that I rarely bother with) - I make them in 1lb loaf tins, two to a quantity. And the BBC Good Food carrot, courgette and orange cake (did I get that from you @foxgloves?)  Both are lovely cup of tea additions. 

I picked four (or was it five) last night as I was afraid they would be marrows if left in the overnight rain! Bring them on, I say! 

Kantankrus_Mare

foxgloves said:

Evening m'dears,
Well I finally emerged from the kitchen & apart from doing 2 surveys & baking bread rolls, all today's small wins have involved our current proliferation of a certain long green vegetable:
1kg courgettes went into another batch of chutney.
500g went into a 2nd batch of yummy potato, courgette & cheddar soup.
2 courgettes were sliced for adding to tonight's stir-fry.
1 was grated & used to make a batch of cheese & courgette muffins.
I am.now relaxing on the sofa with Ash on my lap. 
Oh.....& NOT money saving, the leak above our landing window is back. Somebody mended it for us while here with a long ladder for another job & it has held beautifully. Unfortunately it has succumbed to the constant wazz-downs we have had for many days now, so bah to that!
F x

Swap out the cheddar for stilton (if you like stilton of course) in the soup recipe. Total game changer for me. Its so delicious, in fact we have some defrosting for lunch later.
Ive also got a fair amount lounging in the salad drawer awaiting my attention. OH has a risotto planned and fritters will be on the agenda no doubt. I have a lovely gousto recipe for courgettes, pasta, tomato and three cheeses which features regularly at this time of year. I dont like courgette on their own as a veg but they are quite versatile as an ingredient.
Fingers crossed for a good result from your scans. X

Cheery_Daff

Have you tried dehydrating courgettes?? I did it a while back, when I was dehydrating a glut of shop bought reduced mushrooms and had some space on a dehydrator tray. They're ace! They've lasted several months, I throw a handful of them and a handful of mushrooms into a risotto, they end up with a much nicer texture than normally cooked. Obviously you can add them to anything, but I really like them in a risotto. Sadly my home grown ones didn't get sown or translated early enough so I currently don't have any courgettes, and suspect I won't get any this year 🙄

starnac

Ooh dehydrating them sounds like a good idea. My sister has a dehydrator and loves experimenting. I will send some her way.