Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Baileys_Babe

That is good news that they have ruled out both bowel and ovarian cancer. You must feel very relieved 🤗

Humdinger1

Dearest, darling @foxgloves you have made my day!  Such excellent news love Humdinger xx 

rtandon27

So glad that you received positive news!

doingitanyway

Pleased to read your health news. 
Jealous of your 'garden pickings'

CRANKY40

I'm happy to know that the news is good 😊

foxgloves

Morning Campers!
Thanks for all your supportive comments. I think I may still be looking at surgery, but hopefully, with both problems being on the same side & in close proximity, they might be able to do both together? I don't know & must stop overthinking it & wait until I see the Consultant next month to discuss options & hear what he recommends.

Well, the sun is shining, although it is chilly & I have fetched a shawl. I haven't planned much for today, but on the money saving/old-style front, today looks something like this:
*Sort clean laundry & iron the minimum I can get away with (done).
*Do a couple of small financial tasks which I couldn't do yesterday as didn't have the figures (done).
*Week 2 groceries came in at £8.31 under budget.
*Had a conversation with Mr F about the state of the freezers. They are both rammed as I had to fit in our fish box order yesterday. We had a quick revisit of our August master meal plan & it does look as though something will come out of the freezer on most days. The tomatoes are growing well but ripening only very slowly because of the lack of sun. Reminded him that when they do ripen, we will need space for freezing home made pasta sauces, tomato soup, tomato & lentil soup, etc......all the things I like to make from our crop (& we both like to eat). I am aiming to bottle some tomatoes as well, if necessary to deal with a potential glut (v likely).........UNLESS the evil blight strikes. My friend went in her greenhouse yesterday & was hit by the horrible smell of blight. I am going to continue de-leafing around the lower stems of our plants to allow more air to circulate. With ripening being so behind, blight would be a disaster atm. I have only grown 1 blight-resistant variety this year & only a very few of those - the others will succumb to it if it is around. We have had big problems with it in the past, especially in wet summers. Ah well, we will watch & see what happens.
*Would like to sort out our strawberry containers & peg down the best of the runners into pots - either today or tomorrow." 
*Very easy meal tonight as I'm doing pav bhaji again with the leftovers I froze & rolls I baked yesterday. Mr F requested "loads of wokked courgettes" with it. Excellent!
*Continue knitting for presents bag.
*Crochet a few more little granny squares for the first of the new cat blankets (I'm enjoying seeing something useful & pretty appear from the tiniest balls of leftover stash yarn).
The day is yet young, so I may well do other things too, but first I am going to think about breakfast, & more importantly, firing up the coffee machine.
All the best, everyone, for a decent day,
F x

Crazycatlady2

So pleased to see you had good news even if health things are continuing 

im waiting for a sample being tested from a growth I had removed which I’m assured is nothing but that slight worry is still there 

I pulled some weeds out my bed the carrots are in yesterday and accidentally pulled out a 1cm carrot….I put it back in as not sure that’s going to help feed 5 of us 😂 tbh the carrots are usually eaten by the rabbits and dog rather than us but as the last rabbit died I’m sure they will all still get eaten by us if any good 

Kantankrus_Mare

Good news re the scan results Foxgloves! Bit of weight off your shoulders. 

Ive grown green beans this year which have just started producing. Wont use them straight away so advice on freezing needed. Do you blanche or just freeze in usable amounts?

foxgloves

Hello @Kantankrus_Mare m'dear, Glad to hear you are still growing stuff. Re beans, I always do them the same. I top & tail them & cut them to the length we want to eat, then tip them into boiling water for barely a minute to blanch. I freeze them in 2-person amounts. They freeze very well & it's nice to have some for winter use when french beans in the UK shops are usually flown in from Kenya, etc. 
F x
They are also an ingredient in 2 recipes I like to make - a Hairy Biker veg curry & one I've been making for years which is a sausage casserole cooked in cider.

CRANKY40

The Best Friend and I took a bin bag full of leaves off our tomatoes on Sunday. Ours are all outside though and I planted some marigolds in between them which have grown bigger than any marigold I've seen before so hopefully they soaked up some of the spare rainwater.