Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

maggiem

Belatedly catching up but so pleased to read positive scan news and removal from the 2 week pathway. Hoping the consultant, when seen, will talk through options for other problems and these can be resolved quickly. 

And all this talk of rhubarb has me obsessing about rhubarb crumble, my absolute favourite pud! 

milann

I’ve also been looking up anti inflammatory foods…

Hope you manage to avoid surgery but I suppose if it improves things for you it could be worth it in the long run. Like you say though get the facts and weigh the options.
The veggie haul is impressive 👍

weenancyinAmerica

A cat would never try and take advantage of you - haha. We have one that eats across the street and then immediately comes over for more. Later he comes back for treats - from one of my roommates who originally didn't want to even feed the cat. This one brings us towels "in exchange" for the food - we don't know who he is stealing them from. The last one was a full sized beach towel! He is the last of my feral cats - but apparently one of the cats that also eats across the street just had kittens. Neighbor tried to claim our cat was at fault - but he was fixed over 8 years ago. Have had over 30 feral cats fixed over the last 15 years. Fortunately the cost was spread out over a number of years. 

foxgloves

Just popping on to say 'Hi' & thanks for all the comments. I will reply properly tomorrow. I'm ok & have had a decent day on the whole. Ash took himself off to find a cool shady den. Soot began his day producing a sicked-up earthworm!! This did not deter him from starting on his biscuit pester about 10 mins after he'd finished his breakfast. Later he brought in a cricket (his latest obsession) & let it go in the hall. I don't know which of us was jumping about the most, but I finally caught it & put it outside in a flowerbed. 
Today's garden pickings: Carrots, beans, courgettes.
Decent frugal day on the whole. Poor night's sleep though so feeling knackered now. Chat tomorrow.
F x

Debsnewbudget

I started on turmeric powder to help with inflammation and its really worked.  It's the very strong stuff. 

Blackcats

Our house was built just after the war when apparently bricks were rationed so it was originally a fairly modest detached house on a good sized plot with a wide garden.  I imagine that without the shortage of bricks it would have been a bigger house to fill more of the plot.  

My great aunty had bought her 1930's house when new and it had a very long but quite thin garden.  There was a flower bed about half way down that divided the garden and the far end of the garden had apple trees, plum trees and a pear tree.  As a child I remember those trees were very productive and we always seemed to have stewed fruit and custard for pudding when we visited.  At the time I was an Angel Delight kind of a girl so I dreaded another bowl of stewed plums.

Suffolk_lass

foxgloves said:

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.

I'm going to copy you this time and prep my beans like you do for freezing. I have grown all purple French Beans and have a few climbers and runners more than the average family of four can manage, pretty much on a daily basis now. Previous freezing attempts without blanching have had a rubbery quality that means the bags sit there until I can come to terms with the waste and throw them away.

Oh yes, and with so many fewer tomatoes this year I might try bottling some of the ragu pasta sauce I make, having three crates full of empty jars. I'll just do a couple in case it fails, but as you know, I would rather store them in the larder than the freezer as it costs nothing on a shelf. I will make it meat free, in case it fails!

joedenise

I think a meat free ragu is probably more useful than one with meat in.  It’s easy enough to add meat when you’re cooking a meal.

Suffolk_lass

joedenise said:

I think a meat free ragu is probably more useful than one with meat in.  It’s easy enough to add meat when you’re cooking a meal.

That's what I was thinking. Also less costly waste if it doesn't work - and we like vegetable ragu just as much as a minced beef one.

And by the way, having just caught up (temporarily), I too, am glad both horrible cancers have been ruled out. Long may the ramblings (yours especially @foxgloves, but all the posts here) continue. Always entertaining, and often informative!

foxgloves

@PennysIntoPounds - I've lost all confidence on my bike - must get back in the saddle. The leak only happens when rain hits the house from a certain direction atm. Think the guttering may have become blocked again by birds tossing nesting material around.
@CRANKY40 - It does seem a good year for rhubarb. Your visiting black cat sounds very like Soot. He is quick at learning things. On a morning, I usually prime the coffee machine, then dish up their cat biscuits. It took him no time at all to associate the sound of me removing the cone to put in a filter paper with him getting food & he now appears hopefully every time I make coffee.
@maggiem - Thank-you. Crumble is my fave pud too. I love all crumble, although especially gooseberry -  & blackberry & apple.
@milann - That's the thing with surgery, isn't it? Options have to be weighed up. I'd prefer not to have it, but if expert advice is that is would improve things, then I will give it my full consideration. I have been told it could be a gynae & a bowel surgery (the thinking being that both problems were caused by my illness in Spring) but I need to wait & see what is said next month. Am still reading up on anti-inflammatory foods. Have made a list in my notebook & am closely monitoring what things improve or worsen my symptoms as I think that's an important part of managing any condition.
@weenancyinAmerica - Love that you have a towel-stealing cat who visits you! I follow a US cat rescue charity on YouTube - the Flat-bush cats - they are so lovely & the volunteers do such good work with them. 
@Debsnewbudget - Thanks for that feedback. I have been reading about turmeric's anti-inflammatory effects & I may well try a supplement to test if it helps me. I do use it in cooking, although not in therapeutic-type doses, & I start each day with a mug of fresh ginger root slices in a mug of hot water.
@Blackcats - When we moved in, we had 4 old fruit trees - an ancient apple tree, a pear & a plum & greengage. The latter two had to be removed due to disease, followed by our apple tree friend last year as it was dying from the inside out & toppling over (& worryingly close to 'Victor Meldrew's' fence & summerhouse!). We still have our old pear tree - conference pears - & like the apple tree, it may be a similar vintage to our house. I do think 1930s houses are worth considering for their often good-sized gardens.
@suffolklass - I have never had any problems with freezing prepared blanched beans, but they really only need barely a minute before being moved straight into cold water. Thanks....yes, I usually fall into the 'overweight but generally healthy' category so it has been a shock to the system suddenly being plunged into a regime of consultants & tests - I am grateful for all the investigations of course, even though naturally worried about what may be to come, but at the moment I can only work on managing things, so that is what I am doing, as it does help give me some sense of control.
My apologies if I've left anyone out of my replies.
F x