Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Suffolk_lass

Chillies are better under cover, or very protected - a tub on a sunny wall if no greenhouse or conservatory windowsill. If you want to try an easy cherry tomato @2Scratters, look for sungold - it is an orange one, sweet as err, sweets, and providing you protect it until the last frosts have done, water it (twice a week, one of these with a bit of liquid feed) and pop it in fresh compost, it will give you plenty. I always grow from seed and I pot on when the pant roots are coming through underneath, into a pot 1cm bigger on all sides (and 1cm deeper), water it then, and then let it get a bit dry so the roots go looking for moisture and it gets stronger. A cane to let it grow up once it is in its last pot (for me, this is sometimes half a grow-bag, held around the waist until the compost drops and shakes down either side, before cutting in half. With a few holes near the bottom, in a drip tray or a bigger pot.

Wanna_Bee_Free

Hi Foxgloves, I love your diary and am an avid reader! Thank you for all you do on here. I am delurking to let you know that the shop you buy a new torso are going into administration in case anyone needs to use up vouchers or gift cards... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68261784

foxgloves

@2Scratters - I agree with @Suffolk_lass that chillies need to be indoors under glass. It helps to think about where things grow in their natural habitat & chillies are indigenous to hot countries. I grow mine in an unheated greenhouse but they are started off in a heated propagator indoors, then the seedlings go on a warm bedroom windowsill, gradually being acclimatised to cold conservatory for a while before finally being moved to the greenhouse, where they are still cloched & bubble wrapped overnight until the temperatures warm up. I freeze most of our chilli crops, but if I have grown the long red cayenne types, then I also dry some. It's easy to do - my method is always to use a needle through the calyx to thread them onto a long piece of cotton which I then hang somewhere warm & sunny until they are dry. They can be packed into air-proof jars whole or zizzed up in a food pro to make chilli flakes.
Re tomatoes - in my experience, the biggest problems are blight (can wipe out an entire crop in a bad year, although thankfully we haven't had it for many years now), lack of feeding (they are big hungry plants) & overwatering at the young plant stage as roots do not want to be sitting in cold waterlogged soil.
F x

2Scratters

@Suffolk_lass @foxgloves thanks for the heads up. I have clearly been cruel and just put them outside. I will strive to do better this year. It will also be a needs must as I have every intention of leaving my current employment soon 

Not sure how you find money, yet yesterday I came across ( I have 5 bank accounts) 2 accounts with the same name on a savings pot and a good quantity of money sat in each titled House keeping money. I allocate £250 per pcm pay day and move out 200 in cash (only when it runs out) into a wallet where we diary purchases. I have amalgamated the money into the best paying interest and we have £700  This is likely to get swallowed up during the year where I will have little income but intend to do far better than of late. Now HMRC have notified me I MAY owe them over £400  - How they figure that out when I am not earning no where as much at the beginning of the tax year. They have changed the codes on my pensions so I won't even know how much I will be getting to be able to budget. 

aye well - have a good week all

2 Scratters xx

foxgloves

@Wanna_Bee_Free - Hello & welcome. Do feel free to de-lurk some more, as we like contributions & discussions on here. Thank-you for your positive comments about my diary. I did start my original diary to show that even long standing non-budgeting fritterers can change their ways, so if I have helped even one or a small handful of people think it is worth persevering towards financial responsibility (& with it greater security) then it has been worthwhile, as well as regular postings helping keep my behaviour on the straight & narrow too!

Yes, thanks for the link. I had head that news & I do feel sad about it as this is a brand I have used in one way or another all my adult life. I am hoping that shops will at least remain in the biggest cities & that there will still be an online offer, although my use of online tends to be linked to businesses which also have a high street offer, as I enjoy real shopping much more than sitting at a laptop ordering things online.
I don't think I am that surprised by the news really. I had heard that customer numbers were dropping & I think over the past 3 or 4 years or so, this has been addressed by rising prices. Now, don't get me wrong, some of the skincare ranges are fab - their Oils of L*fe moisturiser is among the best I've ever used, but there are now a lot more sustainable brands, so they no longer have their USP. It also took rather a long time imo to get back to their original policy of providing refills. When I was a student back in the 80s, it was a trendy, ethical brand & much used by young people. At some point along the way, they have gone upmarket in the feel of their stores & products & have probably lost a lot of the younger generation who loved the fun & 'different' nature of visiting. I think the staff must be trained to leap on customers as soon as they enter the premises. I am an assertive person & have no problems saying "I have just come into browse, thanks. I will ask you if I require any help", but I know more reserved people who have avoided the shop rather than go through this overly pushy approach every time. While I also love a free sample or to test things, I do not need someone coming up to try & squirt handcream onto my hands while I am looking at products. I had to explain last time that my next shop was the bookshop & I didn't want to be leaving greasy marks from handcream on the gifts I was buying. Neither do I wish to have the backs of my hands exfoliated every time I go in! So I really hope there will still be a shop in at least one of the 2 cities near to us, but I can see myself that there are changes which could usefully be made to bring in new audiences.
Very good loyalty scheme. Only £50's worth of spending needed to earn a £5 voucher & when this is added to the frequent 20% or 15% discount codes or 3 for 2 deals, it certainly all helps reduce the price paid at the till.
I was also very sorry when M*ns**n lst its hight street presence. We used to have a lovely branch in our small market town, but now we don't even have one in the main city centre. They have opened a new branch of their accessories shop there but it is barely bigger than a kiosk & I was very disappointed as this was one of my favourite stores. Online presence of clothes shops is largely irrelevant to me as I am curvy, only just over 5'3" & I need to try clothes on first without the faff of repacking to send back & exchange. 
F

Suffolk_lass

For a while they also had a shop at home (like Tupperware) option (as my cousin's daughter was an agent). I have no idea if they still do.

Sun_Addict

Oh that’s sad about the B shop. I used to go in there a lot but recently put off by being hassled to death by sales assistants despite not being afraid to say no I’m just looking if I need help I’ll ask. It just puts me off and I’m usually out of there pretty sharpish to somewhere I can browse in peace. 

foxgloves

Hello Sunday Savers,
It's been a different weekend to what we intended, as by Friday afternoon, I was convinced I was going down with something - headachy, bunged up, sneezing, not feeling the love. Next day, the headache was worse but the other symptoms had gone. The headache helpfully decided to linger until the evening so we postponed our planned trip for a balcony breakfast & walk at a not too far away gorge. Mr F used his day to get all sorts of jobs done, but I sat around like a wet weekend & achieved virtually nothing. Felt a lot better by bedtime & no sign of the headache today. I wonder if my system was fighting off the little start of a virus, idk. 
Anyway, back to my usual self this morning, so up with a mug of ginger tea & feeling more like it. Today's helpful budgety things:
*Went for breakfast in our local village farm shop as we'd missed out yesterday & wanted to have a nosy at their refurb. Very nice. Paid from Personal Spends so budget-neutral.
*Went around village garden centre pricing up various materials, stuff we will need to buy to progress planned projects - things like sacks of pebbles, an extension water butt, annual compost supplies, grow bags etc. I can ensure funds for these are budgeted in over the next month or so.
*Resisted temptation. Beautiful primulae. I could have chosen a dozen with ease, & as I was treating myself from my Spends, I did intially think I would choose 6, but then I tuned in to Common Sense FM & remembered that if I actually get around to splitting up Mum's pink primroses, I could make at least 50 new plants completely free. Of course that was the most sensible decision as they badly need to be divided. If you lived nearby, you would all be waking up to overnight deliveries of free pink primroses! I have also spotted a few self-sown wild primroses at the bottom of our garden so that will be a few more. So, in the end, I chose just 2 primulae, to provide a couple of different colours. Hopefully I will be dividing those up next year as well. 
*Checked for surveys - did 1 YouGov & an Ips*s. No PAs for me today but noted my current Feb earnings now £21-12 so will work on this over the coming week.
*A 'free' roast dinner today using the pork slices & gravy I froze last time. Mr F is going to make a tray of roast veg to go with them & I am hoping he will also use up the remains of a savoy cabbage.
*Free & easy packed lunch for tomorrow as Mr F made plenty of cauliflower cheese last night & has popped the leftovers in a container to take to work.
*Still to do - Synchronise our diaries & just chat over the week. Only takes 10 or 15 mins over a coffee & saves us money in the long run in several ways, as being organised always does. Even things like knowing which work days require a packed lunch, late shifts, ability to pop into a non-local shop to pick something up for a better price, etc.
I am intending to finish my book this afternoon - the novel I received for Christmas. I shall miss all the characters when I have finished it. Will also choose my next book from my charity bookshop pile. I have a couple by Lisa Jewel from the 99p shelf - I haven't read anything by her before so will see if they are my kind of thing. Will also be progressing my knitting. 
I would like to move a few things forward over the coming week so am aiming for lots of productivity. Anyone else feeling the same?
Enjoy your Sundays,
Love F x

foxgloves

@Sun_Addict - Yes, I am wondering if that Tupperw*re party type strand of their business has stopped as a while back I seem to remember someone selling lots of their stuff on a market stall & I did think she might have been selling off all her agent's stock.
Yes, some of them get the message about being left in peace to browse, but not others. I said to an assistant on one occasion, "Actually, no, I haven't come into buy that (whatever it was they were pushing) & actually, I've noticed that I actually tend to buy MORE if I am left on my own to browse". You can't get much clearer than that! On the plus side, I have been told many times in there that I have good skin, so it's not all bad, lol & I do really like a lot of the products.
F

PennysIntoPounds

Glad you fought off whatever was rudely attempting to make you feel unwell. No-one else needs to get ill, I am very much taking one (or several!) for the team here!