Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Hi Devasha,
I'm assuming you have asked me this because I have covered the tale of our recent car accident here in my DFW diary? Sorry to hear you have been involved in a bump. In answer to your question, I'm afraid I have no idea of the extent to which you are obliged to make good the damage on your neighbour's car. I agree it is going to be annoying if you end up paying to restore bodywork which was already damaged, but I honestly have no idea what your legal obligations are. Might be worth posting your question on the MSE Motoring section of the forum? 
Hope you get it sorted anyway, whatever happens.
F

foxgloves

Afternoon Campers,
Quite a slow-paced day here at Foxgloves Manor. Mr F is on one of his occasional very late shifts today, meaning a later start, so we decided to treat ourselves to breakfast at the village farm shop cafe to help break his long day up a bit. So I'll start with that for today's budget-helping efforts:
*Cafe breakfast paid from from our Personal Spends, so budget-neutral......& less of a hit on my Spends than his, lol, as I didn't have anything which required ordering an 'extra sausage'! Used a full loyalty card for a free cappucino & went halves on the other one.
*Mr F asked me if I also wanted to go to the local garden centre as we were out & about, but I declined. I still have loads of homegrown bedding plants which need dealing with, oodles of jobs to do in the garden & also, I didn't want to be tempted into unplanned purchases.
*Did deferred Monday morning budget updates followed immediately by......
*Mid-month budget check-in. I had been feeling a bit iffy about this, as there were so many different pots being used & transfers of funds flying around all over the place around our holiday week, that I felt maths errors might have been likely. However, everything seemed to be fine. £10 more than I was expecting, but I think this is because when I set May's original budget, I was expecting an extra £10 to be going out along with our mobile phone payment, as we made a donation to the GBBO 'Stand up to Cancer' appeal while watching the programme & that payment isn't collected until a little later in the month. 
*Did a couple of surveys. Will try to pick up any others that might pop up this afternoon.
*Placed an order with the Shop where one might go for a new Body as realised that the 2 x £5 rewards vouchers I have on my account were both due to expire before I am next planning a city centre visit. Qualified for free delivery too, so it was nice to get a £10 reduction of 3 products I like & use regularly.
*Moved another baby squash plant out to the greenhouse. The only ones that haven't germinated from the batch I sowed last week on return from Suffolk are the 3 Lebanese courgettes, which tbf, were older seeds. If nothing has emerged by Thursday, I will re-sow with newer seed. I always give old seed a try though & it is often successful.
*Sewed up my newly-knitted phone sock. I hate having my phone knocking around in my handbag without any protection, but didn't want to buy a new case to fit it following the car tech-related phone swap.
*Experiment with making vegetable crisps using carrots. If the recipe works to my satisfaction, I will try a mix using beetroots, parnsips, etc. I always think that as the sliced veg for these are sooooooo thin & barely amount to half a vegetable's worth in the packet, they are usually an absolute daylight-robbery price in the shops. I like the idea of being able to add my own flavourings too. So I am going to get slicing in a minute, while listening to 'Martin Chuzzlewit' on audio. 
*A little bit of mending, which I will do this evening. 
*Knit some more sleeve......another thing for later.
It's been showery here all day. It stops, the sun tries to come out, then the next rain shower arrives. I keep thinking I should go & plant some more bedding out, but realistically, I think I would just get out my stuff just in time for the next lot of rain, so I will stick to indoor stuff today. As Mr F won't be back until very late, I am Queen Remote Control of the Remote Control People tonight, so will be watching the final episode of Series 2 of 'Blue Lights', then finding something on the Flicks of N to watch with the cats. They don't like it when Mr F isn't back at his normal hometime, so I have to try not to take it personally that they seem to regard me as some kind of 'sloppy second' on such occasions!
Right, off to experiment with these carrot crisps.
F xx

themadvix

Definitely agree about old seed Foxgloves - I've sowed some chard that might even be older than 12 years old and it has come up! I was rather surprised!

My two boys also get put out when Mr MV isn't home as expected, despite the fact that I'm chief feeder and cuddle-giver, so I think they just don't like the change of routine... funny old things

foxgloves

@themadvix - It's defo worth trying old seed. When we were clearing out our old family home following the death of my parents a few years ago, I found an old ice-cream tub of seed packets which Mum had stashed from her gardening magazines, obviously intending to sow them, but with all the stress of Dad's terminal illness, she never got round to it. I couldn't bear to throw them away so brought them back with me & have sown a few packs each year. Last year, I had scented stocks in our front garden which were grown from a pack of that seed dated 'Sow by 2014' & they were lovely! I think I actually still have a pack of sweet william seed from the same stash which might be dated 2012, but I shall still try it! Even if I only get a couple of plants, there will be a gap for them somewhere, & if they don't germinate at all, well I haven't lost anything, have I?
F x

Makingabobor2

Interested to see how you get on with vegggie crisps. I fancy trying them now we have an air fryer. I tried potato skin ones & they were lovely. Do you have a fancy slicer thing, or just use a knife? 

Baileys_Babe

I prefer root vegetable crisps to standard potato crisps, my flavour of choice is salt. Please let us know how you get on.

foxgloves

@Makingabobor2 bobor2 & @Baileys_Babe,
Epic fail! Followed instructions completely but after 15 mins at Gas 5, at which point I should have been turning them over & putting back in for a further 10 mins, they were all burned coal-black......all except for half a one right in the middle of the tray, which bizarrely was looking about right. I sampled that half & could tell that they would be pretty good with different oven timings. I just used sea salt & a little paprika for seasoning, so will stick with both that & the size of the slices. It's the oven temp or timings which need to change.
I am going to have another go & report back to you.
Experimenting with this did confirm my suspicions re the mark-up on these things. I top & tailed & peeled 2 carrots, but had filled a full-sized baking tray before I'd even used a whole one! Stick 'em in a nice bag, print 'gluten free' on the front, stock 'em in middle class shops......licence to print money!
Anyway. That was Attempt #1. Let's see what Attempt #2 has to say for itself tomorrow.
F x
 

PennysIntoPounds

A nice earner for your next venture 😁
Veg to oven-cooked conversion never seems to be to the recommended timings, I'm very fond of sweet potato fries as a portion of five a day alternative to chips, and no matter where you buy them from they always need a third less time otherwise they'll be blackened and inedible. One of the great mysteries of life!

Blackcats

We will all be queuing up in an orderly fashion for our fancy bags of Foxgloves's Manor gluten free, locally sourced, subtly flavoured vegetable crisps.  Perhaps @PennysIntoPounds will offer us a glass of her Prosecco that she recently won as an accompaniment?

foxgloves

Lol @Blackcats, I don't think anyone is going to be queuing up for those.....unless there is suddenly a developing market for carrot charcoal! 
@PennysIntoPounds - Yes, I sometimes make sweet potato wedges too. While I haven't had a problem with those burning, I do think oven temperatures vary a lot between the various different models. I think ours runs on the hot side so I often end up making little paper covers for cakes & have reduced baking time for loaves of bread.
F