Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

EssexHebridean

MAB I only learned this week about feeding courgettes with tomato food, too!  

Definitely thinking I want to find somewhere to put some strawberry plants though. 

foxgloves

@Sun_Addict - They definitely are - winter too warm to reduce their numbers & they thrive in wet weather. Yes, agree with you about leaving pensions in place if we can. I'd rather have the un-reduced amount. We know we can live on Mr F's earnings  - I checked those sums about a thousand times before taking VR, plus I always said that I'd go back to some kind of employment should our financial circumstances drastically change.

@Makingabobor2 - Some tomato varieties do better than others outside. For example, I always grow 'Roma' in the greenhouse because they are an Italian plum variety & they like it warmer than the North East Midlands can usually manage. However, I grow variety 'Oh happy day' outside (in bottomless pots) & we have had good crops from them. Too early to say this year because of the cold & wet, but we haven't actually lost any & they are all starting to fruit, if a bit reluctantly.

@themadvix - Yes, tomatoes don't like cold nights. They sulk & the undersides of the leaves can go a purpley shade. As you say, hopefully we are going to see some sunshine now. 
F

Makingabobor2

EssexHebridean said:

MAB I only learned this week about feeding courgettes with tomato food, too!  

Definitely thinking I want to find somewhere to put some strawberry plants though. 

Ooh that's a good tip as well, I am growing courgettes as well.  Off to find some tomato food now. 

Makingabobor2

I need to read up a bit on tomatoes I think FG...in fact I need to learn a lot more about gardening. But I am enjoying it, so that's the main thing.  So far there are about 6 toms showing themselves, but obviously still very green.  Looks like the carrots are going wild. What is going on under the soil, remains to be seen though....lol

foxgloves

Morning Campers!
Was not impressed to awake at 4.25 to the discovery that the muzzy head hadn't gone. Got up to take some paracetamol, which Soot seems to take as a promising sign that he was on for an early breakfast. He soon found out he wasn't when his Meowmy returned to bed with a glass of water & the tiger balm! It has pretty much lifted now though, so have been getting on with a few bits & bobs, of which the budget-helping aspects are:
*Finished the grocery shopping list. I've kept the supermarket element of this as low as possible as we have plenty in & have thus left off any re-stock type items. The idea is that this list will come in low enough for us to have money left over to buy our weekend BBQ bits from our local butcher. He has very competitive prices & also does mix & match bundles, so I think we should be fine. I pinged the list to Mr F who will pick up the shopping on his way home tonight & he pronounced it to be 'titchy', so that's a good start! Re grocery budget, we are fortunate in that going 'over' is not the horribly worrying matter of eating or heating that it is with far too many people in our society today. For us, we like to stick to a monthly grocery budget because if we don't & we go over, then that money has to be subbed in from somewhere else (when everything else has already been allocated to other pots) or has to be deducted from the global starting figure on my next Big Budget Day. That always annoys me, as it means we have less for the following month's allocations & makes me feel we are beginning with a deficit. But I do realise that sticking to a food budget for us is about freeing up money for building up savings & we are not in the position of far too many people, who are faced with some really stark choices when buying essentials. My heart goes out to people in this position & I truly believe that the 6th richest country in the world should not be so deeply mired in inequality.
Back to today's small things:
*She's written a list, she's checking it twice.....not to see if she's been 'naughty or nice' but to make sure we actually needed everything on it or whether some things could wait another week. Discovered 2 big pots of yoghurt in the fridge, both unopened with good dates. Each one does 4 portions so with the addition of 4 own brand ice creams in the freezer, another picking of strawberries & a home made rice pudding or muffin, that is next week's dessert sorted & 'big yoghurts' was duly crossed off. Now aren't they something where the prices have just gone up & up? The days of choosing whatever of the better brands were on £1.00 are long over, are they not?!
*Watered greenhouse veg. Might do outdoor veg too, will see what they look like later as it's a much warmer day today.
*Stood young tuscan kale plants outside for acclimatisation as am planning to plant them outside at the weekend if Mr F can help with one of his cane & insect mesh 'cages'.
*A bit more presents bag knitting over lunch.
*Checked for surveys, but so far have added only the vast sum of 45p to my June earnings. I must be careful not to spend it all at once!
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
Oh.....& not money saving, but I know we have other eco-friendly gardeners on here.....all 3 of our swift boxes are occupied! It's so lovely seeing them swooping in & out & hearing the chicks cheeping, especially as I believe they are now a red-listed bird. 
Right m'dears, a caffiene top-up is calling, so I'd better get on. Remember that coming home still having the money can be as satisfying as spending it......something I wish I had learned a good couple of decades before it finally dawned on me.
F x

themadvix

How lovely about the swifts! We’ve considered a box but given our fairly urban location, I think they’d remain empty. I’ll see how we get on with our new sparrow terrace before I get carried away with swifts!

EssexHebridean

Fabulous about the Swifts - we are even keener to get boxes sorted out ahead of next year after I spotted that the roofspace of the neighbours diagonally across from us clearly has some nests! 

If you haven't already, could you spare the time report the swifts on Swift Mapper - it's a really important resource for keeping a track of their movements and habits! https://www.swiftmapper.org.uk

KajiKita

I spotted a red kite circling above us over the hill when we were sat by the pond this afternoon with our brew 😊

KK

badmemory

I hope you don't mind me asking this foxgloves but you are the only person I can think of who might know the answer.  It is about the election but not about any specific party.

Is it possible for those working for a candidate to know if you have a postal vote & is it possible for them to also know if you are a member of a polital party which is not theirs.  I know they have every voters name & address, but not about the additional information & I don't know where to find out from.

Moorviews

It’s wonderful to hear about the swifts and that they are using all three of your swift boxes! That’s quite a take up rate! We very rarely see them here but have lots of swallows and house martins in the vicinity. ‘Our’ swallows have 6 fledglings now and they all line up tightly together with masses of droppings beneath them. They will be given the boot by the parents very soon as they will almost certainly wish to raise another brood, if not two more. It always worries me when they decide on a third brood as they don’t then leave until early October. I worry that the young might not have fattened up enough, or the parents be too depleted themselves for their long journey. We have to have a big clear up in October when they leave the little barn. They very much choose where they want to nest and we just try not to disturb them too much, although they don’t seem to really care about us going in and out or us being around at all. In reality I think that our presence and our dog provides some protection from predators whilst not being a threat ourselves. 

It’s always very satisfying to be able to cross something off the shopping list!