Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

OpalGirl

Hope you enjoy the book. I have just finished it. I can see that some people may not like it (some of the reviews were a bit sniffy about it) but I enjoyed it. I had never read her first book "Love Nina" so have since borrowed that from the library and I enjoyed reading that as well.

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
Thanks for your comments. Enjoyed reading them over a coffee.
@OpalGirl - Welcome! Yes, I am enjoying the book so far. I like to read reviews & lit crit, but I don't always agree with it. I haven't read the first one either.
It was lovely to see my old school friend yesterday when she & her partner came over for lunch. I made an old favourite quiche recipe -  salmon & spring onion - which never lets me down in terms of both being bombproof in terms of setting properly/not going soggy & people enjoying it, so with a bowl of mixed salad from the garden & a few other bits & pieces followed by strawberries & cream, it felt like a summery lunch even though the weather was quite chilly for parts of the day. There were sufficient leftovers for dinner later when Mr F got home plus a spare slice of quiche for his packed lunch today. Anyway, on to today's small budget-helping things:
*A no-spend day. 
*Watered all the veg.
*Today's garden pickings = corainder & another cucumber (no. 11)
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Leftover cream & whole milk from yesterday will be providing a home made rice pudding for dessert tonight.
*Did a couple of budget updates. I've already mentioned that we underspent the amount I'd budgeted for lunch out on dentist day by £11, so thinking that the budget I'd set aside for yesterday's lunch date would be overspent, I rolled that £11 into the amount I'd allowed for that & guess what?! I didn't need it, so still have £11 to roll into the amount budgeted for a celebratory takeaway tomorrow night (can you tell I am not breaking the rules by getting political!!?). If we don't need it for that either, this very much rolled-over 11 quid will be returned to the July buffer zone for future use. Let's see! Defo worth budgeting separately for these things though, as they can eat into one's grocery budget & leave that messy & overspent, so I would rather have the faff of some little temporary mini-budgets to cover such occasions.
*Made a batch of BBQ sauce that we like from the "I heart my Slow Cooker" recipe book. All store cupboard ingredients except the onions (which needed using up anyway), celery & garlic which we already had in. Shall just need to zizz it up tonight, leave in the fridge to mellow, then divvy into containers for freezing tomorrow.
*Did a very small survey - July's PA total currently sitting at £4-75, so I shall have to get a wriggle on with that. Early days as yet though.
As for the rest of the day, apart from cooking dinner (I usually cook Mon -Thurs & Mr F Fri - Sun),I'm looking forward to a nice hot bubble bath, finishing knitting my current pair of socks for the presents bag & casting on the final pair, watching 'Sewing Bee' & reading a bit more of my book.
Cheers,
F x

PennysIntoPounds

I don't want to naysay your takeaway plans but I'm not sure The Middle Aged Women Waving Umbrellas Party is going to get a majority. We'll have to think long and hard as to who we let into our rose garden to form a government 😁

Makingabobor2

I love that Mr FG cooks, even though he still works. If I ask my DH to cook, he would want to do something dead easy from the freezer, or go to the chippy. He has no cooking skills. I remember after my hysterectomy, many years ago asking him if he could do a roast chicken dinner one weekend....I literally had to sit in the kitchen and talk him through every step.   But on the plus side, he is very good at all things DIY/technical/electrical/computer etc. Can't have it all I suppose.....lol

foxgloves

@Makingabobor2 - Yes, people tell me I am lucky in this respect because Mr F genuinely enjoys cooking, but I honestly wouldn't expect anything else. We don't really adhere to gender divides, apart from some of the heavier physical tasks he does because he is so much stronger than me & doesn't have arthritic hands. Yes, I did take on more of the day-to-day running of the house when I took VR, but that's just to make it fair in terms of my contribution to the 'domestic economy'. When we both worked full time, we split everything down the middle - ironing, laundry, cooking, cleaning, the lot, plus I sorted out my car & he sorted out his. Actually I've never really bought into this thing where men 'don't know how to cook'. My Dad always said he wished he'd learned to cook & when he baked a few bits & pieces supervised by me, he really enjoyed it, especially his cheese & chive soda bread. I remember saying to him that the only things required to follow a recipe & therefore produce a meal are 1) To be able to read the recipe & 2) To be able to follow the pretty basic instructions there-in. I honestly think far too many blokes still just get off the hook where domestic tasks are concerned. Did we burn our bras for this? (Not that I could have burned my bra....too young for that phase of feminism & also not of a personal build suitable for the deliberate casting-off of boob-scaffolding)!
F x

foxgloves

Hello Thursday Readers,
Have been quite busy but just a few budget-helping bits & pieces as follows:
*Wrote the grocery shopping list & was instantly able to cross an item off, as I remembered I'd frozen the juice of half a stray lemon which means we don't need to buy one for my Malaysian prawn curry next week. Being able to pick some salad ingredients from the garden is also helping with our 'Spend Less July' grocery challenge.
*Today's garden pickings: 275g green chillies, now in the freezer.
*Side-shooted & tied in all the tomato plants AGAIN! Well, at least I suppose that shows they are growing. Made sure I used up some small oddments of past balls of string before starting a big new one.
*Was on a roll then, so also tied in the aubergines, peppers, tromboncino & cucumbers. 
*Cast on BIL's socks for the presents bag as although I did finish SIL's pair last night, I didn't get the new ones cast on as planned.
*Entered a competition.
*Did a few surveys.
Just waiting for Mr F to get home - he was supposed to be having a much earlier finish but his team is short staffed due to someone going down with Covid, plus another poorly so he had to cover someone's shift first. Last heard of getting his free supermarket coffee, so he is defo on his way. I will unpack & put away, then we will go off to vote. We generally pull an all-nighter on GE nights, so I have budgeted for pizza from our little indie place (so much cheaper than the big chains & we prefer the pizza too) in the hope that those naughty carbs will give us stamina.....probably more likely to make me fall asleep, although I am happy to get a couple of hours then wake up again when the results really start rolling in. Being overtly party political is not allowed on these forums I know, but if I just say that I hope I will be digging out the piano music for "O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree" tomorrow morning, you'll know what I mean! 
Right, time for a bit of tidying & must double check my driving licence is in my handbag.
Cheers m'dears,
F x 

badmemory

When my parents married my father taught my mother how to cook & we are talking just post war.  I never found out how he learned to cook curry though but it was a regular feature.  He was posted to some weird places during the war though, it could have been South Africa I suppose as I know he was in Durban at some point.

Sunshine_girl2

Another here up until the early hours tomorrow vote counting. Hope you and Mr F stay awake ok. 

Makingabobor2

I think DH's lack of culinary skills might stem from his childhood. His mother never cooked/baked or anything. They were brought up on processed food, frozen veg and and even at Christmas she never peeled a spud or anything.  Now they are older and they live off ready meals and she wonders why they both are unhealthy and overweight!  I was determined DH wouldn't turn out like that, I love cooking, baking and growing stuff now as well. Just wish he was happy to have a go at cooking....still, can't have it all, can we?

PennysIntoPounds

Every able-bodied person is capable of boiling dried pasta in a pan for 12 minutes and heating a jar of tomato pasta sauce for three minutes and grating some cheese. That's tasty and simple and a portion of fruit & veg. I'm not skilled in cooking so I sympathise with those who are intimidated by the concept of 'doing the dinner' but providing a nice easy meal isn't complex. I have to agree with foxgloves, it's odd that 'men not cooking' has somehow dragged on as a largely accepted thing as late as 2024 in this country!