Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Baileys_Babe

We used some saved credit card cashback vouchers, plus some more vouchers from a couple of survey sites towards our TV replacement a couple of years ago, which was very pleasing.

KajiKita

I never knew that about courgettes before 😊 Thank you. 

<happily imagining an exhausting snail assault course 😉😂>

KK

EssexHebridean

Good info on the courgettes - news to me, too, although I did remove a small and reluctant grower from one plant last night. My big issues at the moment with those are the rearmost plant getting insufficient light and too  much humidity - leading to die-back on the end of the fruits and powdery mildew on the leaves too. I think I'm going to investigate how easy it will be to get some more light to that plant - by tying back other plants and removing a couple of the worst affected leaves. There certainly isn't much point in leaving it as it is, as we're not gaining anything edible from it. 

 As for the snail/slug situation, we handily have an alleyway running along the back of our garden. As it has a nice solid fence alongside, and trees on the other side, MrEH gives our molluscs "flying lessons" - if they manage to get back from there, well, frankly, they probably deserve their dinner! 

foxgloves

@EssexHebridean - That's very useful for your mollusc relocation. I am happy to live & let live, given that they are a useful presence in the food chain for thrushes, blackbirds & hedgehogs, but I draw the line at them scoffing everything we have grown for food. I know some of them will make their way back from behind the log-pile, but not without a prickly assault course so I like to think only SAS elite-level trained snails will manage it.
F

foxgloves

Oh bah! Lost today's post. I may return.
F

EssexHebridean

Yes - this is another advantage of ours being relocated to the alleyway - it's very much the hangout of our local Thrush, and allowing that as well as being local, he is also very VOCAL, he seems to be thriving on his "flown in" diet!  I think you also have the advantage of a rather longer and larger garden than ours, which is obviously going to be a benefit in reducing the chances of them returning to the veg patch.  

rtandon27

We have an abundance of snails and slugs in the garden, but as atm we don't grown anything edible except berries and apples, they seem rather content to chomp on decaying plant foliage instead.  A hedgy visits our garden at night and leaves behind tidy piles of shells after his midnight feasts as well as untidy droppings on the stone patio that I routinely have to clean up!  Our cherry tree is a lost cause as both the blackbird family and magpie family devour any fruit that appears. Last week I was pelted with cherries by the young magpie as I attempted to weed the raspberry patch!  As grumbly as I felt, upon reflection, I love hosting a little eco-system especially given that one set of neighbours are the plastic grass kind that actually hoover the green mat as if it were a carpet as well as top the dividing fence with bird spikes to scare off pigeons!

foxgloves

Yes, I also love our garden eco-system. Today, while sitting in the conservatory in the rain, I watched young starlings enjoying a noisy squabble over the last of the fat balls, a magpie who came right up onto the courtyard to peer at me through the french doors & a beautifully coloured feral pigeon who did sterling service chasing off woodpigeons. Oh, & that's not forgetting the natural chain of predation. Our echinops was smothered in blackfly last week. Now it's covered in ladybirds going nom-nom-nommetty-nom.
F

foxgloves

Oh dear, I do feel sorry for Mr F tonight. He walked in through the front door just as he received a call from work alerting him to an emergency so he had to turn around & drive straight back again in rush hour (52-mile round trip, deep joy!) Such is life. He is not a happy bunny. Now, my post for today was eaten by a laptop gremlin earlier so shall re-do it, such as it is. Small budget-helping things have been:
*Ironed as little of yesterday's 3 laundry loads as I felt I could get away with. I'm enjoying seeing these low summer energy use figures on the smart monitor.
*Baked a sourdough loaf.
*Garden pickings: 1.5kg rhubarb, 1 bunch coriander.
*Cooked some rhubarb, divvied it into portions & froze.
*Baked a dozen rhubarb & cinnamon muffins, batched & froze.
*Remembered the lemon juice I froze last week & remembered to thaw it for tonight's meal - Malaysian prawn curry. Recipe only requires half a tin of coconut milk so have frozen the rest for next time. 
*Did a couple of surveys. Seems a bit slow-going atm, but I suppose the month is yet young.
*Made tomorrow's packed breakfast & lunch. 
*Fed a bowl of kitchen scraps to the wormery. I really do need to get in there (well, not physically, that would be a cry for help!) & harvest at least 1 probably 2 trays of compost & set up a new layer. Didn't fancy that task today as had, had a bath & it was drizzling. I can make good use of that compost on the squashes so must tackle it soon.
That doesn't feel like a massively productive day, but the time certainly disappeared very quickly again & I have felt busy.
F x

threepenny_bit

foxgloves said:

*Baked a sourdough loaf.
*

Do you have an easy starter recipe for sourdough? I was gifted a starter kit of utensils, thermometer, jar, basket, silicone lifter,  etc but am overwhelmed by the different recipes I see online. Just not sure where to begin lol!