Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Hello Wednesday Pence-Wranglers,
Just come in for a sit-down as could feel my ear trying to start throwing a wobbly. Have tried today without tablets & was ok until then, grrr. 
Ah well, some frugal activities achieved:
*Used the leftover bramleys to start off a batch of apple & mint jelly. Now dripping through jellybag.
*Used 900g of our homegrown tomatoes to make a batch of Hairy Biker curry sauce. 5 containers of it now in freezer.
*Today's garden pickings: Mint, 3 more windfall pears, blackberries & an aubergine.
*Low effort meal tonight as am serving leftover gigantes plakis I made yesterday with some veggie rice.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Potted on some free coldframe babies - hollyhocks, aquilegias & a self-sown viola which will be an autumn container freebie. Evicted 5 humungous slugs from coldframe. Glad we now have a visiting hedgehog.
*Sowed some larkspur to overwinter for next year (free seed from my gardening mag).
*All veg will be watered tonight by Mr F, who finds this a good way of relaxing & getting some fresh air when he gets home from work. Well worth keeping on top of this, as plenty of food left to pick.
*Probably some knitting tonight. I am on the easy section of my shawl (the kit was a Christmas present) so can watch tv at the same time. The 2nd section looks a lot more involved as it is quite complicated black lace. There won't be any multi-tasking once I get to that bit!
Right, I'm going to have a slow & steady tidy-up & see if I'm going to need to succumb to some tablets after all. 
Cheers all,
F x

Humdinger1

Late to the party @foxgloves but condolences on the vertigo! I've had odd bouts but nothing as bad as this.  I only realised I suffered even slightly at top of amphitheatre steps in Italy...lots and lots of steps.  Fortunately, I didn't have to explain in rudimentary Italian what I was suffering from; it would not have contained the vocabulary.   Hope you're soon 100% better love Humdinger xx 

foxgloves

@Humdinger1 - Thanks, m'dear. Yes, it is an awful thing. I first had it the year before Mr F & I were married. It caused a lot of problems for me at the time as work was very difficult (involved a fair bit of public speaking & driving out to various places). I had a much shorter spell of it a couple of years later, then a one-off incident shortly before I took VR. Then absolutely no sign of it until recently when I turned over in bed & the room spun around like one of those old Victorian zoetropes. I am managing to do most things, but tilting my head at certain angles isn't possible without a spell of 'wuuurrrghhhh....' & bending over, say to wash my hair or pick low-down beans tomatoes or courgettes is a no-no. Maybe I shall tone up my glutes in the process, as I am having to sort of squat instead of bending, so as to keep my head as level as possible. If this goes on much longer, I should be able to crack a walnut with them, which is incidentally what I once told a Dr when he enquired if I was performing the suggested pelvic floor exercises following a long-time-ago surgery.
F x

foxgloves

Greetings Sunbeams....although that's a bit optimistic as I think the past half hour or so is all we will see of the sun today.
Still a vertiginous money-saver. Barely got it during the night, but I can tell the problem is still there when I forgot & incline my head more dramatically than my inner ear will currently tolerate. Nevertheless, I have achieved a few budget-helping bits today:
*Took the jellybag down, measured the extra, did the maths & jammed it into apple & mint jelly. 6 jars now labelled & ready to go in the pantry.
*Today's garden pickings: Another small bunch of grapes for my lunch, aa few more windfall pears & more mint for finishing off the jelly. There is a lot more ready for picking but I am feeling rather trepidatious about all the bending, so am leaving it until tomorrow when Mr F can hoick me out of of the veg patch should this become necessary - tbf, I can usually sort out my balance back to normal when I get adverse signs, but not if it's a major attack (thankfully only one of those this time so far & am being careful)
*Baked a sourdough.
*Perused latest bill from the Cephalopods which landed in my inbox last night. Credit balance is still rising - over £340 now, which while a long way short of the credit with which we entered the last couple of winters (our monthly DD was reduced quite significantly), is still a useful amount & will doubtless have another boost showing on next month's bill.
*Did some surveys - cashed out £10 on Ips*s (that is destined for one of our savings pots) & have got my Aug earnings on PA to £24-53 with another couple of payments still to come. I will keep at it as shan't cash out until the 31st.
*Wrote grocery shopping list & pinged to Mr F, who again has received some useful vouchers & has his beaker ready to go for that free coffee!
*Had a quick discussion with Mr F first thing about Saturday night when we have invited friends over for a BBQ. The weather forecast is not looking BBQ-friendly so Mr F wondered whether we should change the menu. Decided not to, as we do have some of it in stock already & felt it would all work just as well cooked indoors in the oven & served in the conservatory with the fairy lights on. We will just have to imagine the smell of charcoal. I think sticking to Plan A will have saved us a few ££ tbh. Friends driving over early pm, so I am going to bake scones to offer them when they arrive with home made jam & tea or coffee. I can always knock out a batch of scones at short notice, it's my go-to for when friends call in......well, as long they tell me they are coming! If not, it'll just be a drink & what Mr F's granny called 'a run round the kitchen table & a kick at the pantry door'.....which apparently meant now't!!
*Shall knit later on. Lovely artisan yarn, but a gift so no naughty little yarn shop trippettes by Yours Truly! Also started new library book - " Has anyone seen Charlotte Salter?" (Nicci French), which I'm only a few chapters into, but is already intriguing.....so far I suspect absolutely everyone in it!
Right, time for a little tidying-up & dispensing of daily cat treats, then I think I shall have a few laps of the garden to get my woeful steps up a bit. 
F x

Sun_Addict

I’ve got that book on my TBR pile, sounds right up my street, might bump it to the top of the list. 

A night in the conservatory with fairy lights sounds fabulous. As do the freshly baked scones - I’m not much of a cake person but I do love a good quality scone. 

foxgloves

It's certainly started out in an intriguing way, @Sun_Addict, so you could bump it up your reading list for summer?
Fancy you liking scones.....if you ever find you have accidentally walked all the way up to my village, I'll get my pinny on, lol.
F

foxgloves

Hello Friday Frugalistas,
Have just succumbed to some tablets as I want to wash my hair later....a bit of a minefield with vertigo.
Useful day on the budget-helping front:
*Divided weekly house cleaning between us so I could do upright non-bendy tasks.
*Did 2 loads of laundry so as to make use of this very blustery weather for free drying.
*We managed to re-stake a row of outdoor tomatoes which being top-heavy with fruit, had given in to the overnight storm.
*Today's garden pickings: Aubergine, lots of french beans, 2 courgettes, a bowl of blackberries, chillies & a basket of tomatoes.
*Baked bread rolls for tomorrow's BBQ (almost certainly indoor & only a BBQ in spirit as forecast looks rainy).
*Entered a competition.
*Received 2 PA survey payments.
Leisure time now. Intend to knit more of my shawl kit & see if I can guess what happened to Charlotte Salter.
Soot & Ash's stinky biscuits of choice on offer today, so bought them 2 bags. They were also pleased to note the arrival of a big box of Persian Queen, as that too, was a bit cheaper than usual. It took their minds off quibbling over which of them was going to sit on the sunniest blanket.
Wishing everyone a lovely weekend,
F xx

KajiKita

I don’t know if you find this, but I seem to spend more time thinking about and actually buying cat food than I do for us!! 😳😉😊😂

KK

foxgloves

We've always said that, @KajiKita. We can whizz round the supermarket with our list.....but we get to the cat food aisle & it's full of people trying to decide based on their cat's latest whim. Years ago, we saw a woman shaking individual tins of cat food one after the other.......she said her cat liked lots of gravy so she was finding the sloshiest-sounding ones!
F

KajiKita

I’m glad you’ve told me that, I thought it was just me!! 😂

KK