Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Bubblesmum

Hello - really enjoying reading your diary - from the beginning - I’m just past the drains 🤣. Thought though I would catch up in the present.

I too love stationary and pens - best writing since school has been with a fountain pen and I had always longed for a certain make named after a mountain or a cake….. since about 17 when I worked in the city and I used to gaze in the posh shops. When I completed my masters last year, DH found a secondhand one and it was simply bliss writing all my Christmas cards this year and any excuse I have I use it. The ink flows sublimely

I would also like to echo the writing on the marmalade jars looked beautiful and I must admit my mouth is watering with a thought of a spoon of that on hot buttered toast…. I’m the only one who eats it in our house and I’m trying to be good at the moment so I haven’t got any.

The joys of feline characters ….. we have to feed ours, separately as greedy one would muscle the other one out the way. She on the other hand will leave him a morsel or two of the wet food…. Which he waits for on the other side of the door - it has a glass panel and he doesn’t budge til he gets let through to see what’s left……

have a lovely day 

Moorviews

I love the photo of the marmalade, the jars look beautiful on the dresser. It almost seems a shame to have to stash them away! I have my Seville oranges in the fridge and have purchased my sugar all ready to go. I am sure you are correct that they are in the shops earlier these days, rather than late January. Being a fellow Cointreau fan, I am wondering how much you add and when? I seem to remember when I used whisky once that I had to stir a spoonful into each jar. 

Although, I didn’t join in the stationery chat earlier, you won’t be surprised to hear that I have plenty of lovely notebooks and favourite pens! I will be shopping from home for years 😂 @Bubblesmum - I keep thinking that I must service my lovely fountain pen and start using it again. 

Makingabobor2

foxgloves said:

@Makingabobor2 - Glad to have provided a little cheer & hope you have a better day today. Not sure I'll be as productive today because I'd planned a session in the garden this morning, but there's been a big frost overnight so everywhere's frozen again - Mr F is just scraping the car. I think I might postpone it until the weekend & progress indoor tasks instead.
F x

We have fog down here. Very miserable looking

themadvix

@Bubblesmum, we also have to feed our two beasts separately- exactly the same reason and exactly the same glass panel situation! What are they like?!

@Moorviews That’s what I want to know too - I want to jazz my marmalade up a bit this year so I can win the class at the Allotment Association show 😁 (and also because it makes nicer gifts if it’s a bit fancier).

Baileys_Babe

Today FIL is making marmalade, he has already promised me a years supply 😋

foxgloves said:

@EssexHebridean - I do wonder if the very short Seville orange season is getting earlier? I used to make my marmalade around the first week of Feb, then the end of Jan & now the oranges seem to appear in WaitbL00m in the first half of the month. I don't mind as long as I get some, but this defo used to be a task I did in February.
Hope you get yours & happy jamming!
F x

My FIL also made this observation earlier in the week.

2Scratters

Morning all,
re the marmalade I do have some appropriate sugar in stock and got 4 very large oranges(not Seville) in my TGTG bag from Morries the other day. I've got the tools but no idea though, I'm hoping  normal oranges will do, or I could get some Seville ones and not waste these others. 
Back to the stationary items yes I have the note books making me probably SABLE in them too. I must admit of the MB pen I use frequently and it was used at work daily. It was primarily kept in a shirt sleeve pocket for convenience so I knew where it was apart from the times it had ended up in the washer at least twice  it ended up seizing up and would not wind out. It had to go back to the company. I knew it was not going to be cheap and if they found out what had happened would be even more financial damage for my carelessness. Obviously I didn't mention that to the jewellers who were the intermediate supplier. I had enough time to put some money aside (I was expecting a 3 figure number) as they previously have a slow turn around, not on this occasion, just my luck  I got my notification of it being ready for collection only to find that to the jewellers surprise (that they had never done before) and the ever grateful me it was fully serviced and new refill completed FOC. I did however end up spending/investing the money it would have cost me, in purchasing another of the brand pens bought in a very MSE way as it was in the sale of stock as the shop owner retired a few months later 


2 Scratters xx

foxgloves

What a lovely lot of comments. Thanks for contributing. This wouldn't be much of a diary if I just came on & gabbed about money to myself, would it?!
@2Scratters - You can use any oranges for making marmalade but Sevilles are the proper marmalade oranges, so are the gold standard thing to use if you can get them. They're not usually expensive. They are extremely sharp tasting, so can take all the sugar required to set marmalade/jams without losing flavour. I can't think of a better way of describing it, except that the marmalade will taste more 'orangey' if Sevilles are used.

@Bubblesmum - Hello & welcome. Nothing exciting ever happens in my diary so the drain saga is about as dramatic as it gets! I'm just telling you this as you might be thinking that if you just go on another 5,10, 20 pages, surely something riveting will happen.....it won't! I was only thinking about the drain problem the other day. It occurred to me that the drain cleaning company sent me a follow-up letter/photos which really seemed to be saying we would be likely to require further investigative work, but so far (fingers, toes, paws crossed.....), it has all been fine.
A fountain pen to celebrate your Masters was a lovely idea. Coincidentally, I can remember having the same thought when I graduated with my Masters & I did visit the Very Expensive Fountain Pen Shop in the city centre 2 or 3 times to hang my nose over all the loveliness within. Weirdly, even though this was very much deep in the Spendy Era, I didn't buy one. A few years later, my Dad gifted me one for my 30th birthday. Not one of those expensive brands, but a very nice one with a gold nib & green marbled casing. I love handwriting & immediately started buying all sorts of different coloured inks. I must get the pen working again. I have it safe in my desk drawer.

@Moorviews & @themadvix - I use 2 tbsp of Cointreau to 1kg of Sevilles, if that's any help? I wait until the cauldron has reached setting point, take it off the heat, then stir it in. It makes the most satisfying sizzle & is just enough to provide an enhanced brightness of flavour without making the marmalade taste of booze. 

@Baileys_Babe - How lovely to be getting a year's supply without having to put in all that effort with slicing the peels. 
F

EssexHebridean

I agree about Seville season getting earlier - climate change related perhaps? 

foxgloves

And onto today's post.....
 Hello everyone,
Well, my planned gardening morning didn't happen because the garden was only just thawing by late morning & I'd got going with other tasks by then. I've been quite busy - these are the budget-friendly bits:
*Remembered to put the garden waste wheelie out in time for emptying. No, I haven't done any garden clearing since its last emptying, but I remembered that a load of sludgy greenery had frozen solid & not emptied into the lorry. It's gone this time so plenty of room for future efforts this month. 
*Another use-it-up meal from all the batch-cooking I did during the tomato glut - Smoky black bean chilli this time, which I shall serve in tortilla wraps with grated cheese & coleslaw.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Fed my sourdough jar for using tomorrow.
*Did 3 surveys. PA seems to have got going again after a slow New Year, presume it's led largely by the universities & other research establishments being back at work.
*Continued decluttering. Filled a large wastepaper bin just from 2 desk drawers & I wouldn't describe myself as a hoarder. I am just in the mindset to be pretty ruthless this time around, so anything which survived the last cull but hasn't been used or barely used is basically on a one-way trip to Mr Wheelie of BinLand. I have plenty of new unused pencils, pens, post-it notes, etc. I am a bit of a sucker for pencils. Enjoyed a bit of reorganisation. For instance, my coloured pencils were all kept in a tin just too big for the drawer while a rather nice leopard pencil case stored on top was completely empty. Pencils now in leopard & empty tin will be offered to Mr F for shed storage or binned. The garden birds have been enjoying one of my decluttering finds today. I went through a cross-body bag I only use when on my bike, which for one reason or another I haven't been out on for at least 2 years, & found a small plastic pot of dried fruit!! It looked & smelled fine so I chopped it up & added it to some oats - gratefully received by several hungry beaks on such a white icy morning.
*Sorted through a pile of old birthday cards, repurposed a few for bookmarks & made the others into gift tags. Used all the little non-Christmassy colours of ribbon in my stash & was pleased with how cheery they look, while also being free!
*Haven't yet done today's quota of shawl-knitting but I am now on the final 13-row pattern repeat. I pulled my lace sock out last night. I hadn't got far with it & it isn't a difficult pattern but I think something exciting happened in 'Slow Horses' because I'd knitted a row of complete bollards. Bet it wouldn't have been visible to anyone but I would have known it was there, so out it had to come!
Right, I need to get a few more routine jobs done then that circular needle will be back in action. Weekend now pegged in my diary for at least a bit of a gardening session, probably greenhouse with a nice hot coffee in my beaker.
Stay cosy m'dears,
F x

themadvix

Don’t know how you manage to knit at all while watching Slow Horses! I have to concentrate fully (and am usually pretty absorbed by it).

 Thanks for the info about the marmalade - I shall have to give it a try.