Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

And now, Frugal Friends, for today's budget-friendly efforts:
*Wrote grocery shopping list & pinged it to Mr F for picking up on his way home from work. He's probably there now with his vouchers & coffee beaker already-primed. Not a long list which should mean a good start to our February grocery budget cycle. Crossed off an item as found an unopened one while looking for something else.  
*Daily caring for the house hour: Vacuumed upstairs & staircase. Gave our kettle a good scrub - it's a hob one so does get grimy. Also soaked dish drainer rack in hot soda crystals.
*Garden hour: Weeded & forked over the area under our pear tree. Moved a few clumps of snowdrops & gained a few free plants by dividing up some congested clumps of Mum's pretty pink primroses.
*Sausage largesse (alright @blackcats & @PennysIntoPounds, let's keep it wholesome....) discovered while getting dinner into the slow cooker. Thought we'd bought a pack of 8 Cumberland sausages for planned hot-pot & discovered there were 11 in there! Surplus 3 frozen. I know there's a bit of leftover bacon in the freezer too, so with some nice chunky home made jacket wedges & a poached egg, that will make a 'free' meal.
*Received a 20% off Sparks offer & then an email from JL telling me the £10 off they sent me expires this weekend. Mr F has actually found the phone he wants in JL so I have suggested he gets it ordered on Click & Collect as it will mean I can leave £10 in the Tech Replacement Pot, which plays well to Project Surbiton. I intend these Pots to look very different by the end of this year (if no disasters, of course).
*Tried adapting a recipe for cheese oatcakes before adding to my new recipe notebook to see if I could make them a bit tastier than when I made them before. Am pleased with them now. I think they will be a good sustaining snack too.
This is how I made them.Very easy:
150g jumbo porridge oats
25g plain white flour
25g wholemeal flour (I used bread flour but any wholemeal will do)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
25g cheese grated (I used reduced fat cheddar because that is what is in the fridge atm)
60ml hot water
50g butter
1.5 tsp za'atar
Line a baking sheet. Pre-heat the oven to Gas 5. Put 100g of the porridge oats in a food pro & blitz into oatmeal. Put in a bowl with the remaining whole porridge oats, flours, baking powder, caster sugar, salt & za'atar. Stir in the grated cheese. Melt the butter in a small pan & stir it into the dry ingredients along with the hot water & bring it together into a ball of dough. It should be a stiff dough but not so stiff & crumbly that you wouldn't be able to roll it out. Add a little splash of extra water if necessary.
Tip onto a very lightly floured surface & roll out to about the thickness of a pound coin. Using a plain round cutter, stamp into rounds  - makes between 12 & 15 - & transfer them to the baking tray. Bake for about 15 mins until they are golden brown, then cool on a wire rack as usual.
Very odd that no-one is mithering for cat treats. We have a large bow window in our living room so a wide window sill, big enough for 2 cats to snooze at their preferred end. It's also above the radiator so they do tend to get glued there until they hear sounds of movement, when Soot will race to the kitchen before I get there so he can pretend he's been there starving away for hours, if only anyone cared. As dinner is cooking itself & only requires some crusty bread to serve, then I shall get on with my book & await the canny shopper's return.
Peace & love,
F x

themadvix

Enjoy the peace while you can Foxgloves - I always thought cats were quiet creatures until I owned two (and one of them is extremely vocal/whingy). He had a nap this afternoon and it was bliss!

Thanks for the cheesy oatcakes recipe - I have a jar of zatar I bought some time ago because I seemed to have seen several recipes for it - needless to say it remains unopened as I never found the recipes again, so I shall definitely give these a try. And such minimal cheese that they can definitely still count as healthy.

PennysIntoPounds

Fnar foxgloves, fnar 😁

foxgloves

@themadvix - Yes, we also have a very vocal one. Soot always has plenty to say & he likes people to listen!
Hope you enjoy the oatcakes. They were a big hit with Mr F, who has packed a little box of them for work snacks today. 
I originally bought the za'atar for sprinkling onto flatbreads, etc, & I have used it for that, but I think it's main use here is going to be in these oatcakes. As you say, a low ratio of butter & cheese, also plenty of oats & part-wholemeal flour, no nasties as homemade.....I think they are a decent healthy snack compared to ultra-processed stuff we could be eating.
F

foxgloves

Morning Campers,.rise & shine, best foot forward & all that!
Very unusual for me already to have had breakfast at this time in the morning, but Mr F is on an early start for getting to a conference, so I decided to join him with breakfast & coffee.
Today's budget-friendly tasks will be as follows:
*A no-spend day. Lunch will be provided where Mr F is going & he has a free coffee code for popping out to get a decent shot of caffiene (neither of us drink instant).
*Looking after our home hour will involve cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming downstairs & dusting hall bookshelf & the photos etc on it.
*Practically zero-effort for dinner as coiked sufficient sausage hot-pot last night for two days.
*Fetch little propagator from shed, check
it's still working (it's many years old - a lucky  'yellow sticker' find at the Base of Home when I bought it). 
*Sow chillies. 3 varieties - jalapeno, rokita & scotch bonnet. I always sow them on the last day of January. It's still too early for everything else, exceot broad beans which I'm not growing this year. 
*Check for surveys before cashing out of PA (Jan earnings currently £34 with another £4 not yet paid. If that doesn't land today, it'll start me off for February).
*Sort out February's birthday cards & wrap presents for posting as am unlikely to see friend before her birthday. I want it ready in good time so it can be sent 2nd class.
*Do a bit more recipe copying.
*Sort out all suitable leftover sock yarn in my stash with a view to getting a couple of nice colourful pairs made in secret to put away for Mr F's birthday socks. That would be a 'free' present so one less to be funded from the Presents Pot. Plenty of time to get those knitted over my lunch hour.
Right, the conference goer has set off, Soot is snoozing, Ash is watching children heading for the bus stop & I am sufficiently caffienated to begin my day.
Keep it in your purse today - at least long enough to see if you could shop something from home which could do the job just as well....or almost as well, for free....because then you will still have your money. Honestly, back in the Spendy Years, if anyone had told me I'd one day be giving this advice to people, I'd have collapsed in a heap of laughter! 
F x

Suffolk_lass

Thanks for the cheesy oatcakes recipe. I will definitely try these. I might substitute oat bran (which sucks up surplus LDL cholesterol) for 75g of the jumbo oats - I have it in porridge and use it as a bit of a thickener. Trying to reduce my cholesterol a bit after last year's 12000 mile service blood tests. All my planting is pushed back a few days this year, but as you say, a small heated propagator should help

Makingabobor2

Sounds like you have a busy day planned. I got up late, after a late night as we were babysitting the youngest DGSs. 

AnimalTribe

I hope you don't mind me jumping in. I started reading from the beginning, but I still haven't caught up, as I don't think I ever will, I've decided to read from todays posts onwards. This is such a great thread as I find the day to day stuff most useful. It's gardening season soon and I will enjoy reading about that too.

foxgloves

@Suffolk_lass - I'm sure oat bran would work fine. Mr F has already enquired whether I intend baking any more of them so they were defo a win.

@AnimalTribe - You're welcome! We like new people on here! I'm glad you enjoy my diary. It would be nothing without such a great band of contributors. Yes, I agree about the small regular daily habits & activities as it is these which improve both our finances & sustainability goals. 

And hello again to everyone else,
Well, am pleased to say we are officially off the blocks. I sowed the chillies & they are currently warming up in my little old propagator which, unless it decides to try any funny business, looks as though it intends to keep working for another year.
The only planned task I haven't done is sorting through my yarn stash for suitable part-balls of sock yarn, but it isn't remotely urgent so I shall do it next week. It was actually for a solid mse reason that I didn't get it done - I managed to get on a PA survey which was an hour in length but £15 payment. I haven't cashed out my January earnings yet, as I usually would on the last day of the month, but I am hanging on until tomorrow as I have over £19 outstanding. If it doesn't arrive by tomorrow, it's not a problem as that will be a cracking start to February's earnings. Actually, both of us have pledged one month of survey earnings to the Savings Pots as part of Project Surbiton so I should maybe think about offering up February as my month. I'll see. 
Right, my eyes are telling me I've spent too long looking at this screen, so I am going to sign out & have a trot around the house closing curtains, switching fairy lights on & generally making the place cosy for the evening ahead. 
F x

PennysIntoPounds

Still most envious of everyone but me being allowed on PA 😁 Both donating a months surveys to savings pots is a fab idea. Though would it be better to both do the month after your birthdays so you have less you want to buy from personal spends if you've been given gifts? Though I quite understand wanting to see the pots glittering with shiny coins early on in the year!