Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Hello diary readers,
Thanks for all your comments, which I always enjoy reading, often over a coffee.
@Makingabobor2 - I enjoyed the film. It was a bit predictable, but I do like a feel-good film every so often as a balance to the bleak Scandi-crime I often seem to choose. Thanks for your nice comment about enjoying my diary posts. I have always enjoyed words & writing.
@WinterWarrior - Soot has decided he likes 'LickyL*x; now, or 'cat angel delight' as my friend calls them. This means that instead of Ash getting a whole one to himself at treat time, he has to share, which is quite funny, as they are both trying to lick it at once & often end up licking each other by mistake.
@Suffolk_lass - The good thing about knitting socks is that nothing else really tends to be knitted on such fine needles, so I can cast a pair on & just have it in the basket down by the sofa to add a few rounds when I feel like it. Unless I'm knitting them to a deadline, it doesn't matter how long they take, so no pressure. 
@Everyone else who admired the socks photo - This really is not a difficult pattern. They look more complicated than they are because it is self-patterning yarn, but it is all stocking st (so as it's knitted in the round, you just knit every stitch as you're not turning the knitting at the end of each row) So you just need to be able to cast on & off, knit & purl & decrease. Turning a heel feels weird & complicated at first but if you don't overthink it (which I did the first time & threw my sock in the dustbin!) & just follow the instructions to the letter, it is fine & once you've done it, you never forget how.
@Tescodealqueen - Re growing peppers. Although I save flower seed, where veggies are concerned, I've only ever tried growing beans & squash from saved seeds because I prefer to know what varieties I'm growing, & if it's tomatoes, I need to know they are blight-resistant, as we've had big problems with blight in the past. Peppers don't need any side-shooting like cordon tomatoes do, but they do need staking as they can easily flop over from the weight of the fruits.....or even just because they feel like it. Mine are started indoors in a heated propagator then when they have a a set of true leaves, I transplant them into individual small pots, cover each one with a home made plastic bottle cloche & put them on a warm windowsill. From there, they go to a colder room, then finally down to my unheated greenhouse, still wearing their cloches (& sometimes fleeced at night) until the weather is warmer. Once they begin flowering, look for tiny fruits forming & from that point, start feeding them once a week. I use single pots or 3 to a grow-bag. Hope this helps.
@Scandimore - Thanks for the reminder that I do actually own a low-tech yoghurt maker. I must resurrect it. I also have some filter funnels for turning it into soft cheese. I've only tried that once & it was quite nice with a bit of salt & some chopped chives, but it was a very small amount for the effort.
@Blackcats - We actually got a free cucumber a couple of weeks ago on our last online supermarket delivery order. I was just putting it away when I suddenly realised we hadn't ordered one. I hope the sadly cucumber-less customer wasn't too annoyed & got a refund!
F x

foxgloves

And I suppose I ought to have a bit of a catch-up with money saving activity over the last couple of days:
*Did next week's meal plans, having ascertained that Mr F wanted to make whole Indian spiced roast chicken over the weekend. Having established that, I was able to plan in the nobbling of tasty leftovers for a further 2 meals & hopefully a sarnie or two.
*Wrote shopping list & Mr F, who unexpectedly had an early finish today, picked up the groceries on his way home. Still got a few fresh bits & pieces (good luck with that!) & cat meat to get in town tomorrow, but list is rtg.
*Studied February's energy bill from the Cephalopods. Compared to January, our overall spend was down by £16-27. Gas was up by £6.71, but electricity down by £22.98 - don't know how, but I'm not complaining. For comparison, I looked at our spend for the same billing period last year. In 2022, the bill was £144.85. This Feb it was £228.88. That's an £84.03 increase, but not the 100% I was expecting, given that prices have doubled. I think this probably shows that the changes we made to our thermostat settings have helped.
*I've been on my usual anti-food waste crusade - sprouts & spring greens unlikely to be used in the next few days were blanched & frozen and I added a lone grated carrot to a salad before it had a chance to go bendy.
*Workman came to do big annual hedge work as planned & also cleared guttering & sealed a leaky window frame while he was up the ladder........this meant I was able to......
*Finish February's budget at last! I didn't know how much he would charge (he's always reasonable tbf) because he hadn't seen the state of the gutter or assessed the leak problem. While finishing off the budget, I noticed I'd made an error in that I'd got this month planned as a '4-week shopping month', whereas my Big Budget Day isn't until Monday, so actually it should have been tagged as a '5-week' one to keep things straightforward. Have altered it accordingly. 
*Made a batch of tortilla wraps yesterday - some used for fajhitas & the rest frozen. They are smaller than the bought ones & not nearly as round as I am not a factory & just do them by eye, but we think they are tastier & as the recipe makes 16 (Rick Stein's Mexico recipe), there are plenty to freeze for packed lunches.
*Baked bread today. Still eating the last sourdough today......food lasts so much longer when both of us are dieting, that's for sure!
*Did a few more surveys & am pleased to say I'm now at the top end of my Feb PA target, as my earnings are over £40 as of today.
*Cut another empty plastic bottle down to make a cloche  - all large plastic bottles destined for this purpose atm as I rinsed & threw all my old ones in the recycling bin last year, as they'd been used a lot & were losing their transparency, which is important for seedlings.
*Use-it-up foundation atm - coffee stirrer in use to extract the last few days' worth stuck at the bottom of the bottle - that's the problem with pump dispensers.
*Mr F has over a week of leave soon, so we've started thinking about where we might like to go/things to do, etc, & keeping things low spend or no spend will be a part of the planning. I also have to remember that we may need to take a packed breakfast sometimes, as well as lunch, as we are doing TRE as of this week & our non-fasting i.e EATING (nom nom) window is 10am to 8pm. It will be interesting to see how it goes. Mr F has lost 1.5 kg already (in 3 days) but I've told him that is just from wee! I don't find it helpful to keep jumping on the scales, so will weigh in after our first week is complete, then I will probably go to fortnightly.
I didn't get any reading done last night, so I'm really looking forward to finishing my book tonight & starting one from my library list which I picked up today. Not much effort required on the kitchen witchery front.....I'm making Thai-spiced fish & noodles from one of the PON recipe books. I prepped all the veg & made the spice mix earlier as I now have 2 hours for jobs & moving around more (speed-jobs!) before breakfast.
Oh, that's enough yakking from me. Hope everyone's doing OK. Friday tomorrow, how is that even possible? I don't know where this week has gone!
F x

2Scratters

Re the missing veg - I think we have become too expectant of eating out of season foods. Mother nature is kicking us up the backside and making some of us think twice about what and when we are buying fresh fruit and veg. We seem to lazy about growing just a little bit of food even when it can be grown on a window sill, we are missing vital vegs that our bowels need too. I remember as a child growing our own mushrooms, not sure if this can be done cheaply? This is where we operate with like minded people and swop produces or give donations to assist.
I have just received today my box of organic oranges and lemons direct from the european farmer that grows them. Very tasty even though they are coming to the end of the season. (Crowd farming)  My justification is buying items that are a treat and also ethical and reduces the risk of wasting food otherwise. This is to be our focus this year to reduce food waste and money too. This method of shopping is not cheap admittedly but could be shared between a group of you whether family or friends and neighbours.

2 Scratters xx

foxgloves

That's interesting about the oranges, @2Scratters. Yes, I think we have lost all sense of eating seasonally. When I think back to when I was a child, which was only in the 1970s, we weren't able to buy strawberries unless it was UK strawberry season, when there was always a fab stall on the local market absolutely piled high with punnets of them. You could walk onto the market square & smell them! Same with satsumas.....it was always a sign when Mum brought home the first bagful in November, that Christmas was on the way. I think growing food at home really does reconnect us with the seasonality of food & also its vulnerability. For instance, our sweetcorn failed last year & the year before.....no problem, as I used the space for something else which did very well, but that would be a big problem & significant financial hit for a farmer growing a couple of fields' worth to sell - a calamity compared to me & my 30 plants sown for our own consumption.
I read a book from the library years ago by Joanna Blythman called 'Shopped - the shocking power of Britain's supermarkets'. It was an absolute eye-opener.
F x

foxgloves

Hello Friday Frugalistas,
Just a short one from me today. Haven't done a lot, as we decided last night to have a relaxed weekend. A few small wins on the budgetary front:
*Two more surveys done.
*Went into town for the rest of our grocery shopping. Plenty of fresh fruit & veg on the local market, so we were able to buy everything on our list. Persian Queen cat food has been a good price in W*lk*'s for the last few purchases, but it had gone up £1 today. We still bought it, as we didn't want to risk buying a cheaper box of perfectly good pouches only to have noses turned up & that look (which all cat owners know) which says "Wot, this gruel?" I will check out prices at other local stores.
*Did not go to favourite indie cafe for coffee & breakfast as planned. I've mentioned we started a TRE diet plan this week, so we had intended to do half our shopping, then visit the cafe for breakfast, then go in the remaining shop & come home. It was a cold rainy morning, however, so we clopped around much quicker than anticipated & had finished our shopping before 10am, which is when our 'eating window' (to adopt the parlance of such weight loss methods) begins. So we decided to come home instead & Mr F made very nice scrambled egg on home made wholemeal toast & fired up the coffee machine......the latter was a bit touch & go as we had a couple of short power cuts due to some or other electricity supply piece of gizmo having toppled in a field next to our village. Anyway, at least £12 saved, so worth doing.
*Checked chilli babies. One jalapeno seed has failed to germinate, but I have plenty of chillies in total & tbf, am using up lots of older stuff from my seed box this year.
Well, m'dears.....the kitchen is a bombsite, so I'm going to go & tackle that while starting a new audiobook. It's not my cooking night. Mr F is making tuna chipotle wedge melt, which I really like - & as it also includes one of those very expensive yellow peppers, I am going to make sure I savour every mouthful!
Love to all, 
F

Suffolk_lass

I've just put three packets of (opened) chilli seeds outside in the egg boxes to pass on to the wife of our egg-delivery man (friend). He prioritised us when they were cutting back on Village deliveries, having moved to about 5 miles away. I have kept a few so if mine fail I can start some more indoors, but my track record with chillies from seed isn't great. Last year was really the first time I got to two homegrown and two bought in (my more expensive standby!). That said, I have at least three large ziplock bags in the freezer, of previously harvested chillies and they store well. I always freeze them as chopping from frozen removes the rubbed eye jeopardy thing.

We are reading The Rose Code for my bookclub and it is a hoot

foxgloves

@Suffolk_lass - It's funny how even experienced gardeners can still be defeated by certain crops. Chillies have always grown well for me, even scotch bonnets, which I did think might need much hotter temperatures than an unheated greenhouse in the East Mids. I can't grow carrots in the ground....it's not just that carrot fly can get to low-grown ones, they germinate erratically & barely swell. I can grow them fine in deep containers, but tend not to, because that means using lots of compost to get a decent sized crop. 
Annoyingly this happened to me with a particular flower too. Years ago, Mum had some free packets of perennial poppy seed - variety 'Tangerine gem'. I couldn't get them even to germinate. Mum was more successful & hers reached seedling stage, so she gave me some, which carked it....followed by those shed kept for herself. The following year I tried again. Only two seedlings, which failed. Gave the rest of the seeds to my friend who successfully raised a few plants & gave me a couple. They've flowered ever since BUT here's the thing.....they self-sow all over the place, including into the lawn..I have so many of them coming up I will be daisy-grubbing them out & composting them! What a bloody- minded plant!! Pretty though & flowers right through to Autumn.
F

QueenJess

I’ve started eating seasonally in the last few years and I do think we should be doing it much more. I actively look forward to things like strawberry season etc and I think I enjoy it more because I savour it whilst it is here.

I do also think it should extend to other seasonal items.. for example it would be more exciting to only be able to buy hot cross buns around Easter rather than all year round (although I do actually only buy them at Easter). It’s nice to have something to look forward to.

foxgloves

@QueenJess - I agree. Just read a really interesting 'Guardian' article about the food supply chain issues, which are clearly not just caused by weather. We also only buy strawberries in season plus certain other things.
I agree about hot cross buns too! I love them but only buy them around Easter time because if I was having them at other times, they wouldn't feel special. I'm a bit of an old pagan & really appreciate the different seasons. If I want to eat fruited buns at other times of year, there are plenty available. I like a proper appropriately spiced hot cross bun too, with plenty of fruit- not the weirdo travesty buns increasingly on sale....of the salted caramel rose scented white chocolate rum-soaked cranberry contains a whole clementine miso brushed variety (oh alright, I made that flavour up, but you know what I mean!).
F x

Humdinger1

Just you wait @foxgloves, that will be the next flavour out! We are in a veg box scheme and do really appreciate the flavours of each season.  Living in the moment....love Humdinger xx