Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Suffolk_lass

Our garlic is OK but I tried not feeding (except when planting in autumn) and they are noticeably smaller than last year's - still decent. The garlic food is from Kings' seeds, from whom I bought the (hard neck) garlic, and is little granules. I am normally "plant it and leave it" but I'm a convert now to 6-weekly feeds

foxgloves

@Blackcats - That was rather dim of her on the wine front, wasn't it? Mind you, decades ago, I was planning on travelling home for a week's stay & said I'd cook. Sent a small shopping list of ingredients (my Mum never cooked, almost all Waitbloom & MandS ready meals, etc). She went shopping with my sis & reported back that they couldn't find pesto. They'd looked through all the household fly sprays, etc, but 'they obviously don't stock it'!! My sis is such a keen cook these days so I like to remind her of this story every so often!
F x

foxgloves

@DawnW & @Suffolk_lass,
We thought it might be a good garlic year too, when we saw the size of the bulbs. Ours barely get fed. We plant the cloves at the end of October & the plants just get a dose of seaweed solution in early Spring when they kick back into growth. Tbh, they don't get much water, either. I do water them if drought-like conditions, but Mr F (who is in charge of garlic-growing here at Foxgloves Manor) believes in keeping them dry.
F 

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
I have ☕️ brewing so thought I'd get my post on while I wait. Today's budget-helping activities:
*Was out in the garden by 7.30am before the greenhouse heated up too much. Side-shooted & tied in all our tomatoes, both inside & out, then tied in aubergines, peppers & tromboncinos.
*Did laundry plus 3 blankets to make the most of free....& very fast line drying.
*Did rubber lamb duties with the lovely harissa lamb Mr F roasted yesterday. Sufficient leftover for stuffed pittas with stir-fried veg tonight, couscous tomorrow plus a container frozen for a future meal.
*Garden pickings: Strawberries, basil.
*Did my usual Mon a.m.budget updates.
*Cashed out of PA at just over £95.
*Booked plumber (2nd part of 🐸 job).
*Ordered 2 items for my sister's birthday bag. Was able to use a £1 delivery offer which saved £4 towards delivery on the other item. Also ordered myself some purple glitter tights as the Clothes Pot is flush atm. What Autumn wardrobe would want to be without a pair of those?!
*Put a badly bruised apple out for a very hot blackbird.
I now officially deem it to be too hot for further jobs. I intend to finish my book, then select another from my pile of charity bookshop finds.
Stay hydrated, everyone. It really is VERY hot, even here in the more usually murky north east midlands.
Soot says 'Is it Winter soon?'
F x

ladyholly

I'm with Soot. One of my neighbours greeted me with it's a lovely day isn't it. I am afraid he got a rather grumpy no it isn't.

Makingabobor2

It is way too hot isn't it. I only just went as far as the bins down by the garage, but that was enough for me. Although it does look like a bit of a breeze is getting up, so maybe a bit better out there once the sun has moved round a bit more. 

PennysIntoPounds

Aw bless your mum and sis, that is funny but also pesto is a great name for insect repellant 😁

Sun_Addict

That’s a fantastic PA cash out 🥳 

The purple sparkly tights sound amazing 🤩 

Moorviews

The pesto story made me laugh 😆 I can just imagine “Pesto!” is what Marge Simpson would be using!
Hot yesterday, even here on the draughty peninsula and we haven’t had it as badly as most places. Definitely not a day for exertion so I focused on watering, picking blackcurrants and mange tout peas plus some dead heading. 

foxgloves

Hello dear readers,
Thanks for your comments. Yes, I completely agree it is too hot to do anything! Yesterday was worse but I had convinced myself today would be a lot cooler, so I was disappointed to find that by about 2 tasks into my day, I was once again too hot to think straight. I am hoping we get the storm hinted at over our neck of the woods later, but Mr F says it is apparently only 25% chance, so I expect I'm being over-optimistic about that arriving to cool us down too.
Anyway, a few useful bits of stuff on the budget-helping front:
*Used up some annoying leftover yoghurt for my lunch.
*Washed a couple of items on the 14-min 'refresh' cycle, largely because Mr F was keen to see if during such hot weather, he could bung in his work shirt & have it dry & wearable by next morning. Yep, perfectly clean & fresh & dry in about half an hour. 
*Bit of a bending & stretching session de-gunking the pond, thinning out submerged greenery & rescuing tadpoles.
*Garden pickings: Spring onions, lettuce, courgettes.
*Added cashed out PA earnings to my Personal Spends - I already had a small amount of April's earnings waiting in the Pay of Pal too, so was able to cash out a juicy £108-74. 
*Applied to do a product test.
*Did a survey.
*Ordered a sewing pattern. My sister tipped me off that she thought she'd seen it online for half price & she was quite right. I also got a further 10% off for being a new customer. 
*Wrote list for town tomorrow. Have also got our containers out ready for a visit to the eco-refill shop. 
*Low effort nosebag tonight as intend to use a selection of veg, a few sultanas & the rest of the harissa roast lamb leftovers to make a spicy couscous, which I shall serve with a mixed salad.
And that's it for today where mse stuff is concerned. My next task is to pack up my old sewing machine along with its accessories, manual, etc, for dropping off at the charity shop tomorrow. I must check all my old bobbins as there was a note with my new machine about not using bobbins from other makes of machine or from earlier versions of this one as they could be different sizes. I am going to compare them & keep any which are very obviously the same. Mr F says if I can get it all packed up with no loose bits, then he's happy to carry it from the car park for me tomorrow when we go into town. I have absolutely got my decluttering head on at the moment. I think reading @Onebrokelady's diary has been encouraging me as I reckon she could run flipping classes on the subject! I keep looking at things & asking myself why I am keeping X to do a certain job when I already have something nicer which will be just as good. Have also arranged to swap a pair of jeggings which will be too small for me for quite some time yet, with my sister who is further ahead than me with fighting the flab & has a nice pair which are now too big for her. Result! (or it will be when I get them!)
Right, m'dears, off to find some sort of receptacle for packing up sewing machine. And I need to get my steps up too. Read yet another article yesterday which cited 5000 steps per day as being the minimum for not being classed as sedentary. Have thus not been sedentary for 67 days in a row & do not want to break my streak.
Bye,
F x