Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Interesting info about the rugosa rose variety.  The hairy seeds in rosehips are pretty awful, I agree, @kayannie, but I've never removed them because I only use rosehips as one of the minor ingredients in hedgerow jelly, so I know they won't get through my jellybag....the best one ever.....improvised from a (boiled!) white cotton pillowcase!
F

ladyholly

foxgloves said:

@ladyholly- I do have a batch of blackberry & pear gin on the go. 
What a shame your local blackberries haven't flourished this year. I wonder if the brambles have maybe been cut back, as it does seem a good year for them in general. They are certainly earlier this year. I remember back in the day, we usually went blackberrying at August BH weekend, but I think our garden blackberries will be finished by then this year. 
If you can't get any, I suppose you could look out for yellow-stickered raspberries & make raspberry vodka instead?
F

They havent been cut back as they are in the local park and are just left to grow wild. Some are improving but we will have to be quick or they will disappear. 

I will get some strawberries as he also makes some as a Christmas present for a friend. We havent tried raspberries. He has done "The W original" candies version in the past but he wasnt too keen on that.

kayannie

I'm glad you mentioned your improvised jelly bag @foxgloves, as I can't find mine. It's not where I usually store it so I can only think that I threw it away at the end of last year's jelly making. It was very old! You've saved me a few quid as I'd just added a new one to my shopping list. Instead, I'll make one from an old cotton pillowcase instead. Thank you!
KA

weenancyinAmerica

There are a number of recipes that came out in World War II using the rugosa rose variety. It was considered an excellent source of vitamin C.

foxgloves

@weenancyinAmerica - I think it was one of the very few native UK wild crops which was actually harvested commercially back then, maybe the only one. Even as small children growing up in the late 1960s, we were still given a daily dose for the vitamin C. It was MUCH nicer than the other bottles given out to mothers of infant children on the NHS - cod liver oil. Euuuccchhhh! My little sister wouldn't take hers so guess who had to have that bottle too! 
I know people did pick wild berries for jam & non-rationed fruit during war time. I have a fab little vintage preserving manual from that time. My Nana (1909 - 1993) mended fishing nets for the local trawler fleet for her volunteer war work.
F

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
I have just sat down on my reading bench after a busy session of kitchen witchery. I do not intend moving (except for essential functions!) until I am called in for dinner. Horrid headache when I awoke at 4.45am & the mild vertigo which started a couple of days ago when I lie down or turn over in bed was still in evidence. Nowhere near as bad as when I had it last summer.....it's an ear thing....it does go away on its own but there'll be plenty more swearing at what it can jolly well go & do with itself between now & then!
*Mr F volunteered to do an early Waitbl00m run with the grocery list while I took some paracetamol & got on with brining veg for making piccalilli tomorrow.
*Garden pickings: 4 aubergines, spring onions, basil, grapes & courgettes. 
*Made a batch of brown sauce. I'd intended the apples for some apple & mint jelly but I used all the half-size jars I like for that to bottle this week's hedgerow jelly. Didn't want to waste the bramleys so roped Mr F in (he has a nice long weekend) to do all the sauce-sieving if I chopped everything & made it. Water-bathed the jars afterwards for longer pantry shelf life. 
*Mr F's cooking night & he is batch cooking Delia's ratatouille, so that will use up a few courgettes. Good job we like the infernal things!
*Veg & container watering & feeding.
*Booked that previously mentioned mini-break at our fave campsite for my birthday next year. It's an ensuite hostel room - they are in an old converted range of barn buildings with a big communal kitchen, fairy-light festooned courtyard, etc, & we had a lovely time when we tested the experience out last year. We are already committed to paying the balance on the cottage we've booked for our Silver Wedding next year, so decided just to book 3 nights at the campsite instead of 4. As Mr F said, the saving on that 4th night will more than pay for a nice meal out at one of our favourite pubs on my birthday. Will they have 'Oystercatcher' on draft? We can but hope! It will also reduce the price of the cattery fees. Felt we'd made a good compromise from a Holiday Savings Pot point of view.
I'm sure there was some other financial musing I meant to share, but I can't for the life of me think what it was, so I shall wish you a peaceful evening & settle down with my book. At this rate, I'll be drawing my pension before I finish it, as it is a great breezeblock of a thing.
F x

teapot2

I remember being given a spoonful of both the rosehip syrup and cod liver oil growing up in the late 50s and early 60s.  No prizes for guessing which I preferred. We also used to collect hips from the local wild dog rose bushes and sell them to someone [not sure who she was] for making into the syrup.

Sun_Addict

Sounds like you had a very productive day despite not feeling 100%. My mum used to love piccalilli. 

Makingabobor2

Glad you decided to book the campsite. 

foxgloves

Afternoon Sunbeams,
Well, a useful productive morning - we popped into town first thing to stock up on one of our butcher's very good mix & match offers & I bought some more black thread to enable my sewing to continue tomorrow. We made use of the free half an hour parking so a knock-on effect of that was that we couldn't hang around getting tempted in further shops! Other budget positives were...
*Making piccalilli with the veg I brined overnight - there will defo be a nice kilner jar of that going in a festive hamper.
*Used up a big bowlful of our homegrown veg to make a batch of vegetable bhuna for the freezer.
*Ordered our next fish box. I know that's a spend, but it is helpful for my budgeting to know when it is coming, what it will cost, etc. 
*Discovered out cats like Waitbl00m own brand cat meat pouches....which are still 100g, unlike some of the big brands which have succumbed to profit-boosting shrinkflation.
Mr F is BBQ-ing our food tonight so that will be a lovely chilled out evening moodwise, though not chilled in terms of temperature as it's another very humid day here & the shady courtyard bench is the best place to be.
And that was the end of the productivity. Tbf, I'd intended to sit out on the bench with my book, but my phone rang & what a can of worms that turned out to be. It was a scammer. I was on the phone for quite a while because I was worried by what he was telling me, but also suspicious so I asked a lot of questions. He purported to be from my credit card provider flagging up fraudulent activity on my account - basically someone in Northants trying to use my card to for an online purchase, which they were flagging because this is a county our of my area. He was very plausible on most of it, but there were issues which raised my suspicions. First, he got my names in the wrong order, addressing me as 'Mrs' when I use 'Ms', which he should have got correct had he really been sitting in front of my credit card account sorting out a fraudulent transaction as he purported to be. He also tried to be too helpful.....offering to block my card from being used on transactions outside of my immediate area......well that one put my antennae up & I said that was ridiculously unhelpful as how would I purchase petrol if I was on a day trip in another region, for example? So he said he could leave that as it is but put a cap on spending limit per transaction. I said that it also unnecessary as why shouldn't I buy an expensive item on my credit card as long as I can afford to do so. So then he said I could use biometrics. Can you see how this was all starting to be too much information? He was very smooth & well-spoken. He did know info about my card. For example provider, the last few digits of the card number & also the last 2 digits of the security code, but that was odd too.....the last 2, not the code itself. At one point, the call dropped out, which often happens downstairs due to weak signal & it instantly rang again & instead of saying (as a customer service advisor would generally do) "I'm sorry, I think we got cut off. Are you still there?", he said, "Did you just cut off the call?" I said I hadn't, but I was just opening up my online account to have a look at the pending fraudulent transactions for myself. He said I wouldn't be able to see them but that it would all be on my next statement so I could see that the transactions had been successfully blocked. At 2 points, I said, "I am not at all convinced that I am actually talking to somebody from my credit card provider" but he glossed over this by telling me that only my provider would know the card number, & security no, etc. Apparently he needed to act swiftly (I bet he did!) because the pretend scammer had already had 2 attempts at changing my log in details & security number. And then came the big white flag (on top of all the other suspicions), he was just going to send me a "cancellation code" to enable him to block my card. Well, I know that is absolutely not necessary. A bank can cancel a card without this stage, so this was the crux of the call, where I give them the code & lock myself out of my own account while handing over control of it to him. By this time, I had looked at my online account & there were no dodgy pending transactions at all. I rang off. Phone rang again seconds later. Ignored it. Found fraud number for my card provider & phoned to report fraud attempt. Of course they confirmed that the call had not been from them & a new card has been arranged because of the amount of details he knew about it.
Interestingly, I think because I was sounding suspicious & he wanted to keep me on the line, he asked me if I had used my card at M&S recently, because "as you may have heard", they have been hacked & lots of personal information was compromised. I said I hadn't used my card in M&S since before the data breach. He actually replied, "Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure you haven't popped into M&S Food for a few things & forgotten about it?" I said I defo hadn't. By the time he got to the all-important 'cancellation code' he was just about to send me, I was asking a lot of questions about why a code was necessary, etc, & he kept repeating himself about needing to cancel my card & stop the fraudulent transactions. Although he sounded super-smooth & articulate throughout, I did think there was more than a touch of irritation starting to show that I was querying the process. I'm glad I did. Another red flag right at the beginning was that this call flagged as 'Private Caller' on my phone, whereas the fraud dept of a credit card provider should have a designated number. I only answered it initially because the only person who usually calls me from a phone listed as 'private number' is my best friend, so of course, I assumed it was her.
When I spoke to the bank advisor to report the incident & get my card cancelled (damn nuisance as I won't get a new one for at least a week), she said they get such a lot of calls about scammers. She said they are very plausible, which he was, apart from the things I've highlighted - sorry I know it's a bit of a saga, but I think it is helpful to share the reality of how these things operate. One thing I have noted down in case of any future similar experiences is that I did give this scammer my address. He asked "can I just ask you to confirm your address", which I did, but as the call progressed & I became very suspicious, I though that he probably didn't have my address & I had just supplied it. So in future, I shall say, "What address do you have for me?" So many phone conversations with officialdom begin with them asking one to confirm one's address & it may be only a little bit further into the conversation that one's scam detectors start flexing. In future, I will definitely be asking them to tell ME what address they have on their records. Well, we live & learn, he DID turn out to be a thief & footpad but he did not get any of our money. 
It must be time for me to decamp to the reading bench with my book now - what a silly waste of my time this afternoon,
F x