Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Sun_Addict

A few years ago one of our cats brought in a field mouse which escaped and took up residence under the gas fire. I eventually coaxed it out by laying on the floor and wiggling a duster stick about. It ran out and sat on my shoulder 😱It was very cute but not really what I wanted. Anyway long story short it was released into the wild eventually. Then there was the mouse I rescued from a cat that bit me as a way of thanks 😞

Suffolk_lass

Ha! Good grief, you are so far ahead of me in the garden. I still have veg bed weeding to do. All my courgettes and other squashes are still in the greenhouse (only one of the GBS you sent me, and one that I bought last year) with the spares gifted. However, two seeds in each pot means more gifting is needed.

I put my Sungold tomatoes in their final pots but the Black Russian and St Pierre have just been potted on and are two pots from their final one having stalled for weeks (maybe months!!). The same with three tiny chilli plants (one each of Jalopeno, Tabasco and Cayenne.

Potatoes (10 plants) are coming up through the radish and lettuce seeds I scattered. Pak (or Boc) Choi ready to harvest in that bed. Rhubarb, gooseberries and blackcurrants, apples and cherries are all doing their thing and Garlic and onions looking perky and fit since Mr Sl weeded and watered!

2 hanging baskets and two small troughs can move to the front porch this week, I think. Other pots need planting (plants are ready, I am not!) - my front garden beds have really benefitted from replanting last year and the self seeded cornflowers are everywhere. I love them (had them woven in my once waist-length hair when we married)

I need a very good week. I have to get round all my bees before the bee inspector comes on Tuesday week. This morning, we are fudge-making, ahead of the County Show. I definitely need a good week. I will update my diary properly to explain (b-bees!) but I need to get going first. Thanks you for the update x

EssexHebridean

Massively ahead of us too - the fluctuating temperatures seem to have had such an effect on things growing - the toms are doing OK but all still relatively small, and the chillies and peppers only seem to have 1 set of leaves in addition to the seed leaves and are showing NO sign of doing anything else!

foxgloves

@Sun_Addict - We have also had mice make a bee-line for underneath the gas stove. There's quite a deep chimney alcove so I suppose it feels like a safe place to which they can scarper. Still no sign of the Missing Deceased Mouse. I have vacuumed this morning & pulled out a selection of furniture, but no sign of it. We are out of ideas as to where he could have moved it to.

@Suffolk_lass & @EssexHebridean - Oh gosh, I am just surprised I could be ahead of anyone veg garden-wise atm! The current weather is just annoying me now (as per today's post which is on its way). My target date for having outdoor tomatoes in situe is end of May, as I do often leave courgettes & squashes to the first week of June if the weather's still a bit iffy at night, but I haven't even been able to harden things off properly. Bedding plants all seemed to tolerate the cold nights & I hardened those off by doing a greenhouse to cold frame to outside regime, but that's about it….& I still have oodles of those, plus lots of verbascum (free seed, yay!) to plant out. Everything catches up in the end, I suppose. I don't like very hot weather but am just ready for it to feel a bit warmer. We had quite a few frosts in April & one in May.

foxgloves

Oh & here comes another massive shower! The forecast has been a bit off for today as I very much got the impression I'd be able at least to peg my laundry out this morning, but it was on the whirlygig for no longer than half an hour before the first downpour presented itself. Since then we have had several more very heavy showers & a huge hailstorm during which the water was coming off next door's roof like a spout & I went upstairs to check there was none coming in through that dodgy corner we currently have stripped back to bare brick. Despite rain having stopped a few things I'd planned, I've still achieved a bit of budget-friendly stuff:

*Cleaned all of downstairs using minimal products & washable cloths.

*Did 2 loads of laundry, which due to aforementioned aborted line-drying attempt is now on heated airer. Heated airer in May! But tomorrow's forecast is worse & I don't want soggy laundry hanging around.

*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.

*Did my regular Monday morning admin & budget updates. A very pleasant city centre visit on Saturday has been rather a hit to my Personal Spends but I really enjoyed choosing things to re-stock my toiletries stash plus a couple of magazines & cafe breakfast so I'm not worried about it. I still have enough Spends for the rest of this month plus a wodge in my Reserve Spends Pot.

*Did a couple of surveys - I have surpassed my notional monthly PA earnings target already this month as have just been paid for a series of 3 studies which took my May total to over £50. Still plenty of time left so I must keep at it.

*Checked greenhouse veg first thing. It was sunny then & I hadn't realised that 'some rain' meant several downpours plus a huge hailstorm, so I brought all the tomato plants which are destined for outside planting out to try & pursue a bit more hardening-off. This is a slow-going process this year because it has been unseasonably cold & I am getting well fed-up with it now. I have had days when I am working in the greenhouse & garden just in a dress - no cardi needed - & sandals, but by the evening, I am back in handknitted socks & layers with a hot water bottle tucked up behind my back & Ash has rediscovered his cosy igloo bed. Not long ago, I stood on Wells beach watching seals & oystercatchers wishing I'd brought the sun cream! Despite it being time-consuming, I think I will put the tomato plants back in the greenhouse for a couple more nights, then leave them out, but fairly sheltered, as I begin moving towards getting them into their final planting positions nearer the end of the month. Honestly, the hail today (have you had it too, @Sun_Addict?) was so fierce that at one point, our courtyard & bench were pretty much white! The cats thought it was rubbish but Ash did cheer up when the fish van man arrived & he got a taste of salmon while I was cutting it up. Soot, while an immensely greedy cat, prefers cat food, though generally considers roast lamb an acceptable offering.

I just have the tomatoes to move back under cover & dinner to cook & that's me done for today's efforts. A recipe from one of the 'Pinch of Nom' books today - Thai-spiced fish with noodles, which we both like & haven't made for ages. It's a use-it-up too, as there were just 2 portions of haddock fillet left from our previous fish box so using those created a space for one of the boxes of new fish.

Cheers,

F x

Makingabobor2

I have 2 tomato plants I have been leaving out, but covering them in bubble wrap at night. Putting the rest back in the greenhouse. Think everything may be a bit hit and miss this year. My peppers are looking very sorry for themselves in the green house. First time I've tried them from packet seeds, last year I tried using seeds from actual peppers and they failed dismally, so was hoping for better results this year. Courgettes aren't looking too bad so far, not sure about the cues though, never tried cues before. Potatoes, raspberries and strawberries seem to be doing well, and also carrots. Blueberry just not sure about, its 2 years old now, so was expecting great things from it, but read it may be the soil. I think even with bad weather you will do a lot better than the rest of us….LOL.

foxgloves

I gave up on my blueberry bushes a few years ago, @Makingabobor2. They prefer ericaceous compost which is what I planted them in & they were fed & watered. I had 3 bushes, each in a large container but I think the most berries I got in a year (from all 3 combined) was about 10 so it just wasn't worth the effort or space for me. I chopped them up for the compost bins so at least they contributed to the eco-system in their own way.

foxgloves

Morning Campers!

Another cold day, although there is currently a break in the rain, which is something, I suppose. Haven't even bothered taking tomato plants out of the greenhouse today. Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer (we keep being told that this week but I'm yet to feel the evidence) so I will stand them outside before I am delivered up to the dentist. Pretty much all of my priority tasks for today were garden-based so I have postponed them again & have instead been clearing a completely random selection of tasks to try & get the decluttering moving again. Budget-friendly things:

*Did a couple of surveys.

*Ran a wobbly pile of decluttered books through W0b & they wanted sufficient of them to complete a small trade. Only of small value, but a precarious pile simply sitting in my HQ doing nothing = a big fat zero, so worth doing for an extra little Emergency Fund rebuilding payment. Bagged up the rest to take to local charity bookshop next time I'm in town.

*Decluttered a pile of magazines into a bag ready to give my friend when she returns from the other side of the world.

*Photocopied some documents I shall need to send when I return my work pension form. As soon as I've clarified a couple of things during my telephone appointment with Pension Wise next month, I intend to be all systems go for getting the form sent off.

*Had a really good filing session. I'd have said I was pretty much up to date on this, but I turned out my in-basket & found a lot of things, mostly financial admin, which required putting away.

*Added another £5 voucher received from Mr F's CC points to the voucher stash.

*One of our regular use-it-up recipes tonight - one from Patrick Holford - a tamale pie which only requires 100g mince for 2 generous servings as it is bulked out with pulses & veg, plus the cornbread topping means I only need to steam a bit of veg to go on the side. I'm using turkey mince tonight.

*As we had so much rain yesterday, overnight & this morning, I checked the stripped back wall in the back bedroom for signs of ingress. I can't see any & Mr F said he couldn't either. I think the problem probably HAS been caused by a combination of our old roof & our neighbours' degraded roof (now repaired) but it has clearly been a long-term seeping in rather than a 'Quick fetch the bucket' kind of leak. Waiting for builder to confirm a day to finish the work. Then we shall almost certainly need to find someone to re-decroate that corner as neither of us can wallpaper for love nor money! Anyway, not being able to see rain coming in felt like a positive if nothing else. Our upstairs is an absolute pig's breakfast atm as all the stuff out of that bedroom (which is the Man Cave) is currently piled up elsewhere. Mr F is most unhappy with this situation & has told me so approx 1345 times since the problem came to light. I just reply that we were extremely lucky that our builder was prepared to come & sort it out on his day off & also that we have the funds to pay for it.

I intend to water all the tomatoes & give them some seaweed this afternoon, then the rest of my time will be divided between leisure & more miscellaneous decluttering/sorting-out jobs. I defo want to bottom-out my magazine basket in the living room as I feel sure there are more mags in there ready for decluttering to my friend. I have sold knitting mags on eb*y in the past as they are over £7 each to buy now, but I have to decide if it's worth the faff. I like to keep it as simple as possible but invariably instantly find the buyers who interpret 'Sells in UK only as 'Happily posts to Outer Mongolia'. It's the balance between all these little extra bits & bobs being usefully paid into the post-roof Emergency Fund & whether my time spent on procuring such low amounts is genuinely worth it when I could save more by having a good batch cooking day for the freezer……although I suppose the truly MSE option would be to do both & more! I'll see. I also need to find my dentist letter - it's my private dentist tomorrow as I have to attend an annual check-up on the implant work I had done - as I feel sure that the price was included in the details, which would be helpful.

Right, cat lunch time is hoving into view so I will go & sort that out then prioritise my plans for this afternoon.

F x

Sun_Addict

Yes we did have the hail yesterday. I'm fed up of the wind, rain and cold now and finding it hard to believe it's forecasting high 20s in a couple of days.

badmemory

It starting hailing here the moment I put my foot out of the door - it had been quite sunny. Quick change of coat required.