Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

The garden was lovely from dusk to dark last night & a nice cold seabuckthorn & orange gin just rounded the day off nicely.

Well, do stay hydrated today, m'dears. It is ridiculously hot here already. Three of us are already in the shade & Ash has trotted off to seek today's choice of sunny den.

Defo a no-spend day. I am making good use of the hot temperatures by baking bread (already proving), doing plenty of laundry (bed linen already changed) & I might pot up lettuce & rapini seedlings. If I have any energy left, as I am not a lover of heat, I will plant out some cosmos on the shadier side of the garden.

But apart from the above, I shall be sitting on our shady courtyard reading & knitting. Mr F cooked tonight's chicken on last night's BBQ coals & intends to make jacket wedges, so I shall only need to make a salad, & can see we have another cucumber ready to pick.

The swifts are glorious. I could watch them all day.

F x

foxgloves

Hello Frugal Diary Friends,

Oh, it is as hot as a hot thing again today. Poor Soot doesn't know what to do with himself. He refuses to sit in any little cool place I make for him….i.e a cold towel in a shady spot, etc. I haven't bought him a pet cooling mat because I know he wouldn't sit on it. I've done all I intended today so shall be sitting in the shade shortly myself with yet another glass of water & a book. Anyway, today's budget-friendly efforts:

*Bailed out last night's bathwater which provided several very welcome cans for the front courtyard plants plus the containers & hanging baskets. No point paying twice now we are on metered water.

*Did next week's meal plans & wrote grocery shopping list. Also wrote a list of everything I could usefully do in town tomorrow, including a stock-up at the Eco-refill shop.

*Did deferred Monday morning budget updates - slight overspend of about £6 on May's grocery budget. First month this year we've gone over, so I huffed a bit about that, but there was no problem taking that small amount out of May's petty cash/buffer zone.

*Did a survey - am at over £50 on PA earnings this month & still a few days to go.

*Had a look at recent energy bill. Spend £35 less on energy than last month & less than the same billing period in 2025 & 2024. Taking the amount of credit currently on our account & adding around £50 per month until the CH goes back on in October, I think we should end up with between £500 & £600 credit to take us into the winter, which will at least help with the next jump in price cap, which could be worse than expected if the warmongers carry on too much longer. What a depressing & unnecessary situation…..& completely out of our hands of course.

*Tonight's meal is bubbling away in the slow cooker - pinto bean chilli….though as we never see tinned pinto beans where we shop, I use a tin each of red kidney beans & black beans. It is served very simply, topped with grated cheese & with a hunk of crusty bread, so very little to do later. Have made 4 portions so some for the freezer for a 'free' meal another time.

*Checked veg plants first thing as I don't really want to get into the habit of daily watering, but if anything looks as though it's struggling, I may relent. The tomato plants I planted out on Sunday all seem fine, ditto Mr F's potatoes which he carefully earthed up the same day. Because of miscounting, we have ended up with 19 tomato plants instead of our usual 12 - 14, so I am making sure I save some extra big mayonnaise jars/lids ready for all the bottling which I think I am going to be doing at harvest time.

Anyway, that's been the budgetty bits of my day. I think I will go & offer Soot a few treats now to see if they cheer him up. Do stay hydrated everyone, this heat really is so energy-sapping, we need all the help we can get!

F x

Makingabobor2

I've watered mine the last couple of days, but need to make sure I am not overwatering. I never seem to know.

foxgloves

Well the outdoor stuff is now sorted, @Makingabobor2, as we currently have thunder & a huge downpour.

PennysIntoPounds

What mse excellence and on such a hot day! Hope Soot feels better with the storm