Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Thanks for your comments, which I enjoyed reading while sitting out on a sunny bench with Ash. It has been dry today & warmer but the courgettes, squash & beans would likw less wind now & a bit more heat. The next few days look warmer. I like low 20s best for summer weather.

Right, well a no-spend day for me, though I did tell Mr F to buy himself a sandwich as he wasn't going to be anywhere with an accessible fridge. Have now frozen a few ice packs. Not much to report. I went for a walk, did a big trugful of weeding & planted out the last few cosmos & verbascum. Trimmed the grapevine as it was getting triffid delusions & checked greenhouse veg. Will need to pick cucumbers tomorrow. Today's garden pickings were spring onions & coriander.

Made pasta salad for tomorrow's picnic lunch as we are heading north for a day trip.

Vacuumed the whole house & cleaned the bathroom. Trying a new PON recipe tonight - Tandoori salmon with mango salsa.

Baked the sourdough I made yesterday & finished reading current library book.

And that's been it, really. I've lined up a few garden tasks for Sunday once I know what time the decorator is coming over. He's going to quote for making good the bedroom ceiling & wall that had to be repaired so I will be interested to hear the figure.

Enjoy your Friday nights, everyone. I intend to rivet my backside to the sofa & stay there watching tv, knitting, reading & chatting till bedtime. Soot had a sound telling-off earlier, but he doesn't bear grudges (unlike his Meowmy) & will doubtless be looking to share some sofa time too.

F x

PennysIntoPounds

Aw happy sofa time to you and Soot 🥂

Hope the quote is acceptable and all the work gets done smoothly and soonly, it'll be a relief for you to know where you stand and have that palaver all sorted

Sun_Addict

That sounds like a great Friday night to me. I remember years ago I’d pass houses on the bus going to the city centre on a Friday/Saturday night and see people sitting on their sofas and feel sorry for them. How things have changed 🤣

Moorviews

I hope you have a lovely day out today. The monsoons seem to have stopped temporarily and everything is lush and green so should be a pretty drive. I like the idea of taking a pasta salad instead of sandwiches.
Your avatar plant is the same for me as Suffolk Lass in that it is here to stay and taking over, despite my trying to dig it out and even a dose of weed killer. I wouldn’t mind a small clump but once it likes it’s spot 😱

Humdinger1

Just checking you're all OK @foxgloves? Love Humdinger xx

foxgloves

Yes thanks, @Humdinger1. I did intend to post yesterday but had been really busy all day & felt too knackered by the time I sat down.

F x

foxgloves

Hello Sunbeams,

Thanks for your comments. We postponed our planned outing North on Saturday as the forecast changed & we decided 184 miles' worth of petrol is a lot if we end up cutting our visit short because of rain & eating our picnic in the car. We chose a nearer wet weather option instead by bringing a planned city centre trip forward which we both really enjoyed. It was International Knitting in Public Day so I took my knitting to do over my coffee & toasted teacake. I have to admit I was also fascinated in a conversation from 3 tables away...it was like an Alan Bennett sketch!

Nothing exciting going on here. The decorator popped over at the weekend to assess the job. Still waiting for the quote but he says it won't be that much. We could tell he wanted to keep the cost down after us having already paid out for a new roof & wall repairs. He thinks we will only need 1 roll of wallrock, says he can use the leftover paint from last time (he did check there was enough) & says he can supply the little bit of ceiling paint required (about 1 square m thanks to roofing apprentice's foot!). Just want it done now so we can get Mr F's vast CD & film collection out of our other rooms where it had to go when we noticed the water ingress.

The garden has been taking up a lot of my time but it's mostly maintenance now. Lovely to be picking our produce. I've just picked cucumbers no.14 & 15 this afternoon & will be fetching lettuce shortly. I've made bean burgers for tonight, which are topped with a warm salsa. I can't yet supply peppers & tomatoes for the salsa but we did grow the spring onions in the burgers. Mr F has got right back into veg plant feeding & does this every Wednesday night, along with the hanging baskets & containers.

Yesterday I finally made a start on blitzing my half of the shed. I wss ruthless & filled 2 big compost sacks with rubbish, another with stuff for the recycling bin, found 2 items to add to the charity shop bag & started a tip pile. Also found a packet of seeds I lost & 2 glass cylinders which will look nice planted up with forced hyacinths in a few months time, esp as I found a bag of bulb fibre I'd forgotten about. Still a couple of my shed areas to tackle but I need Mr F to move some stuff as I have a life-long very ingrained fear of 8-legged creatures (not the octopus variety!) & the fear response in my chest kicks in instantly should I have such an encounter then takes a while to calm down again. Irrational I know for such a practical person but I can't see me changing now.

Anyway, we hadn't decided what to do this weekend & when Mr F expressed his burning desire to get started on HIS side of the shed (I've started a chucking-out trend), we thought we may as well get the job done this weekend. If we make sufficient progress, I've said I will find the money for unbudgeted-for pizza from our favourite little indie place. I actually have the money as it's been my Mid-Month Budget Check-In today &, despite going over the sums twice, there wss £52 more than I expected. I think this is the 3rd month this has happened so it must be something structural in my.budget, but I haven't found it yet. I think the thought of pizza will have Mr F shed-clearing like a pro - he's already talking about tip runs (in the plural!) so it's looking like we're on for a weekend of productive teamwork. If there's a bit of extra beer in the mix too, I know there'll be no stopping him!

Earlier this afternoon, I was sure I could hear an intruder in the house. It's tricky to get into our garden but I have had the french doors open all day. I turned the radio off & listened to see if I could tell which room it was......oh, & wouldn't you know it?! It was Soot in the pantry trying to wrestle his way into an unopened sack of cat biscuits. He knew he was a wrong'un & at least had the grace to scuttle out looking sheepish when he was discovered.

Have also done next week's meal plans, written the grocery shopping list & just need to snip a tiny piece off a length of dress fabric so I can match it to some bias binding when I'm in town tomorrow.

Hope you're all having a decent week.

F x

Sun_Addict

Oh Soot you naughty boy 🙀 My old cat often attempts to steal the dog’s food but scuttles off when I shout her name.

rtandon27

Am loving that the intruder was the naughty cat!

Suffolk_lass

I want to investigate grafted veg plants a bit more. In my head, you bought these locally at a garden centre - am I mis-remembering?