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Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend
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Morning Campers! Well, I've done today's pickings & having now fortified myself with muesli & a big coffee, I am off to tackle those veg garden maintenance tasks. It could be a good list today….& needs to be.
2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!14 -
Now isn’t that a satisfying photograph! It must feel like a real achievement growing your own - and it looks delicious too 😊
PBs £2550 (including £1k EF & £500 Christmas fund)
17/26 books for 2026Take the time to find the joy in each day
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Our tomatoes are starting to ramp up now too - I won't need to buy any extra ones this week, and I LOVE it when it reaches this point in the year!
Loving the little round carrots - I must dig out the last of my packet of those and get them sown somewhere.
🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her6 -
What a splendid bumper crop you’ve got there. Thanks for reminding me I should really check if my carrots are ready to pick.
I get knocked down but I get up again (Chumbawamba, Tubthumping) -.literally have been run over by a bike, mobility scooter and a car - still here 💪3 -
That’s a lovely harvest and makes for a beautiful still life composition! I am especially impressed by the aubergines as I have only had flowers on mine thus far. I am thinking that maybe I should be damping down, or something as pollination just isn’t happening. I have mine in a grow-bag, which I haven’t tried before.
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Thanks all, yes, I love harvest time. It makes the hard work worthwhile to be able to trot down to the veg garden (it's about the bottom 3rd of our garden) to see what's ready for picking. I knew there'd be a good haul today as had a quick look yesterday.
@Moorviews - Actually, I only ever grow my aubergines in grow bags - 3 to a bag, current variety is 'Moneymaker'. I don't do that much 'damping down' in the greenhouse although I know I should do it regularly in this hot weather, but I am also aware of having been put onto this bloomin' water meter. Don't get me wrong, I am not anti-water meters, quite the contrary & I think everyone will face compulsory metering eventually, as we have done, as the climate continues to change, but it does take the splashy joy out of watering when one is always thinking of that dial clicking round in an expensive direction. We do have water butts, but they are not a lot of use when there has been zero rain for so long.
I wonder if insects are not finding your aubergine flowers for pollination. I think I'd be inclined to intervene with a little make-up brush & do a bit of pollen-swapping manually. If even some intervention doesn't result in small purple babies, then I think the conclusion can only be that the issue is something else entirely. I do hope they still come good for you & you get some fruits.
2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!6 -
And now for today's round-up. It's been a pretty good day on the whole but petered out about an hour ago when another load of new car faff reared its head. Honestly, we ordered this damned vehicle in February, we are cash buyers & ready to go. Anyone would think they don't want to sell any cars! Anyway, it's still rumbling on with another decision to make yesterday, then once we thought we'd made that, another bigger one erupted this afternoon with Mr F at work & only able to communicate with me & the dealership on his breaks, & me at home but with all the figures/financials. Mr F has sent an assertive email requesting the necessary figures on this latest attempt to sort out a resolution. I have refused to make any decision until I have all of those as we are now deviating quite some way from our original order. The full 'ins & outs' are too tedious to bore you with so suffice it to say that trotting through today's task list ended in a fizzle when I had to put time into the latest chapter of car faff.
Nevertheless, budget-friendly efforts have been made & presented thus:
*Actually, I am going to include the car stuff because what we are trying to avoid is starting a 'new order' from scratch & losing the special offers which were on when we placed the original order back in February. So we are trying not to have to spend extra money through no fault of our own. It's become complicated.
*Today's veg pickings: Tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, 2 types of chillies, carrots.
*Useful veg garden maintenance to try & keep that food coming: Tied in all the tomatoes again & side-shooted the outdoor ones, also tied in the tromboncino, staked a couple of experimental pepper plants & a listing aubergine then thinned the pears, though this was very much limited to branches I could reach without going up a ladder.
*Bailed out bathwater for 8 watering cans of while not free, already paid for water & used to water the front courtyard & the thirstiest back garden plants. Take THAT S.T!!
*Did quite a few outstanding budget updates & flagged up a selection of things to include on Monday which will be my Big Budget Day.
*Did a few surveys - not that many around & I was bogged down in car faff by then so wasn't prepared to hang around in case any appeared.
*Entered a competition.
*Made pastry. I'm going to go & bake a pastry case in a minute for making caramelised shallot quiche later. I'm using my big flan dish so there'll be sufficient for serving tonight with veg & cold tomorrow with a big salad. There could be enough for a lunch too depending on how hungry the returning caveman is this evening. I like to freeze any leftover pastry as it comes in useful for putting with other leftovers to make something else.
*Had a look at latest energy bill from the Cephalopods. It's pretty much as I expected - Credit balance is still increasing, although it won't be as fast now that our monthly DD has decreased - we have spent slightly less on gas over this last month but around £5 more on electricity. I don't think there is any mystery there at all, as it will be use of fans during the hot weather - as we are both wilters, we won't be compromising on using those!
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
Right, I can see that Mr F has forwarded me some official looking figures from the car dealership so I need to go & compare those with the original ones & see if we are any nearer getting this faff sorted out. I should add that the customer services person we are dealing with is very good, none of it is her fault either. So I've kind of fizzled out on my list but I am happy with what I have achieved today & am looking forward to baking a nice quiche while listening to my audiobook.
Love F x
2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!12 -
Thank you Foxgloves, I’ll try some hand pollinating whilst I have a good number of flowers. There have been significantly fewer insects in the greenhouse than usual, presumably because of the heat and lack of rain. I have had the same issue with my tomatoes in that fruit set has been sparse. I am hoping that your water bill will work out to be much lower than your previous bills that were based on the rateable value. This was certainly the case for us and my family were definitely not careful about their water usage. I wish you some luck and a fair wind regarding the car purchase coming through on the original deal. It is quite extraordinary how long it has all taken.
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Thanks, @Moorviews. Certainly we were being charged more for water on the old rates system than we were actually using. The letter we received telling us we were about to be put on a compulsory water meter due to living in a 'water stressed area' showed the figures & we had a £465 rebate on the previous year so we are hoping that it will continue to be better value.
I know we are in a water stressed area….we all are in the UK, I would imagine because the climate is becoming more extreme & privatised water companies have spent the last 40 years enriching their shareholders & bosses at the expense of creating a fit for the future service. No new reservoirs for decades despite a growing population. I could go on….so I was very wound up to read this one-sided account of 'water stress' in their letter.
Yes, do try a bit of assisted pollination with your aubergines. They like heat so they ought to be producing by now, the naughty things!
2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!10 -
The problem with water meters is going to come when a large proportion of the population has a meter. They are in so much debt that they are not going to be able to deal with a drop in income so the metered rates will have to start increasing to compensate.
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