Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Humdinger1

Your cats sure know how to party, @foxgloves! Thanks for the jam recipe. I'm enjoying jam vicariously love Humdinger xx

Suffolk_lass

I make jam pretty much the same way you do, @foxgloves except that I use the pop-top jars and re-use the tops once or occasionally twice (especially the "Good Mummy" ones with the check pattern on top). They reseal nicely when the jam is jarred up hot and the wide-mouth jars are easy to fill - Then, when we started keeping bees and read the Honey Regulations (it really is a thing) about moisture content, jars and lids - I found I had a ready supply of lids as despite them all having the silicone band, the honey is never heated, we are not allowed to reuse these. I do have various sources for replacement lids now, so the cellophane tops and waxed discs are a thing of the past here.

Faceache marketplace is an excellent source of the various jam-making things - Lockdown made many try some of the old skills, since abandoned due to lack of time. Many now being turfed out! Like you, I have always made jams and preserves

Debsnewbudget

I was channelling my inner foxgloves yesterday as I made 5 bottles of blackberry vinegar and 7 jars of plum jam. First time ever for both of them and I used the good food recipe for the jam, but have saved your recipe for future attempts.

Thank you

foxgloves

Hello Sunbeams,

Thanks for all your comments & contributions on the gloriously sticky subject of home made jam! I have had over-cooked failures too, of course I have, mostly when trying something new which fails to set triggering me to step up the boiling/time, then it goes past the setting point & creates, well not quite the 'brick' of @KajiKita's description, but certainly something which requires a fair amount of encouragement to get it to cover a slice of toast! Worst offender was orange & pear jam. Reasonable flavour but in all honestly, it was orange & pear lumps. @Suffolk_lass - I like the button lids for my chutney jars & of course also use them for my tomato bottling, which still feels like a relatively new skill since you & Nonna Gina's vidoes encouraged me to try it a few years ago. @Debsnewbudget - I love blackberry vinegar. I still have 2 bottles in the pantry from last year but I will almost certainly make another batch this summer as I use it in so many things, from sipping a spoonful if I have a scratchy throat to adding to stews, when caramelising onions & pretty much any recipe where I think lobbing in a lovely rich purple tablespoon wouldn't go amiss!

Usual unexciting Monday today, which as I have bored you with before, is a day for setting us up for the rest of the week. Budget-friendly aspects as follows:

*Quick bit of mending on a garment where a seam had started to unpiggle.

*Sorted all yesterday's clean laundry & was delighted to find that only about 1/3 of it needed ironing. With the latest horrid hot weather, it was good to be able to hang up 3 nice lightweight summer dresses all ready to wear - one of them being the one I sewed for myself last year for the princely cost of £3 & a reel of thread!

*Washed a pillow to make use of the excellent drying weather. I like to get big bulky items washed during hot weather as part of my getting ready for Autumn activities.

*Baked the sourdough I made yesterday.

*Today's garden pickings: Blackberries & an assortment of veg to roast for tonight's couscous.

*Divvied up fish box for freezing, including making a box of trimmings & smaller fillets for a fish pie at some point over the next week or two.

*Did a couple of budget updates & some admin. I've got together all the docs relating to the new car & have suggested to Mr F that when he's off on Weds, we have a go through the car folder & rigorously get rid of any paperwork that is no longer required.

*Did manage a couple of minor surveys, but they've been a bit sparse today.

*Began researching chairs as we need a new one in the kitchen. The little vintage armchair I re-covered during Lockdown (nothing valuable, prob about 1920s, 1930-ish - belonged to a Great Great Aunt & Uncle) had been repeatedly & systematically damaged by Soot: Clawing the back & sides, pulling at tucked under flaps to winkle them free of their staples, chewing braid off, etc. I have spare braid, heavy-duty stapler, matching thread, glue, etc, so had fully intended to spend time putting right the damage as much as I could, but the other day, he decided to upgrade his assaults on this chair with some Jackson Pollock-effect projectile puking & frankly created such a disgusting mess that I abandoned my plans & it went off to the tip. So I've started looking around for something suitable. I will try to remember to have a squint in a charity shop in town which has furniture to see if there's anything quirky I like, & have been looking online too. So far, the ones that appeal have been too expensive, not sufficiently cat-proof or both but I shall enjoy the research process & not buy anything until I am convinced it's right. My favourite thing so far has been an oak carver style chair which would look lovely with a cushion on it next to the dresser but I was not enamoured of the price tag & I don't think that is likely to change.

Ah well, that's been my day so far. I don't like high temperatures at all, but am still hoping to be reasonably productive this week. Hopefully cooler at the weekend.

F x

PennysIntoPounds

@Suffolk_lass I started to read your post too quickly and saw 'pop tarts' instead of 'pop top' and thought 'that is such cheating to just scrape the jam out of multiple pop tarts that I have to respect it tbh' 😂

@foxgloves a chair that is genuinely loved is such a thing of beauty and makes the day and home lovelier, I look forward to hearing your deliberations. Now we've moved I've reclaimed my dusky pink velvet armchair from storage at Mr PIP's parents garage, and while it can only (just about!) fit in the spare room, I keep going in to have a little sit on it for a moment just to go 'ahh'

Suffolk_lass

I wondered if you had a decent auction house local to you? There are often some nice looking Oak carver chairs that go for very low prices and sound as though they might suit you. The Monday Auction at the one I tend to go to had an Ercol stick back rocking chair yesterday, which went for about £300 less than the Bay, and a pair of oak chairs; one a carver, one without arms - £20

foxgloves

@PennysIntoPounds - Enjoy your pink chair! I have a small purple velvet armchair in the living room, which I really like. Unfortunately it has to be kept covered up because of feline shenanigans so I don't get to enjoy the lovely colour very often. This autumn, I am going to look for a washable throw in the same colour rather than the fake sort of wolf fur one I currently have on there which is for chair damage limitation purposes only.

@Suffolk_lass - I'm sure there'll be a local auction house, but actually, I probably wouldn't need to visit one as we live just outside a very 'antiquey' town (which has often featured on popular TV antique-finding shows. There are 2 converted 19th century churches in town which are made up of lots of antique/vintage dealer's sales units & I've been looking for an excuse to visit. It seems crazy I haven't visited before, as I love this sort of stuff but vintage/flea fairs were a huge problem for me back in the Spendy Decades. I think I covered in my original Diary how much I used to spend at them (shudders….) I still have a small collection of Wedgewood mugs I bought back then which I would get rid of in a heartbeat as my most loved vintage possessions now are those which have come from family members who are no longer with us. I could do with a dealer who would accept half a dozen of those against the cost of a chair, lol! A lot of the stuff I bought back then has been moved on or sold, mostly for much less than I paid of course & a print recently went off to a charity shop…..though it was lovely to walk back that way later & see that they had given it pride of place in their window.

foxgloves

Afternoon Diary Friends,

It's another hot one but not as bad as what's coming tomorrow & Thursday. There's quite a breeze huffing through the conservatory doors onto me, Mr F is wfh today & is at my desk next to a fan & Soot is stretched out on our bed, which is an area forbidden to cats most of the time so he's well pleased with himself. No sign of Ash since breakfast so he is probably in some or other rather unsavoury hidey-hole in the jungle garden a couple of doors down from us.

Budget friendly efforts today as follows:

*Did garden pickings: courgette, french beans, tomatoes & grapes.

*Prepped & froze 2 bags of beans.

*Washed another pillow as the one I did yesterday dried really well & had a good blow out on the whirlygig.

*Baked focaccia topped with red onion, rosemary & sea salt.

*V easy nosebag tonight as have defrosted 2 portions of batch-cooked gigantes plakis which I shall serve with some of the above.

*Started off a batch of blackberry vinegar. Stood the covered bowl on the pantry tiles where it's cooler. Decided I'd better pop a note on it telling Mr F not to move or knock it unless he wants sticky purple feet. Was just enjoying the very slightly smug feeling of having averted potential mess when I picked up a jar of turmeric….WHY of all my pantry jars did it have to be this one…..the stopper hadn't been replaced properly (guilty!) & the glass jar shattered on the pantry tiles spreading turmeric liberally. Went to fetch a cloth then thought, "NO, DON'T WET IT!!! fetched the triangular-finned beast instead & sucked it up with the crevice tool, before washing it thoroughly as didn't want blithely to forget the incident then use it to pick something up on our duck-egg blue wool rug.

*Did next week's meal plans which will continue to prioritise freezer supplies & garden produce. Have included 3 recipes which will each do us 2 days, so by the time I'd decided on those, I only needed to fill 1 remaining day & went for salmon as we've just had that fish box delivered.

*Wrote grocery shopping list plus a list for town centre first thing tomorrow when I need to go in to post a parcel. Grocery budget is a chunky bit lower than I'd like at this point in the month because we front-loaded with stock-up items to make use of a £10 off minimum spend voucher. I think we'll be fine as it is quite a short list & doesn't require purchases from other venues, as we went to the butcher last week & have plenty of fish.

*Did a survey. PA earnings for Aug currently sitting at £21 with about £4 still to be paid. I'll aim to get that up a bit over the next couple of weeks as shan't cash out until 31st.

Right, it's starting to get rather oven-like in here so I'm decamping to a shady bench with my book.

Cheers, F x

Sun_Addict

I had the same turmeric experience when a jar fell out of the cupboard all over a white top a few years ago. Needless to say I had to throw the top away as it wasn't the most fetching shade of yellow after that.

foxgloves

I'd have done the same, @Sun_Addict. I honestly don't know how I avoided getting my sandals full of it. My herbs & spices are mostly in those coffee jars with the glass stoppers as I was given a boxful years ago & prefer them to titchy little ones....but of course this meant there was a lot in there. Needless to say turmeric is now an additional item on my eco-refill shop list for tomorrow, bah!