Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally

Seasidegal58 · 8 April 2018 at 12:17PM

You've been a busy this morning Hairy! Your garden will look lovely when you have finished planting!

Envious of your weather today! It's been raining all morning here - not long stopped but still overcast.

[Deleted User] · 8 April 2018 at 12:44PM

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

Mind you, I've had some dodgy grapes from Mr T in the past, if you eat them within two days of the use by date then half of them are rotten :mad:.

How much is a punnet of grapes in Mr M? It's £2 in Mr T which is very expensive :eek:.

No idea of the price of grapes at Morrisons, HH, sorry:o. I rarely buy much fruit there apart from melons and oranges. OH is the fruit lover, he could eat grapes in industrial quantities:eek: and tends to treat himself every time he goes out. He doesn't buy sweets or chocs, doesn't smoke and hardly ever drinks so it's his little indulgence. We may be odd but we split all bills 50/50 and I'm the one responsible for buying and paying for all the food and household cleaning products etc. If he wants grapes he can pay for his own;) .I buy a lot of my veg at Morrisons because I can always trust it to be OK.

We grow a lot of our own fruit such as apples and pears and a lot is safely stored for the winter months. We've run out now though and OH bought some pears off the market yesterday (for himself)but they looked very blemished and nowhere near as nice as ours which, incidentally, we don't use chemicals and pesticides on. We get some pecked by birds but we grow so many that we can afford to let them have their fill. The exception is the cherries which they totally decimate every year, it's as if a plague of locusts has been:eek:. I keep trying to get OH to invest in some sort of netting but he is very [STRIKE]mean[/STRIKE] careful with his money:(. There are lots of pick-your-own fruit and veg farms near us so we have access to good, cheap things like strawberries, asparagus, new potatoes etc etc when in season. Not worth growing our own a lot of the time. You don't have to dig up your own potatoes etc:rotfl:, there's a shop attached, but I love picking raspberries and especially strawberries which I'd eat every day if I could. I freeze a lot as well, although not strawberries as they go mushy on thawing, so I'm never prey to the money-grabbing greengrocers who make excuses that wherever stuff is grown has had a bad season/poor weather etc and that's why the prices have gone up:mad:.

HairyHandofDartmoor · 8 April 2018 at 1:39PM

Our garden is too small for growing veg or fruit sadly. I'm very envious of your fruit trees Carboot, I wish I had room for some. My sister has a cherry tree and there is a constant race between them and the birds to see who can get the cherries first :rotfl:. They have some netting but the crafty birds have discovered a way underneath it :rotfl:.

So I'm dependant for my fruit and veg on supermarkets and stalls. There are some lovely farms in Devon where you can buy amazing fresh fruit and veg but quite a long drive for us so not very MSE.

Anyway grapes and fruit are very healthy for your OH, much better for him than chocolate and biscuits

.

I've planted my flowers and am officially exhausted now. I'll water them in when it cools down a bit out there and DH said he would sweep up the soil from the path. They do look nice and I hope they flower well. The secret is to feed them apparently (and water them of course!).

HairyHandofDartmoor · 8 April 2018 at 1:42PM

Seasidegal58 wrote: »

You've been a busy this morning Hairy! Your garden will look lovely when you have finished planting!

Envious of your weather today! It's been raining all morning here - not long stopped but still overcast.

Our sunshine will probably head your way soon SSG, we seem to get weather fronts first in the South West, and then our weather heads eastwards.

redofromstart · 8 April 2018 at 2:25PM

MrM grapes are £1.72 each, or they are in the 2 for £3 soft fruit offers, or £1.25 if you are lucky and they have the 'wonky' ones - which are usually the same variety as the more expensive ones but smaller.

The garden bits sound lovely, an investment in smiling is money well spent. Aldi often has some great bits for the garden, including cheap compost. I try not to look in the plants bit at all.

HairyHandofDartmoor · 8 April 2018 at 2:58PM

Mr Al sounds cheaper for grapes than Mr M or Mr T, and I've used up most of my compost... hmmm.

My legs and back feel like jelly after the gardening, I wish I had the stamina to keep going for longer :mad:. I had to stop at half one and there's still loads of pruning and weeding needs doing :mad:. Not to mention housework!

Maybe it's my age, I'm 54 now and I'm sure I had tons more energy when I was 44

. It's all downhill from now on

although I'm going to fight old age by exercising and healthy eating :j.

Anyway I've put a wash on, with five adults in the house I soon get swamped if I don't do one every day.

[Deleted User] · 8 April 2018 at 3:02PM

Your plants in pots sound lovely, HH:T. I hope they give you and your family a lot of pleasure. It's given me the urge to do the same as they're more versatile than having plants in the ground and you can move them whenever and wherever you wish. Now all I need to buy are some suitably sized pots and some potting compost:eek:. Our garden soil is a nightmare, very heavy clay which needs so much compost incorporated in it. Oh, and I'll need plants as well. Sounds like big expenses in store to get started:(. My all-time favourites are sweet peas but I'll be buying small plants this year instead of planting seeds. I grow them every year so already have the canes for wigwams. I plant them in the ground and don't bother with pots for them.

Actually, you inspire me to do all sorts of things when I read of your doings:T. I still haven't done a special charity shop mooch yet:( but when I was in town the other day I dashed into the one nearest to where I'd managed to park for free and found a book which I've heard good reports about. It's called The Year of Less by Cait Flanders and only published in January this year. I haven't started it yet though as I'm part way through one about John Christie the murderer. I'm always reading books on minimalism and living with less clutter:rotfl: but try to borrow them from the library instead of adding to my own clutter. The one I bought is a hardback, in excellent condition and only £1.25, along with all their other hardback books last week. Wish I'd known sooner as I'd have made sure I had more time than a quick in-and-out. As it was I only had time to get the one but it's probably as well because, despite selling some, giving lots away and donating loads of books I still have far too many cluttering up the house. I shouldn't even be thinking of acquiring more, however cheap they are:o.

I'm glad you are having good weather for being outdoors. It started off really misty here and it's still pretty gloomy. It's been drizzling constantly since about midday:(. I think I'll spend an hour with John Christie;)

HairyHandofDartmoor · 8 April 2018 at 3:15PM

I'm glad I inspire you Carboot

.

I agree about pots being more versatile as once the plants stop flowering I move them out of sight. Also plants get too big for our garden.

Bedding plants aren't too expensive and neither is potting compost. Supermarkets and Mr Al can do cheap terracotta pots.

I think it's really nice to have a pot of flowers by the front and back doors as they cheer you up as you come and go. Something colouful to look at from the kitchen window also gives me pleasure.

The charity shop book sounds like a bargain

. I like books on minimalism and clutter too

.Books are never clutter in my mind, I just need more shelves and bookcases. DH wants to put book shelves in our living room alcoves but hasn't got around to it yet (more nagging from me required). We used (single) bed slats to make shelves in our office alcove, good sturdy pine it would have been criminal to waste

.

[Deleted User] · 8 April 2018 at 3:25PM

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

The charity shop book sounds like a bargain . Books are never clutter in my mind, I just need more shelves and bookcases. DH wants to put book shelves in our living room alcoves but hasn't got around to it yet (more nagging from me required). We used (single) bed slats to make shelves in our office alcove, good sturdy pine it would have been criminal to waste .

The office alcove shelves sound great and very :money:. OH and I both love using things up:j.

I'm a bookaholic but unlike you I consider most of mine to be clutter:o. I rarely read a book twice and apart from reference books I try to work on the one in and one out principle but I fail dismally. I can never resist a bargain when it comes to books. A bargain bin draws me like a magnet:eek:. People know I'm an avid reader and pass on all sorts of books to me. I give every one of them a try even if I'm not sure it's my cup of tea. Sometimes it isn't and I give up on it but I've discovered some wonderful new-to-me authors that way. I'm the middleman (woman) between them and the charity shop as I get to read them first and then I donate them. Sadly, I end up with more than I can read, hence boxes and cupboards full. All our bookshelves are bursting at the seams:eek:. I wouldn't have any time to cook, shop, clean if I read them all. On second thoughts though......:think:

redofromstart · 8 April 2018 at 3:27PM

Carboot, they have some nice plants and pots in MrM, well worth a look. They often have reduced ones. They have some in the front vestibule (Climbers (£1.76 last year I think for clematis/honeysuckle, etc) and patio plants and pots) and then alpines and ivies, etc with the bunched flowers.

Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally

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