Now it's Low Spend September

 I'm now doing a very low spend September as there's plenty in the freezer and in the cupboards and no big expenses due this month.

I treated the family to the sunflower maze visit but after that its tight purse-strings! 

Sadly there are a chunk of expenses that can't be avoided and happen without me even leaving the house  - Council tax, charity, phone and broadband direct debits and electric at the end of the month and if I didn't leave the house I wouldn't need diesel for the car but I do have to drive so can't avoid it. There might be a couple of unavoidable small expenses and there's a birthday later in the month but otherwise I'm hoping for minimum spend.........although I'm getting back to the swimming pool now the children are back at school so that will be £3 a week and exercise group is £1.50 each week.

Some September savings so far...........

Three of the huge sweet pointy peppers on the one remaining pepper plant turned red so they've been chopped and gone into the freezer - there are 3 left . I put loads of green peppers in earlier before they were ruined by the slugs(?) plus the £1's worth of red sweet peppers from the market stall and as soon as the other three are red they'll go in the freezer and there will be enough to last almost to pepper season next year.

I'm planning to use my one and only butternut squash in a vegetable curry to portion up for the freezer and yesterday I got lots of the huge tomatoes skinned and into the freezer in case I want some for chutney later. I've frozen them first individually on a tray then if they are not needed for chutney they'll be usable one or two at a time for cooking instead.

There are a few beetroot left, runner beans are doing well and the sweetcorn cobs are just about  to be ready and there are plenty of leeks too. In the greenhouse the one remaining cucumber plant made a miraculous recovery with the cooler weather before this week and is looking hopeful. Plenty of tomatoes still coming and even one courgette plant has started producing again.

 I saved some fuel yesterday by not going to look at the last of 2023's Domestic and Rural Bygones Sale  at Campsea Ashe Auctions. After looking online and finding this sale was mainly 'leftovers' from an antique dealer and nothing very interesting it wasn't worth the journey although  I liked the description - 

To include from the estate of antiques dealers Richard & Miranda Goodbrey 'A Collection of Chattles from their Home, Workshops & Storerooms'

We don't use that word chattles very often nowadays. In Suffolk (maybe elsewhere too) we have a word for food left on the plate by children - 'chates' which surely must come from the same root.

I'm saving more diesel (and parking fees) today by not going to Ipswich to visit any of the buildings open especially for National Heritage Open Days. Not because I don't want to, as there are several I'd like to see inside, but walking round town in predicted temps of 29℃ doesn't really appeal. There's always next year - God willing!

On Thursday it was good to have a visit from Essex friends who I've not seen for 4 years. Before Colin died we visited them or they came to us several times a year and camped on the campsite in several summers. They are about to become Grandparents for the first time so I was able to pass on some of the baby toys that all my lot have grown out of. 

They kindly brought me some huge onions and a jar of A's proper home made marmalade and went home with some leeks as well as the toys.

So that was week one of Low Spend September.

Did anybody watch the Cycling Tour of Britain passing through my part of Suffolk on TV on Thursday? It was quite interesting to see the roads and  places I know so well from the air.

 I've gone to watch them speeding by twice in past years, when they've had a stage in Suffolk, once in Friston near the smallholding and more recently through Eye just up the road from here  so didn't bother this year. They are always gone by in a flash anyway!

I'm looking forward to World Cup Rugby Union matches on TV for the next few weeks. Is it really 20 years since England won? They have no hope this year!

Back Monday.

Sue