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
September won't be a low spend month for me for it is the month I start restocking my cupboards ready for the winter months ahead. That said, I do have nearly 80 pounds in loyalty vouchers that I shall be using towards the. restocking. you look as if you've got everything planned out so I hope you have no surprise expenses coming along.
ReplyDeleteI was just going to say thank you for the useful link you left on my last blog, about the WW1 artefact, but I'm beginning to think it wasn't you. It was somebody else. Well, if it was you, thank you, it's provided help but the mystery still remains unsolved.
Not me with the link - hope you find out who it was.
Delete£80 of vouchers would have been enough to stock up for winter a year or so ago! Now only half a trolley full. :-(
We have road tax and service for car this month. Then we need a new main electricity junction box and then will finally give in and let Octopus fit a smart meter. More money and mess but needed. Have a goos weekend. Catriona
ReplyDeleteI keep getting phone calls for updating my meter and keep telling them it's working fine at the moment!
DeleteLast night's match between France and New Zealand was good. I was surprised NZ was beaten but I'm told by those who know that they're not firing on all cylinders at the moment. As for England, unless they've been conducting a long-standing and cunning deception, they haven't a chance.
ReplyDeleteWales v Fiji tomorrow. I'm not holding my breath. 🏉🏉🏉
DeleteFrance at home will do very well I think.
DeleteI know England were awful in their warm up matches but it's good to have all bits of the UK represented and I enjoy watching whoever is on. Love the way they always listen to the ref without protests
Good luck with the low spend - it's quite scary how expensive just existing is nowadays but that lovely garden produce will help considerably.
ReplyDeleteI think I need to grovel - I can't find that green tomato chutney recipe anywhere, bad me. If you still have it, would you mind resending it, please?
xx
It is on the separate recipe page - quite a long way down.
DeleteThis is it
GREEN TOMATO CHUTNEY
5lb Green Tomatoes
1lb onions
2tablespoons salt
1lb sugar
2 pints spiced vinegar
1lb sultanas( or half and half sultanas and raisins)
1lb cooking apples
Slice tomatoes and chop onions and mix in a basin with the salt, cover with a tea towel and leave to stand overnight
Next day tip the tomatoes and onions into a colander and leave to drain, the salt draws out lots of water.
Put the vinegar and sugar into a preserving pan and heat slowly, stirring to dissolve sugar
When its just boiling add sultanas and apples and simmer for a few minutes.
Add the strained tomatoes and onions and simmer until thick - about 1 hour.
Pot into sterlised jars and seal.
AH - I never thought of that!
DeleteThank you so much, that's really kind of you. I'm so looking forward to making another batch that will, hopefully, mature as beautifully as the last lot. xx
We've had car repairs (incl. TWO punctures - a nail in a front tyre and bounced-off-a-kerb (a first for me) with a back one.) I am about to order the greenhouse, but I am well stocked in freezer and larder. I've been scrumping in the churchyard again this morning so have a few apples to cook up.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to have somewhere to go scrumping but there is a distinct shortage of freebies around here!
DeleteI've rather lost interest in rugby in the last few years as what was always a rough game has been transformed into a brutal and often dangerous one. Skillful running and passing has been largely replaced by off-loading and crash tackling. Having said that, if England won the occasional game it might hold more of my interest.
ReplyDeleteHopefully they will suddenly be playing better than their warm up matches. One or two wins would be good
DeleteIs it really 20 years since Jonny Wilkinson’s tournament? I had the same feeling of where have the years gone when watching this year’s Ashes, 2005 seems like yesterday in so many ways. Our car came back from its MoT and Service yesterday with a bill of only £240 which obviously I put down to me being the sole driver nowadays! But I am starting to feel my age and after two years of being the grass cutter of our one acre plot I have finally organised some help. I was wondering Sue how you managed the land at Clay Cottage when Col was so poorly? The garden is producing abundantly and looked a bit scary after only five nights away but once I had made a big pan of soup with the overgrown courgettes and knobbly French beans I was back on top of it. We are eating solely from the garden and all I am buying is bread, milk, butter, eggs and cheese and we had a treat yesterday of locally smoked trout fillets which were delicious. When we lived in Surrey we would cycle off road up to Ranmore Common to watch the cyclists on their several loops of the Surrey Hills. It was exciting at first but then the rubbish discarded by the cyclists and support vehicles (almost as many cars as cyclists it appeared) used to really annoy me and we stopped going. Back in those early days of 2011 and 2012 my son worked as a ranger for the National Trust and they spent weeks clearing up the rubbish. Not a good advertisement for the sport. Sarah in Sussex
ReplyDeleteI hope they don't leave so much rubbish now, it's something they tried to stop a few years ago.
DeleteThey go by so quickly that it seems better to watch on TV to see the racing properly.
At Clay Cottage I just did as much as I could and had a ride on mower for the meadow. Moving away was inevitable due to the cottage being so far from any facilities and having a septic tank that kept getting blocked!
With costs of everything continuing to rise, you do extremely well conserving when you choose. During September, I top off my 2 oil tanks and I know that will be pricey. Who knows what Winter will be like given our Summer has been excessively hot.
ReplyDeleteI'll need to fill up my heating oil tank next month so not spending much this month seems a good plan
DeleteI would like to top up my oil tank but no one will deliver under 500 litres so that will co,me just before C.mas. I’m fortunate my car is tax exempt and TV no longer works, so can’t afford a new one, that should be a saving. I don’t go anywhere or have coffee or lunch out, it’s existing, not living but there are loads of single pensioners in the same boat. Hope Sept works out for you. Sarah Browne.
ReplyDeleteI'm very fortunate in having a state pension and a spouses pension from the County Council where Colin worked for 35 years and the big downsizing helped. All our hard work in doing up houses and aiming for the smallholding was the best thing we did.
DeleteGood luck with your Low Spend September. I just watched the England-Argentina game so maybe you can get your hopes up again - more than we can!!
ReplyDeleteGas has gone done 2 cents which is better than more money 💰 to spend for drive cars. I had my husband get gas at Safeway and be able to use debit card instead of a credit card. Only a Visa card is usable at Costco. I wrote out all the bills were paying , as in monthly. I have to pay off a credit card I used for my implants and oral surgery in April. If I don't pay it off by mid November, I get charged more money as it's not all paid. Frustrating but I hope to buy only what's needed lately til . Being retired is good but we still money. It's in my prayers to God as well.
ReplyDeleteOur NHS might be struggling and on it's knees but we don't get charged. Fuel prices here went down but now creeping up again
DeleteIt's never low spend September in our house. We have the first installment of property taxes due on September 15th. The school taxes are due on September 30th. $5200 out the door in one month. Even planning for it doesn't take away the sting entirely.
ReplyDeleteGlad you were able to have some friends visit!
ReplyDeleteI think it's going to be a low spend month here too - hopefully!
I didn't get to see the cycle race, we beat it through as we were going to Shotley for the morning. We were glad that the roads weren't closed! I love Shotley and was hoping to get in a visit. We just didn't realise it would be on the same day as the race.
September is never a low spend month for us. Four children have birthdays in a 3 week span. It's also property tax time. $5200 this month. Eek.
ReplyDeleteAlan had a full weekend or rugby watching and sleeping, very relaxing, but gosh I'm so glad I have my own television next door and can watch other things. :-)
ReplyDeleteI wish we could have seen the Cycling Tour of Britain. I love watching things like that -- especially when they take place in England!
ReplyDeleteHi, I think the Goodbreys had an antique shop in Framlingham until recently!!
ReplyDelete