Weekly Round-up and Low Spend November Final Report

I'm quite pleased with how Low Spend November went- especially in the Personal Expenses column, I was very restrained!

This is what I wrote at the beginning of November....my version of the depressing Thomas Hood November poem.

No books

No clothes

No pensioners Fish and Chips

No Ingredients for Christmas Cake or Puddings

No Advent calendar

No coffee and cake out

No random spending on hobbies

No food except fresh fruit, vegetables, milk and cheese and anything I don't want to run out of

No suddenly buying things I don't usually buy (make up, jewellery, magazines etc)

No Newspapers or TV schedule magazines

No flowers

No more Christmas food things for me

I managed to avoid everything listed except for £5.50p on a second hand books and £2.50 on a jigsaw puzzle - and they were all from charity sales so it counts as a donation to charity! 

Changed my mind about the food spending and just shopped as normal otherwise it was only putting off buying replacements for things used until December which seemed pointless. So all in all I count it as a small success.

This is the final weeks spending. I spent on a couple of things that would have waited until December but I wanted to get them done while I thought of them including some Christmas things such as locally produced chipolatas(vital for pigs in blankets of course) which made food spending more than other weeks. So.........

 Diesel for the car, tube of sealant to re-do the en-suite washbasin/splash back tile join; charity raffle tickets; Christmas postage stamps; Exercise group; One grandchild Christmas present sorted; Food; Monthly Electric Bill , Smol dishwasher tabs; Over 60's group; Wild Bird Food.

Total for the week so far £223 .31

Brought forward £391.05 + £223.31 = £614.36 + today*

IF  I'd not bought anything other than what HAD to be spent (ie not left the house for visiting charity Christmas Fayres, Exercise and Over 60's groups therefore NOT needing diesel for the car) and then not bought ANY Christmas stamps, Christmas presents and Christmas food or wild bird food and NOT sent a present for the new Great Niece or NOT bought new jar lids and made Red Relish  or NOT had a window cleaner it would have been over £100 less!! But it would have been a dull and mean month! It could be done but I'm glad it wasn't necessary. 

(Glad I went to Over 60s group, we had mince pies and I discovered I don't really like them anymore, so won't even bother to buy any - another small saving!)

*There is one hitch with that total above because today I'm going to a Christmas Fayre in Son and DiL's village church.

We've been going together ever since Colin died and the two Grandchildren will want to have a go on the tombola stall and the other children's things and eat cake and Nanna will be treating them for sure!

There are 3 other Christmas events on not far from home tomorrow and two on Sunday, I'm not planning on visiting all of them!

These are this months tiny savings................looking after the pennies.............

• Lots of Christmas Fayres visited for fun rather than spending
• Eating  batch made meals from freezer
• Huge stalk of Brussels sprouts for £1.50
• Using up card making bits to make Christmas cards
• Beetroot from BiL's garden
• Leeks from my garden
• Making sure to close curtains as soon as it's dark
• Home made bread with the bread-maker
• Bargain butter find - all in freezer
• No coffee and scone out all month
• Dishwasher only used every other day
• Quickly using up one of my stored butternut squash as it was starting to go mouldy
• Reading library books for free
• Found out via youtube how to fix my TV remote when putting in new batteries wasn't the answer. 

Have a Excellent Weekend - Oh, I forgot, I'm blogging everyday until Christmas (Blogmass or Advent 2024).... so...................have an Excellent Saturday and I'll be back tomorrow! with news on the antidote to No/ Low Spend November .................. Decadent December!!

Sue

Low Spend November Update and Other Stuff

 I reckon this is the only way to buy Brussel Sprouts - any that have been picked and bagged and transported miles are already old.

Got these from outside a house in the village that sometimes  has a few veg things out for sale with an honesty box. I'd walked up to the pub next door to put  a couple of jars in the bottle bank  and had to go home and get some cash when I saw the sprouts. £1.50 and I'll keep them outside, they'll be good for a few weeks.

At last a proper Yellow Sticker bargain from Asda, where butter has just gone up to £2 for 250g (what used to be ½ lb) and  up to £1.89 at Aldi. So when I spotted some 500g packs at the back of their reduced chiller cabinet  for £2.13, I grabbed 4 packs. The odd thing is that I've never seen butter in 500g packs anywhere around here before.

The home-grown tomatoes from the freezer, 3 red peppers and 2 red chilli's and all the other bits made 7 jars of my favourite red chutney/relish. A few will be given away and the rest will last me until next year. I completely forgot to get red onions so had to use ordinary which has spoiled the red-ness - but not the taste.

How's Low spend November going at the end of the third week?

Brought forward £331.75

Last Saturday Christmas Fairs £2.50 + £2.50 jigsaw (all for charity)

Rest of the weeks spending including the Brussel Sprout stalk + Keep Moving Group +Toothpaste + New Jar Lids + Food  from Asda and Aldi including the 2kg of bargain butter and red and chili peppers for the Red Relish    =    £54.30

So to carry forward  £391.05. Diesel to buy for the car and electric meter reading to ring in and then pay for this coming week and I shall ring and order 500litres of heating oil very soon.

Low spend November might suffer a setback because guess how many Christmas Fayres there are this weekend - all within about 10 miles .................................................................................... 

4 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday.................. and these are only the ones I know about! I won't be visiting them all!

Thanks to everyone who's read the blog through another week ......Hope you all have a good weekend.

Back Monday

Sue

It's Half Past November

 I thought the nearest car-boot sale had finished a few weeks ago when the ground was really soggy but the dry weather over the last two weeks meant they kept going and the last one was last Sunday.  Of course I had to go and look and broke Low Spend November by............50p!.

They are to replace a couple of my herb/spice jars that have pull off lids which are really hard to open -it's  an age and weakness thing!

Then I did the big garden job I'd been dreading and it was hard work just as I knew it would be. The job was to empty last years compost bin- it made 4 wheelbarrows full for the veg beds and for the fruit trees. The compost looked good which I was pleased about. Then I turned this year's bin into last years - that lets in some air and makes it rot down better. The bin was absolutely full of lovely worms - not earthworms but the proper compost sort - red or brandling - exactly what's needed in a compost bin. Happy gardener!

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As well as the NYT Wordle I usually try their mini crossword and the connections every day, many fails due to lots of US words, baseball teams etc etc. 

On Wednesday I managed the connections puzzle but  the connection in the 4 words left seemed  very tenuous......................

What do you think the connection is between Colonel, Pharaoh, Worcestershire and Wednesday. I wouldn't have guessed, so it's a good job it told me the connection was that they were words that seem longer written than spoken! 

********************

How's it going with  No Low Spend November? 

Brought Forward £286.80

I did say I'd only be buying buy fresh food or anything I didn't want to run out of but that only puts off buying things for a month which seems pointless so I've been doing the normal shop of fresh stuff and replacing things used.

This week just gone - Saturday to Friday.

Last Saturday's Christmas Fayre and church morning total of £6.50. All for  charity and churches.
Car boot-sale, Window Cleaner, Exercise Group, Bin Bags =£14.80 +Asda, Tesco and Aldi Food £23.65  

(I discovered Tesco are the only place to find Lemon Meringue Pie Filling  which I wanted after using the packet that was 2 years past it's BB date ......it was absolutely fine and a nice treat.)

£286.80 + £44.95 =     £331.75.

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If you watched Antique Road Trip this week then on Wednesdays programme they were in Suffolk and Hettie went to Sarah's Attic in Monks Eleigh which is where I was last Saturday and Raj was at the Antique place at Stonham Barns where my nearest car boot sale is held. Always good to see Suffolk on TV. 

More Christmas Fayres this weekend - I shall look without spending too much and then there is colder weather forecast from Sunday onwards so I'll be settling into read my library books.

Have a good weekend and I'll be back Monday

Sue

Gloomy First Week of November

 Grey, grey, grey and even greyer - that's what the sky has been every day this week in Mid Suffolk. It's not very inspiring. According to the Met Office website we might get a little sun on Monday and Wednesday if we're lucky................at least it's not cold - about the only good thing to say.

I even had to use the tumble dryer for 30 minutes one day as there wasn't any drying weather all week.

 

I got my scrapbooks and bits that I've been cutting out from various places, onto the table. The dull weather meant having the lights on a lot to see but I spent a while adding more themed pages.

Making scrapbooks all started in 2021 when I found these below at a boot sale and wanted to save some of the cuttings and postcards rather than them being chucked into landfill. I couldn't save everything as some were water damaged and foxed but kept the best bits including the postcards of Eric Ravilious - on the black pages.

 Someone asked what I do with them. Well there are only two so far and not yet full up but I'll keep them and perhaps pass them onto grandchildren or maybe they will be useful to someone. 

This isn't the scrapbooking that is done using bought bits and photos but recycling all sorts, including old tatty books, stamps, cuttings from various places, cards and I found a bundle of old nostalgia postcards in a charity shop a long while ago that have been good to use.

These are some of the pages I've done. (I've used a couple of art sketch books picked up at boot sales rather than buying special scrapbooks)

Chairs - with room for more

                                                           

Working horses and donkeys

Through doors or windows - with a bit of space left for more

Apples and blossom

Hats

WWII

It keeps me out of mischief!

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Thank goodness for the TV this week - I've not been far so it's been good company . There are new series of Antique Road Trip and QI and the second of a police drama called Ellis, and Shetland came back. I watched series 10 of The Brokenwood Mysteries on the U channel - it's the New Zealand version of Midsummer Murders!

No  LOW spend November to date..............

Brought Forward £ 242    Direct Debits (Council Tax, phones, broadband, charity)

                             £    8   Various donations re book fair etc

                             £  36.80  Food Aldi and Morrisons; Keep Moving Group; Gift and postage for new                                                   baby.

This weekend........................In my diary there is a Christmas Fayre or Sale somewhere every weekend from now to mid December. Sometimes even three on the same day, which will be difficult!

I didn't get to one last weekend but hope to this weekend and perhaps another church visit too and I really need to empty the compost bin that's been stood for a year.

Have a good weekend

I'll be back Monday 

Sue

Second-hand Book Sale

I said No Spend November wouldn't be taken very seriously!

 Instead of trekking down the A12 to Colchester for the big NSPCC  second-hand book sale on Saturday, which I've visited every year for many years,  I went just across to near the coast for the much, much smaller charity book sale at Westleton - raising money for their village hall. It's just a shame they are both the same weekend.

 I  picked out these few to look through- one perhaps for interesting bits for cutting up for my old fashioned scrapbooks. Plus another book I'll write about later in the week. It was £1 to get in and the 5 books were £4. I don't think I've seen any of them before as they are all several years old.

Had breakfast before going out so didn't need to partake of the coffee and cakes!.......sadly.

No spend (?) November so far

Direct Debits                          £242

Book Sale                               £    5 }

Church donation                    £     1 }      My accounting means these all go in the Charity part 

British Legion Poppy Appeal £    2 }        of the account book.

Back soon

Sue

No Spend November? Unlikely!

 When I started blogging in 2013 lots of people had frugal blogs and did a No Spend November challenge. I pondered on trying again this year. It's usually a fail but ....................

Here's my version of Thomas Hood's well known miserable November poem, my version sounds just as miserable and after I'd written the list I thought "Blimey, almost makes life not worth living!"

No Spend November

No books

No clothes

No pensioners Fish and Chips

No Ingredients for Christmas Cake or Puddings

No Advent calendar

No coffee and cake out

No random spending on hobbies

No food except fresh fruit, vegetables, milk and cheese and anything I don't want to run out of

No suddenly buying things I don't usually buy (make up, jewellery, magazines etc)

No Newspapers or TV schedule magazines

No flowers

No more Christmas food things for me

November

BUT I will have to order heating oil and start finding the 9 Christmas gifts needed for family.

And the spending so far?.....Direct debits for Council Tax, Charity, Phones and Broadband total £242 - without even leaving the house!

Actually I'm doomed to fail as  I'm off to a second hand book sale today  and it's the first of the season local Christmas Craft and Food Fayre tomorrow and anyway I really have no need to be as frugal as my list and definitely don't want to slip into a black hole of depression!

Finished the Gypsy Caravan puzzle - all complete. Now back in the box and labelled 'Complete November 2024' ready for the next person and the table has been cleared ready for doing some scrap booking. It's good to have lots of different  hobbies.

Back Soon

Sue

October in My Bit of Suffolk

The bedroom/shower room were sorted just in time for me to unseal the cupboard and find the Halloween bits to add to the October display shelf.

The cats come out

The bats come out

The pumpkins come out, too

The treats come out

The ghosts come out

It's Halloween.........BOO!

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New heating oil tank, new en-suite, new flooring for en-suite and bedroom...........That's a chunk of my down-sizing savings gone in one month.

There will be another bill later when they put the outside door into the old en-suite to turn it into a freezer/store room next month and when I buy 800 litres of heating oil. Although the extra government 'help with heating costs' payment will help towards that.

I ought to do No Spend November...................but I try it every year (it's even there in the Labels) - and never succeed. It isn't meant to be absolutely NO spend - food needs buying, bills need paying and direct debits happen - but spending on as few days as possible and no extras. Although my 'rules' say spending on Christmas is allowed so as not to leave all the Christmas present shopping worries until December. Maybe I won't even bother to try this year.

But away from big expenses it's been a lovely month with mild and mostly fine weather and I've done all sorts of things including 

• Going to Eldest Granddaughter's 6th birthday party. Visited her again in half term and seen the nearest two grandchildren a couple of times. 
• I started cutting the horrible Yew hedge out the front until the wire pulled out of the connection on the hedge cutter so it's now at Brother-in-Laws house awaiting a bit of re-wiring.  
• Joined a new free course of exercise and wellbeing for over 60's. 
• Helped in the kitchen with the Soup and Puds fundraiser at WI.(61 people booked in, they get a soft drink,  a choice of 3 home made soups with a bread roll, followed by a choice of 9 home made deserts followed by tea/coffee all for £8. Thank heavens Bacton village hall has a high speed hot steam dishwasher!)
• 
  

• 

  Right ready for 61 visitors

  
  
• Drove down the A12 to the Big charity book sale
• Been to several car-boot sales
• Re-organised some furniture and cleared out a bag of things for the charity shop

All was going well until the boiler refused to switch on at the weekend -  Heating engineer needed AGAIN.  Think this boiler is rubbish, and it's not even very old, because in the 18 months I've been here it's had problems 5 times.

November looks to be a good month, plenty to keep me occupied - Books to read, more NCIS to watch, Firework night, more of the exercise/wellbeing  group, 2 WI meetings, there's a couple of coffee mornings and craft sales to visit and then Christmas Fayres start at the end of the month.......................and I've found two events with free coffee and cake..........I'll be there!

Back Soon

Sue

No Spend November? Did It Happen........er....No!

One small bit of extra income this month was £16.50 from selling several secondhand books through Ziffit. Other than that it was the usual pensions  and small bits of interest from savings bonds. Plus the £200 winter fuel allowance went into the bank.

Then it was No Spend November which is an annual challenge plan to only buy food, fuel, Christmas things and pay bills through the month. The idea is to save some money to use in December to finish the Christmas food shopping. Lots of bloggers used to do it when I started blogging in 2013. I've never taken it as a serious rule - actually that's my take on life in general!

I didn't take it seriously at all this year because as well as Christmas presents for the Grandchildren and Youngest daughters birthday gift, I bought a spring tine leaf rake, a dalek compost bin, a metal cage for the leaf mulch,compost,  2 pear trees and the seed order .  Everything for the garden! My Mum would have had heart failure! She wasn't keen on me buying books or garden things with my money - it was supposed to be used for things for the house - she was quite house proud - I'm most definitely am not.

As well as the above there were all the usual things like the 4 weekly Electric bill, charity donation, food, diesel for the car(price up yet again this month), the window cleaner came and phone bills. Then the biggest spend was a 500 litre heating oil order which will fill my tank and last me through the winter and most of spring.

Therefore it ended up being a Very Spendy Month - to make up for this I shall do a No Spend January (she says - with fingers crossed behind her back!)

Any tiny frugal things? Only the usual.........

• Mixing whole milk half and half with water
• Making big batch of vegetable/paneer curry and put in freezer for family visit at Christmas (will save a takeaway)
• Library books for free
• Somehow avoided using tumble dryer all month - finished things off on radiators
• Made a pair of leggings last longer by threading in new elastic and mending tiny holes.
  
• Ordered some Grandchildren Christmas presents with a Black Friday discount
• Pensioners discount Fish and chips
• Home made bread
• Made Christmas cakes for the hampers (not really frugal but better than buying more shop bought items ) 
• Charity Christmas cards for £1 from a charity shop.
• Avoided temptation to buy expensive diary (the Country Wisdom and Folklore diary for £12)- and got one for £2 from The Works 
• Avoided more temptation to buy gorgeous traditional picture advent calendar - saving myself another tenner at least! 
  

So not a frugal month but at least I can say I have everything needed to get started with growing food next spring and Christmas present shopping is done as the Grown up children all get money - makes life easier. The two hampers are finished and BiL just wants some new work boots - so I'll give him some money and he can get them.

I have a small list of food things to make next month - spiced nuts is at the top of the list, but I daren't make them too soon or I'll eat them and have to start again. Plus Cheese straws and mini vegetarian nut roasts. Then I'll be ready for whoever and whenever visitors arrive and if it doesn't happen then I'll have plenty to eat all through January!

Back Tomorrow, which is the 1st December so straight into Photos in Advent 2021

Sue

  

The Ins, Outs and Frugal Bits of October

 The Income was as usual with no extras.............. My state pension and the County Council spouses pension and small bits of interest. I got notification of the Winter Fuel Payment (to be paid sometime before the end of January) - which is new to me as I now get my state pension. £200 will go a good way towards the next heating oil top up.

Regular outgoings were as usual......Food, Diesel for the car, the 4 weekly electric bill, charity and phones direct debits. I also bought myself a hoodie to replace a baggy cardigan and a huge plastic pot to re-pot my Olive tree and a couple of bags of compost.

A few bits of Christmas shopping for the grandchildren were done online and birthday gifts for son and granddaughter and some odds and ends for grandchildren from boot-sales. Plus a couple of food things for the hampers.

Then there were the usual small  household things - like postage stamps and  a couple of new pillows (why is it now difficult or maybe impossible to buy 1 pillow?) and a couple of secondhand books - now without guilt!

 

 

 Spending could have stopped right there.........

 

 BUT.................... then  I decided to crack on with the things I can do in the garden including ordering 3 Minarette Apple trees. Even with a 10% discount for early season ordering they weren't cheap. I then also bought a Pear Tree from a boot-sale for £12.

(I got a quote for a new path up the side of the bungalow and a few other small jobs = £2090!! That will be a "no thank you at the moment " then.)

The new tyres for my bike were quite expensive because I went for some that were very tough and sturdy instead of the soft and floppy at half the price. I figured these sturdy tyres should see me out!

The Suffolk Agricultural Association are doing an early-bird on-line discount on tickets for the Suffolk Show next year so I've bought mine and the printer co-operated to print it out, just have to keep it safe until 31st of  May.

The bill arrived for the replacement of the two kitchen lights that kept going on and off and I bought the last two saucepans I needed for my induction hob.

Finally I bit the bullet and ordered a smallish chest freezer for the garage. I was fed up with having to wiggle things around to fit it all in the current freezer storage. I'm used to having a back up of things that I'm currently using NOT having to wait until whatever it is is completely finished before I have room for another. Only problem is there's not a chest freezer of the size I need anywhere - so a 4 - 8 week delay.............will it be here by Christmas..............that is the question.

 

Frugal bits............

• Mended tiny holes in 3 pairs of leggings....moths?washing machine? or just old age?
  
• Bought a big bag of cooking apples for £1 from the Fundraiser coffee morning
• Harvested the last of the peppers from the greenhouse and popped (squeezed) into freezer
• Used the last 2 very small aubergines for  an aubergine and pasta bake that fed me for 2 days
  
• One Pensioners discount Fish and Chip meal £3.50
• Reading library books for free. 
• Mixing whole milk half and half with water
• Morrisons actually had their bags of "wonky" fruit and veg- pears and carrots(although none of their Suffolk tomatoes for ages).
  
• Home made bread
• Bargain pack of 4 ink cartridges for the printer were £1 from a boot sale. I keep saying I'll replace my very old printer as soon as I run out of ink cartridges but then I find some cheap and hang onto it for a bit longer!
• Picked the right days to do the washing and avoided using the tumble dryer
• Gift of cooking apples from DiL who was gifted a huge bag full and didn't need them all.
  

It's really been obvious how prices are rising this month. Moving here should have meant less spent on diesel for the car but with a 15p a litre price rise in just a few weeks I seem to be spending almost as much as before. The price of fresh fruit has been steadily rising all year and most supermarkets no longer do a "value" range - or if they do it's on a very limited amount of things. I've more-or-less restocked cupboards that had been run down prior to moving and have started to build up a small store of extras. The kitchen wall cupboards go right up to the ceiling which means the top shelf is beyond reach except with the steps so that's a good place for an emergency can store and Christmas things.

 There was another expenditure in October, but I don't mind buying a present for this one at all!

I'll return next month which happens to be Monday - Yes - November already. Clocks back Sunday - I refuse to be glum!

 (Apologies for not reply to many comments this week)

Saturday............ editing in to say I almost forgot that November will be, as always, No Spend November, when only food and Christmas things are bought...... (and bills are paid....of course)

Hope you have a good weekend and the parts of the country that are soggy get a chance to dry out.

Back Monday

Sue

 

End of November Round-up

  Phew...........what an 'interesting' month.  I decided to move and within a week  the house was photographed and ready for selling and went live on Rightmove on the Thursday afternoon............the wonders of modern technology.

 I showed round 2 couples on the Friday, 4 on Saturday and 1 early Monday morning and later that morning the Estate Agent rang with offers. One family were ready to complete and move in as soon as solicitors could do the work, they had sold their house and were preparing to move in with parents until they found something suitable  and that's what they'll do until they can move in here. They offered the full amount which I accepted (and  they are  Suffolk people with young children and I hoped for a family for this house as it hasn't had one for a very long time)

In 40 + years of selling  and moving I've never had anything happen so quickly - it's good but seems much too easy...............makes me nervous! Although they've been for another look and still seemed keen.

And having decided against the new-build on a new estate I now need to find something to buy when almost nothing is for sale in any of the 4 villages I would like to live in........... could be a problem or maybe I'll rent and  be right ready to buy when something turns up. Although renting probably means going back into a town for a while.

No Spend November has ended, the lock-down certainly helped because I didn't go far and unlike the March-July lock down I didn't go  spending online either!

So how did it go?

 

 

 

1st.        No Spend

2nd        Food  £33 + Cat £6 +  Diesel £18 + Printer Paper £4.          = £61  

3rd         No Spend

4th        Swimming £2.25 + Birthday Gift for Youngest daughter

5th         No Spend 

6th        No Spend

7th          No Spend

8th         No Spend

9th        No spend

10th       Food £18 + Cat £5 + Kitchen stuff £2.50 + Pharmacy £3.80  Christmas bits £3.50  = £32

11th        No Spend 

12th        Whoops forgot I'd pre-ordered a book published today from up the amazon £8

13th       No Spend

14th        Fruit, Veg and Yellow sticker pizzas + Flowers  £11

15th      The cat calming stuff for Polly which I have on a 3 times a year regular order £34

16th      No Spend

17th      No Spend

18th       No Spend

19th       No Spend

20th     No Spend

21st      Food  £26    Cat £3.75   Superdrug £1.50 = £32

22nd     No Spend

23rd     No Spend 

24th     Pensioners discount Fish and Chips £3.50.Diesel £24 = £27.50

25th      No Spend

26th      No Spend

27th      Online Xmas gift spending £13

28th     Fruit £2.50, Quarterly Electric Bill £94 (actual reading) much as last year.

29th      SWIMMING BOOKED FOR NEXT WEEK!!!!! £2.25

30th     Today will be a no spend..... as far as I know

 Add in Direct Debits for Council Tax, Phones, Car Breakdown Insurance,Charity Donations plus Birthday gift and Xmas presents. Making a total of  roughly just under £650   .......Not exactly a "No Spend" month but not bad.

   

December probable spending - A LOT - with the trees being cut down, chimney sweep,car insurance due. Christmas Gifts for children and their OH's and some Christmas food. But I solved the problem of what to buy BiL - we decided not to bother! He buys anything he needs himself anyway and I've got my 12   actually 7  Christmas treats for the 12  7 days of Christmas so we are both happy with that arrangement.

 

Still clearing out - now for a definite reason!

Lots of burnable bits - a box full of straw(?), hardboard etc- from the workshop went on the bonfire

A crate full of various containers of oil etc - BiL took them home to sort out for me

Lots of things including an out of date hard-hat ( yes Colin had one from somewhere that had a safety use by date on it) went into a heap ready for the tip-trip

Small bits of old electrical wires and switches into bin

Several books waiting for charity shops to open. 

Old sheets and duvet - once used for dust sheets - off to clothes/fabric bank at tip

Half the jam jars that I'd been keeping went off to bottle bank

Bundle of childrens Christmas books to youngest Granddaughter

 

Frugal Living tips are the same as every other month

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

 

Saturday in Week 36 of Strange Times

 Another week gone - surely we are getting to the end of this second lock down? How many days left?............. 9 I think.......Only 9 I hope but who knows and as for what's happening for Christmas, no one seems to agree on the way forward.

What have I done this week......................Not A Lot, apart from doing a good house clean and tidy ready for the House Photographs it's been a nothing sort of week (and apologies for not replying to all the comments yesterday about the house ad and St Edmund)

Although I did get one vegetable bed weeded so I suppose that's a plus and made half a dozen jars of lemon marmalade from a tin of the prepared lemons.

 

 

Haven't  mentioned  how I'm getting on with.................

 

 

(Direct Debits for Council Tax, Phones, Car Breakdown Insurance,Charity Donation Total £260)

1st.        No Spend

2nd        Food  £33 + Cat £6 +  Diesel £18 + Printer Paper £4.          = £61  

3rd         No Spend

4th        Swimming £2.25

5th         No Spend 

6th        No Spend

7th          No Spend

8th         No Spend

9th        No spend

10th       Food £18 + Cat £5 + Kitchen stuff £2.50 + Pharmacy £3.80 

               Christmas bits £3.50      = £32

11th        No Spend 

12th        Whoops forgot I'd pre-ordered a book published today from up the amazon £8.19

13th       No Spend

14th        Fruit, Veg and Yellow sticker pizzas + Flowers  £11

15th      The cat calming stuff for Polly which I have on a 3 times a year regular order £34

16th      No Spend

17th      No Spend

18th       No Spend

19th       No Spend

20th      No Spend

 I will be popping out today for fresh fruit and some frozen bits and I really must get on with ordering/buying some presents for the grandchildren that are not yet sorted. Already organised are hampers for the 2 sisters and Brothers in Law, small presents for penfriends. The 3 children and their OH's will get money. Just leaving BiL who is always a problem.  I'm not doing gifts for niece and nephews this year, who are all grown up with their own houses and earning more than me!........ (now there are 4 grandchildren something had to give). The plan for my 12 days of Christmas treats has ground to a halt at 7 as I can't think of anything else!

 

Oh, remembered another thing I've done, and that is to take a whole lot of photos for the Advent Photos 2020 posts. I'm planning something a bit different to the last 5 years. 

This week I'm grateful for

• Good photographer who took some excellent house photos
  
• Some dry days to get gardening done
• Always something to watch on TV .......... tennis this week
  
• Mild weather most of the  week - saving oil.

And finally isn't it brilliant to see Pat at Weaver of Grass home safe and sound and back blogging and also hello and welcome to some new followers.

 I will return on Monday - full of bright ideas for blog posts.................I'm lying about the bright ideas!

Sue

Making a Big Decision

I bought flowers on Saturday.....why? Because  tomorrow a man is coming to take photos of the house - Yes, I've decided to move! It suddenly seemed the right moment.

 I love living here, it's the best home ever,  but the worries of a old house with all the things that can go wrong, lots of grass to cut and a ride-on mower that keeps breaking down have made me decide it's better to go now than later.

My original plan was to stay until I was no longer able to drive but "Move while you can rather that when you have to" is a common Estate Agents mantra (well they would say that wouldn't they!) but it is a good idea. Less responsibilities of a new build is my plan and with so many people wanting to move to somewhere with land in the country due to the covid situation my home is now worth between £50,000 and £75,000 more than we paid for it, making it a really good time to move and houses around about are selling very quickly at the moment  and this house needs a family.

As long as there's room for a few vegetable beds and a small greenhouse in the new home I shall be happy but I don't plan to downsize house size too much - did that with the year in Ipswich and didn't like it.

I'll keep you posted on progress but our last two house moves (smallholding to Ipswich and Ipswich to here) each took 6 months! and that was without a chain...............so who knows. Plus the houses I'm hoping to move to are not even built yet.

 

Anyway, back to the here and now..............

No spend November (with flowers!)

(Direct Debits for Council Tax, Phones, Car Breakdown Insurance,Charity Donation Total £260)

1st.        No Spend

2nd        Food  £33 + Cat £6 +  Diesel £18 + Printer Paper £4.          = £61  

3rd         No Spend

4th        Swimming £2.25

5th         No Spend 

6th        No Spend

7th          No Spend

8th         No Spend

9th        No spend

10th       Food £18 + Cat £5 + Kitchen stuff £2.50 + Pharmacy £3.80 

               Christmas bits £3.50      = £32

11th        No Spend 

12th        Whoops forgot I'd pre-ordered a book published today from up the amazon £8.19

13th       No Spend

14th        Fruit, Veg and Yellow sticker pizzas + Flowers  £11

15th      The cat calming stuff for Polly which I have on a 3 times a year regular order £34 

Halfway through November and all is well.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

 

Week 35 of Strange Times

Apologies......................... This post is just a whole lot of lists!!

 This was  Week 35 of Strange Times and 9 Days of our second lock-down have passed = 19 left until hopefully things are relaxed a bit.............getting through.

 First of a winter harvest this week - Brussels Sprouts and very nice they were too. They are from one of the four plants that I bought as part of a 16 plant  Brassica Collection from one of the seed companies.

I didn't get many heads from the 4 Calabrese plants and the 4 Cauliflower plants only produced a couple of small Cauli's but I've had two big cabbages and 2 still standing and out of the 4 Sprouts plants  2 have decent Brussels sprouts. Conclusion  = Probably not worth growing next year! Although it is so good to have fresh Brussels Sprouts. If they were available 'on the stalk' all winter rather than just at Christmas that's how I'd buy them.

And that reminds me...............what happened to my "Food Produced by One Old-ish Woman on Her Own" list?.................. Forgotten since 5th October.

All these are finished now

• Lettuces
  
• Rocket and small beetroot leaves as salad leaves
• A few asparagus spears
• Lots of rhubarb
• A surprising amount of strawberries from 6 new plants and a few from the old bed.
• 3lb of gooseberries
• Lots of raspberries and 3lb put in the freezer
• 2lb Redcurrants
• Few mange-tout peas  - put in the freezer
• Green beans  - some put in the freezer
• 2 small calabrese heads.
• 2 small cauliflowers 
• Figs 
• Courgettes
• Aubergines
• Cucumbers
• Plums
• Runner beans
  
• Plenty of tomatoes from greenhouse
• A few potatoes
• Beetroot
• Onions 
• Cooking Apples (Some left in the freezer)
  
•  Eating Apples
  
• Few peppers left in the greenhouse (lots in the freezer)
  
• Pears 

All I have left are

• A few leeks
• 2 Cabbages
• A few Brussels sprouts 

Quite a successful year.

*************

I enjoyed re-doing the 30 ways to save £1 posts from 2013 and seeing if they were still relevant and thanks to everyone who commented. The reason for pinching pennies in some places is so that I can spend on more interesting things. This year I'm not buying an Advent calendar, an expensive diary or the Almanac book and that's freed up some money to use for my 12 days of Christmas Treats to cheer up the days alone after Christmas and I've already stashed a few things in the cupboard. It might seem a bit self-indulgent and it took me a while to "allow" myself to spend this way but it seemed a good idea this year when everything is so weird. 

No spend November is still ongoing

(Direct Debits for Council Tax, Phones, Car Breakdown Insurance,Charity Donation Total £260)

1st.        No Spend

2nd        Food  £33 + Cat £6 +  Diesel £18 + Printer Paper £4.          = £61  

3rd         No Spend

4th        Swimming £2.25

5th         No Spend 

6th        No Spend

7th          No Spend

8th         No Spend

9th        No spend

10th       Food £18 + Cat £5 + Kitchen stuff £2.50 + Pharmacy £3.80 

               Christmas bits £3.50      = £32

11th        No Spend 

12th      Whoops forgot I'd pre-ordered a book published today from up the amazon £8.19

13th       No Spend

 This week I'm Grateful for

• Sorting out the Ride on mower when it stopped working -again
• Making an important decision
  

Have a good weekend, I shall be back Monday

Sue

Old Pubs and Old Forges

 I biked the six mile loop again and took the camera to capture some of the old houses and buildings that were once pubs or forges.

Once a forge, now just a building used for storage. This part of the village is called Blacksmiths Green.

 

This house below was once a pub, right up to the 1970s. Colin could remember going there in his teens.

It was called The White Horse but known by everyone as The Cat and Mouse. A Pub with no bar, the landlady would fetch the beer from a barrel in the back room

 A House with attached building called The Old Forge

This House below is called The Trowel and Hammer. Once a pub but closed even before the Cat and Mouse.

Below and a couple of miles away from the house above is a pair of cottages , called Old Trowel Cottages. This was a pub way, way back in history.

 

And finally in the oldest bit of the village, close to the church is another house called The Old Forge.

Somewhere in this bit of the village there would have been another pub and I wasn't sure exactly which house it was. But after looking in the book about the village that was put together several years ago and then added to in the 1980's it seems the house above was a pub and still has a cellar but was later renamed the Old Forge. 

(Direct Debits for Council Tax, Phones, Car Breakdown Insurance,Charity Donation Total £260)

1st.        No Spend

2nd        Food  £33 + Cat £6 +  Diesel £18 + Printer Paper £4.          = £61  

3rd         No Spend

4th        Swimming £2.25

5th         No Spend 

6th        No Spend

7th          No Spend

8th         No Spend

9th        No spend

10th       Food £18 + Cat £5 + Kitchen stuff £2.50 + Pharmacy £3.80 

               Christmas bits £3.50      = £32

11th        No Spend

 

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

(And if you were watching Antiques Road Trip yesterday afternoon you should have picked up a clue to where I went a few weeks ago and the mystery thing I bought which represents a letter in the Ogham Tree Alphabet.......................I'll write about it one day next week.)

The Wild Silence By Raynor Winn

 I loved her first book " The Salt Path" - which tells the story of their walk around the South West Coastal path after being made homeless,penniless and with her husbands diagnoses of a terminal illness hanging over them.

This is her second book and is the story of how she came to write the first book, how her husband finds ways to fight  disease, their new home thanks to a kind reader and a trek through Iceland.

It was a bit of a struggle to read this, not because it's hard going but because of connections to my life.

Firstly of course is the diagnoses of terminal illness - a different illness to Colin but just as devastating . Treatable but not curable we were told - sadly they didn't say that treatment rarely works for very long. Ray's husband Moth is still fighting but my Colin died after just 2½ years.

 And then the book starts with the death of Ray's mother and Ray having to spend a couple of weeks with her mother in hospital and having to decide when to stop treatment. It was a bit too close to May 2018 and I remember all too well sitting with Colin and trying to sleep on a fold out bed beside him as his breathing got worse and knowing he couldn't hear me talking to him anymore.

 Then another but nicer connection when Ray is asked by "A small publishing company" to write the introduction to a book being reprinted. I knew straight away the company were Little Toller Books   

and I knew well the book she too knew well from her youth. Copsford by  Walter Murray

I wrote about it here  in July 2019. As a young man Murray, desperate to get out of the city, spent 10 months living in a semi-derelict cottage in the middle of nowhere, harvesting and  drying wild plants which back then (just after WWI) were sold to companies to produce medicines.

I'm now  re-reading  Copsford as it's many years since I last read it.

(Direct Debits for Council Tax, Phones, Car Breakdown Insurance,Charity Donation Total £260)

1st.        No Spend

2nd        Food  £33 + Cat £6 +  Diesel £18 + Printer Paper £4.          = £61  

3rd         No Spend

4th        Swimming £2.25

5th         No Spend 

6th        No Spend

7th          No Spend

8th         No Spend

9th        No spend

10th       Food £18 + Cat £5 + Kitchen stuff £2.50 + Pharmacy £3.80 

               Christmas bits £3.50      = £32

Back Tomorrow

Sue

 

30 ways to save £1 Revisited (part 6) and No Spend November

 Yesterday was a  Foggy Monday morning, the sun was probably up there somewhere but wasn't seen until noon, and even then it was only half-hearted sunshine which disappeared two hours later.

 The fruit for my Christmas cake had been soaking for 3 days so it was time to get it made. Half the Victorian Christmas cake recipe that's on the separate recipe page  makes a 6 inch cake. After Christmas I'll finish it by eating  slices with an apple and a piece of cheese....delicious. Not sure about bothering with marzipan or icing this year. If I buy a pack of both there will be some left over after doing such a small cake. Maybe I can find small packs? Not going to make my own.

 

 The last of the list from 2013

 26. Make you own bread everyone is doing it - it's easy and much cheaper.

         This is something I've done on and off since the famous strikes in 1976 or 7,  when there was no bread in the shops and we had to eat cream-crackers instead. I'm making most of my bread again since getting the bread-maker, just keeping bread rolls and a loaf of sliced in the freezer just-in-case.  As a bag of flour(making 3 loaves) is a lot cheaper than one decent loaf of bread it has to be a good penny saver.

27. Do you REALLY need to buy a book straight away - wait for paperback version or buy secondhand later or use your Library.

                Thank goodness for libraries is what I say, with their free borrowing and free reservations, must have saved me £1,000s over the last 40 years.

 

28. Eat less meat- start by swapping one meal a week to veggie things then 2 or 3 a week.

         How things have changed in the last 7 years - now so many more people are vegetarian than there were back then, with so many options available to buy, and veggie and vegan recipe books abounding.

 

29. Chutney is easy to make, the ingredients can be cheap and men like jars of chutney for Christmas presents.

       Still a good penny saver - My Christmas hampers this year have 4 jars of various chutneys in them.

 

30.Drive wisely - accelerate and brake slowly and don't carry more weight than you have to, take off the roof rack.

       Still useful to do even though we all all driving less through Covid!. 

        

I wonder how relevant these 30 tips will be in 7 years time?

(Direct Debits for Council Tax, Phones, Car Breakdown Insurance,Charity Donation Total £260)

1st.        No Spend

2nd        Food  £33 + Cat £6 +  Diesel £18 + Printer Paper £4.          = £61  

3rd         No Spend

4th        Swimming £2.25

5th         No Spend 

6th        No Spend

7th          No Spend

8th         No Spend

9th        No spend

 

Today won't be no spend as I need to shop for fresh fruit and veg and a few other things that got forgotten on the 2nd. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

30 ways to save £1 Revisited (Part 5) and No Spend November

A sunny Saturday and a four mile bike ride - just up and down the quiet roads. My next door neighbour was weeding out in the lane opposite her house when I left home and I stopped to talk to her .She said "Do you realise we are OK to meet and talk out here in the lane but if we moved six feet over into the garden it wouldn't be allowed" and we both agreed the whole thing was crazy!.

A late Autumn sunset on Saturday afternoon

  I had been watching a soppy Christmas film on Saturday afternoon  and at the end turned over to the BBC news channel just in time to hear that the election result  in the USA had been called - phew, although  lawyers were being sent out here there and everywhere to look for the "illegal/fake" votes. Hope the handover is peaceful for the sake of  all my American readers, but I fear it may not be.

On Sunday I was invited to lunch with my bubble - and that's something that would have made no sense a few months ago! (and maybe makes no sense to anyone outside of England - but single people are allowed to meet up with one group of other people as long as the total isn't more than 6. My bubble is the closest part of my family).

We walked round their village after a roast dinner. The old soldiers were out on the green again for Remembrance Sunday.

 

New houses are scheduled for building in 3 places round the village, doubling the size of it. The Primary school has no room to expand and there is no doctor in the village, but all those new people will keep the bakery, Co-op, Indian Restaurant, pub and Post Office going.

Old Street will remain, however many new houses are built.

That was the weekend.

 A new week and another 5 ways to save pennies or £s ....are they still relevant 7 years on from the original blog post?

21. Every time you come home put any 5p's you have into a jar. They are so small and get lost easily, you won't miss them from your purse and they will soon turn into a pound.

               I still do this, but there will be fewer this year due to paying by contact-less through Covid, it's also not as much fun as it was because I used to trot into the bank and swap my 5ps for notes to buy Christmas food but now to stop fraud, money has to be paid into an account...... Why they think that someone coming in with a fivers worth of 5ps might be laundering stolen money I have no idea!!

22.Read your local and national papers in the library or persuade a friend or neighbour to save them for you.

       Lots are online via the library now too.  Here's a  VERY annoying thing  -  Suffolk libraries are staying open through this latest lockdown for people to collect their reserved books or a random selection picked by staff  BUT mobile libraries are stopped!!! I wonder if I can get my reserved books sent to a branch for me to collect?

23. Never buy notebooks for phone messages or shopping lists. Cut up cereal packets or similar into neat squares and keep them in a little box in the kitchen or by the phone.

         This is easy to do. I keep a bundle of cut up card in the dresser draw to use for shopping lists and 'to do' lists and never buy a notebook

24. Grow something to eat - even one tomato plant in a pot can produce more than a pounds worth of tomatoes.

            Grow-your-own saves me a lot of money

 

25. Never use 1st class post - get organised and post early with second class stamp.

            Another penny saver that still works seven years on. 

 

 

 

 (Direct Debits for Council Tax, Phones, Car Breakdown Insurance,Charity Donation Total £260)

1st.        No Spend

2nd        Food  £33 + Cat £6 +  Diesel £18 + Printer Paper £4.          = £61  

3rd         No Spend

4th        Swimming £2.25

5th         No Spend 

6th        No Spend

7th         No Spend

8th        No Spend

 

Someone asked "Why  No Spend November?". It's been around in blogland for as long as I can remember and was a way to save some money for Christmas. All these various challenges are a very popular way to fill blog posts! I don't take it too seriously and wouldn't worry if there was suddenly something needed to spend on after all but  if I was to leave all Christmas present shopping until December I'd be panicking so that's exempt for me.

 

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue