Cheery's country living adventure

Karmacat

South_coast said:

Cheery, you've done LOADS while you've been off! Remember it was a holiday, don't beat yourself up too much!

Yep, this!

And I just saw Monty Don having a sort of seminar on Gardener's World about yellow rattle - along with your hay insight, Cheery, it all sounds wonderful.

greenbee

Did Monty say anything about how to deal with yellow rattle being so b***** tempermental? Mine did nothing for about 5 years, but seems to be getting going in places. Not where I want it to, obviously. I also have a lot of creeping buttercup to deal with... 

Karmacat

He didn't really, greenbee, sorry - I remember the raking so it looks like bare earth, treading it in, and just letting it do its thing.  Good luck!

Cheery_Daff

Evening chums

Well, first day back was perfectly acceptable. In fact I had some good news - I've been accepted as a trustee for an organisation I do some work for Most jolly. Not entirely sure what it entails yet (probably just more work for no more pay ) but they seem like a nice bunch and it's something else on the CV of course

Said I'd do an update on progress, so here goes... 

HOME
Er, no progress made today

GARDEN AND LAND
* scythed another strip of field (I'm going in an unintentionally ridiculous diagonal it seems ) According to today's calculations, it should take another 26 days to get to the other side of the field if I do a strip a day, plus then I'll still have another triangle left. Let's aim for the end of September!

MONEY
* did a PA survey for £1.25 
* ate one of our home grown turnips and some kale in my risotto
* harvested some more kale and chard
* made two portions of risotto so enough left for tea tomorrow
* scrubbed and boiled the last of the veg box potatoes ready for frittata tomorrow and something else later in the week
* assembled breakfast smoothie ready to whizz up in the morning

I'm currently compiling my first ever online supermarket shop!! Most exciting. Thought I'd experiment with having a bulk delivery of tins/loo roll etc. Never done it before and I'm a bit daunted about what order to do things in! Also I'm not sure it's remotely money-saving - without the physical fact of a piled up trolley in front of me, I'm just adding things willy-nilly, and thinking 'I might as well have 6 of those since I don't have to carry them' etc Going to see if Mr Cheery thinks I've forgotten anything then try to book a slot. They're cheaper if you have them at 11pm but delivery drivers often have enough trouble finding us in broad daylight (we're not where the satnav says so they have to spot the signs to the house) so I think I'll give them a fighting chance on their first go  

Spotted a mouse by the back door earlier - put the trap down but best go and check it in case we need a trip up to the moors to release it  

Cheery_Daff

Right, delivery booked for 6pm Saturday. Got slightly overwhelmed with the choice of delivery slots and costs and ended up just going for the first available one, hoping that this isn't the first Saturday night in 6 months that we end up actually going somewhere 😂

rtandon27

👏👏👏 Well done on braving your first online shop Cheery!  There is no right or wrong way to do it hunny, in fact I often edit the order 3 or 4 times to add things we run out of!  Definitely money saving for this household as there are no impulse buys 😁

We've been shopping online for years (OH says yonks - lol) & absolutely love that no matter how heavy the shop it comes straight to the door.  In an effort to curb the wine habit, OH now drinks copious amounts of flavoured water & not having to haul it home is sooooo worth the delivery charge!  We also pity our poor drivers trying to navigate the country lane, so always have the groceries arrive in broad daylight, even though it's never the free slot!

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, is there a free slot? Cheapest I could see was £2, but that was arriving 10-11pm which I thought was a bit mean we spent over £80 which extremely expensive for us! But it was more of a stock up of some stuff than a normal weekly shop. We'll see.

Karmacat

Online deliveries are such a timesaver - and a moneysaver too, genuinely.  All that work of getting to the supermarket, trolling about the lines, going through the checkout - all done for you, for the delivery charge.  The only thing I have to beware of is dented tins - need to find stuff like that within about 3 days, to process the refund (never had a problem with getting a refund).  It's not the greatest for fresh food - use by dates aren't what you'd choose in the shop, and if the odd carrot is mouldy, they put it in the basket anyway - always worth checking things like that.  But yes, refund procedures to cover that are very good.  I'd never go back to in person shopping

Oh, and like RT says - editing your order is brilliant, so useful.

Good luck with the scything!

rtandon27

LOL - I think delivery charges must vary by store/ region and depend on the amount spent.

For us MrS does free slots between 10pm and 11pm with a min spent - bigO on the other is free on wed afternoons with the same min clause.
 
Also, prior to the craziness of the year we  used the annual delivery plan which seems to pay for itself with all the freebies and discounts they sent my way.

Looby_Lou

Supermarket delivery passes are great!  I use Mr M and it costs me £15 a year for a Tues/Weds/Thurs pass, they also do an anytime pass which is more expensive.  I have probably paid for my pass within 2 months, and not having to do a weekly shop after work is priceless!