The thriftyish way to debt freedom

thriftyish

Hello!

It feels like I have been away for ages. My time has been vacuumed up by both the allotment and the extra effort preparing for school with packups ect. All the thrifty household have had colds too so we have been in bed really early, and its been really, really exhausting getting everyone back out again - I think we are just about at the other side. I am just nipping on while DH finishes some appraisal stuff for work, then we are offski to watch some rubbish TV in bed. We have about two seasons into Vikings, its only being on our 'to watch' list for four years!


Food
I have still been fairly good, despite not feeling like I have been fairly good! The food budget is under control despite the children eating a mountain of food in their packups. It has not gone unnoticed either - They have had several comments from staff now - one said 'enough for two!', another commented the kids are making her jealous (I think that was the homemade cake), and another asked if I could make their packup too. If only they knew it was all basics/reduced/grown/homemade It's just a shame I spend what feels like an hour washing all the boxes (they turn chewing gum grey in the dishwasher) and then filling them. At least it's mostly healthy. Dinners would be an extortionate £46 a week for all four of them.

The food budget is around £282, with 6 days to go, which is better than I expected considering I did a big 'stock up' Liddle shop mid-month. I've also just bought 4kg of rice and another kg of pasta too. 

We are coping well egg wise. Two lunchbox cakes and some Yorkshires sorted that out at the weekend. I think four eggs a day is a good amount for us. The new chicks are due to start laying in December, but they will probably be off laying until the weather warms up in spring - we will have to wait and see. We will definitely have to get inventive with 7 eggs a day coming in! 

Thanks for the ideas @f0xh0les will definitely be trying the meringues & looking up some of the other things you mentioned -  I also have the vegan meringues from your diary on my list to try too.  DH has requested pancakes @Bluegreen143 so they will probably happen this weekend! Thanks for the curry recipe @Fortune_Smiles - I want to try to add a few more curries to our meal plans!

Allotment
Most of my energy has been spent doing this.....



Levelling the paths to sow grass seed at the allotment. Its all levelled and seeded for about £8 worth of grass seed (that I bought in April!) and I just hope it grows. I spent more time this year hoeing the weeds off the path than I did caring for the veg/fruit in the beds. At least I can complain about mowing instead of hoeing next year if all goes well. Most of the other allotmenteers think I am crazy for having a path, they grow in very traditional long straight rows, very similar to how a victory garden would have worked. I might do that with plot two if I get another this year, but I find that walking on the ground makes it hard to dig. 

@Chrystal I didn't do any research prior to buying the seed potatoes and chose 'Maris Piper' as it was a variety I recognised! I have since learnt that they are susceptible to most problems... must do better research next time! Other growers fix problems with sprays/potions but I want to remain as organic as possible. My uncle has only just used up the last of the veg we gave him, he said it was all delicious, which was lovely to hear! There are some community projects like 'incredible edible' that might be worth looking at if you are interested in growing 

House
The rain has meant I have had two days off. Well off the allotment anyway. I think even the floors at home were shocked when I got the mop out today, I am ashamed at how bad I had let them get. Still, they are squeaky clean now.
We are getting into a better bedtime routine again which is nice, both DH and I are exhausted, and don't feel like we are getting any time for ourselves. I am not sure what the answer is but something has to give. The kids have been back over two weeks and yesterday was the hardest day. It was the first day I hadn't a full day of planned with a jobs list and I have never felt so lost. I have mostly had a packed lunch all week, so making dinner for one today felt a bit empty and sad - it didn't help that I had eaten a scone with clotted cream for elevens though! The diets obviously not going well!

C19
I just don't have the words. School appear to be doing well but it's hard to social distance on the pavement outside. The children have colds and struggling to cope with the colds and adjusting to the new routines. I am practically living by Mays lockdown standards - It's our anniversary on Sat and DH has booked the day off tomorrow so we can spend the day together while the children are at school. I had grand ideas of going to the seaside or some national trust property. I am honestly scared to go anywhere it could potentially be busy, and so our grand plans are currently scaled back to a walk into our town. Glamorous. 

Over and out for now.

Honeysucklelou2

The allotment is looking amazing - well done on having the patience for all the levelling and soil prep before sowing. Still hoping for a child - free day at my allotment...

Kakiste

The allotment looks amazing. You can see all your hard work paying off.

Bluegreen143

Your allotment is gorgeous @thriftyish. So impressed. The only edibles I currently have in the garden are chard and apples, oh and some little spinach plants which I think I planted too late and might not get big as it’s started getting frosty here.

joedenise

The allotment look amazing.  Are you doing square foot gardening?  That's what it looks like with all the grids!  I used to do that with my little veg patch, which was actually a bit of ground next to next door's house that belonged to them but they couldn't reach without coming onto our land, LOL so they said if we wanted to we could use it and then a couple of years ago while we were on holiday they decided to concrete it over and put gravel on top - it looks absolutely awful but I don't do anything with it now and the weeds coming through looks awful.

Only veg I grow now is in pots - tomatoes (still picking); courgettes (finished now); French beans (finished now); herbs (some finished, still going); butternut squash (just ripening).  What I did manage to grow has been really nice but I couldn't cope with an allotment!

MagicCat

The allotment looks amazing @thriftyish, so neat!
Hope you're doing ok, such difficult times. Hope you enjoyed your anniversary and found something nice to do.

Bluegreen143

How are you doing @thriftyish? Hope all is well with you.

missymoo81

Hey thriftyish, I’ve been away for a while so was just checking in. Hope you’re ok x

f0xh0les

Hey @thriftyish !  Give us a wave!  It has nearly been a month and after the news about Purps, I think we are all feeling a bit antsy when someone disappears.  Even just an emoji will do. 

Kakiste

Hope you're OK. My dad was talking to me about winding his allotment down for the winter and I thought of yours- how's it going?