My Off-grid and need to be frugal diary

AnimalTribe

The weather was awful yesterday – a fog so thick I couldn’t see past the garden gate. It meant it was an inside day. It was the usual daily tidy but I managed to get some craft items finished and DH put some things up for sale on eBay.

Today, the weather has been gloriously sunny, so I managed some weeding. One lot of edible hedging has arrived so that was pleasing. DH went to town on his own for an eye test and did some basic shopping while he was there.  Two very unexciting days.

AnimalTribe

Etsy has resolved the problem with my account, so my shop is up and running again and DH has sold 2 small things on eBay.

I've done my Microsoft Rewards daily clicks and I now have £15 to turn into vouchers. DH uses a dog walking app 'Biscuit' that pays in Amazon vouchers and he's just earned enough points for a £10 voucher - it's free and he has to walk the dogs anyway so it's a useful little earner. I used have to two free walking apps that gave you points - I'll have to see if they are still live and maybe start using them again. I've found doing surveys frustrating as I am often don't meet the requirements.

DH and I had planned to go out today, but then I realised it was Good Friday and everywhere was likely to be crowded. So I've had a nice few hours sorting through my self-sufficiency, foraging, farming and preserving books.

Four_Seasons

Have a lovely Easter x

teapot2

I cut down the survey sites I use as some of them were either really tedious, too long for little reward or took too long to get to payout - I'm looking at you Ugov.

Now I only do surveys on prolific and onepoll and get offered an occasional pinecone one.

AnimalTribe

teapot2 I've heard good things about prolific. As for my survery efforts I didn't even get to the tedious stuff, mostly I just got screened out, sometimes after filling in loads of stuff just to see if I was eligible for the survey, which of course I never was.

Today has been a bits and pieces kind of day. My wild cherry trees have come so that's the second part of my edible hedging and DH has renewed the car insurance. The company we were with quoted £100 more than last year, so DH did a search and got £36 cash back, a £20 Sainsbury's voucher and a cheaper quote than we even paid last year. It pays to shop around.

I've sorted a few more books for the charity shop and done a bit of sewing.

The main job today was helping DH change the water filters. As we get water from a well we have 2 filters a normal filter and a UV filter. They only need to be changed once a year, but they are in an awkward place so it's a 2 person job. 

rachmac3

I'm with you @AnimalTribe I always got screened out of most of the surveys too. I tried a couple of years ago and again more recently.
Well done on today's jobs!

AnimalTribe

Rachmac3 it's so frustrating isn't it. I've found Microsoft Rewards to be a reliable way to earn vouchers. It's not fast by any means, but it takes me a couple of minutes to click through each day and you can't get screened out.

Today I've made vegetarian rocky road for DH's birthday, as it's his favourite cake. We don't buy each other presents, but we will go out somewhere for a meal.

Most of my day has been spent weeding and I found a patch of celeriac and sugar beet that I planted last year. I don't know if it will still be edible or if it will have turned wooden, but I'll put them in the veg basket and give them a try later in the week.

I don't think the battery charge will last overnight so I expect the generator to kick in. Unfortunately, generators are loud and if they go off overnight they disturb DHs sleep. I can sleep through anything. We are usually pretty good at balancing electricity usage so that night time isn't a problem but we just weren't up to par today. 

AnimalTribe

Four_Seasons I hope your Easter has been good too. DH & I don't really do anything at Easter, but DH likes to go shopping when it's over in the hope of getting cheap chocolate. I think he's still got a 5 year old child in him at times.

AnimalTribe

Fortunately, the battery power managed to last until this morning, so no disturbed sleep.

It's not been a very nice day here, but it's still beautiful here whatever the weather. Looking out the window there are 2 partridges and a rabbit sharing a bit of grass.

DH topped up the battery cells with water this afternoon so that's another good job done. I've just pottered about in the greenhouse, but my seedlings aren't doing very well this year - I seem to have lost the knack somehow. Hopefully, the stuff planted outside will do better.

DawnW

I've been struggling to germinate some seeds this year, lettuce, some flowers, courgettes, cucumbers etc.

If they germinate and don't grow well I usually blame the compost. Some compost is dreadful.