My Off-grid and need to be frugal diary

AnimalTribe

So, the first no spend day and DH and I spent £0.

Breakfast was tea for me and coffee and cereal for DH.

Lunch was veggie sandwiches for me, fish & bread for DH. We both had a home-grown, simple salad of two kinds of lettuce, 2 kinds of tomatoes, cucumber and garlic mayonnaise. Followed by the last of the shop bought cherries in yoghurt.

Dinner was veggie pizza for me and chicken & bacon pie for DH, both with the same kind of salad. Followed by shop-bought strawberries in yoghurt.

Not a hugely adventurous menu, but all stuff from the fridge (except the salad).

DH volunteered to do the 3 loads of laundry and hung everything outside to dry. He also managed to wash and dry two of the dog beds.

DH found a key broken off and stuck in one of the door locks. We have no idea how that happened but fortunately DH was able to extract the broken piece and he found a spare key. Things seem to be breaking one after the other at the moment.

I spent most of the day doing a general tidy and then some crafting. Unfortunately, I can't find my box of black beads that I need to finish my latest felties, so I'll have to get a move on tidying my craft room.

AnimalTribe

Another £0 spend, although it was a close call as DH was looking at new dog beds. We have 4 beds for 2 dogs, and 3 of the 4 are in great condition. In one though, the foam has become a little compressed. DH is somewhat of a hoarder, so I asked him to look at what he might have that could solve the problem. He found some carpet underlay and has cut a double thickness of that to size, and the dog bed is now nice and comfy again.

Breakfast and lunch were the same as yesterday, except that I added rainbow chard to the salad and we had chocolate cake instead of yoghurt.

I’ve finished all the tomatoes that were in the fridge, and the tomatoes still on the plants are not ripe yet. Still, I’ve got lots of other veg I can add to the salad.

Dinner was cheese pasty and baked beans for me and cheese & ham quiche with salad for DH, followed by strawberries in yoghurt.

There is still lots of fresh fruit in the house. Strawberries (I bought loads), kiwi, grapes, mango and melon, and there are still some raspberries on the bushes. I also have a lot of frozen fruit from this year’s harvest.

I’ve been sorting through stuff in my craft room today and spent rather longer than I should sorting out my knitting needles and crochet hooks. I have ‘inherited’ a lot from various places and they were all mixed up. I’ve now sorted them into pairs instead of having to sort through the boxes every time I want to knit. I had 3 bent knitting needles that I couldn’t straighten but DH sorted them for me. This evening I’ve been doing some more crafting. I’m slowly getting organised.

AnimalTribe

Day 3 - £0 spend

Breakfast is always the same.

Lunch was veggie sandwiches for me, fish with bread for DH. Salad: 2 types of lettuce, sorrel, beetroot leaf, cucumber (all home-grown), and bought red pepper.

Dinner - neither of us was particularly hungry so we just had a repeat of lunch, although DH had a different sort of fish. We followed it with strawberries in yoghurt.

DH photographed some of my houseplants that are in flower to make labels for them so that when I propagate them in spring, I know what flowers I’ll be getting. DH had a bit of a fix it day. He taped up a tear in an exercise mat, made a wooden stand for a wooden ornament that was a bit top heavy and fell over every time I moved it to dust, and he replaced the handles on two chests of drawers that had been gnawed by the dog when she was a puppy.  As I’m clearing the clutter, he is fixing the small things as I find them.

I’ve sewn a lot of small, multi-coloured things today. When I’ve sewn something and some thread is left on the needle, I wrap it around a piece of cardboard to use in the next project that uses that colour. That’s the theory anyway but I’ve just ended up with lots of card wrapped thread messing up my sewing box. Today, was a great opportunity to use up all the odd ends of thread.

It has been overcast all day so no solar, and the wind was blowing in the wrong direction this morning for the wind turbine. The wind direction changed late afternoon though so the batteries are topped up and there was enough energy to top up some of the portable battery banks.

Tonight, DH and I just watched a film with a glass of 3-year-old, home-made carrot wine. It is very sweet, but also very potent.

teapot2

Well done with your NSDs, on a roll

AnimalTribe

teapot2 Thanks. I hope I make the 30 days.

Lunch today was toasted panini with salad. I picked what was left of the raspberries. The strong winds has decimated the bushes so the pickings were slim.

Dinner was home-made pizza with salad, followed by strawberries in yoghurt.

I spent part of the day cutting templates out of an empty cereal box. I use the wax or plastic lining for rolling out pastry, that way I don't have to wash a pastry board and the lining goes straight in the bin - no mess, no fuss.

I've sewn a few of the things below and I plan to sell them on Etsy as part of a set (eventually)

dawnybabes

They are brilliant 🥰 and it’s only 137 days now ! 

AnimalTribe

Dawnybabes thanks, I make batches of one item at a time so it takes me a fairly long time to get sets together.

£0 spent today.

I made my usual catch up phone calls, but overall it's been an uneventful day. There has been enough wind to top up the batteries and to top up the portable power packs.

Lunch was toasted panini with salad, and strawberries and yoghurt.

Dinner was cheese pasty and beans for me, and beans on toast for DH, and strawberries and yoghurt.

That’s the red pepper, the bread, the cheese pasties and the strawberries finished. I’ll bake some bread tomorrow.

DH has been weeding and cleared two patches of ground, so the garden is looking much better. I’ve been sewing tiny bears and hearts.

honeybee1234

Those Christmas decorations are adorable @AnimalTribe! The heart one is very cute and definitely something I'd consider for my tree. 

AnimalTribe

Honeybee1234 thanks. I love sewing and hand stitching, I find it very relaxing.

£0 spend

It’s cold, raining and overcast so the generator is bound to switch on today.

Lunch was stir-fry veg with noodles

Dinner was potato rosti with veg, followed by ice-cream

The rowan trees in the garden are heavy with berries, but I made a lot of rowanberry jelly last year, and still have jars left, so I’m going to leave the berries for the birds.

The new oil tank has finally arrived, so with the help of the delivery people, DH and I dragged it around to the back of the house (which is a fair length). I am so happy that it is finally here. There is still work to do over the next few days: drain the old tank, disconnect the old tank and remove it from its concrete platform, move the new tank into place, arrange for a heating engineer to reconnect the new tank, pump the oil from the temporary tank into the new tank, and finally get the engineer out again to test the system.

For the rest of the day, I’ve just done sewing as moving the tank was quite an effort, and now I’m just going to read my book.

AnimalTribe

Whoops I should have made the £0 spend £20, as that's what I gave the delivery driver for his help. It's broken the £0 spend month, but the guy was so helpful it wouldn't have been right to give him nothing.