My Off-grid and need to be frugal diary

AnimalTribe

More rain, more fog, but DH and I have been tucked up indoors, cosy and warm. The only time we’ve been out is to walk the dogs. While out we spotted a white stoat. I’ve seen one before a couple of times, in its summer colours, running along the stone walls and I think it must live in the garden.

I uncovered a pizza base in the freezer so I made pizza for dinner. That’s another small gap in the freezer.

When the broken jewellery I bought was delivered it came with lots of loose beads so today, I’ve been turning them into bracelets and DH has sold something else on eBay.

AnimalTribe

It wasn’t raining today and there was no fog so DH decided to fix the conservatory roof. When DH does DIY, I act as general labourer, helping to move heavy or awkwardly shaped things, holding things, fetching stuff and passing tools. We work well together. It’s raining now and the roof seems to be watertight again. However, we will only know for sure after the next bout of heavy rain.

I found some veggie pasta sauce in the freezer so dinner was pasta. The last couple of days I’ve done quite well in eating from stores. There’s still so much to munch through though.

AnimalTribe

DH sold a couple of small things on eBay over the weekend, so a steady trickle of sales.

DH and I went to the village to post the parcels. While we were there, we bought some groceries, just bread, milk, salad and grapes as I’m trying to eat what we already have in the house. Of course, we went to the local café for lunch.

DH noticed that the lid of our septic tank needs to be replaced, so that is another difficult and perhaps expensive job. It’s difficult because the hatch is oddly shaped. Again, though it’s a job that will need to wait for better weather.

greenbee

if it’s the diamond-shaped Klargester lid, they no longer make it. Mine has been replaced with a standard square lid (which actually fits the hole, so there is less venting from the chamber under it). There’s info about how to do it online and the drain chap I use is replacing a lot of them as they’re getting are reaching end of life. It’s worth doing the research, as you definitely don’t need to get a new diamond-shaped one specially made!

AnimalTribe

Greenbee thank you I will look into it.

Today it has been rain and fog again so it's mostly been an indoors day. The only frugal thing I've done is some baking as DH and I both have a sweet tooth. I've made some biscuits and I found a recipe for a cake on YouTube which I made. I wasn't completely sure how it would turn out but it was good, kind of like a cheesecake https://www.youtube.com/shorts/alJy8ucZZCs I hope the link works as I've never tried to link to YouTube before.

peb

Fingers crossed that a suitable inexpensive solution can be for the tank

I'm hoping that you won't be effected by the flooding

AnimalTribe

Peb thanks. Other than the ground around us being completely sodden the house is in no danger of flooding as it's very high up. That’s one of the reasons it’s so windy here, the other reason being that the moor is very open and exposed. I feel very sorry for those people who are directly affected by the large amount of rain.

It’s been raining heavily but the roof fix DH did is working and there are no leaks, so that’s a major weight off my mind.

Dinner was home-made pizza again as I found another pizza base in the freezer.

AnimalTribe

It’s been snowing here again today, but the snow melted as soon as it hit the ground.

I had mislaid a bag of extra warm socks and I’ve been looking for them for a couple of days. I asked DH if he’d seen them but he hadn’t. I described the bag they were in – nope he still hadn’t seen them. I thought I must be going a bit daft, so I asked DH to help me look and I told him where I last saw them – “Oh those socks” – he had moved them to a different cupboard. Honestly sometimes . . .

DH has fixed a few minor things and I’ve done some sewing, but that’s the only extra frugal things we have done today.

AnimalTribe

No rain today and actual sunshine. It's the first time in what feels like weeks that I haven't had to put the light on indoors during the day.

I have finally been through my seed stash and figured out what varieties I will be planting indoors. So tomorrow will be seed sowing day. I have a couple of heat mats that I will put under the trays to help germination. As well as in date seeds I will try some of the old seeds that I inherited (if they don’t sprout, I’ve lost nothing). I’m hoping to at least provide the majority of my own salad crops this year, but we eat a lot, so I’ll have to see if that’s feasible.

Rhyddid2026

I'm planning to start tomorrow too!