My Off-grid and need to be frugal diary

teapot2

Glad you are on the mend.

AnimalTribe

Foxgloves, and I would be so excited to see a badger in my garden. Though we do have a resident stoat (maybe a family), a hedgehog, and a thousand rabbits. I have to grow everything in raised beds, and have also put a chicken wire fence around most of the beds. Slugs are a real problem here; I used to have chickens and ducks and they kept down the slug population.

Teapot2 Thank you it's good to be back to full strength.

This morning has been just a general tidy up. I’ve still got some laundry to sort, but that won’t take long. It’s another rainy day here.

DH is planning to fix the living room ceiling this afternoon. When he was putting the Xmas decorations away in the loft, he put his foot through the ceiling. Fortunately, he wasn’t hurt. He put a plywood patch over the hole temporarily. The plywood was only supposed to be there a few days until he bought some plasterboard, but other jobs have intervened.

Today is calm and overcast, so no ‘free’ electricity. The batteries are holding their own for now, but the generator is likely to kick in overnight. Still, we’ve had quite a few days of wind, and it won’t be long before we start getting decent sunshine (I hope). I am so looking forward to some sun.

AnimalTribe

I finally got the internet back last night. The cable had been damaged. It's a bit ironic as the reason I switched from satellite internet (apart from cost) is that I thought a cable installation would be less prone to interruptions - shows how wrong I was. The engineer was great though, he fitted a new cable and solved the problem I'd been having with making the access secure.
Today I've got some laundry to sort - thank goodness I don't iron anything. Other than the daily, general tidy I will do some more decluttering.
I ended Februarys grocery challenge at £225.54/£250 so I'm very pleased with that. I will be joining Marchs challenge at £240. 

teapot2

Well done on your grocery challenge and glad the internet is sorted.  What is this iron of which you speak? 😉

foxgloves

I loathe ironing, @AnimalTribe. I do as little as possible but I do have to do some, as I prefer natural fabrics which tend to need it. I make myself do it just once a week, early in the morning before my breakfast. The prospect of toast & coffee gets me through it. 
Glad you have your internet restored & the grocery challenge sounds as though it went well.
F

AnimalTribe

Teapot2 thanks I'm so pleased with the grocery challenge.
Foxgloves mine and DH's wardrobe consist almost entirely of t-shirts and jeans, so no ironing required.

Today I've darned a pair of socks and patched a pair of trousers. DH and I are really rough on our clothes, but keep them until they are falling apart. I just hate shopping of any kind, unless it's for books or plants (and my own challenge this year is not to buy plants, but to use what I have).

I had over 300 e-mails waiting, so I've spent some time clearing them down. My next job is to clean a few windows because they have doggie nose prints all over them. One of the dogs likes to keep a close eye on what the sheep are up to (she's your archetypal nosy neighbour).

I've a few phone calls to make as Sunday is my day for catching up.

I found 12 things that can go to the charity shop yesterday, so that was a good day.

teapot2

I hear you on the nose prints, with the sun shining, all the cat nose smears and sneezy marks showed up so I did the windows on Friday.  Well done on the decluttering too.

AnimalTribe

Teapot2 I miss having a cat. My first cats were 3 brothers who were so loving, but they were avid hunters. One day I ended up with a squirrel, a rabbit and a crow (a crow!) all alive and running around the house while I was trying to lock the cats in a different room. All the animals survived though. 

Today I've been out to a nearby village, and dropped off 12 things to the charity shop, DH posted 4 items for eBay, and I did a small shop. I need to check the receipt to see how much I spent and update the Grocery Challenge. It's sunny and windy here so plenty of 'free' electricity. I also have some crocuses in bloom - happy day.

AnimalTribe

There's no sun today, but it is very windy and it's coming from the right direction to power the wind turbine, so lots of 'free' energy.

£16.09 spent yesterday at the village Co-op, and £59.77 spent today in the nearby town. A fair amount of that was for dog food. I forgot to buy some seed compost. Although, I have compost for pots, but it is a bit too bulky to use for small seeds. I’m out again tomorrow for a pub lunch with family, so I will remember to buy a sack then. I also have a Holland and Barrett voucher that I’d like to use. It’s 130-mile round trip so I aim to make the most of it. It’s a large town, so it has many shops that aren’t local to me.

I’ve found 6 books to give to my sister and some craft items, so that’s a little bit more decluttering done.

teapot2

Sounds like we have similar weather, I was reading on other peoples diaries about how they were enjoying the sun but not here.  Enjoy your pub lunch tomorrow.