Warm November days and other notes from the diary

This was the time this morning when I took this photo of our thermometer on the outside of the kitchen window.

It's not very clear as the weather was so dull but it says16℃ that's 61F  at 8am on the 7th November, No wonder I'm hot all the time.
With Col not A1 I've been getting up and leaving him in bed, doing a quick 20 minute walk up and down the road, collecting a wheelbarrow full of wood from the shed on the way back in and then lighting the kitchen Rayburn, by which time I'm HOT. I don't like it this mild when you need a coat because it's drizzly and,  as the rather rude Kathy Burke said on Not The Nine O'Clock News last night, " I need a cool breeze up me ****** at my age!"

Yesterday we had some heavy rain again, for about the 4th day in a row. We'd decided to go and look at a couple of empty houses just down the road in our local town, booked up before the edge of Ipswich idea. Anyway we went and looked, one had had the garden chopped off the back for no apparent reason and the other needed too much work.Now we've gone off the idea of staying in this bit of Suffolk we're going to go and look at a few more empty properties near Ipswich next week. We are hoping to make a short chain by moving into something empty.

The rain started this morning not long after I'd got back from my walk so it was out into the poly-tunnel for more clearing and then we'll probably do a bit more woodcutting.

As well as the second Hugh FW programme on Monday there is also something on about Aldi on Channel 4 at 8pm which might be interesting. Tennis was on TV this time last year but I've searched through the listings and can't find it but there is some snooker on tonight. We are both enthusiastic armchair sports watchers!

Thanks for the comments yesterday, I shall pop over to finish replying to them. Also welcome to new followers numbers seem to have jumped by 3 without me realising. Hello and I hope you enjoy reading.

The 7th money saving tip from the 2013 list was - Christmas is the same day every year so don't get caught out and have to run up debts to fund the extra shopping - Start in the January sales!

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Thoughts on town life and the 6th £1 money saver tip

It took an age to get to Ipswich hospital yesterday evening during what is the Ipswich version of rush hour      (slow crawl through lots of traffic lights) and in pouring rain. Col was told what he knew already - that he has to have  cameras in various places to check things out! Hopefully within the next 2 weeks.
 On our equally slow drive out of town, probably because of a huge  firework etc display at Kesgrave High School, we were considering what a good idea it would be to live at this end of Ipswich, so handy for the hospital, buses down into the town centre all the time, a 10 minute cycle route through to a small  library and  shopping precinct including a charity shop and a bit further onto the big Tesco and the new Poundland. Col has his old boss living in this area and I've got a cousin here too. We could have a beach hut in Felixstowe and pop down on sunny days, it would only take 20 minutes.

Could we live on the edge of town?  All sounds quite appealing on an hours wet drive home!

Thinking I could get the Kenco de-caf refill packs at the big Tesco and get them price matched with the Asda special offer we called in - Ha! No, there's a catch, you have to buy 10 different  items before the price match thing kicks in. We didn't know this until we got to the checkout, so the coffee went back on the shelf. Also popped into to Poundland, so last nights spending - Xmas food gifts £3, Store cupboard food £7.45, Fridge £4, Fresh fish £2.20. Hospital Car park £2

Low spend/ No(?) spend November so far Food £49.12, other £29.24
I avoided the Christmas decorations and all the yellow ticket RTC items that we didn't really need.

The 6th money saver tip from 2013 was - Have a look round industrial estates to see what is being thrown out. We've been getting old pallets for burning for years and the 1000 litre IBC tanks to refurbish and sell and the strangest find ever was bundles of broom handles being chucked. They came in handy for all sorts of things and then we cleared the rest out at one of the car boot sales we did in the spring.

Many thanks for all the good wishes yesterday, I'll not be going on about his health problems too much I hope!

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Gunpowder,Treason and Plot

Remember, remember the 5th of November

Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.

I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Every year ( or maybe memory deceives) in primary school we would copy out this poem in our best handwriting and decorate around the edges of the page with pictures of fireworks, bonfires and Guy Fawkes.

Once home, after tea we would go outside for a bonfire and fireworks  which would have been bought a few at a time over the last month.Our neighbours on one side would come round and perhaps Grandad would be there too. The fireworks didn't last long then it would be back indoors for hot dogs.

It was such an adventure, looked forward to for weeks -  Simple times.

This year we won't be watching fireworks as Cols outpatients appointment at hospital is at 6.30pm tonight -an  odd time. I have to confess to being a bit concerned at this new problem which has come on rather suddenly. It may upset all our plans regarding house moving and leave us not knowing what to do next.

The fifth £1 money saver from April 2013 was/ is - Buy Refill packs if you can.

Years ago we had a shop locally where we could take Ecover empties and refill with washing up liquid and laundry liquid. No longer there. I used to buy refill packs of the Kenco De-caf coffee, now more often than not I can buy jars on special offer cheaper than the refill packs.

I may be back tomorrow
Sue

4th November

On 4th November 1987 our youngest arrived in the world. 6 years younger than her brother and 7½ years younger than her big sister. The oldest two were at school, I was older and somehow caring for a baby seemed much easier than it was before. I had more time to enjoy having a little one in the house and consequently she was a very easy baby and toddler to look after.
 She hardly remembers living anywhere before we came here - she was 4½- unlike the older two children who had lived in 3 or 4  different homes before this. Although she's made up for it since - renting 4 different places in Leiston since she moved out 9 years ago. She says it will be odd knowing someone else is living here.
 Happy Birthday A. Our "baby" is 28. Blimey we're old!

We have pouring rain here this morning but the weather was a bit brighter yesterday and no fog. Col went down to our farmer friends to get our grass topper but it was wedged in behind other machinery and he couldn't get it out of the shed. So he did some weeding instead and picked off all the green tomatoes to bring them in to ripen.

 Our tomatoes plants have virtually finished and we'll be clearing them all out of the poly-tunnel soon.
 I had a frustrating time trying to do the main monthly shop at Tescos in Saxmundham. NO milk powder - empty space,NO value range soft cheese, NO Kenco de-caf coffee refill packs and NO own brand de-caf - they've stopped selling all those here in Saxmundham. No value range  mackerel fillets ( Have to go to Sainsburys). I just end up cross and with a quarter of the shopping list not bought.

Tip number 4 re-hashed from 2013 is Re-read the instructions for your washing machine and see if you can use a shorter cycle.
 Because we dry stuff outside, I've turned down the spin speed, hope that saves a bit of energy. I do all washing on 40℃, our machine is quite old and there is no lower wash temperature and unlike machines in the States no way of doing a cold water wash as the machine is hot and cold intake.

November No/ Low Spend Challenge - spent yesterday - Milk £2 , Veg £2.68,  Food that goes in Fridge and freezer £20.13, Store Cupboard food £8.26, Meat 80p, Laundry(Washing Soda) £1, Kitchen roll ( for tissues and other odd jobs) £1. Cats £24 (enough for one and a half months).
Pharmacy 50p.
Then very annoyingly had to pay 74p to post 2 small bung bits for the water storage things that Col hadn't included when he delivered the tanks in September BUT that was cheaper than driving 25 miles!
£1.40 off at Tesco with vouchers and price match.
Total spend so far this month Food £32.47 Everything else £27.24

I avoided spending on some yellow ticket RTC chocolate eclairs and a Christmas magazine!

I'm not sure about this posting everyday - seems to take up more time than I remember from the spring, may have to slow down again.
Back Tomorrow - probably
Sue

Two Tired Carrots and the 3rd £1 saver idea

Yesterday was another foggy day not quite as dense as Sunday and it even brightened up for a while early afternoon.
Col was out in the loo block turning off the water, draining the system and covering the basins and cisterns  with dust sheets to keep out the spiders and flies. The mats are laid up against the bottom of the doors to try to stop the leaves blowing in, but I bet when everything is opened up again in the spring there will be leaves and cobwebs everywhere. Dustbins and picnic tables are stored in the recreation room.  I had a big clean up indoors and chopped some more kindling.

I enjoyed  the Hugh FW programme about waste. I'm pleased to say we are NOT one of the millions who waste food like those featured on the programme! I'm guessing that most of the bloggy friends who read this don't waste much either.
There is only one more in the series so I'm not sure if Hugh can do anything to carry on this campaign. I hope so because all that waste is just criminal.

As I said not much gets wasted here. Since our youngest moved out I've had 9 years of cooking for 2 people, I know how much to prepare and we rarely have left overs after meals but sometimes things get left in the fridge a bit too long.
This is what I do with 2 tired carrots.

But before that I'll ask - how do you store your shop bought carrots? . If they are in a plastic bag, and the value ones usually are, I take them out of the bag and lay them on an old clean tea-towel in the salad drawer of the fridge. Then I cover with another clean tea towel. They are then dark, cool and dry and keep well for 3 or 4 weeks.

Anyway, when they get really ancient - Top, tail, wash and peel off any manky bits, grate the rest into a saucepan. Add one finely chopped onion, a vegetable stock cube and a little water to just cover the veg. Bring to the boil, turn down heat, put lid on and simmer gently until carrots and onions are soft, adding a little more hot water if needed. When they are soft stir in 2 tablespoons flour, add 1 tin of cheapest tomatoes and whizz the whole lot up in a liquidiser or whichever machine you have for whizzing. Add more water to thin it down then heat it up and enjoy a delicious bowl of tomato soup. This amount would make 4 bowls.

When I first began blogging someone( can't remember who) had a Food Waste Friday when they would take a picture of the food that had been chucked out for whatever reason. They reduced their food waste a lot over the months. Perhaps we should start this again?


The third Save a £1 tip from April 2013 was - Don't start pets on expensive food.
There is now a problem with this tip because as far as I can see there is now no such thing as cheap pet food!


No Spend/ Low spend November challenge - Yesterdays spending = Nothing

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Checking the freezer + another way to save £1

Welcome to Stephanie a new follower over there on the right.

I came across other poems with the title "November", one is by Ted Hughes and starts

The month of the drowned dog. After long rain the land 

was sodden as the bed of an ancient lake.

Another poet American William Cullen Bryant also wrote a November poem and that's weather related too it finishes

..............we will try to bear.

The piercing winter frost,and winds and darkened air

Whichever way you look at it, November poetry is depressing.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the freezer to get out some tomato and herb bread rolls and there were none there. I usually know when we are running low, so it was time to make a double batch of rolls and maybe time to do a freezer check just in case there is something else we are running short of.

I'm even re-hashing old photos too!

I've seen lots of freezer inventories in blog posts and I often think - Good Grief - what a lot of food people keep in their freezers, but then I remember that when the children were at home we had 2 chest freezers full and when we bred sheep there were 3 large freezers running when the lambs came back from the butchers, before we sold them in half lamb freezer packs.

Now we have 2 freezers - a medium sized chest freezer out in the shed and the bottom half of a normal sized fridge freezer in the kitchen and I don't want to store too much in case we move soon.

Got my gloves on, rummaged around and here's what I found

FRUIT:- Several small bags of apricots about 15-20 maybe more, a few bags of raspberries, cherries and a couple of pounds of pears and 4 bags of cooking apples left  from last year (Do I use them now we have tons outside or chuck?). All home grown. 6 small bags blackberries from the hedgerows.
VEG :- Lots and lots of chopped peppers, 1 bag cauliflower and 1 bag sweetcorn from here and half a bag shop bought frozen peas
CAKE:- Small box of sultana buns, one layer of coffee sponge, one layer plain sponge and a few chocolate sponge squares. All home made.
MEAL PORTIONS:- 2 boxes of pizza topping, 2 portions salmon and broccoli pasta bake, 1 portion bol. sauce, 1 portion veg curry,1 portion Liver and gravy, 1 portion Aubergine and tomato sauce. All home made.
PASTRY:- 2 Chicken and leek pies, 2 cheese pasties. 4 quiche bases, 1 pie bottom and top. 1 Apple pie. Home made except the cheese pasties.
MEAT. 400g and 200g beef mince. 4 chicken wings, 3 chicken thighs, 2 x 8oz chicken breasts, 2 x 6oz sausage meat, 4x4sausages, 2 x 2 pork belly slices, 2 bacon steaks, 4 x 6oz bacon bits.
FISH:- 5 pieces of Fish in crumbs,1 smoked mackerel fillet,1 random salmon steak
BREAD:- 10 Home Made Tomato and herb rolls, 8 HM Naan breads, 1½ packs Tortilla wraps, 6 finger rolls, 1 sliced Granary bread. 2 HM loaves.
ODDS & ENDS. Box crumble mix, box dried breadcrumbs,bag white breadcrumbs. ½ pack Chinese mini veg.spring rolls. 3 Tesco Vegetable quarter pounders, Remains of 2 litre value vanilla icecream. 2 choc/mint Tesco"Magnums"(His! I don't like them otherwise they would be long gone!) Small bag of chestnuts, pack of puff pastry divided into 3 and the too salty dried tomatoes that I can use in the tomato/herb rolls.

Save £1.... day 2 of the 2013 list
TRY VALUE RANGES IN SUPERMARKETS to see if you can use them in place of branded products.  Aldi and Lidl are more widely spread than when this list was first published and often better quality than value ranges but at much the same price. Use My Supermarket price comparison website to check before you shop. Especially if you live somewhere with choice - that is most places except here!!


I will be watching the new Hugh FW programme on TV later. When I mentioned it the other day Jen left a comment which I have only just come across about The Real Junk Food project, running cafes using food that would otherwise be wasted. There's one in Ipswich which we will try out when we go into town in December.

No Spend November Challenge - Yesterdays spending = Nothing

Back Tomorrow
Sue

The woman who doesn't do challenges.........

.........does a challenge!........... NO SPEND NOVEMBER!..........Well sort of.

I'll be buying some food, feeding the cats, paying bills and starting some Christmas present shopping (because I'd panic if it was all left to December) but other than that I want to avoid opening my purse.

Why?
It could  be because after our  breaks last month we need to go more carefully
Or it could be that our income is now tiny and we are living on savings

The trouble is that because of the Direct Debits for Council Tax, water, phone/broadband and a small charity donation....... whooosh out of the bank goes £253 without me even getting my purse out of my bag!

I looked back at the accounts (posh term for notes in the diary!) for November 2014 to see where the money went last year and then looked back on here to see what we were doing, then out of interest I scrolled back to November 2013. That was the month I reprised the 30 ways to save a £1 from earlier in 2013 when lots of bloggers earned £30 for sending their list to one of the money websites.
Now I had been thinking about going back to daily posts,  so an ideal opportunity to re-reprise those old savings ideas and keep myself on the straight and narrow.
That's the plan.
I'll see how I get on.

Here was/is Number 1.
1. ASK TO PICK UP ANY WINDFALL APPLES THAT YOU NOTICE
They can say two things, either " Yes" or "No". 
 in 2012 when we had a apple-less year due to the rotten weather, we asked for and were able to pick up windfalls from 2 different peoples trees. Without this we would have had hardly any fruit in the freezer for winter pies and crumbles. So asking saved us probably £20 - £30+.
For many years we fed windfalls to our goats, goats LOVE apples, but this year even though I've picked up loads for us to use and given lots away there are still more on the ground than the birds will need in the winter.
No one has ever asked if they could pick up windfalls here. I would say yes- help yourself!
 ( Why are the windfalls always the rosiest biggest apples?)

A box of windfalls for processing or giving away

Or if you wanted some picked off the tree they are £1 a bag

This "cheerful" November poem was published in 1844. It's perfect for today here in Suffolk where we have had thick fog for most of the day

NO!

 No sun, no moon

No morn, no noon

No dawn, no dusk, no proper time of day

No sky, no earthly view
No distance looking blue.................

...................No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease

No comfortable feel in any member

No shade,no shine,no butterflies,no bees 

No fruits,no flowers, no leaves, no birds,

November!

The poet Thomas Hood was wrong about No fruit as you can see in the apple pictures and he's also wrong about  No Flowers because our Alstromeria are having a second flush so I brought these in today, the first frost will be the end of them but in the meantime we can enjoy them on the kitchen window sill.

 Thanks for comments yesterday, I think I answered them all and welcome to Phil a new follower. He has an interesting blog from the other side of the world that you can see HERE

Edited in to ask is anyone having trouble leaving comments on some blogs? I tried to comment on Joys Diary of a teacher and can't and  yesterday it was another blog I was unable to comment on.



Back Tomorrow
Sue