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 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
