Friday already ! The week seems to have gone so quickly ! There have still been sone things to pick in the garden, including raspberries ! This was the first week when I actually had so many I could serve them as dessert to the rest of the family, I can't remember that happening before.
We also picked the last of the courgettes, some tomatoes and spinach. These were all used up in meals over the week. We stewed the last of the apples. I tidied up the freezer too and moved all the apples and other fruit into the small chest freezer which has been off all Summer, the big one was so full I couldn't squeeze another thing in there. Now I have room for a few loaves of homemade bread and the odd homemade ready meal, which will come in handy when we have busy nights.
We filled up at the cheapest petrol station and got a free magazine and newspaper at the supermarket. I washed out some bread bags from the freezer for re-use and got some free Christmas cards from the Red Cross. We also make a donation there so I don't feel bad about using their unsolicited stuff which comes in the post !
I sold a couple of exam texts on Amazon, as they offer more money than Ziffit and used the money earned to buy a book on my wish list, effectively making it free ! I'm not sure whether or not this is cheating during Stoptober, but decided it wasn't as the transaction was spending neutral !
I made every meal from scratch and we enjoyed a particularly nice iced gingerbread ! I am noticing that now MasterShoestring is older and bigger a cake only lasts an afternoon and I have to increase his lunch allowance as well. This means less in the rest of the shopping budget, so I really have to plan to use everything up. I saved some yoghurt from a new batch to use as a starter for the next one, I can't do this all the time as the starter weakens over time, but it's good a couple of times a month.
otherwise we did all the usual things like bringing snacks and drinks from home when out and drying all the washing outside or on racks indoors. We still haven't switched on the heating and hot water full time, just when we notice the house is below 18C or there's not much sun in the morning for the solar hot water. It's already the middle of October so I'm hoping that we will have a mild winter !
I hope you also had a great week !
That is cool that you are still getting raspberries! They have been done here for some time now. We have also been picking the last of things in the garden and doing our final canning and freezing. We got our first frost this week.
ReplyDeleteIt is fun to hear all the ways you are getting by without spending money.
Gosh, you get frosts early ! I am enjoying your series on no waste, really inspirational !
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