Hope you've had lovely weather, wherever you are.
Most of the weekend has been spent trying to sort out the garden. Most people do their tidying in February/March and then sow stuff and about now they're enjoying lovely salads and things they have grown themselves. Trouble for me is that late winter/early spring is my busiest time (job no.2). So my garden has to look after itself. And it grows brambles and gnarly-rooted weeds and very tall meadow grass.
Well, I'm attacking it, better stuff is growing. Progress picture one shows the garden yesterday. It's a bit better since then.
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| Okay, this is just one bee. But there were more, honest! |
We moved the burner to another location, which worked for a bit and I was able to get on. However, some of the bees didn't realize their house was not there anymore, and they started coming back and buzzing round me. Good excuse to stop the gardening for a bit and go for a nice walk.
Our excursion took us by the riverside, where the sea cadets were practising.
We then wound our way to beautiful Delapre. People were cooling off in the lake (not sure they're supposed to, but still) and someone was water-skiing. We veered off into the verdant woods, spotting bunnies scrambling away into the brambles. The floor was carpeted with harebells, buttercups and forget-me-nots. Very pretty.
We cut through to the house. A bawling toddler was being made to stand against one of the handsome trees that skirt the lawns for a photo. He was having none of it! Heading right, we found the ornamental gardens and tea rooms. He, we decided to share a cream tea.
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| Hooray, just enough change! |
On the way home, we foolishly decided to stop for a pint at the pub. It's never one, is it?! And with that, our care was somewhat abandoned. Call it sunstroke... oh well, back on the path to frugaldom now.
Today, OH was taking part in a 100 mile cycle ride as he did the 3 Counties 100 Cyclosportive. A gruelling epic cycle ride that takes in Beautiful Rutland Water. This is one of the awesome sights he will have seen:
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| the Welland Viaduct |
He says it was brilliant. He's very sore now though.
So, while he was out, I decided to get the shopping in for the Live Below the Line Challenge (link takes you through to my donation page). OH is supporting me in this challenge, so he will be eating the same meals as me. But he is not taking part himself. So he'll be eating cake at the office tomorrow, and drinking a pint in the pub when I won't be at my next Northampton Science Fiction Writers Group meeting.
On OH's advice, I am including some things I already had, but costed them out, so as not to waste food. This included 1kg of potatoes, which cost 66p. Unfortunately, I went bust, so have had to reduce the number of potatoes I was going to have to 700g. 2 meals maybe? Two small meals...The rest of my pears from a multi-pack, which have only just started to ripen came to 37p's worth. OH says we should also include the bananas he won today at the end of his race. Mmm... freebies not allowed! That said, I'm having all the tea and stuff I can at work as that's one of my work benefits. Not birthday cake, though. Boo.
We can include stuff from the garden, so long as production costs are taken into consideration. I'm taking basil as 0p, as that cost me nothing, and if we can work out how to use it, rhubarb. Though, I think that would need sugar! All the nettles and dandelion we want, though. Nom!
So here's the week at £1 per person per day.
| bread (reduced) | £0.34 |
| cucumber | £0.39 |
| cumin | £0.49 |
| frozen mixed veg | £0.89 |
| gravy | £0.20 |
| ham | £0.61 |
| lamb's liver | £0.74 |
| lettuce (reduced) | £0.20 |
| onions | £0.69 |
| passata | £0.35 |
| pears | £0.37 |
| porridge | £0.75 |
| potatoes | £0.46 |
| rice | £0.40 |
| salmon | £1.49 |
| spaghetti | £0.20 |
| whole milk | £0.85 |
| yellow split peas | £0.55 |
| Total | £9.97 |
Okay, 3p left over... I think an old chilli and garlic clove from the market can take that up.
Wow, that was hard. And to think, if I hadn't got hold of reduced items it would have been even worse. I think to have been comfortable, another £2 would have been awesome. But of course, what this is about is to raise money for people who really do have £1 - or less - to live on per day. My charity is Send a Cow.
I'll let you know how I get on each day. Every day an invention test!
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