It's been 20 days since I started this blog and what have I changed?
Well for starters I put myself on a reduced grocery budget (£150 for the month) and lived out of the cupboards and freezers. We had some interesting meals this way but at the end of the month we had enough money for me to make a bulk order (£47) on some organic beans and pulses and some oats and soya mince (all regular standbys apart from the chickpeas - have to get used to using these!) I should have enough to last a few months anyway. With the residue of what I would normally have spent I bought a Remoska which should save me 80% electricity over using the electric oven. I cooked up a (happy meat) roast chicken in it last night and it was lovely and moist, will definately do that again.
We have also added another vegetable bed and planted up some runner beans, courgettes and spinach. The digging goes on though as more beds are planned. The greenhouse is full of tomato plants with a promising amount of fruit already and Mr C has planted up some pepper plants. We are very much beginners in this field though and have much to learn.
We are using the library more and the only books I have bought were the bargain bags from the church fete which included one treasure - a 1964 edition of Good Housekeeping Look and Cook which includes the GH childrens cook book that Mum used to teach me to cook! Mainly rock cakes, flapjacks and jammy buns! Ah good memories are priceless!
I have started to knit again, easy stuff so far - dishcloths using cotton yarn from our market and charity shops, so useful and cheap. I have yet to dust off the sewing machine, that is next on the list.
Entertainment is now a 50p or less film on video (they are so cheap now) from the charity shops or boot sales, there are so many films out there that I haven't seen so this will keep us going for a while and much cheaper than renting dvd's. Barbecues in the back garden with family and friends are top of our list at this time of year and hopefully we will soon be able to provide home grown salads.
The main thing I have learned is to stay away from the shops as much as possible and to avoid shopping as a sport/hobby, I now look at what I have and make do!
3 comments:
Ello Catz!
Yeah, Remoskas are fab, I cooked my family's meals for 9 months with one, before I got my propane cooker/oven sorted. I borrowed it from my aunt and it was a revelation. As you say, you can do a roast chicken and an apple crumble tastes fab cooked in it.
Good luck on your greening up!
I loved knitted dishclothes. My daughter introduced me to them a year ago and I've never looked back. They feel much nicer to use than shop bought ones, last much longer and you get the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself.
For somebody who's only been blogging for such a short while, you've certainly made a lot of changes. I'm very impressed :)
Hi New Leaf! Wow! 9 months using the remoska, it must be good then. Will have to try the apple crumble next!
Thank you Sharon so far so good but I had already been thinking about making these changes for some time, it took starting this blog to push me on to actually doing something about it all though! Most of the veg plants my kind neighbour gave me so he started them off, we just had to get the beds ready and plant up! I had knitted dishcloths some months before and returned to it as it eased the stiffness in my fingers. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed making things.
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