Well today I have just looked in my pathetic little blue recycling box and have realised just how many cans we use in our house! Surely there must be a way to make some spare cash from all these tins?
I know some people save all their tins and cans and sell them to the scrap metal merchants in their area. Scrap metal prices are quite decent and if you can make a few extra quid from them then that's great! I just wish I could find somewhere up here that would be prepared to do this. I would then be able to recycle all our tins and cans and probably my mums as well and make a few extra pounds to save up for a rainy day.
I will keep searching and will update the blog as soon as I find a merchant that is happy to pay out for scrap metal in the Highlands.
Later!!!
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Sunday, 2 October 2011
Sunday, 25 September 2011
How do I do this?
Well in an attempt to reduce the amount of stuff that goes in our wheelie bins ... I am currently looking into ways to reduce this but to also make some cash out of it. So I have emailed a bunch of scrap metal dealers in Inverness (our closest city) to see if there is any way that they would accept domestic scrap metal (like food and drink cans) and if they do, then how much would they pay for this. I know it's a long shot but if people in England and Wales can make money from their scrap metal then so can I! That would certainly reduce the amount of waste going in my wheelie bins! I know our local council provide these little pathetic blue boxes for cans and paper but to be honest they are pants! I can fill one in a week with tins and if I recycle my mum's tins as well I would fill two in a week and these pathetic little things are collected fortnightly!!!!
I am also getting my mum to save all her jars for me so that I can start making some preserves. I will start small with stuff like onion marmalade but will branch out into jams and stuff when I am a bit more confident that I can do it properly. That will prevent jars going into the bin as well!!!!
We already compost but that was a complete disaster last year and have had to start from scratch again this year and it's not really working as well. Last year, my compost bin (affectionately known as george ... I'm going to get another one and call it mildred!) was doing nicely. Then we went on holiday. My lovely next door neighbour was providing us with her kitchen peelings etc which was really helping the composting along nicely but when we went on holiday she chucked whole potatoes in!!! So we came home from holiday to find tatties growing in our compost bin!
The whole lot had to be chucked out. To say I was gutted was an understatement as we had some proper good quality compost at the bottom. But off it all went and this year hubby decided to site the compost bin elsewhere in the garden. Big disaster. It's in a shady area at the side of the house and the stuff just does not seem to be composting down as fast. But I will wait and see how things go. I will continue to supply the bin but we are just not producing enough to keep the bin filled up.
But I did have a total brain wave!!! We have 3 brown garden waste bins. One is ours, one is next door's (her gardens front and back are paved and gravelled) and we found one when out on a walk. So the third one now has drainage holes in it. I filled it with shredded newspaper and hubby then piled all our grass cuttings on it and we have left it. Hopefully it will mulch down and we will be able to add this to the compost bin to speed up the processes. If it works then I will be well chuffed!!!! But I really need to get one of those aerators for compost bins. Having a really bad back means that I just can't use the garden fork to move the stuff in the bin as it's all so far down!!!! But I think I will just leave that for hubby to do ... it can be his job.
On the home front ... the children are really getting into the spirit of money saving and being thrifty. They always give their teachers a gift at Christmas and last year it cost a small fortune as they don't just have one teacher, even though they are still at primary school. There are a number of teachers so this year it is going to be different! I will post about it separately as I am very proud of them for it.
Anyhow ... it's off to do some laundry and dishes ... although the dishwasher will do the latter ... all I have to do is load it lol. I will be back later on ... have a good day y'all x
I am also getting my mum to save all her jars for me so that I can start making some preserves. I will start small with stuff like onion marmalade but will branch out into jams and stuff when I am a bit more confident that I can do it properly. That will prevent jars going into the bin as well!!!!
We already compost but that was a complete disaster last year and have had to start from scratch again this year and it's not really working as well. Last year, my compost bin (affectionately known as george ... I'm going to get another one and call it mildred!) was doing nicely. Then we went on holiday. My lovely next door neighbour was providing us with her kitchen peelings etc which was really helping the composting along nicely but when we went on holiday she chucked whole potatoes in!!! So we came home from holiday to find tatties growing in our compost bin!
The whole lot had to be chucked out. To say I was gutted was an understatement as we had some proper good quality compost at the bottom. But off it all went and this year hubby decided to site the compost bin elsewhere in the garden. Big disaster. It's in a shady area at the side of the house and the stuff just does not seem to be composting down as fast. But I will wait and see how things go. I will continue to supply the bin but we are just not producing enough to keep the bin filled up.
But I did have a total brain wave!!! We have 3 brown garden waste bins. One is ours, one is next door's (her gardens front and back are paved and gravelled) and we found one when out on a walk. So the third one now has drainage holes in it. I filled it with shredded newspaper and hubby then piled all our grass cuttings on it and we have left it. Hopefully it will mulch down and we will be able to add this to the compost bin to speed up the processes. If it works then I will be well chuffed!!!! But I really need to get one of those aerators for compost bins. Having a really bad back means that I just can't use the garden fork to move the stuff in the bin as it's all so far down!!!! But I think I will just leave that for hubby to do ... it can be his job.
On the home front ... the children are really getting into the spirit of money saving and being thrifty. They always give their teachers a gift at Christmas and last year it cost a small fortune as they don't just have one teacher, even though they are still at primary school. There are a number of teachers so this year it is going to be different! I will post about it separately as I am very proud of them for it.
Anyhow ... it's off to do some laundry and dishes ... although the dishwasher will do the latter ... all I have to do is load it lol. I will be back later on ... have a good day y'all x
Monday, 27 July 2009
Summerhouses and the Tooth Fairy
Well good evening/morning all. I know this is a strange time to be writing on my blog but I am just about to go off to bed and suddenly thought of something to write and thought it best to get it down before I forget!
My youngest was at hospital this week and had 3 teeth removed. Her back ones had taken such a battering and with the vitamins the hospital put her on when she was first born (pure sugar really) they were on their way out. So the poor wee thing went and had her first operation and she was such a brave wee thing. I was the one in tatters! So the tooth fairy had to pay her a visit and then tonight my oldest came through from the bedroom and presented me with 2 teeth! So I suppose the tooth fairy had better visit her too!!!
But hubby was busy today and erected the kids' summerhouse in the garden. I will add a photo or two tomorrow after we replace the windows and give it a lick of paint. It was donated by my best friend who had it in her garden and it was only used by my kids so she told us to take it for our garden. So we now have 2 sheds, a summerhouse, 2 compost bins and a herb garden!
We are getting there slowly - I just wish the weather would stay nice!!! But it is typical Scottish weather. Sunny one minute and thunderstorms the next!
So it's off to bed for me and then off in the morning to see the nurse about stopping smoking! That should give me some spare pennies to put in the fund for the dreams!!!
Goodnight all, sweet dreams xxx
My youngest was at hospital this week and had 3 teeth removed. Her back ones had taken such a battering and with the vitamins the hospital put her on when she was first born (pure sugar really) they were on their way out. So the poor wee thing went and had her first operation and she was such a brave wee thing. I was the one in tatters! So the tooth fairy had to pay her a visit and then tonight my oldest came through from the bedroom and presented me with 2 teeth! So I suppose the tooth fairy had better visit her too!!!
But hubby was busy today and erected the kids' summerhouse in the garden. I will add a photo or two tomorrow after we replace the windows and give it a lick of paint. It was donated by my best friend who had it in her garden and it was only used by my kids so she told us to take it for our garden. So we now have 2 sheds, a summerhouse, 2 compost bins and a herb garden!
We are getting there slowly - I just wish the weather would stay nice!!! But it is typical Scottish weather. Sunny one minute and thunderstorms the next!
So it's off to bed for me and then off in the morning to see the nurse about stopping smoking! That should give me some spare pennies to put in the fund for the dreams!!!
Goodnight all, sweet dreams xxx
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
Oops - Big apologies!!!
Well it has been around 8 weeks since I was last on to post any messages and I feel absolutely awful that it has been so long. But all that has been going on at home has really taken up our time and left me pretty much no time for much else. Just the odd checking of emails and thats been about it.
We did have some good news. Because hubby is ex-forces, SSAFA (Soldiers, Sailors and Air Force Association) agreed to help us get the things that we just could not afford to buy. So in the space of 2 weeks we had carpets fitted on our stairs, hallways and 3 bedrooms AND got a brand new cooker. The cooker we had was given to us and was really not big enough for our family but it was keeping us going. Now that we have a brand new one, the cooking is so much quicker and easier and better. And I felt so good when we got the carpets and the cooker, although the house is still recovering!!! Mess everywhere lol.
And then 5 weeks ago we got a kitten from our next door neighbour and she has been named Sapphire on account that she has blue eyes. However she is now about 12 weeks old and a complete and utter psycho!!! My hands are bitten and scratched all over!!! The kids are loving the kitten and she has certainly become a part of the family very quickly but she uses me like a scratching post lol.
My dad gave me a huge bag of shredded paper for my compost bin which is starting to look like a compost bin. It was about half full by the time all the paper went in!! But it has certainly started mulching down as we had a few days of rain and I left the lid off the bin for those days as the flies were starting to annoy the heck out of me lol. I do have a fair collection of tumble drier fluff to put in but am waiting till there is more veggie peelings to go in before the fluff goes in. We did put all the paper in but I made a large pot of exceptionally strong coffee which went in as well to wet it all down! Hubby said it was a waste of good coffee but it was the value cheapy stuff so when he found that out he sure changed his tune!!!
On the down side we got an electricity bill for over £1000 for 6 months!!! Have now spoken to the company and established that we have been on the wrong tarriff since we moved in and they have admitted it was their fault that none of our calls were actioned. So in the process of writing a stiff complaint letter and will see what happens with that!
There has been other stuff happening but not going to go into those just now lol. Am in the process of writing a complete list of all that I put in my compost bin to help others who are new to the process and are not quite sure of what can go in other than veggie peelings. I know a few folk who are a bit unsure of what else can go in their bins and their bins are not getting on the same as mine. I do have two but am only using the one at the moment. Am considering getting another one and getting it delivered to my mum's house so that I have 3 going. One to fill, one to mulch down and one to use! But it will take a while to fill one so will wait and see how it goes!
Right, am off to try and get this list into some kind of order. I think I will just have to add the link as it would be much easier lol.
See you all very soon, this time I intend to keep up with this, it's quite therapeutic lol.
We did have some good news. Because hubby is ex-forces, SSAFA (Soldiers, Sailors and Air Force Association) agreed to help us get the things that we just could not afford to buy. So in the space of 2 weeks we had carpets fitted on our stairs, hallways and 3 bedrooms AND got a brand new cooker. The cooker we had was given to us and was really not big enough for our family but it was keeping us going. Now that we have a brand new one, the cooking is so much quicker and easier and better. And I felt so good when we got the carpets and the cooker, although the house is still recovering!!! Mess everywhere lol.
And then 5 weeks ago we got a kitten from our next door neighbour and she has been named Sapphire on account that she has blue eyes. However she is now about 12 weeks old and a complete and utter psycho!!! My hands are bitten and scratched all over!!! The kids are loving the kitten and she has certainly become a part of the family very quickly but she uses me like a scratching post lol.
My dad gave me a huge bag of shredded paper for my compost bin which is starting to look like a compost bin. It was about half full by the time all the paper went in!! But it has certainly started mulching down as we had a few days of rain and I left the lid off the bin for those days as the flies were starting to annoy the heck out of me lol. I do have a fair collection of tumble drier fluff to put in but am waiting till there is more veggie peelings to go in before the fluff goes in. We did put all the paper in but I made a large pot of exceptionally strong coffee which went in as well to wet it all down! Hubby said it was a waste of good coffee but it was the value cheapy stuff so when he found that out he sure changed his tune!!!
On the down side we got an electricity bill for over £1000 for 6 months!!! Have now spoken to the company and established that we have been on the wrong tarriff since we moved in and they have admitted it was their fault that none of our calls were actioned. So in the process of writing a stiff complaint letter and will see what happens with that!
There has been other stuff happening but not going to go into those just now lol. Am in the process of writing a complete list of all that I put in my compost bin to help others who are new to the process and are not quite sure of what can go in other than veggie peelings. I know a few folk who are a bit unsure of what else can go in their bins and their bins are not getting on the same as mine. I do have two but am only using the one at the moment. Am considering getting another one and getting it delivered to my mum's house so that I have 3 going. One to fill, one to mulch down and one to use! But it will take a while to fill one so will wait and see how it goes!
Right, am off to try and get this list into some kind of order. I think I will just have to add the link as it would be much easier lol.
See you all very soon, this time I intend to keep up with this, it's quite therapeutic lol.
Sunday, 10 May 2009
Well a very good morning to you all! And what a day yesterday was. I never did get all my housework done, the call of the garden was too strong for me to resist, although I did try!
Hubby did rather well and has now built his raised bed, not too bad for his first attempt! He did quite well at tiling the living room floor when we moved in as well, and he had never done that before! He just needs to finish the top and then fill it with compost and whatever else takes his fancy! And here is the proof of his efforts!
Hubby did rather well and has now built his raised bed, not too bad for his first attempt! He did quite well at tiling the living room floor when we moved in as well, and he had never done that before! He just needs to finish the top and then fill it with compost and whatever else takes his fancy! And here is the proof of his efforts!
He did buy the blocks from a certain garden centre but the rest of the stones are the ones he blagged on his way home from work a couple of weeks ago. We did buy a bag of cement for the base and a bag of mortar for the walled parts. And he did also use the adhesive/grout that he used on the living room tiles when he ran out of mortar! How's that for recycling!!
I was also a rather busy bunny and got loads of pots planted out. I know I'm rather late at getting the seeds planted but I'm hoping to get some crops that will spur us on for next year. And the weather up here in the North of Scotland is starting to get nice and warm so the heat may just help my little plants grow big and strong. And not to mention the special feeds they are getting from me.
My own little recipe for lovely plant food is ..... tea. Yes good old fashioned black tea. Hubby drinks loads of tea. I can get through 100 tea bags in a week and I don't like to waste anything so I follow something my grandmother. I just use hot water from the tap and steep the tea bags to get some nice strong "tea". I then put it in the watering can and water it down so it is nice and weak and use it at night to water all my plants. And the houseplants seem to be thriving on it, especially my money plant. It is from a cutting of my grandmother's big huge one and my mum gave it to me and it really is thriving on my kitchen windowsill with all the sunlight and food.
I also have a vase with 3 bamboos in it and these get fed with a small amount of tea mixed with the water and they are really growing some lovely shoots as well.
Right, I must really get my behind off to bed as I am shattered and have loads to do tomorrow. So goodnight to you all and I hope your gardens are taking shape just in time for the nice weather to come in! Take care all xxx
Happy Sunday!
Good morning all and happy sunday to you all!
I am rather chuffed with myself this week as I managed to blag 4 half barrels for the princely sum of just £20! There is a charity place at the back of my mum and dad's house and they had loads of these half barrels lying around in their yard so I went and asked if they had any for sale and could I have 4 of them and I managed to get them for £20. Am dead chuffed as they normally retail for around £40-£50 each so have saved a fortune! And these are proper ones as when wet, they smell of whisky!
I know one will be at the front door with some plants in it for the kids to tend and one will be next to the back door with herbs in it, just haven't quite worked out what to do with the other 2 but will find something for them really soon!
Hubby has been busy and repositioned the shed so that it is easier to get to and we recycled some paving stones he had dug up to make a decent base for the shed to sit on. It looks pretty good if I do say so myself (just don't tell himself I said that, he'll get a big head).
We have seen a rather large plot for sale just round from where we live so we are going to phone up about it and see just how much they want for it. It looks like it would be enough for a pretty decent sized house with a huge garden and a massive driveway! But will have to look into stuff first! Don't want to be getting all hopeful then find that the owner wants silly money for a patch of land!
Hope you are all well. I'm off to do my housework and then hopefully get into the garden with hubby and the kids. Happy gardening!
I am rather chuffed with myself this week as I managed to blag 4 half barrels for the princely sum of just £20! There is a charity place at the back of my mum and dad's house and they had loads of these half barrels lying around in their yard so I went and asked if they had any for sale and could I have 4 of them and I managed to get them for £20. Am dead chuffed as they normally retail for around £40-£50 each so have saved a fortune! And these are proper ones as when wet, they smell of whisky!
I know one will be at the front door with some plants in it for the kids to tend and one will be next to the back door with herbs in it, just haven't quite worked out what to do with the other 2 but will find something for them really soon!
Hubby has been busy and repositioned the shed so that it is easier to get to and we recycled some paving stones he had dug up to make a decent base for the shed to sit on. It looks pretty good if I do say so myself (just don't tell himself I said that, he'll get a big head).
We have seen a rather large plot for sale just round from where we live so we are going to phone up about it and see just how much they want for it. It looks like it would be enough for a pretty decent sized house with a huge garden and a massive driveway! But will have to look into stuff first! Don't want to be getting all hopeful then find that the owner wants silly money for a patch of land!
Hope you are all well. I'm off to do my housework and then hopefully get into the garden with hubby and the kids. Happy gardening!
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
OOPS!!!! Update number one!!
Well hello to you all. Big apologies to all of you for the gap in postings. I have slapped myself for it though!
So there has been quite a lot of news to report since my last posting all those many days ago!
Firstly hubby was coming home from work on Easter Monday (yes he had to work lol) and spied a skip at the side of a house full of stones. They were the kind that are seen in the old fashioned stone walls. So he goes up to the house and politely asked the owner what he was doing with the skip full of stones. Well, it turns out that the skip was to be collected the very next day and he was just getting rid of the stones. So hubby nicely asked if he could come back later that day and take some of the stones out of the skip. The owner was quite happy for him to do that so he came home, emptied the boot of the car and promptly went straight back to the house. About an hour later he came home with a car full of stones!!! But they are going to good use. He is building a raised bed and is using the stones to make the walls round it. But the only downside is that he needs more stones as he only got enough for one part of the wall!!!
Hubby is now a very happy bunny as his shed was delivered and he put it up straight away! It is only a small one (6x4) but it's enough for now. And he has been promised that when the money situation is better, he will be getting a bigger metal one! But this one will remain as a potting shed of sorts. The kids are also getting their own shed! My dad is getting a new one in the summer so the one he has at the moment will be transplanted into my garden as a kind of wendy house for the girls to play in and store all their garden toys in during the winter! Although this has made me wonder about this bigger shed hubby wants. I don't know if he will really need a bigger shed if the kids' one is to be used to store their stuff!
Compost bin number 2 also got delivered! So Derek the Dalek now has a girlfriend by the name of Davina! I just have to get the sticky faces so that they will be more fun for the garden! Derek is coming along nicely with his composting. I am going to go and buy some activator as hubby just will not pee in a bottle for me to use as activator for the composter! But am still working on him and I'm sure that I will get him to wee in a bottle one day - I'll just have to wait till one day when he has had a couple of beers!!
Okay that's enough updating for one post or it will end up being a book! Am off to add some photos now and will post another update later on today - I promise!!!
So there has been quite a lot of news to report since my last posting all those many days ago!
Firstly hubby was coming home from work on Easter Monday (yes he had to work lol) and spied a skip at the side of a house full of stones. They were the kind that are seen in the old fashioned stone walls. So he goes up to the house and politely asked the owner what he was doing with the skip full of stones. Well, it turns out that the skip was to be collected the very next day and he was just getting rid of the stones. So hubby nicely asked if he could come back later that day and take some of the stones out of the skip. The owner was quite happy for him to do that so he came home, emptied the boot of the car and promptly went straight back to the house. About an hour later he came home with a car full of stones!!! But they are going to good use. He is building a raised bed and is using the stones to make the walls round it. But the only downside is that he needs more stones as he only got enough for one part of the wall!!!
Hubby is now a very happy bunny as his shed was delivered and he put it up straight away! It is only a small one (6x4) but it's enough for now. And he has been promised that when the money situation is better, he will be getting a bigger metal one! But this one will remain as a potting shed of sorts. The kids are also getting their own shed! My dad is getting a new one in the summer so the one he has at the moment will be transplanted into my garden as a kind of wendy house for the girls to play in and store all their garden toys in during the winter! Although this has made me wonder about this bigger shed hubby wants. I don't know if he will really need a bigger shed if the kids' one is to be used to store their stuff!
Compost bin number 2 also got delivered! So Derek the Dalek now has a girlfriend by the name of Davina! I just have to get the sticky faces so that they will be more fun for the garden! Derek is coming along nicely with his composting. I am going to go and buy some activator as hubby just will not pee in a bottle for me to use as activator for the composter! But am still working on him and I'm sure that I will get him to wee in a bottle one day - I'll just have to wait till one day when he has had a couple of beers!!
Okay that's enough updating for one post or it will end up being a book! Am off to add some photos now and will post another update later on today - I promise!!!
Saturday, 11 April 2009
Day 2 and not much done yet!!
Well it's day 2 of my adventure and what a lot got done ... not! We were all late up as hubby stayed up last night watching Quantum of Solace on DVD. I popped off to bed as I had managed to watch the whole film the night he bought it! So today, got the kids sorted, fed the dalek and beggared off into town for some retail therapy!
We went to our local Poundland and got some rather good bargains. I bought 3 of those pop up green bins to use as planters. I'm advertising on Freecycle for a couple of barrels for potatoes but these bins will do for radishes and carrots hopefully.
Hubby bought himself some gardening gloves and I bought 4 packets of seeds. Not bad you may think but it gets better. Each packet of seeds had 6 different varieties of seeds! So 24 different seeds for £4!! Bargain!! Well happy and it looks like I will be growing my chillie peppers after all! Hubby was dubious about chillie peppers but I'm not going to use them in my cooking too much, I love to use the dried ones to flavour olive oil so will be able to have a stack of dried ones. We only spent £12 in the Poundland so well chuffed with my bargains. Oh I almost forgot ... I got a gnome!!! He is rather cute with a little plant pot attached to himself so once there is something in the plant pot then I will definitely post a photo of him. You should have seen hubby's face when he saw my gnome in the basket! I'm calling him Gordon after the kids cartoon series (Gordon the Garden Gnome!).
The only downside was that the kids were with us (only joking really!) and they insisted on buying easter bonnets as well. We then went outside and stopped off at the easter market on the street. Hubby bought some herbs from a Frenchman who had a stall. He had grown everything himself and his sun dried tomatoes were delicious!! So another £13 went there.
Then it was back to get the car after it had been washed in the local shopping centre car park, complain about the fact that the car was still filthy and there were scratches that were not there when we parked the car! So hubby got his money back and off we went to see the dolphins. Although when we got there the water was quite choppy and although I didn't see any dolphins hubby and the kids did. I was much more content to collect mussel shells on the shore. I came home with a good pocket full and they will be crushed tomorrow and sprinkled in my dalek just to keep him hungry (he is called Derek the Dalek now!).
On the way back we stopped off at Focus for some more retail therapy (!) and got some already potted herbs for hubby's herb garden. He already has a rosemary bush that accompanied us all the way from Germany and a bay tree that we got in B&Q last week. So this week he got thyme, oregano and sage. They will be re-potted along with the chives from Tesco's tomorrow and hopefully they will grow quite happily in our little garden.
And then the bombshell. I bought hubby a shed! Focus has a 6ft x 4ft overlap shed on sale for £109 but we had to pay £25 for delivery so in total it cost us £134 plus another £33 for the stuff we bought for the garden! So no more spending for us for a big while!!! Shouldn't have really spent that much but we desperately need somewhere safe to keep all hubby's garden tools and his bike but we now have to wait for the delivery so hopefully that won't take too long.
And that's about all of our day today. Not much really got done but we did buy supplies and hubby is determined to get out and de-turf some more of the garden tomorrow and hopefully get the herbs re-potted. He has also suggested that when we have a bit more cash to spare to buy a better shed, that the one we bought today can be used as a potting shed! At least he isn't planning on just getting rid of it!
We are also going to get a second shed in the summer. My dad is getting a new one and the one he currently has is the same size as the one we are getting but my dad is going to take his one apart and put it in our back garden as a kind of wendy house for the kids! So at least we don't have to spend out over £140 to buy them a wendy house when they can get a perfectly good one for free. All it will cost us is some manual work and a couple of tins of wood preserver and we are going to try and get the stuff that comes in funky colours so the kids know which one is theirs.
I'm ordering a second dalek next week as one just is not going to be enough, and I think I may just have to go back to focus next week and buy some of their compost accelerator to help get the bins working a bit quicker (or persuade hubby to have a wee in them lol).
Tomorrow am off down the shore with my kids for a nature walk with a twist. We are taking one of the little pop up bins and we are going to fill it full of seaweed. take it home and feed it to Derek! Between that and the mussel shells he should be a happy bin tomorrow.
Have just checked my household rubbish as well. My wheelie bin was emptied on Friday. Normally by today there is one full black bag and usually a couple of small carrier bags of rubbish. Well as of today we have only half filled a black bag in the bin! So we are really cutting down on our waste already by just having Derek!
Am also going to be pickling some eggs as hubby loves them and I absolutely hate the price of them in the shops. It is much cheaper to buy eggs and big jars of pickling vinegar and do it yerself! And I find that they taste much better. I have pickled eggs and onions before and they do taste much better than the ones you buy in the shops so may just have to go get some pickling onions as well!
Enough rambling for today, am off to take some photos and hopefully get them posted here, then its off to bed so I can get up really early tomorrow and make a good start!
We went to our local Poundland and got some rather good bargains. I bought 3 of those pop up green bins to use as planters. I'm advertising on Freecycle for a couple of barrels for potatoes but these bins will do for radishes and carrots hopefully.
Hubby bought himself some gardening gloves and I bought 4 packets of seeds. Not bad you may think but it gets better. Each packet of seeds had 6 different varieties of seeds! So 24 different seeds for £4!! Bargain!! Well happy and it looks like I will be growing my chillie peppers after all! Hubby was dubious about chillie peppers but I'm not going to use them in my cooking too much, I love to use the dried ones to flavour olive oil so will be able to have a stack of dried ones. We only spent £12 in the Poundland so well chuffed with my bargains. Oh I almost forgot ... I got a gnome!!! He is rather cute with a little plant pot attached to himself so once there is something in the plant pot then I will definitely post a photo of him. You should have seen hubby's face when he saw my gnome in the basket! I'm calling him Gordon after the kids cartoon series (Gordon the Garden Gnome!).
The only downside was that the kids were with us (only joking really!) and they insisted on buying easter bonnets as well. We then went outside and stopped off at the easter market on the street. Hubby bought some herbs from a Frenchman who had a stall. He had grown everything himself and his sun dried tomatoes were delicious!! So another £13 went there.
Then it was back to get the car after it had been washed in the local shopping centre car park, complain about the fact that the car was still filthy and there were scratches that were not there when we parked the car! So hubby got his money back and off we went to see the dolphins. Although when we got there the water was quite choppy and although I didn't see any dolphins hubby and the kids did. I was much more content to collect mussel shells on the shore. I came home with a good pocket full and they will be crushed tomorrow and sprinkled in my dalek just to keep him hungry (he is called Derek the Dalek now!).
On the way back we stopped off at Focus for some more retail therapy (!) and got some already potted herbs for hubby's herb garden. He already has a rosemary bush that accompanied us all the way from Germany and a bay tree that we got in B&Q last week. So this week he got thyme, oregano and sage. They will be re-potted along with the chives from Tesco's tomorrow and hopefully they will grow quite happily in our little garden.
And then the bombshell. I bought hubby a shed! Focus has a 6ft x 4ft overlap shed on sale for £109 but we had to pay £25 for delivery so in total it cost us £134 plus another £33 for the stuff we bought for the garden! So no more spending for us for a big while!!! Shouldn't have really spent that much but we desperately need somewhere safe to keep all hubby's garden tools and his bike but we now have to wait for the delivery so hopefully that won't take too long.
And that's about all of our day today. Not much really got done but we did buy supplies and hubby is determined to get out and de-turf some more of the garden tomorrow and hopefully get the herbs re-potted. He has also suggested that when we have a bit more cash to spare to buy a better shed, that the one we bought today can be used as a potting shed! At least he isn't planning on just getting rid of it!
We are also going to get a second shed in the summer. My dad is getting a new one and the one he currently has is the same size as the one we are getting but my dad is going to take his one apart and put it in our back garden as a kind of wendy house for the kids! So at least we don't have to spend out over £140 to buy them a wendy house when they can get a perfectly good one for free. All it will cost us is some manual work and a couple of tins of wood preserver and we are going to try and get the stuff that comes in funky colours so the kids know which one is theirs.
I'm ordering a second dalek next week as one just is not going to be enough, and I think I may just have to go back to focus next week and buy some of their compost accelerator to help get the bins working a bit quicker (or persuade hubby to have a wee in them lol).
Tomorrow am off down the shore with my kids for a nature walk with a twist. We are taking one of the little pop up bins and we are going to fill it full of seaweed. take it home and feed it to Derek! Between that and the mussel shells he should be a happy bin tomorrow.
Have just checked my household rubbish as well. My wheelie bin was emptied on Friday. Normally by today there is one full black bag and usually a couple of small carrier bags of rubbish. Well as of today we have only half filled a black bag in the bin! So we are really cutting down on our waste already by just having Derek!
Am also going to be pickling some eggs as hubby loves them and I absolutely hate the price of them in the shops. It is much cheaper to buy eggs and big jars of pickling vinegar and do it yerself! And I find that they taste much better. I have pickled eggs and onions before and they do taste much better than the ones you buy in the shops so may just have to go get some pickling onions as well!
Enough rambling for today, am off to take some photos and hopefully get them posted here, then its off to bed so I can get up really early tomorrow and make a good start!
Friday, 10 April 2009
Day 1 - The start of the journey!!
Well Hello There to you, my new reader!
Let me start by introducing myself to you. My name is Di and I am a 35 year old housewife and mother of two, with a desire to be more environmentally friendly but at a fraction of the price. Let's face it, in today's current economic climate, who wants to spend loads of money to be more environmentally aware, then find that the same result could have been had at a fraction of the price or even for free!
I'll add to that, the fact that yes I am Scottish, but that does not generally mean tight-fisted! We Scots are a generous race, but very careful with it. I have developed my thrift over the years, and firmly believe that it was instilled in me by my mother and my maternal grandmother, and I also think that I get my hoarding from nan as well!
And so to the goals that we have! We have recently moved house into a lovely little council house not far from school and family members. We have spent a number of years away from home so this is a lovely start to the new year for us. We have a number of goals but the main one being that the garden, which runs from the front, right round the side of the house to the back, gets completely overhauled and the driveway replaced before the summer is out.
I also want to grow my own fruit and vegetables so we are also going to try and become as self-sufficient as possible. I have informed my family that when the weather improves, we will be taking hikes into the forest to see what edible goodies we can find. I have recipes and books showing what foods you can find that are edible, and some of them brewable!! As and when these treks happen and if they are fruitful, will be noted here.
I have tried to get my husband to let me get some chickens, but still no luck in that department yet! That maybe due to the fact that at the moment, the garden is open but then again, it may be because we are not that far from the city centre. I'll keep working on him and let you all know!!!
We are also on a mission to become debt-free and will also update this blog with that journey.
Don't worry I will be posting photographs and letting you all know where I have sourced my cheap (and hopefully free) supplies for my gardening project.
I think my real goal here is to show our journey as a kind of diary to the world to show that it can be done on a tight budget and that you don't have to spend thousands of pounds on materials when you can source them quite cheaply and sometimes free of charge!
Right am off to bed now as I'm going to get up really early in the morning and see what I can get done before the troops waken up and demand feeding! Night Night all, and will post more tomorrow!
Let me start by introducing myself to you. My name is Di and I am a 35 year old housewife and mother of two, with a desire to be more environmentally friendly but at a fraction of the price. Let's face it, in today's current economic climate, who wants to spend loads of money to be more environmentally aware, then find that the same result could have been had at a fraction of the price or even for free!
I'll add to that, the fact that yes I am Scottish, but that does not generally mean tight-fisted! We Scots are a generous race, but very careful with it. I have developed my thrift over the years, and firmly believe that it was instilled in me by my mother and my maternal grandmother, and I also think that I get my hoarding from nan as well!
And so to the goals that we have! We have recently moved house into a lovely little council house not far from school and family members. We have spent a number of years away from home so this is a lovely start to the new year for us. We have a number of goals but the main one being that the garden, which runs from the front, right round the side of the house to the back, gets completely overhauled and the driveway replaced before the summer is out.
I also want to grow my own fruit and vegetables so we are also going to try and become as self-sufficient as possible. I have informed my family that when the weather improves, we will be taking hikes into the forest to see what edible goodies we can find. I have recipes and books showing what foods you can find that are edible, and some of them brewable!! As and when these treks happen and if they are fruitful, will be noted here.
I have tried to get my husband to let me get some chickens, but still no luck in that department yet! That maybe due to the fact that at the moment, the garden is open but then again, it may be because we are not that far from the city centre. I'll keep working on him and let you all know!!!
We are also on a mission to become debt-free and will also update this blog with that journey.
Don't worry I will be posting photographs and letting you all know where I have sourced my cheap (and hopefully free) supplies for my gardening project.
I think my real goal here is to show our journey as a kind of diary to the world to show that it can be done on a tight budget and that you don't have to spend thousands of pounds on materials when you can source them quite cheaply and sometimes free of charge!
Right am off to bed now as I'm going to get up really early in the morning and see what I can get done before the troops waken up and demand feeding! Night Night all, and will post more tomorrow!
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