Diary

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February 1, 2012

The Fifty Pound Challenge

Last month, I set myself the challenge of spending just £50 a week on food and consumables such as toiletries and cleaning products.

It was hard. I'm so used to "stocking up" on those "essential items" that putting only what we really, really needed into the trolley has been a challenge. The weekly shop has taken longer, as I check and compare price labels and re-invent my shopping list to take account of special offers and discounts (before the discounted items and Buy One Get One Free offers just went in as well as the items on my list). And all the meals have to be planned carefully in advance.

At the end of the month I totted up everything I'd spent, divided by 31 and multiplied by 7 to get my weekly total. It was £64.53. So, I failed. Miserably.

Or did I? This time last year, my weekly spend was over £100. (And that was a good month. It was often much more). That means I saved over £170 compared to last year. If I can do that every month, I'll have saved over £2000 by the end of the year. That's a lot of money.

And over the course of the month, no food went in the bin. Some fruit and veg peelings went in the compost (along with coffee grounds and teabags) and a few scraps made a treat for the hens. But this family sent no food waste to landfill in January 2012. Given that the average family in the UK chucks over £500-worth of perfectly edible food in the bin each year, I think we did pretty well. If we all stopped throwing food away, we could make carbon savings equivalent of taking one in five cars off the road.

I'm now all fired up about February's challenge. Using all the things I've learnt over the past few weeks (which I'll share with you later) I just know I'm going to hit that £50 target.

January 30, 2012

Big Garden Birwatch

At the weekend we took part in the world's biggest bird survey: the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch.

We were pretty happy with our sightings. In previous years we haven't always seen some of our regular birds during the hour, but this year we saw nearly all of them except a bullfinch and a nuthatch (both of which showed up the next day!)

But we did see blue tits, great tits, robins, chaffinches, greenfinches, a goldfinch, a long-tailed tit, some coal tits, blackbirds, a song thrush, jackdaws, wood pigeons and some dunnocks.

Right at the very end, with just a few minutes to spare before our hour was up, we saw a wren and a black cap! Magic!

January 25, 2012

The Fifty Pound Challenge!

My resolution this year has been to spend less money on food. At the end of December, I decided that I would try to spend only £50 per week in the supermarket. This includes all the food for three family meals a day, as well as those other supermarket spends such as toiletries and loo rolls. This will be a considerable saving on my usual weekly spend, which is often at least £100, so my bank balance will thank me for it.

So far it's going well - I think. I won't know quite how I've done until the end of January, because I'll be working out the average weekly spend over the course of the month. This means that if I spend only £35 one week, I can "carry over" the £15 for the following week. And if I overspend one week, I know I'll have to be really frugal next time I shop.

It's not been easy, though. There have been plenty of times when I've only had to look at my trolley to know there's more than 50 quids-worth of food in there. Then something has to go back. Those cereals on special offer? They're a good buy, but we don't need them this week. That pack of cakes? I can make some for half the price - and I already have all the ingredients I need sitting in the cupboard at home.

One thing that has helped immensely, though, is having a small supply of home-grown veggies - and plenty of eggs from our hens. We have had a lot of eggy meals! I've still needed to be careful, though - for a start, in January, there isn't a great deal available in my veg plot - just leeks, kale and some salads from the greenhouse. It doesn't help that, after a nasty experience with kale ("Mum, why are there bugs swimming in my gravy?") the kids won't eat it.

I'll let you know how I got on in a few days time!

January 16, 2012

Veggies

Despite the freezing temperature, I managed to get out on the plot at the weekend. There's a surprising amount available, including two varieties of kale (Redbor and Nero di Toscana), leeks and parsnips. In the greenhouse I still have a few red chillis hanging on for dear life, as well as some pak choi and salad leaves.

The purple sprouting broccoli is growing very well, and has somehow survived attack from pigeons - so far. A friend has given me seven spring cabbage plants, which I managed to get into the semi-frozen ground. Unfortunately, though, the chickens made a beeline for them almost immediately. Luckily, I noticed them pecking at the plants and covered them up with some netting (the cabbages, not the chickens.)

January 11, 2012

Garlic

We're getting close to the end of our stored garlic supplies, which has reminded me that it's now time to get some more garlic into the ground for later on in the year.

Last year's garlic came from plantings made in both in spring and in the previous autumn. I never got around to planting the garlic last autumn, though, so I'm relying solely on the stuff I've put in today. It says "plant in spring" on the packet, but I've always been led to believe that garlic needs a good cold spell to make it grow well. And with a hard frost forecast for the next few days, the timing seems just right.

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