That’s Entertainment

 

I was chatting to a friend on the phone while aimlessly rootling (is that a word?) about in the fridge lamenting the fact that I was two ingredients short of a meal when she said, 

'but I've got those going spare - I don't suppose you've got any yoghurt going begging?'

As it happens the answer was 'yes' and we were about to do a swap when an idea popped up..

It sort of grew over the next three days so I've put the notions down in the order they manifested themselves.

Month 5 - Bite 27

We're planning a 'raid your fridge' party. With a couple more phone calls I've established who else has got odds and ends that don't make a complete meal without additions from someone else's stockpile so a dinner party is in order with all of us contributing!

Month 5 - Bite 28

'Ohh a simple, off the cuff party', said one of the planners, 'something we don't have to make a song and dance about.'

Well, that started off another train of thought so.... as we started texting to and fro about what everyone was bringing the idea of further entertainment with no cost developed.

The empty the fridge party has now become 'and bring a song or dance (or musical instrument) event.. nothing fancy, just a laugh between friends who have always been able to 'dance like no one is watching'.

Month 5 - Bite 29

The party has now become an afternoon and evening event - we've all got board/table games lurking in our cupboards with no idea when we last played many of them...

So... following a snacky lunch from our fridges and the prepping for an evening meal, there will be mad games culminating in our dinner plans and that musical entertainment. Very little planning, minimal waste, next to no cost and a great deal of fun!

Can't think what brought partying to mind at all!

Get your Magazine Fix

 Month 5 - Bite 22

So, I have this great addiction to reading matter. I can stifle much of it with the local library, book borrowing apps, swapping books with friends and family and then getting books or vouchers towards e-books for birthdays and Christmas, but I still do love a magazine!

I have kept on one subscription for a favourite magazine - reading it is a pleasure I savour and I try not to race through it...

The rest of my cravings I satiate a bit with magazines passed on with the family and swapped at our spinning group so now it's time to investigate other free reading matter. There's the magazines that come with our membership of organisation, the freebies advertising local events and places and finally customers' magazines from supermarkets. They should all help me to eke out my paid for one until the next copy arrives!

Month 5 - Bite 23

Following our recent holiday I've realised that the pandemic, stay-at-home habit has made me rather lazy about visiting places. Today I need to research places close to home that are free entrance. I know the RAMM in Exeter is free so that's a good start. I'll spend some time today searching for other free options nearby and then widen my search so that I've got a nice list for those 'where shall we go?' days.

Month 5 - Bite 24

I know we've got a National Trust membership so we've already 'paid' for visits to those properties (and it comes in handy for accessing free parking when I run at Killerton), and from their information I know that they have particular dates when it's free entry for non-members. I'm wondering what other sites - English Heritage comes to mind - might also have free entry on certain dates - few clicks on the keyboard required to find out more.

Month 5 - Bite 25

When I was little we didn't use much energy. I don't mean the running around sort I mean the kind you have to pay out for. While I wouldn't want to go back to those times of multiple coats on beds (there was no heating in our bedrooms), twice weekly baths (no bathroom so it was a case of filling a tin bath lifted into the back room), walking and bussing everywhere (we didn't have a car),  that sort of thing, I'm sure we're using more energy than we need to so today I'm going to try and use as little electric, gas and petrol energy as possible. It'll be an interesting experiment in mindfulness each time I reach for an easily accessible switch!

Month 5 - Bite 26

And finally in this round up of experimenting and researching it's off to the land of blog and website. One of my favourite go-to reads when I feel the urge to knuckle down on my spending urges is Cait Flanders ''The Year of Less'. This followed her 'Blonde on a Budget' which I've never visited, always promising myself to do so - now's the time to try and track it down. I think she archived it so I'll have to do a little detective work and along the way I intend to allow myself to digress into any other budgeting/finance/cutting back websites and blogs I fancy.

Got any suggestions for some I could try?

A Bit of Fresh Air

 The weather is improving, honestly! So it's time to use it for some free enjoyment in the fresh air...

Month 5 - Bite 18

Having done all that gardening work it's time to make the most of it, so today's free task is... to sit in the sunshine. Factor applied and all that, but now is the time so catch some Vitamin D rays that are going begging....

It's a hard life, but someone's got to do it....

Month 5 - Bite 19

Getting out and about may well mean taking the car part of the way so it's just as well to check how and where to park beforehand to avoid big car parking charges...

Today I need to sit down with a map app and look at some of the short journeys that I do which are too long to walk all the way (or that I end up carrying too much for it to be practical) and to see if there's any free parking nearby. In many cases, I'm sure, there will be a big bonus of free parking for a little research and leg work. I know that one car park further away from the shops is free for one hour and that there are some short stay places around town that let you park for nothing. If I were to use some of these I could avoid charges and have a gentle leg stretch at the same time. I just need to know where they are and how long you can park there for....

Month 5 - Bite 20

Now my revolutionary idea to get outside for free and exercise without paying for a gym... I'm off for a walk! Original eh? Well, we are lucky that around here there are plenty of nice places, beach, woods, countryside, but a stroll through the local park is good too... Where shall I suggest we go today?

Month 5 - Bite 21

Bit more energetic now....

Time to get fully back to ParkRun. If you've never tried this give it a go.

There are ParkRun events all over the place. You just need to register to get a bar code and then you turn up at the appropriate spot and join in. The bar code bit has two main uses. Firstly it gives an emergency contact attached to your name so that if there are any problems the organisers can get hold of someone for you. Secondly, and the most used reason for it, is that as you finish your time is recorded against your bar code and another finishing token is scanned at the same time. This then gives information about your times, positions, personal bests and so on that get emailed to you after the run.

Now I'm no hare, more of a tortoise, but it doesn't matter as it's a run, not a race. Everyone can go at their own pace, some people walk, others tear off and are at the finishing line before I'm halfway round, but it's a great way to start a Saturday morning. Oh and it's free...

I have a few targets of my own and if I get 3 or 4 out of 5 of them I'm happy. So it's time to restart these regularly now...

They are: 

1. I must finish

2. I must run all the way

3. I must not be last

4. I must try to have more than 10 people behind me and

5. I must try to beat my previous time.

Sometimes in the past I've managed 5 out of 5... wonder what this new attempt will do....

                                            

Go for Growth

 

Having spent time and money on reorganising the garden over the last year or so, replacing the leaning wall, regrassing, putting in paths and patios, this year needs to pull back on the spending while making the bare bones look good!

So the next few bites should help with brightening up the beds without touching the purse strings!

Month 5 - Bite 13 - Divide and conquer.

When the walls were being rebuilt we had to move ALL the plants. They kept breaking off bits and falling apart and we just kept replanting the small bits and pieces, watering them and keeping our fingers crossed that some of them survived. Well, most of them did and have grown on so well that now it's time to split them to make our garden grow even faster....

All these were small, bedraggled little plants that have prospered and are about to become even more colour around the garden.

Month 5 - Bite 14

One or two plants don't split, but have grown on to bigger and bigger examples. These pinks need layering. All I need to do today is weigh down on part of the growing plant with a stone or pin it down with a hairclip and wait for a new plantlet to start to grow.

Outdoors isn't the only place for this, there's the indoor ones too. The spider plants are putting out new baby plants that can be potted on and cut away from the mother plant and African violets are dead easy to take leaf cuttings from and grow on. If only Graeham liked begonias they'd be just as easy!

                                         

Month 5 - Bite 15

My Nan used to grow all sorts of things. She was a great one for indoor plants. Grandad may have provided vegetables galore, but she was queen of indoor propogation.

She would plant anything that she thought might grow.. apple pips, tomatoes that were too soft to eat, spring onion roots (although she would have called them gibbons). I did once try her methods with a class of mine. They were fascinated when we planted some potatoes that our cook gave use that had been around a while and started sprouting. We carefully looked after them growing them in large carrier bags on a balcony, topping up the soil and rolling the bags up as the greenery appeared. Their faces were truly a picture when eventually we split the bags and all the tiny potatoes came tumbling out. They reacted as if I'd performed some sort of magic trick!

I've got one or two things in the kitchen that I'm going to try growing to see what happens - you never know....

Month 5 - Bite 16

I was chatting to one of our neighbours about planting for this year and she announced that she's on Team Runner Bean. Apparently she and our other neighbour have decided that they will only grow one or two things this year as they want to get off travelling again and it doesn't make sense to have too much produce when they won't be around to enjoy it. It also means that my plant watering duties will be much lilghter while they are away. Anyway, she's doing the runner beans while the other neighbour is doing mange tout.. I've volunteered to be on Team Basil as I always grow too much, so between the three of us there should be some goodies to eat.

When I add my sister's tomatoes and cucumbers as well the summer is looking promising.

Month 5 - Bite 17

And finally...

I have got one or two other seeds - the end of a pack of rocket, four pumpkin seeds I picked up in a nearby field last autumn, six leftover runner beans of my own and some parsley seeds lurking in the shed. Planting these only makes sense if I''m not spending oodles on growing them so their seed trays will consist of the inner cardboard tubes from toilet rolls and old cardboard egg boxes. The plastic trays from fruit can be their plant 'saucers' to contain water and some leftover compost will be plenty for filling them.

                                              

Nice free containers that have the added bonus of being compostable, in fact they will rot away in the soil when it comes to planting out time meaning they will be easier to plant and won't have their roots disturbed either.. win, win, I say.

Freely exercising those little grey cells...

 This next run of tasks are all to tickle the thinking processes.

We've had a great holiday with inspiration and entertainment from Roman artefacts to International tennis and the opportunity to try out our minimal Italian with family and friends too so it's a chance to carry on expanding the grey matter...

Month 5 - Bite 9

Exploring the internet is top of the list. Not aimless clicking though, I want to find some challenging puzzles to download and try in addition to my daily dose of Wordle. Once downloaded all I have to do then is solve them!

Month 5 - Bite 10

Nice easy, indulgent one this - read a book. It has to be something I haven't tried before, possibly non-fiction. My choice will be guided by the local library challenge. There's an adult challenge at the moment where the library picks a different genre each month and you read a book in that category. That's what I'll be up to today - finding out the category and then getting myself down to the library to borrow a book from the given subject matter. It's great as the library has dedicated shelves with suggestions from the genre as well as their great stock of titles on the rest of the shelves... and did I mention it's all free!

Month 5 - Bite 11

When I was working I had to have a lot of children's books delivered as I was writing materials based on them. That meant a subscription to an internet shopping site that gave free shipping. Once I'd finished work I carried on with the subscription as it was still cost-effective. It also provided a streaming service as well as the shipping - so a free extra I suppose.

I've known for a while that there's plenty more - music for example - that I could get as part of my membership, but haven't explored it too far. Now's my chance. I need to spend energy on finding out just what I can claim free on the site and then start using it.

Month 5 - Bite 12

And finally, well for this bit anyway, there's my e-reader. While away I noticed a whole heap of titles that I fancied trying. All had free samples while others were free downloads. The brain stretching continues then with checking out what I might want to try or download and adding it to my wish list. Then I'll download at least one of them for another indulgent period of free reading - ahh bliss....

Happy Birthday Dad...

 Today is the 100th anniversary of my Dad's birth. He didn't even make it to his threescore years and ten, but boy, did he pack a lot into his life! 

He would have recognised the strategies for living within your means and making the best of everything you've got, that was him all over.

He participated fully in life and gave freely of his time to anyone who needed it, especially all those Scouts who benefitted from his time and talents over the years.

He hated waste, whether that was time, money, food, skills, anything really. He had high standards and was a really lovely man with a definite twinkle in his eyes.

Happy Birthday Dad...

Month 5 - Bite 8

Share and share and share again. This one's for him who would share anything with anyone. When I was small we didn't have lots of material things. One Christmas a new vicar arrived from Australia with his young family. Dad popped in to introduce himself and say hi only to find them in an empty vicarage without many of their possessions that were held up along the way. Not one to leave them sitting on sparse packing crates he brought them all home. I don't remember much about it, but I can well imagine him and Mum stretching whatever resources we had to make their welcome a warm one.

Sharing with your neighbours and those around you is a great way to make a little go a long way. Today's task is for me to research some of the sharing schemes out there like Olio that let you give any surplus food, etc. that you have to someone else who can use it for free. You can also pick up free stuff for yourself, real give and take. Good use of technology, great fight against waste and a lovely way to help out all round.

Check it out

 Month 5 - Bite 5

A bit more information gathering today, free information too. I do use the local library albeit a bit sporadically which is a shame. There's so much down there to discover that I should make more use of this great resource. 

Today though the task in hand is investigating the app that the library uses so that I can borrow books online and read them on my tablet. This is one of those bites that I'm really going to enjoy - free book browsing - I can predict that this task could take all day - and then some!

Month 5 - Bite 6

While thumbing through the virtual books I might just need to find the cookery section as this next bite is all about food. I know it's quite a theme with me - I just love to taste stuff..

Anyway in order to streamline the finances a bit more and to save the planet I want to look further into plant based or meat-free meals. We do eat less and less meat here at home, but I do tend to rely on a small number of old favourites so now I'm going to enjoy going through a heap of recipes, both in virtual form and from the selection on the bookcase to find a new idea for tonight - and then cook it.

                                                

Month 5 - Bite 7

A while back you might remember I started sending off for freebies. Well, it's that find-out-what-you've-got moment. They are all in a spare drawer together so here's a selection for me to go through and distribute where I'll remember to use them. This should save me buying a number of items until I've used up all my samples and giveaways.

                                                 

A bit of research

 Month 5 - Bite 2

I love a good read and this bite gives me permission to settle down with a book, well e-reader, pencil and paper. I have some favourites I re-read to give me a smile and some inspiration when I start to wobble about money. (It's particularly pleasing that I got a couple of these as free e-books and another as a present.)

Two of these are 'The Year of Less' by Cait Flanders and 'How I Lived a Year on Just a Pound a Day' by Kath Kelly. These are the titles I'm going to spend some time revisiting now making the odd note where I want to try their suggestions. 

I know this task will take longer than today, but I'll enjoy it and am happy to devote time as research every day. I might also take another look at The Moneyless Man by Mark Boyle once I've finished. These authors have my admiration for their approach while I don't think I could ever match their persistence and stamina.

Month 5 - Bite 3

I declare today my 'Buy Nothing Day'. Nothing. Not a thing. 

Food has to come from what I've already got. Entertainment from resources. Craft from stores. Online shopping banned. Bit more research to find other free things to do perhaps...

Simple. Necessary. Wonder how long I could keep it up if I tried?

Month 5 - Bite 4

This one will be good for me... Generally we don't have a drink every day and have non-alcohol days regularly, usually when we've been playing sport as we don't tend to fancy one then.

I'm going for a run of days from now. I want to move to more alcohol-free days in a week than the other way round and so today I'm going to experiment further with what else I might choose instead, especially for those long summer days (you never know) when a drink out in the sunshine beckons and I fancy more than plain water (tap of course).

Think I'll start with that elderflower cordial I spy, that topped up with soda water...

No such thing as a free lunch?

 Who says?

This little elephant ushers in a month of free (or as close to free as you can get) ideas to lighten the financial load.

Month 5 - Bite 1

If you remember I have started to put all the extras I've got from selling, surveys and so on in a separate account as well as sending off for freebies and collecting vouchers from loyalty cards etc.

Today I need to gather all these together and use them, along with the cash in the account (over £200!) and listing loyalty points on my phone so I don't forget them,  for any shopping needed so that I can have a free-ish trip to the shops.