Tuesday 2 December 2014

Review of the month, looking back at November


 At the beginning of last month I shared my list of November plans, by mid month 6 out of 17 were left to do.
At the end of the month..............

  1. Continue eating our own fresh apples and fruit from the freezer so that we spend no money on fruit apart from an orange and a lemon for the Christmas cakes.✔
  2. Make a double batch of Naan bread✔
  3. Make a batch of Tomato and Herb rolls✔
  4. Do the main monthly shop✔
  5.  Sort the seed/veg plant order and make sure it is less than the £100 that it was last year.
  6. Get chicken feed on the way back from Ipswich when C has his 24 hour heart monitor fitted✔
  7. Christmas cakes to make, 1 for us and 3 small ones for gifts ✔
  8.  I need to find out what Cs Dad and Brother would like for Christmas and get them sorted     out ✔
  9. We need to clear the 2 runner bean beds and store the canes away and pick off some beans for drying.✔
  10. More clearing in the 3 poly-tunnels ✔
  11. Chop a few more sacks of kindling wood✔
  12. Clean out the empty chicken shed✔
  13. Clear a few veg beds - at least 3 ✔
  14. I want to fit in  some cycling or swimming or both for fitness
  15. Go and see the sea✔
  16. Visit charity shops in a different town✔
  17. Confirm how many people will be here on Christmas day✔

I've done a list of what we want for the seed order but I'm hanging on for one more seed catalogue to arrive to compare prices.
So that just leaves cycling or swimming - whoops!

Apart from the list above we also
  •  Hired a breaker and got the rest of the old shed base broken and rubble cleared. And thanks to help from our son we got the soil moved in to fill the hole and C leveled it.
  • Loads of good books read and another lot collected from the library van
  • Spending well down on November last year
  • We still have leeks, parsnips and Brussels sprouts in the garden for winter
  • 20/30 days were no spend days
  • Payment received for hay sold in the summer
  • Christmas present shopping started  and almost finished
  • Christmas card writing started and almost finished
  • The house has been valued and we've decided to do nothing about moving for the time being
  •  Found a way to clear out the big chicken shed between us without too much effort
  • We've been cutting wood to build up the wood store - all heating free as usual.
  • I'm now doing more driving which has built my  confidence.
  • We went quizzing after a 18th month gap since last time
  • Vegetarian recipe devised for Christmas day and a new pasty recipe tried too.
  • Opened the 5p tin and 'found' £30 for Christmas meat.
On the down side
The cat cost a small fortune
We have had so much rain, the field is waterlogged and we can't move the chicken sheds to somewhere dryer until we have a hard frost or a week of drying wind.
I've not had time for swimming or cycling for exercise ( although I have had time for blog writing....... that's odd!)

Thank you to everyone for comments over the last few days.
Back Tomorrow
Sue




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