Frugally Forward To Autumn

[Wolfcub]

New fred

🤣 its currently a sort of tabby grey as I am having a little break from dye .. but next week after my haircut, (still have a pixie cut) it'll be white blonde again .. I think last time it was pink was just before Covid hit .. we were in Bologna just as Italy started shutting down and I remember people commenting on it there ..( favourably)

DH started wine making during lockdown, so today we are going blackberrying so he can get another going.. Luckily we have quite a store of ' country wine' now , because that might be all we can afford this Christmas.. 🙄

Laska my uncle used to make amazing fruit wines including a very memorable banana one

@ThisisCollie2022 yes we have NT for the same reason.. its lovely that we live in an area with lots of NT coastline nearby, but car parking is expensive.
Same if you have English Heritage membership.. we discovered that in Whitby last year.. membership meant that we could park the van in the Whitby abbey car park free all day , visit the abbey and then take 8n the town

I bet it was 🤣

I love Whitney abbey

our NT was a godsend when the dc were smaller

Agree re memberships when we were in really dire financial straights we used to ask for them for CHristmas presents

Go for a bike ride.
Take a flask of hot choc and go for a woodland walk
Hunt for different coloured leaves.
Make a collage with the leaves.
Go for a walk in the dark early evening, enjoy the smells of Autumn & the lights.
Go stargazing on a clear night
Decorate the patio with chalks
Decorate shabby shed with chalks
Use any materials to make bright firework paintings on black card.
Go puddle splashing
Watch the sunset together
Visit your local National Park with a soup picnic (or sandwiches & hot tea)
Make fun Halloween masks from paper plates
Bake apple crumble
Bake ginger parkin'
Get up early for a fresh misty stroll
Stomp on crunchy leaves
Roast some marshmallows & drink hot chocolate
Bake oat cookies.
Take hot chocolate to the beach
Watch fireworks
Go on a leaf hunt with the leaf identity app.
Make leaf paint prints
Have a country walk and watch squirrels.
Visit a free museum!
Bake cinnamon cookies
Bake banana loaf with leftover bananas
Buy fresh cloudy apple juice as a treat
Go kite flying
Visit an arboretum (if there's one nearby)
Collect tights and old trousers & make draft excluders (snakes for the kids)
Make a den from sticks / logs in the woods
Or make a den from blankets in the garden
Go for an Autumn bug hunt.
Collect conkers
Collect acorns
Collect pine cones and save them for Christmas
Collect toilet roll tubes, decorate and play skittles on the lawn
Drive to the coast & hunt for shells / pebbles and sea glass
Visit an orchard
Start geocaching
Attend an organised bonfire
Go and watch a small local football or rugby match.
Make soup together
Bake homemade bread
Collect leaves and acorns to make an autumnal wreath
Or an autumnal garland
Collect sticks and make a star decoration (any size, hang with twine!)
Make crowns from card and dried leaves
Dress up warm and have breakfast outside
Use old bricks & slabs to make a hedgehog house
Use pine cones, lard and bird seed to make bird feeders
Go for a walk in the rain!
Feed the ducks
Bake brownies
Bake apple blondies
Have cinnamon swirls for breakfast (Jus Rol £2)
Bake a carrot cake
Bake shortbread
Use the OS map to discover a new walk
Have an autumnal bbq with homemade sweet potato fries
Have a family board game afternoon

Watch
Hocus Pocus 1
Beetle Juice (Teens!!)
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Casper
Spirited Away
Monsters Inc
Harry Potter
Corpse Bride
Any Scooby Doo
Hotel Transylvania
Room on the Broom
The Addams Family
Gnome Alone
Kikis Delivery Service
Ghostbusters
E.T
Labyrinth
Cruella
Goonies
The Worst Witch series

That's a wonderful list Collie!
I'm definitely saving that, it will be very useful.

Great list Collie!

We use about 10,000 kwh electricity a year, not sure about gas. I'm having a nightmare trying to cut down. DH uses alot due to disability, he loves his Alexa everywhere so he can control lighting/tv/radio etc independently. He also has SAD so strong lights on all the time (I hate it but I hate his depression more.) Also stuff like electric bed/chair to help move him and of course even the shortest journey seems to involve the car. We are home almost 24/7 and he likes to distract himself with computers/tv/radio running all the time.

I'm depressing myself now. It is what it is.

That sounds really tough @ancientgran . Are you eligible for any grants? I read that British Gas were giving £750 out to some customers. I expect the others will follow soon.

You can get those wall plugs with remote controls that stop things being left on standby while not in use - would those be useful at all?

Would a portable sad light be cheaper to run?

Not much to add north but just wanted to say I’m so sorry to hear your news, what a shock. As someone else wisely said up thread, hope you can manage to concentrate your energies on recovering from the op while you wait to hear more. Very best wishes.
about to go out for a run and then planning a frugal shop - energy rises are scary!

north, I'm sorry about your health news. I hope you manage to get all the help you need and recovery goes well.

Sorry about your health news North

Thank you, I hope with him giving up smoking (feeling the benefits already as his smoker's cough is so much better so there is at least one positive for us) and being careful we will be OK. I think it just gets overwhelming with the news full of it and thinking about my children and their families. I realise we are luckier than many and when you think of North and her health worries I know I have to keep it in perspective. I don't think it helps that I haven't been well which is hard when you are a carer. My doctor is going to do a whole load of blood tests this week to try and sort out if it is long covid or I'm just falling to bits in time for hitting 70.

I will have a look at those remote controls, he often stays up later than me and if plugs aren't easy to get to he will just leave things on standby. I think yesterday it suddenly hit him that this is going to be hard. I just hope we have a mild winter.

I hope everyone is doing OK, the sun is shining here and we might go and sit by the sea for a while later. I love seeing all the children running about and families having fun, the last hoorah before it returns to the residents when schools go back

It’s all relative gran and if it’s worrying you it’s still important

And th teens have gone, well except mine.

I need to go To ikea but I’m not quite ready for the stuff and it will be busy, but 10% off.. argh

Your worries and anxiety are perfectly valid gran* *

just had a letter from South West Water saying we're in £100 credit. I'm assuming I can request that refund?

They've also halved our direct debits! So happy. That's since February. So we'll be in credit again for the next bill as we've stopped having baths and reduced shower time from 6 to 3 mins.

Does anyone know if water companies issue refunds? They're closed until Monday :)

I requested the refund and automatically had an email saying it'll be in our bank in 5 days but they've increased the direct debit again (but its still lower than it was!)

Still, £100 woo hoo! We need it so so much right now * *

yes you can request it collie,

trying to summon the energy to make a banana bread and plum Flapjack

Mines sorry I missed your news & North I am so sorry to hear that. Sending you both healing thoughts xxx

I have been MIA - it is lovely to see so many new people and returners. I am going to try to be better.

Well done to all the mini fugaleers who got GCSE results - it is such an achievement given how much schooling has been lost.

I can't remember who was asking about monthly shopping.... I used to do a monthly shop when we were really skint. It is cheaper, but you have to be super organised, especially at first. The family have to be on board with it too - if you buy enough lunch snacks if they eat them all on the first day then there are no more for the rest of the month. The shopping list was very long & detailed - and be really methodical about how much you use of things... oil, loo roll, butter, stock cubes all seemed to be needed in far larger quantities than you would think. Obviously fruit / vege & milk/ cream need to be bought more regularly.
It is easiest if you cook from scratch because the basic building blocks can be made into what ever you fancy eg chicken thighs can be a pie, fajita, curry, chicken surprise, salad, grilled, BBQ, soup, pasta, kababs...... etc. You just change the spicing, sides and cooking method depending on the mood. That principle also applies to spices & herbs ..... buy the basics building blocks and mix your own and you save ££££ and they taste better. £20 - 30 of spices from the Asian supermarket lasts us about 6 months. Jars / packets would cost us the same over a couple of weeks. After the energy cap news we are going back to monthly shopping.

Collie thank you for your list. I missed them.

£48 in Lidl but that included £14 gin and £3 beer. £28 tesco and £19 Waitrose. Still need some spices that nowhere had in stock. Asian supermarket it is!
£9 on a kilo of coffee beans and £11 on 70 eco dishwasher tabs.
Off to NI next week for a few days to see the fam, DH is back to work so going on my own.
I was up all night worrying about the energy prices 😨 it just seems so hopeless.