The woman who doesn't do challenges.........

.........does a challenge!........... NO SPEND NOVEMBER!..........Well sort of.

I'll be buying some food, feeding the cats, paying bills and starting some Christmas present shopping (because I'd panic if it was all left to December) but other than that I want to avoid opening my purse.

Why?
It could  be because after our  breaks last month we need to go more carefully
Or it could be that our income is now tiny and we are living on savings

The trouble is that because of the Direct Debits for Council Tax, water, phone/broadband and a small charity donation....... whooosh out of the bank goes £253 without me even getting my purse out of my bag!

I looked back at the accounts (posh term for notes in the diary!) for November 2014 to see where the money went last year and then looked back on here to see what we were doing, then out of interest I scrolled back to November 2013. That was the month I reprised the 30 ways to save a £1 from earlier in 2013 when lots of bloggers earned £30 for sending their list to one of the money websites.
Now I had been thinking about going back to daily posts,  so an ideal opportunity to re-reprise those old savings ideas and keep myself on the straight and narrow.
That's the plan.
I'll see how I get on.

Here was/is Number 1.
1. ASK TO PICK UP ANY WINDFALL APPLES THAT YOU NOTICE
They can say two things, either " Yes" or "No". 
 in 2012 when we had a apple-less year due to the rotten weather, we asked for and were able to pick up windfalls from 2 different peoples trees. Without this we would have had hardly any fruit in the freezer for winter pies and crumbles. So asking saved us probably £20 - £30+.
For many years we fed windfalls to our goats, goats LOVE apples, but this year even though I've picked up loads for us to use and given lots away there are still more on the ground than the birds will need in the winter.
No one has ever asked if they could pick up windfalls here. I would say yes- help yourself!
 ( Why are the windfalls always the rosiest biggest apples?)

A box of windfalls for processing or giving away

Or if you wanted some picked off the tree they are £1 a bag

This "cheerful" November poem was published in 1844. It's perfect for today here in Suffolk where we have had thick fog for most of the day

NO!

 No sun, no moon

No morn, no noon

No dawn, no dusk, no proper time of day

No sky, no earthly view
No distance looking blue.................

...................No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease

No comfortable feel in any member

No shade,no shine,no butterflies,no bees 

No fruits,no flowers, no leaves, no birds,

November!

The poet Thomas Hood was wrong about No fruit as you can see in the apple pictures and he's also wrong about  No Flowers because our Alstromeria are having a second flush so I brought these in today, the first frost will be the end of them but in the meantime we can enjoy them on the kitchen window sill.

 Thanks for comments yesterday, I think I answered them all and welcome to Phil a new follower. He has an interesting blog from the other side of the world that you can see HERE

Edited in to ask is anyone having trouble leaving comments on some blogs? I tried to comment on Joys Diary of a teacher and can't and  yesterday it was another blog I was unable to comment on.



Back Tomorrow
Sue 

96 snack sized boxes of Sunmaid Raisins = over 4lb

I didn't have to wait very long for a free delivery offer email to come through from Approved Foods and one of the things they had on Special-One -Day-Only was the mini snack boxes of Sun-maid Raisins. 4 packs of 12 boxes for £1, maximum 8 packs per person. So as raisins were on my shopping list ready for Christmas cakes and puds I decided to get some and then we had fun opening all the teeny boxes and tipping them into my storage jar. The only problem being that the raisins are packed in so tight that every box needs tearing to get them out...... it took ages. It was worth it because I have over 4lb for £2 - bargain! I also got biscuits for Christmas and packs of Tropical Mix that C likes with his muesli/bran-flake breakfast.

C was off early again to do the irrigation equipment moving and then after a coffee he was working at our neighbours. I decided to try a bit of weeding......the strawberry bed is a real mess, but after about 6 foot of clearing I was worn out. Yesterday we got one row of raspberries in the fruit cage cut back and again I had to go and rest for a couple of hours to recover. It seems pneumonia really does take a while to get over. I am managing to help with cleaning on the campsite.........C does the sweeping and I do the sink and toilet cleaning and tap polishing....not too strenuous.

One benefit of all this resting is that I'm really making inroads into  my big heap of library books, I loved The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith and The Blooding by James McGee but I've abandoned James Oswald. I thought the first in this relatively new series was good - a normal police crime story but now they are seriously weird, I can't be doing with demons and devils!

What about this for a handy coincidence ......Just yesterday I said how few cooking apples we'd got this year. This morning our elderly friend who looks after a Londoners second home called in to pick up his mole traps and asked if we wanted a bag of windfall cooking apples. The second-home owners had a huge orchard planted up when they bought the house but almost all their apples go to waste as they only visit about once in the Autumn. They have a shed full of apple racking which our friend lays all the good apples out on but each spring he has to throw most away because they don't use them. A Criminal waste!  He is going to bring us some more windfalls next time he passes too.

Welcome to Thereasonisave ( a new blogger), thank you for clicking the Google button.

Thank you for comments yesterday

Back Tomorrow
 Sue