Our New Life in the Country: The February Challenge

Friday 8 February 2013

The February Challenge

The February Challenge ... or Oops I've Already Spent All My Housekeeping for the Month

As I have gone 'wild in the aisles' this week and have already spent the grand total of £36.13 (yes, if you read yesterdays post you will notice that this has gone up by another pound - 3 boxes of paracetamol from the Pound Shop purchased today while we were in Reading for Lovely Hubby's eye test), out of my monthly budget of £36.92, I have decided to set myself a mini Challenge, you know how good I am at them .... although I do occasionally drive LH mad :-)

When I got back from Sainsb*rys the other day waiting for me in the postbox at the farm gate were my two favourite envelopes. My money off vouchers for using my two credit cards (we pay them off in full each and every month so incur no interest charges). M and S vouchers to the value of £15 and T*sco vouchers to the value of £13 plus some coupons for things we regularly buy to the value of £1.90 and 25 extra points. I have therefore decided that these vouchers and coupons are my housekeeping money for the rest of the month.

Because obviously you can't spend exactly the amount of the coupon (although I am going to do my very best) I am also being super generous with myself and putting £10 into my purse to pay any difference over the value of the vouchers.

If I struggle or need anything else I have a back up my stash of saved up Nectar points, which at the moment stands at around £19, (don't I just love that the price of diesel is so high and that LH's truck hold a whopping £90 worth of fuel for each month ......not really but it does get me a great big wodge of points every month).

So this is my Challenge, of course I have loads of food in the freezers and cupboards, neatly added to by this weeks purchases, so I am going to continue to use up the stash and hopefully just have to spend my vouchers on the top up fresh fruit and veg that we may need.

After all I'll soon be needing some onions ......... I still have only 2 left :-)

Sue xx

11 comments:

Hidden Haven Homestead8 February 2013 at 17:09
I enjoy reading how you cut your food costs down. We are blessed to be able to garden and have animals so that really keeps our food bill down. Planning on growing even more this year.
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Robyn8 February 2013 at 17:29
Nice challenge! I'm going to be using Nectar points and a stashed Morrisons voucher to eke out my budget this month too. Clubcard vouchers though get stashed away to use on fun stuff - train tickets, days out etc.

How are you going to use the remaining two onions then?!
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Karen8 February 2013 at 18:59
Hi Sue, thank you so much for the blog award, I'm quite boring really and dont usually take part in these. I can never think of enough interesting stuff to say about myself :-) I have mentioned it in a blog post and credited you with it also put links to your blog. Please forgive me if I appear rude but thank you anyway. I love reading your blog and know you will succeed with your latest challenge.

Karen x
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rusty duck8 February 2013 at 19:45
Let's hope we get a good year for growing fruit and veg. Jx
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Jo@awholeplotoflove9 February 2013 at 10:05
I collect my points 'Clubcard & Nectar' for a year & use them at Christmas. It will be interesting to see how you go this month.
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Jo9 February 2013 at 16:19
Good luck with the challenge. I never use my Clubcard vouchers on shopping, I try to make them work a bit harder for me by buying magazine subscriptions as gifts, or restaurant vouchers. I've even used them for a recording session for the last couple of years as a gift for Eleanor on her birthday, which she loved, she's asked for this again this year. I've just been doing a bit of veg shopping, it's so expensive. I do hope we get a decent summer this year so that the harvests are good.
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Comments are now turned off for this old blog of mine. Thank you for reading the posts, I hope you enjoyed them. xx

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

This was my Blog, just me writing about our day to day life learning all about and then living the smallholding life. First we started on a farm in Oxfordshire, then we moved to a smaller place in Berkshire (both in England) and then we found a place of our very own at the bottom of a hillside in North Wales. Along for the ride were all our various animals, and we ended up with just our dogs, Suky and Mavis, our cat Ginger .... who secretly thinks he's one of the canine gang, a sheep called Ethel who wandered in off the road and stayed... and a roving band of egg laying chickens that live cheek by jowl with the local wildlife.

We grow our own fruit and vegetables, selling surplus plants and edibles at the gate. We sell the eggs the chickens lay, we reuse, recycle and rethink ... and life ticks over at a pace that suits us.

It was simply the wild and wacky ramblings of a 50 something townie turned country girl called Sue, who lost her heart to a sailor and started a new life in the country .... many years ago. On a path that took us from Cumbria to Oxfordshire, to Berkshire and then we found our home at the bottom of a wet and windy Welsh hillside by a busy main road.

Pull up a chair, grab a coffee and relax into a world of dogs, cats, chickens, polytunnels and veggies with the occasional grass munching sheep thrown in for good measure.

Sue xx

Disclaimer

Our New Life in the Country is my blog.

I use it to chart the day by day, week by week, year by year goings on in mine and Lovely Hubby's life. In it I also express my views and opinions, and say what I do and occasionally how I do it. I am hoping that this will prove to be a useful reminder for myself of how we did things, as we continue in our learning process.

If you chose to follow my practices it is assumed that you will do so with care and consideration, and question where necessary any methods or techniques I use to your own satisfaction and match them to your own circumstances.

The pictures in each blog post are taken by me unless otherwise credited, and as such should not be borrowed and used elsewhere without my consent.