I splurged the other week when I was in Tesco, they had the latest edition of Gardeners World in a bargain bag with gardening gloves, six packets of seeds and a year long '2 for 1 entry' card to gardens all over the UK. As we are going to the Eden Project soon and this was included as one of the 'gardens' it really did make sense to have this particular splurge. It's £25 to get into the Eden Project for an adult, so my £6.75 purchase price of this special edition was well worth it.
And of course I have now have some more vegetable seeds to add to my ever growing stash, the flower seeds have already been sown, as this year we are working on expanding our planting to attract bees, ready for next years bee keeping plan.
We spent Monday morning planting shrubs in Nut Wood and already this is having the desired effect, the place is suddenly alive with bees, other insects and of course this in turn has meant that more small insect eating birds are to be seen flitting in and out of the nut trees.
It's nice when a plan starts to come together :-)
Of course, as I used to blog about on a regular basis, we still get our money off vouchers from both Tesco ....
... and M&S for using our credit cards.
(We still pay the amount owed off in full every month to avoid interest payments.)
Obviously the amount we are getting has gone down significantly and will be going down even more from now on, but a couple of months ago I did persuade Lovely Hubby to make a large company purchase on the M&S card and then pay it off with company money hence the large amount of M&S vouchers this time ... every little helps ... to quote the other supermarket ;-)
In our push for self sufficiency we have done brilliantly with vegetables and not too bad at all with fruit but obviously there will always be things we can't produce ourselves, so we have decided that coupons, vouchers and all the money from the sale of vegetable plants and surplus vegetables will form our money pot to buy the things that we can't produce ourselves. Just things like various flours, brown and basmati rices, pastas, olive oil etc. In that way hopefully we will be self sufficient with food, because the foods we can grow ourselves will finance the foods that we can't grow ourselves.
Anyway enough for now, time to get on with some chores in any shade that I can find.
Sue xx
Dilemma........drive round outside of Ipswich to get to Morrisons to add to the Morrisons More card. Go to Tesco on edge of Stowmarket to get Tesco points or go to Asda on way into Ipswich when going to hospital, where you don't get anything at all. I feel I'm missing out on freebies all round! Don't even get to the Co-op now for the Divi,
ReplyDeleteYou got good value with the GW mag - with gloves included, I've got those Briers Weed and seed gloves, very handy and they actually fit
Just to add to your dilemma you should always check your Asda receipt, their Price Guarantee scheme is still in operation although they don't publicise it. I nearly always manage to get a money off coupon off my next shop that way.
Deletehttps://www.asdapriceguarantee.co.uk/
Very few people in the grand scheme of things can be 'self sufficient' so it's great that you are doing the next best thing. Utilising extras to pay for things you can't produce. I'm hoping to grow more next year and extend my growing season by utilising the greenhouse more.
ReplyDelete"planting shrubs in Nut Wood". That phrase is totally foreign to me. What in the world do you mean???
ReplyDeleteHaha sorry!! We have an area fenced off in the corner of our paddock field, so the sheep can't get into it, that has our small collection of nut trees in. Four Walnut trees, two Almond and two Sweet Chestnut, as well as two Oak trees and three Beech. We've planted various flowering bushes there to add to the wildlife corner that we already have with the little paddling pool pond and wild flowers that self seeded from last year.
DeleteOh, and I meant to add that Lovely Hubby christened the area Nut Wood to differentiate it from our young fruit orchard, Although for the first year I kept calling it Nutbush City Limits by mistake ;-)
DeleteSounds heavenly. Well planned and well done.
ReplyDeleteI'm not good enough with my hands to be able to save money. I envy you.
ReplyDeleteI got the Gardeners' World thingy too. Word of warning - don't buy you Eden Project in advance. The two for one applies only to tickets bought on the day.
ReplyDeleteThings sound to be going really well for you - I hope the weather continues to be kind to you.
ReplyDeleteSo happy to see you are blogging again.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading about what you are doing.
cheers, parsnip
I think it is good to try and become self sufficient, my husband and I are also trying to become more self sufficient! We are blessed to be able to grow almost all our veggies that we eat, I love to preserve them too! Good luck with your gardening!
ReplyDeleteSue
I don't think we will ever be totally self sufficient, but we are giving it a good try. We grow our own veggies and some of the fruit. I would really like to do more, but our space is limited.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
That was a good idea to get a cheap entry into the Eden Project SUe. We were in GB last year and stopped on the our of the moment at the Eden Project but didn't pay for entry as we only had an hour or so and it was prohibitively expensive. We were disappointed but it just wasn't worth the £50 for the two of us for that time.
ReplyDeleteVery well done on your savings. I go to Morrisons and do the "Match & More" card, but I must admit it seems to take forever just to get £5.00 off and although I love the store, their prices seem to be increasing!! Note to self, must try harder to save more money off shopping. Nut Wood sounds like a gorgeous spot - have you any up to date photo's with your shrubs in situ? So glad you are still letting us know about your life in the country - I think we all need a bit of inspiration and positivity at the moment - thanks.
ReplyDeleteWe grow as much as we can but I'm in awe of how much you do! Wish we had a bigger plot. Glad to see you blogging again as a silent reader for years. Love how you save so much money and always welsome your tips. X
ReplyDeleteQuestion - although it won't help you with the self sufficiency, why do you choose Olive Oil over British produced Rapeseed oil? We switched to Rapeseed a few years back - initially just for frying due to the higher smoke-point and reduced risk of nasties from over-heating, but now use it for pretty much everything - being able to get local ones is great, and far better than having to buy imported, I feel. :-)
ReplyDelete