September

A much cheaper month

My spending is really down, there is so little I want, gardening was bulbs, wool for the ripple blanket, and sewing was 3 Christmas tea towels from the Range, which I will sew into something new.
I am adding another list here for Christmas spend, not presents, but all the bits and bobs I pick up, decorations, hubby thinks I spend alot, but I will prove to him I don't.
We have had a really good month, hubby saved £32 on the house/contents renewal, and also got a £50 voucher for spending at the Co-op, which means with our points back we should have over £100 for December Christmas shopping locally in our Co-op, not the cheapest shop, but free food is still good. He is now looking at our TV and internet, which again has raised it prices.
I have spent no money on clothes again this month, and not purchased any shoes, it's the hardest time of year not to purchase shoes, we all love the sales, but I am determined to go the whole year without any new footwear.
Steps have been mixed, some day well over my target, then days I'm feeling blue very low steps, I'm not worried, we are healthy and whilst away we did loads of walking. We have not used our cycles much, but again, we will be out on them soon.
Waste in the house improves, we are now watching the packaging we buy and often decide not to buy, yogurts is a prime example, we have not purchased any for ages. Both our general and recycling bins are not as full as they used to be. In the garden I have strawberry plants in more small plant pots, these will be sent to charity shop when ready. I have also been using saved compost bags for the spent soil from pots, which can't go into our garden waste bag, so has to go in the rubbish bin.
We did have the cost of our recent break, but is was a Groupon (discount) deal, which included breakfast and evening meals, so basically the cost of the hotel and the traveling cost, a very cheap few days away.
On the down side, our heating was turned on today, on timed for mornings and evenings, we do not have a fireplace in our sitting room, we have an electric fake log burner, which is expensive to run. I do like to save money, but I will not be cold.

Under glass

So it's raining outside

not storms just that relentless rain. 

 Greenhouse tidy

 Both sides

 Growing for inside for December

 My stash of plastic pots

Reused pots ready to go.

After a late morning, both hubby and I were exhausted after our visit to Somerset, I know the past couple of months have caught up with us, so a lazy weekend at home.
I wanted to clean inside my greenhouse before I started putting my tender plants back inside, so I cleared the left side, moved the staging outside, cleaned the potting bench and the second bench moved them from the right to the left side, I then brought the cleaned staging in on the right. I had planned to change things around in there, so plants would be warm and dry this winter.
I have left outside all my plastic pots, hoping the rain will clean them off, my stash is not too large, the smaller pots, I regularly fill with small cutting and babies from my bigger plants, the 7 plants above are ready to go to our local charity shop, once gone I can plant some strawberry babies, I have loads, once they are ready they too will go to the charity shop. 
I have sorted my raised bed at the back of the greenhouse, I have sifted all the soil, removing roots and other rubbish, I have a plan to use the area differently, I have started, but a pop to B&Q for some cheap slate and pebbles tomorrow, then I should be able to finish it off and take photo's.

Saving

Water, this heatwave is set to last for most of July

Plastic lids, these can't be put in our recycling bins

Coffee and tea bags

Vegetable peeling

I can't save the planet by myself, I'm just one person, living a good life and wanting to pass on a better world to our children and grandchildren.

 BUT

I can do my bit, and as we become more aware of the consequence of our modern life, we are striving to live as clean as we can.

Our ongoing heatwave has me worried about water, my garden is small, but already my water butts are running low on water, so I am saving as much water as I can and reusing it in the garden, the toilet through out the day is only flushed when I need too,  small steps, but as they say every little helps.
We are reducing the amount of one use plastics coming into our home, we avoid purchasing plastic where we can, and reuse what we already have, we save these plastic tops, which our local council tell us we can't recycle, we pass them on to a local charity who save them towards the cost of children's electric wheelchairs, again by myself I could not save enough, but together we can make the difference.
Food waste is huge here in the UK, we have been striving to reduce ours, we do not waste any meat and very little dairy, coffee and tea bags are used on my garden, the coffee filters are used in the bottom of plant pots, saves the soil being washed away. All our veg waste is going to our worms, they are thriving and later I will have lovely compost and liquid plant food.
We also stopped shopping, Saturday no longer is spent in shops, we spend time together, lots of time together at home. I am trying this year not to buy new clothes, I was weak in February and did get a few items in the sale, so my year will be March 18 to end of February 19, I feel really confident I can do this, like most of us, I have far too many clothes and shoes.
We are also looking at our car, we walk everywhere around the village, and if we have the need to go to town, we take the bus, hubby has his bus pass, so I only have to pay the fare, it is cheaper than parking, and the bus is always running, saving a trip in our car.
Each of the things we are doing is small, but with so many of us thinking the same way, we can make a difference, we can improve the environment for our wildlife and generations to come. It is easy to say it's too late, but I believe it's not too late, some aspects of our world is in peril, but lets pull together and start a good revolution.

What are you saving

Staying green.

Our wish for our house and garden to be as green as possible goes on, our waste is on every level is much lower and we are both feeling good.
Our food waste is almost nothing, all vegetable waste, peeling, egg shells go to my wormery, which already is giving us fertilizer, and soon lovely fine compost.  Plus it's a magnet for any children coming into the garden. We are very good an do not waste meat, fish or dairy.
My ground coffee is scatted on my garden, the filters are dried and then used as pot liners, the used teabags I am popping into pots as I plant them up, nothing is thrown away.

Every time I go shopping I take a few of my home made bags, our local fruit and veg stall now hands out paper bags, which I always keep in my shed drawer. They now have gone back to using proper plastic bowls for their pre-weighed items, which they use time and time again, they switched very quickly. Plastic still comes into our home, but much less than before, and if we are able to avoid it we often do. If I go to the plant stand at the market on a Wednesday, I always carry a couple of previous used thin plastic carrier bags, and reuse them, I'm sure I can make them last the rest of this year.

My dish covers are always in use in the kitchen, we still on occasions use stretch and seal, but the roll we have again will last much longer, and our hope is by the time it's all gone, we will have minimized the need for it. Because we are not wanted to waste so much food, we are better at our portion sizes and do not have leftover food very often, before we freeze anything we ensure the portion sizes are right for us, which often means we get extra portions from our purchases.

Is this a fail, I love to see a full fruit dish, but the limes which look good hardly ever get used, we do use lemons alot. So I purchased two plastic limes, they do look very real, and now I will only purchase limes if we need them, so in a strange way it's not a fail, but a win.

 We are even saving our lolly sticks, these make great plant labels, and they are short enough to be put in seed trays with the covers on.

Another small win, we are using citronella candles in the garden, far more than ever before, I got these at Asda, 3 small pots costing a pound each, they are pretty and the pots can be reused for my succulent seeds when they grow, on the down side they came packed in plastic.   

I have not purchased any clothes or shoes since February, and I have no plans to buy anything this year. Garden toys for Will are all second hand from charity shops or off local facebook selling pages, and once finished with they will be passed on. My garden spend has been high and where I have purchased plastic items, they are not one use items, and will last me for years.
I recycled some of my plastic plant pots, I had spare plants which I potted up and took to our local Save the Children shop, so profit for them and pots moved along.
I responded to a post on our local facebook page and I have been given two books to read, I have been promised more once the lady sorts them, once I have read them I will pass them along. I gave some fabric to our local primary school for costumes, using the same page.
So half way through this year, I feel we are making progress, just small things, but we both feel better making the changes, we can't change our past habits, but looking forward we will be greener.

Sew complete

I made this carrier on Sunday, but waited until yesterday to take a photo, it's looks better with a plate of food in. 

 Made with 2 tea towels, a long handle attached to 2 opposite corners, on the other 2 corners huge loops are attached, place the plate in the center, pop the loops over the handle and I have a dish carrier. This was lunch for sign language class.  

 It takes a 10" plate, so I can carry large pie, cake ect

 I have finished reading this book, I could not put it down, I love mind games and the author sent Finn everywhere. I thought it was better than Behind Closed Doors. 

 My plastic lids came, and they will work perfectly, I know I have more plastic in my kitchen, but these will replace stretch and seal, a one use plastic. They are all round but they do fit over square and oval dishes.  

It was fun to make my plate carrier, I cut the two tea towels into squares and pinned them together. With the leftover fabric I made the wide handle and the two thinner loops, pinned them in place and double stitched all around the square. I had seen this on Pintrest, and thought it would be useful. Tea towels work well as the linen will protect my cooking.
I now have two single quilt covers from our old kingsize covers, which we replaced when the corners were getting thin, both are pure white, so the leftover fabric I have kept in my stash. I did not require to make pillow cases, we already had the matching set.
I have done some more knitting, I am not enjoying the rib on the neck use 4 double ended needles, it's 12cm long, so it is taking a while, I will show a photo once it is finished.
I was asked if I had a pattern for the bags I make, no pattern, I just cut out square or oblong in the size of the front and back, when using tea towels they decide the maximum size the bag can be, I cut the front and back to size and shape, I measure along the sides and bottom, and cut a strip of material long enough, the width I decide by eye, the bigger the bag the wider the side and bottom strip. I cut the linings the same size and sew. Handles I make as strong as I can, I make each bag a different size, always dependent on the fabric I have. Most of my inspiration comes from Pintrest, where you can get patterns. 
We have the promised bright sunny start to the day, I am out with Will and mummy this morning.
It's a busy few days, as we are away in our camper van on Thursday for  a couple of nights, praying the weather fore caste will be right.

One finish and another almost there

Final stage of knitting

 This is better than I hoped

 Not fully followed the pattern, sorry for the fuzzy photo

Hubby is very happy with this new bag

 Red lining with a phone pocket

 Black sides and bottom, this is a bigger bag.

 Pleased to have enough fabric for match handles

I am knitting at every spare moment, I don't enjoy watching TV, neither does hubby, so often we spend an evening quietly together, he reads and I knit. I am really good at picking up the pattern for each row, so knitting so many repeats I find relaxing. The blue row marker on my work is the start/end of the row, this helps me to keep things neat. The design is not too tight, with having so many stitches I have room to allow the threads at the back to be correct. The decreasing rows are done in pattern, so again it was simple to follow.
In truth I have not picked up my cross stitch, but I have started reading a book, Bring me back by B A Paris, but the enjoyment from seeing my knitting grow, keeps me picking it up. I have 2 x 50gms of grey 4ply Alpaca wool which I will knit into a pair of socks, but nothing new will be started until I have finished this jumper.
Sunday was dull all morning, so I did all the housework, my floor steamer was not working too good, so hubby took it apart and descaled everything, we have ordered a new hard water filter. We also found online some plastic stretch pot covers, these are reusable and the hope is they will replace stretch and seal, we have a pack on order, another one use plastic removed from our home.
I enjoyed making the guards bag for hubby, it is much bigger, but with the lining it will take a full load.  I have other things cut out, just need another sewing moment (day).
Monday was Will's day, so at home all day, we did pop to the village and through the park, but as the children are at school, it was empty, but we did enjoy the sunshine.
Today I have sign language class, yes I remembered this week, later I am having my hair cut. I hope to have a bit of time in the garden, but I do have a sewing task, I am sizing a kingsize quilt cover down to a single size, for use in our camper van, another money saving job.