Thank You

 

Early Autumn Morning by Lucy Almey Bird - my October Calendar Page

Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments on my last blog post.  We are both slowly coming to terms with being a completely animal free household, something that we have never experienced before.

When I met Alan twenty two years ago I had two cats, having only just gone down from having four and just about recovering from that.  He had a Border Collie dog called Sophie, that actually lived with his ex-wife while he travelled backwards and forwards to Berkshire for his job. When we moved in together and then married, we moved to quite a few places in England and Wales always with a steady stream of pets as our constant companions.

Over the course of the last two or so years we have lost all three of our last, very beautiful furry family, it's been hard but we have managed to adapt and we will again.  Hopefully one day in the not too distant future we will adopt a dog but we are going to be leaving it for a while.  

Ginger has been our final cat, which for me is a hard thing to say. I have had a pet cat since my first birthday when I was bought a beautiful jet black cat by my Nana, which in my young mind was blue, so he was called Bluey,  He remained with me until just after my first marriage, when sadly he died at the grand old age of almost 18. But if I was going to end my cat adventures on any cat it would have to be Ginger, he was the most laid back and charismatic of all my feline friends, so what a happy memory to hold forever.

Thank you for all your support on the last post, it meant the world to both of us. 💖

Sue xx

Remembering Ginger

 

2012 - The year we moved into his house.

Heartbreakingly, Ginger our gorgeous ginger boy, died in Alan's arms on Saturday night.  From the first day we met him when we rented the bungalow that was on our first smallholding in Berkshire, when his original owners went to work abroad right until this weekend he has been in our lives and our hearts.

The shy boy who came quickly out of his shell, loving being in the company of other cats, dogs, chickens and sheep.  He walked with the dogs through our various fields and woodlands, prowled through Chicken World, avoiding only the geese ... who he really did not understand.  

With his first ever health worries earlier this year, he even excelled at the vets, making them all smile while he purred his way through blood tests and examinations.  He was a truly special cat.

His life with us in photos.

2012

2013 - Posing with Archie

2014 - Walking side by side with Suky

2014 - A Ginger rose between two Russell-y thorns.

2014 - Snoozing with Suky

2015 - Napping with Mavis

2015 - Making good use of a new gatepost.

2017 - In the paddock in Wales

2017 - Joining in with Christmas fun for the blog and our family Christmas cards.

2018 - With Mavis

2019 - In the paddock with Mavis, Suky, Jasmine the lamb and Bella.

2022 - Testing out his new fence step/scratching post.

2023 - Watching Mum

2025 - Watching television.

2026 - Watching Uncle Jason and Aunty Tash when they cat-sat earlier this year.

A very special cat who led a wonderful life and enjoyed virtually every moment of it.

Ginger - January 2009 - 3rd October 2026

Rest in Peace my gorgeous boy. 🌹

Sue  xx

The Books That I Read in September

 

Home Economics by Jane Ashley

I started the month reading this book, the one that inspired my trying once again to live for a week on just one pound a day, it made for a nice little challenge.  I enjoyed the book and have kept it to revisit in a few years time, to see if the prices that she listed for 2018 and which had seriously crept up this year will rise again ... somehow I think they will.  😕

Kept

The Missing Wife by Sheila Flanagan

I really enjoyed this book and whizzed very quickly through it, even though I was busy.  It was a well paced story about a woman being brave and finding herself again after being controlled by her husband for far too long.  It was a good story.

Donated

Happy Vegan by Fearne Cotton

While there were a few good recipes in this book, there definitely weren't enough to make me want to keep it or cook from it.  I am eating a lot more simply these days, so going through my cook books is making me quite ruthless in letting them go.  I would rather someone who wants to use them got themselves a bargain on the charity book table in Booths.

Donated

Holly the Café - Boat Cakes and Bakes by Joanna Gould

Sadly, this book is now only available as a pdf download, but following the link shows you a few of the pages from it.  

I bought my copy a few years ago when Joanna and Victor were living on their narrowboat Zero and working on Holly, their café boat, firstly the renovation of her and then making a living selling coffee and cakes every weekend from her side hatch.  Of course they were also making money from YouTube to fill the coffers a little bit more..  

The book has some lovely sumptuous recipes, all very easy to follow, I just don't make that sort of fancy cake anymore, sticking instead to the few basics that I know off by heart.  It's funny how life changes in so many ways isn't it.

Donated 

She by HC Warner

This was another really good fiction book, I seem to have gotten better at choosing my fiction recently.  It had a good twist to the tale, which I actually half guessed early on in the story, but that still had another twist in the tale at the end to make me happy.  Highly recommended.

Donated

So overall that was another month of good reading, there was one book that I just skimmed through and wouldn't recommend at all so I'm not even showing it here ... why on earth did I buy it, it was far too boring and technical for me.

Life is too short for bad books.

Sue xx

Made Happy by a Sink

 

On Wednesday of this week I arrived with Alan's lunch to find that he had cleaned up all the floors that he has been grouting for the last week or so, a knee aching and boring job but one that he has pushed through on.  He had also cleaned up my sink and got it, and the toilet ready to install.

I think the original sink and the modern version of the matching toilet go so well together, and in person they look even better than they appear in this photo.  I was so happy to see my sink cleaned up and safely in the bungalow, after it has lived at the back of the garage since the very start of all the demolition work risking damage from all the deliveries.

The porcelain tiles laid over all the floors in the bungalow look amazing and will help the underfloor heating radiate so well through the Winter months.  Alan still has the living room and dining room areas of our main room to grout and then he will be finished, it's been a tough job.

We also had another delivery this week, one that you can see in this very short YouTube video that I filmed last weekend.

https://youtu.be/3Ai1PNOplAc?si=4Xyg4gMZRe8xPiHs

It's nice to see so much progress.

Sue xx

The 3 Meals a Day for £1 in 2026 Food - Part Three and Final Musings

My little stash of freebies, picked up from all over the place when we eat or drink out ... something that I obviously didn't do at all on this particular week.  

Even though I gave myself permission to use from the stash, I didn't dip into it as much as I thought I would.  The salt and pepper sachets were very welcome and were probably the things that I used the most.  I had used a sachet of mayo on the toast that was under my beans on toast meals, but that was just about it.

The final two days ...

SATURDAY

Breakfast - Porridge

Followed by a black coffee and my last banana.

Dinner - Beans on Toast

Yes, I remembered to put it onto a bigger plate this time. 😄

Tea - Carrot and Lentil Soup

This was served with a slice of toast for dunking purposes.

Supper - Dahl and Rice

It was Saturday night and we were having a bit of a binge watch of something we had recorded so we both had some supper for a change.

SUNDAY

Breakfast - Porridge

The final day of my week on £1 a day, first I had a bowl of porridge and then ...

... I decided to finish off the last portion of the stewed apple.

Dinner - Dahl and Rice

A nice simple dinner, I could eat dahl and rice until it came out of my ears, there is absolutely no problem with repetition here.  😁

Tea - Spicy Potato Wedges with a Carrot and Red Onion Slaw

I had saved something special to have for my final meal of the challenge.  The largest potato was cut into wedges, par-boiled and then finished off in the Remoska for added crispiness.  With a nice fresh carrot slaw it was absolutely delicious.

So that was it, and it wasn't a bad week at all.  The careful planning made it all work out really well, I was never overly hungry, and if I was there was always something available to eat.

THE LEFTOVERS

I even ended the week with leftovers:

1 litre of Carrot and Lentil soup

675g Porridge Oats

500g Rice

1/2 tin of Tomatoes

Cumin - most of the jar

2 Crusts of Bread

and 1 portion of Dahl

And this is how a basic store-cupboard can be slowly built up, even on such a limited budget.  If I were to go into a second week I wouldn't have to buy oats or rice, and I would already have almost a full jar of spice in my cupboard.  So I would have the makings of two soup and toast meals and a portion of dahl and rice, so that's three dinner or tea meals sorted and enough oats to make porridge every day for the week.  Which means that I could concentrate on buying ingredients for the missing eleven meals.

I have already worked out that if I was going to do it for another week I would buy the following.

From Aldi:

Dairy-free Cheese £1.95

Red Lentils - 89p

Olive Spread - 1.25

From Sainsbury's:

1.5kg SR Flour - 70p

1 tin of Baked Beans - 30p

500g Spaghetti - 28p

2 tins of Plum Tomatoes - 86p

3 Onions - 31p

6 Carrots - 36p

Total - £6.90

With these ingredients I could add bread, flatbreads and pizza bases to the menu plan, a simple tomato sauce to be used on the spaghetti or pizza bases.  I could make another pan of dahl to go with my store-cupboard rice, there could be cheese on toast or on sandwiches with some of the onion.  I can think of lots of ways of carrying this forward.

It's been interesting doing this challenge after a gap of many years, and I think that I have proved that where there's a will, there is most definitely a way to eat for just £1 a day.

Sue xx