First non £2 a day post.

I know I haven’t done an update in absolutely ages. In my eyes, it was a well deserved break from having to tediously write about every gram of food that I consumed. Mac and I are still finishing up the cheese from the farmers’ market. I must admit I’m not eager to make up the 11 days that are missing, but I have said that I’ll do it, so do it I will. We’ve also talked about doing it quarterly so that we can have each season represented in recipes. Then we’ll have a £2 a day year recipe book. I would want to do another in probably May so that we can have two months’ worth of recipes in time for the Food Open Day we’ll be doing (we being the Southampton Fair Trade Group and the Southampton & Waterside Women’s Environmental Network).
But enough about food. What else have I been doing?

I’ve worked on the allotment twice and we have 4 beds with one of them raked and onions and carrots planted. We have a rhubarb plant, apple tree and two fruit bushes planted, and we have two compost bins. I’m hoping to win the auction for a greenhouse on eBay, but I’ve lost one already and Chris and Natalie forgot to bid on one the week before. We’ll see how I do.

I'm really excited about the allotment and getting it going, but I am SOOOO sunburned. It was really warm in the sun so I was just wearing a tank top and the whole top of my neck/back/shoulders are all burnt. Luckily it's just the back of them because I made sure I wasn't facing the sun (I did NOT want a horrible sunburn on my face). I'll have to bring sunscreen next time.

Mac and I went to a chilli night at some friends’, we have been out to see bands a couple times, I had toast and jam at Barney’s Log Jam (they’ve started a blog…. ooooOOOOOooooh) and went up to St Albans to have lunch with Helen and Henry (I have GOT to start buying advance tickets). I’ve been to LOTS of meetings and have agreed to have the Transition Southampton social at our house. Luckily I suggested it be a pot luck, so I’ll only clean like crazy, not clean and cook.

I FINALLY cleaned off my desk (although halfway through the process it looked like a cyclone that only affected paper had hit in the room) and everything is now either organised in an accordion file (for my personal financial stuff) or in a box with folders and tabs (for all the voluntary group stuff). I stupidly did not take a before and after picture. I could still take an after picture, but it wouldn’t be nearly as impressive without the before. I’m buying some space from Emiliano online for a project management program called dotproject.net and he’s installing it for me (thank god). I also managed to go through my gmail inbox and got the 238 messages in my inbox down to 25. I know it should be less than that (it should be zero), but tough.

I’m planning to have a craft/soup night soon to use up some of my many many craft supplies and to encourage other people to help me use them up as well. I think that it will be a requirement that anyone who comes for soup has to make something. Maybe I’ll just think about who I invite beforehand.

As for the Buy Nothing New year, I bought a used cookbook off Amazon called The More With Less cookbook—it was written by Mennonites! It’s really nice basic food. I haven’t made anything yet, but I will soon. I’ve managed to only buy vegetables and seeds for the allotment so far, and if I pay for the greenhouse, that will be secondhand. I don’t know how I’m going to get secondhand seed trays, though.

Robin was very kind and sent me a care package with about a thousand pairs of underwear. She said it was in response to Karen who had said, “What if you run out of pants!?!?” when I told her about the year long challenge. It was really about 8 pairs of underwear. I think I might keep four pairs, because the rest are the super skanky kind that are just a couple of strings.

I prefer a tad more fabric. String thongs are just paying lip service to the idea of underwear.

I think I’ll finish here. I’ll try to come up with some interesting facts or information or ideas for my next post.

Challenges, challenges, and MORE challenges

Okay. I’ve taken £80 out from the ATM to try to see how I do on my original £74.65
AND I’m in the middle of an avoid supermarket month.
AND I’m still doing Buy Nothing New month (but I keep forgetting to cancel freaking eMusic!!)
AND I signed up for Crunchy Chicken’s No Food Waste challenge, which is turning out to be REALLY easy (YAY for tiny fridges!! . . . That is probably the first and last time I will ever say that.)
AND I’m now thinking about this whole £2/day diet challenge.
Maybe I’m a little bit crazy. Or, maybe these things all run really well into each other.

I’m excited most about the £2/day challenge. Maybe because it’s new…. Or maybe because it’s a bit more of a challenge (to my day-to-day life, anyway) than the others. Although avoiding supermarkets has been a bit of a pain, Mac has been bearing the brunt of the purchasing (for which I am VERY grateful).

As soon as I get a freaking battery for our scale, I can start calculating how much we’re using of everything, and how much it all costs. I probably need to have it for tomorrow (AUGH!) because I figure the best way to measure the cost of the Riverford veg is to weigh each item, and determine its cost compared to its cost if you buy it individually. The other option is to spread the £10.40 over the week, and just automatically count 75p into the total every day. Thoughts?

Sarah (my American coworker) thinks it will be a lot of work, but I think we’ll get the hang of it fairly soon. Plus, once you’ve determined how much a cup of oatmeal costs or a slice of bread, you can then use that again and again. I estimate about 20 min per day to determine it…. Plus maybe another 15 to blog about it! I also want to take pictures of things to document it—I figure if we have this food conference (MY FIRST EVER GRANT PROPOSAL—I’M SUPER EXCITED!!!) then it would be nice to show people that you CAN eat well on a limited budget. Yes, I need to acknowledge that I’ve been able to have the money up front to buy the items in our cabinet/fridge, but I think that would be possible if you’re willing to live on rice/beans and porridge for a couple days to build up some cash. Plus, how many people out there (who are in housing—I’m not counting the homeless) who are really limited to £2 a day in the UK? Surely being on benefits or child support or whatever gives you more in allowance. And a minimum wage job – rent, bills, etc. should still give you more than £14 a week. Even if you have kids, I’m sure it’s manageable. I wish I had some friends who have young ‘uns who would be willing to try this.

OOOOOH! We’re hoping to get an allotment! Well, me, Heather, Jonathan, Chris and Natalie are all hoping. Mac is feigning disinterest, but I don’t believe him for a second. At the moment he’s insisting that until I prove to him that I will actually work on it regularly for 6 months, he’s not having anything to do with it. But with five other people pulling their weight, helping to buy things (AUGH! Buy nothing new dilemma!!) and getting the initial hard clearing of the soil done, I bet he’ll crack in no time. There are only a few half plots available—two. TWO half plots, and they are awfully tiny. There are a few more 10 rod plots (7 ft x a LOT—sorry, I can’t do the math) and then a couple 14 rod. I would ideally like a half plot to start with, even if there are 6 of us, BUT 10 might be doable… Especially since the half plots are really 1/3 plots.
I’ve also had about a million meetings lately, which is a great way to not spend money, and a real obstacle to blogging. I barely touch my computer at home now unless it’s to check e-mails of the various groups I belong to. Productivity, ahoy!

Weekly update (NOT the SNL kind, though)

Robin keeps bugging me that I haven’t updated my blog in a while, which I suppose is true (only when compared to her, though. . . . I just found the blog of my friend Jonathan who hasn’t updated it in 11 months


So what have I been doing since last Thursday?




I have started a bath mat that I might take apart and restart (I’ve already taken it apart once). It’s made out of donated T-shirts, so it hasn’t cost me anything. The cutting of the T-shirts was done mostly in a very gradual spiral like this:


Here's a tutorial, but not exactly how I've done it here:

Anyway, I like it, but I'm not sure of the colours so far... I have purple and black. I'm wondering if I should take it apart and look for some more colours to make it look more like this:







I then ran out of purple and black T-shirts and hadn’t decided whether to keep going or take it apart, so I then started on making myself a portable knitting needle case. I wanted something somewhat classy, so I went with this pattern, which is more of a clutch than a roll.

Eventually I also want to make something similar to this, but a LOT nicer looking. I’m thinking retro fabric? Maybe a “Make do and mend” writing going down it? Any thoughts? Again, all this would be made by either a) fabric I already have b) used material I can find in charity shops or c) something donated.

I would LOVE to make a kitchen organiser made out of old dishtowels. It hangs on a hanger, and has pockets sewn in. (Robin, please tell me you saved that article… where did I find it???)

I’ll have to sort through these lists (one per month!!) to see if there are other things I’d like to do! http://tipnut.com/20-neat-o-projects/

What have I done that is NOT craft related?

We had a soup night, and I made minestrone—I’d put up the recipe, but I kinda made it up (it was pretty good) and Oli made DELICIOUS tomato/herb/pepper bread. The bread was wonderful, but there was FAR too little of it. I want more.

I made crappy baklava—I didn’t have enough filo sheets, AND I decided to use honey instead of sugar, so the syrup didn’t re-solidify. D’oh! I’ve learned my lesson and will use sugar next time. And less lemon juice—it was VERY lemony.

I went to a gig at the Hamptons (£3 entry, but it’s a fundraiser) put on by my friend who is an illustration student and saw some bands (I was also told I looked like a hot 12 year old. NOT impressed).

I sat at the Women’s Environmental Network stall at the Totton Go Green Fair on Saturday, learned from a woman how to make a wormery without it costing a fortune (awesome! . . . Although I’d need a bin, a tap, and some worms…. I don’t think I can get ANY of those used….), and got some people to sign up for our group. It wasn’t the busiest fair, but it was a great start for us at WEN—it was our first ever stall, so I’m glad we were able to get used to it.

I went and worked on an allotment (not ours) on Sunday for 3 hours and got really excited about allotments. I’m not sure how it would work with my buy nothing new challenge… if I want wooden frames? Mesh? Manure? Straw? What if I can’t get it used? Grrrr….. I know it’s surrounding the issue of food, but it’s also a hobby. This is a difficult one. Maybe I’ll just break the rules. . . . . AUGH. Of course, this would require us to actually go ahead and get an allotment. Heather and Jonathan (Heather was with me at the WEN stall, Jonathan was digging away with us on Sunday) were excited about the idea of having an allotment with us. If we could get two more people on board, I think it would be fairly easy. We’d go for a half plot (5 rods—125 sq meters) so that we weren’t too crazy.

I went to a Fair Trade Southampton meeting, sent a BUNCH of non-profit-related e-mails, and have more left to do.

I also became slightly addicted last week to apple muffins and coffee & walnut cake at The Art House. I think I was using it as a chance to spend money because it was an “experience”. That doesn’t mean I should buy cake everytime I go in there.

Mac and I have watched 2/3 of The Corporation, a documentary about corporations…. It makes the argument that they should be labelled as “psychopathic”. I think that’s a little ridiculous, and would settle for executives being held responsible for corporate actions. “Limited liability” my foot.

Yesterday I spent nearly £6 on brazil nuts and apricots in an attempt to buy “groceries” instead of snack foods. The result is that I bought a large quantity of expensive snacks that may get used in a recipe, but will more likely be used as snacks…. Or sit around for ages until they go bad and I have to throw them out.

So as for spending money, I spent:
- A couple pounds (£2? £4?) at the Go Green Fair so that I could eat lunch. (I still owe the Art House)
- Quite a bit of money over the past week at The Art House because of my cake addiction
- £3 at Hamptons (I didn’t have a drink all night)
- £6 on non-snack food snack foods.
And I think that’s it….

I hope that’s a sufficiently long summary of what I’ve been doing.

Please feel to comment about the rug (which I’d like to sell at the Art House, part of which would be donated to SCRATCH or a domestic violence refuge group), knitting cases (which I’d also like to sell at the Art House as long as they look pretty enough), the allotment, whether snack foods count as buying “something”, and how I’d make a wormery without buying something new.