Whoops! I am a bit late with this review of March. Despite being on lockdown, it has been a busy week, as I explained in my frugal Friday round up.
You would think I would have lots of spare time, but working from home and looking after a puppy seem to consume my time. Anyway, my goals for March were as follows:
Here’s how I did in March and here are my goals for April.
Review of March goals
Reduce our grocery bill
When it became apparent that we would soon be in lockdown, and also that my income had dropped, I decided to temporarily give up my keto diet. It was most definitely more expensive, plus I wanted to start using food from our emergency stores.
We have only been shopping when absolutely essential, each time stocking up with enough for a couple of weeks. However, I have been spending more on each item, buying from small local shops and the farm shop. These are obviously more expensive than my usual Aldi or Lidl.
Overall, though, the bill has dropped. I think it will continue to drop during April, especially as I am wasting absolutely nothing.
People’s determination not to waste food is one good thing that has come out the of the current crisis. A lot of folk seem to be developing a war time mentality and being creative with food.
I have seen some interesting posts on Instagram around this topic, and recently found a good Facebook group, Feed Your Family on £1 a Day. People are sharing many great tips and ideas to make the best use of the food they have and to waste nothing. It’s worth a look.
Treat myself to an eyebrow wax
This was an easy goal. I loved having my eyebrows waxed and tinted and had booked again for next week. As that is clearly not going to happen, I will be back to a DIY approach for now.
As I have got older, my eyebrows have got very fair and patchy. I will definitely go back to the salon once this is all over.
Get the vegetable patch started
It has been too cold to actually plant anything in the ground, but I have sown all of the vegetable seeds that could be done indoors. The window sills are full of them and there are also some in the greenhouse.
So far, my lettuce seedlings have germinated, along with the runner beans. I also have four types of tomatoes, sweet peppers, sunflower seeds, chard, cucumbers, kale, broccoli and courgettes indoors.
Beetroots and carrots will go straight in the ground in a week or two. We need to fence off the patch first so that Archie the naughty cockerpoo doesn’t immediately dig everything up!
This goal is well in hand, so I am pleased about progress here.
Toilet and crate train the puppy
Toilet training Archie is going well. He asks to go outside most of the time, but still has the odd ‘accident’. This is usually when I’m not paying attention and reading the signs.
As for crate training….. I gave up on this. As we aren’t really going out anywhere, we haven’t needed to crate him. Also, despite always saying that I wouldn’t let him sleep on the bed, I am finding it very comforting having him with me there. He is such lovely company and a dear little snuggle bum :). So glad we got him when we did!
100 new listings on eBay
Fortunately, eBay has picked up a little after plummeting during the first couple of weeks of the crisis. However, I didn’t quite hit this goal and only managed 81 new listings.
The more you list, the more you sell – it stands to reason. However, eBay seems to like regular activity, and scheduling a couple of new listings each day seems to lead to more sales.
It’s not my main income, but what I make from eBay certainly helps to keep the wolf from the door.
Goals for April
It’s tricky setting goals for the month when you can’t go out and where nothing is normal! However, I do have a few things I would like to achieve.
Fence off the vegetable patch and start planting
As mentioned above, we need to make the vegetable garden Archie proof. We will also be able to start transplanting some of our seedlings at some point.
Mr S will also have to create his usual runner bean frame, so that will need to be done during April.
Plant some flower seeds
I have been focussing on the vegetable garden as that will provide us with food and save money. However, I also have quite a lot of flower seeds left over from last year, which I may as well use. I will sprinkle most of them in my pots and see what comes up!
Mr S took wallflower cuttings last year and some of those are in little pots. They need to be planted out, as do the hollyhocks he grew from seed.
Read two books
I have been watching far too much TV in the evenings. However, as I don’t want to run out of interesting things to watch, this is an opportunity to read some of my books!
I think I mentioned previously that I bought a couple of books by an American author called Jeff Yeager. I have dipped into both, but will bring them downstairs to read properly in the evenings.
In case you are interested, they are the The Cheapskate Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of Americans Living Happily Below Their Means*
Hopefully I will learn something new!
Do 100 eBay listings
Let’s have another go at meeting this target. I think I have 100 plus items, plus my daughter has a few bags of things to give me. After that, with no car boots, charity shops or jumble sales to source from, I am not sure what will happen. We shall see.
Switch up the exercise
I go on autopilot when I do my yoga practice in the morning. I have a routine that takes half an hour tops. There are a few poses that I add in and swap round, but it is mostly a very similar routine.
This month I want to change it up a bit to add some variety. I will work out two more routines so that I can swap thing up a bit. It’s not easy doing a nice, peaceful yoga routine with Archie though – he tends to want to join in! I try to do it whilst he is napping.
I keep singing that old song,’que sera, sera…’ It’s all out of my control, and whatever will be, will be. Do you have any goals for April?
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