A sort of challenge

Not quite such a good sleep last night, but still heaps better than my usual.  And my back and hip pain is less - still firmly there, but not as pronounced and sharp as usual.  I think at the weekend I'll try increasing the drops.  So far it looks like it was money well spent.

Thank you for comments, I'll answer some of them.  Julia - no the corn was underneath my heel, it seems to have gone completely now after the podiatrist dug it out.  He said as a diabetic I shouldn't use most of the commercial creams or plasters available (they contain an ingredient that may damage my feet), but should go back to him if I get another corn.  Janice - no I don't think I want to try the THC.....my family and friends would say I'm loopy enough already 😁.  Is it legal?  Not that it would bother me, per se, if it's not....except that my brother is an ex-policeman and would probably frown on it! (he's already jokingly mentioned that he hopes it's not THC!).  Cherie, husband's not having any tests on that day, it's purely a consultation, and in any case, when he's not been able to drive after tests or treatment in the past, it's always said that in the letter.  I can't drive anyway!

I've been giving some thought to money saving this week, as previously mentioned.  I've decided to do a sort of challenge - well, more of an experiment.  We're well stocked up with food - fresh, frozen and dry goods - so I'm going to plan meals using everything we have and see how long we can go before I need to go shopping again.  The thing we'll run out of first is fresh veg, but we will still have plenty.  We do have a basketful of onions which will last for weeks, loads of leeks in the garden, about a quarter of a sack of potatoes, and 7 or 8 huge home grown butternut squashes, it's the green veggies that we won't have.  There's lots of frozen veg though, it might not have the same taste or texture as fresh but it's still as good nutritionally.  Our home grown apples have had it now, didn't store well at all.  But there is plenty of home grown frozen fruit - apples, strawberries, blueberries and blackcurrants, plus a couple of bags of frozen tropical fruit.  I just need to get out of the mindset that fresh is always better than frozen.

If we run out of anything, then we'll just go without, I'll try to substitute something else.  I think once we've run out of milk or cheese then we'll have to go shopping, can't do without either of those.  Got several cartons of milk in the freezer, though, and quite a bit of cheese in the spare fridge in the utility room, so it should be a good 2 or 3 weeks at least before they run out.

It'll be a good mind exercise (and good discipline) for me to see what meals I can come up with using what we have.  And of course if we don't go shopping, then we won't be spending anything.  I'll have to go mid December ish to get stuff for Christmas though, not leaving it till Christmas Eve!

*Addendum - I'll document menu plans, recipes etc (which may get more 'inventive' as time goes on and stocks run out!) on my food blog.