Running short on rations

I did a retrospective 'working out of points' on my dry goods rations, and discovered to my alarm that I had managed to use a pound of rice already, and that rice was actually very expensive on discretionary points -- presumably because it was shipped from the Far East :-(

Just as well I did check since it turns out I now have no points left at all, even for such items as oats, lentils and split peas at only 2 points the lb. (Using rice was definitely a mistake, and I used too much of it in the first week thanks to attempting to make a lubia pollow, albeit without meat or tomatoes!)

So my dry goods store for the next week and a half consists of 3oz lentils, 2oz oats, 2oz dried beans and 1oz dried fruit. Probably not as alarmingly little as it looks, since the beans and lentils potentially do one multiple-serving meal each and I still have meat and veg -- including unlimited potatoes for bulk.( Read more... )

Plant devastation

Some unspeakable animal -- presumably a squirrel -- has dug up and smashed the planted-out pak choi and nasturtiums, and also, on closer inspection, excavated deep holes in the California poppies and one of my Blue River daisies :-(

Fortunately I have duplicates of all those (although the pak choi all seems to be bolting into flower, possibly due to heat stress/overcrowding), but if the creature keeps coming back across the rooftops to search for buried nuts it can destroy months of work, and there is nothing I can do about it.

The gas man cometh

I had another visit from the gas man to read the meter this week (I'm quite impressed that British Gas still bother, instead of pushing off the labour onto the customer -- nobody reads my electricity meter!), and in consequence have received another letter telling me that my direct debits need to go up... which I could have told them last January, when they reduced the payments in the first place. :-p

The new monthly direct debit is for £28, which is gratifyingly close to the £30 that I actually budgeted (although I'm a little alarmed to notice that I apparently *planned* to budget £40, but didn't remember to do so!)

Total energy costs in the last 6 months: £150.