No spend day 11!

 Hi everyone,

I didn't realise that clotted cream would stir up such strong emotions. It also lasts all week when you've opened it. If it then gets a little buttery, then use it in mashed potatoes instead of butter. As promised the third day of the sprouting tutorial. Today, they have started to sprout.

 Take them out of the cupboard and rinse them, swish them around but don't be rough with them. Put them back in the cupboard and check again tomorrow morning.

 Today, I spent the day with mum and dad. Dad has a tiny ex-council house garden in their 'old people's bungalow' and every inch, from either side of the front path, to the very boundaries, is full of vegetables and fruit bushes. Every window sill has seedlings in pots and old sacks show initial signs of early potatoes that are ranged up and down the garden path so you have so sidle your way to the front door. Even the inside of the house is an opportunity to garden. Mum has a floor to ceiling lemon tree in her conservatory, it is smothered in lemons, which mum harvests and makes lemon curd or lemonade from.

Usually, when I visit mum, I take her out for a walk around Fowey but it was so windy that we decided to just stay in and chat, which meant this was another no spend day......hence the day 11!

 I'm now digging really deep into the backs of the cupboards to use up what I have. The tinned chilli con carne  is massive and will feed us tonight and me for lunch tomorrow. I'm going to have to give in any day now and go and buy some fresh food. Eating out of a store cupboard is vital for a while longer and my shopping will dictated by contents and what I can do with them.

 I'm having to grit my teeth through this challenge as only 11 days in and I'm bored. But, today's talk with mum and dad has really, really strengthened my resolve to live on as little as possible. We spent the time chatting about pensions and the cost of living. They get by just fine, but they worry about their three grown up children who will have pensions numerically comparable with their income, but in many years from now, our pensions will not be worth as much as theirs. My money saving journey is going to be life long. I'll have to scrimp constantly to firstly pay off debts, secondly pay off the mortgage and finally to put every penny I have after that to put towards our pension fund. The end result is hopefully, as my parents have made sure, will be enough to live on.

We're managing to live on very little, and although the days can repeat themselves, we're living in style. Money  will only go so far, if you spend it whilst you are young (which I did!), you can't have it whilst you are older. We're both in our mid forties, so we only have twenty years left to make enough money to keep us going when we're older. To do that, we have to go without now and today was a real reminder that our lifestyle has a very real purpose and has reinvigorated my resolve to carry on not spending.