Being the beginning of a new month today I went over the spreadsheet of our spending for July to analyse our spending categories and see if there are any further things we can cut. The Money Man would be proud of me. We lived within our means last month and actually saved some money. I am really thrilled with this as we had a $1400 ACC bill to pay in July so that was a huge bill for us. Our groceries (including our rare takeaways) bill was down by $95 on June mainly by trying to shave off a little bit each week when we go supermarket shopping – putting off things that can last for another week or only buying certain products if they are on special. I know it is still possible to get our groceries down a bit more but I will have to think up ways to do it sneakily as hubby tends to get a little irritable if he feels his food amount is being threatened and the cats wake me up in the small hours of the morning if they think their portions are getting too small!
Spring time
I knew I wasn’t imagining it – NIWA have issued its national climate outlook predicting that spring will arrive early this year for NZ. I think it’s time to start trying growing my peas soon. Good old Prof Walker reckons he starts his first crop in early August RNZIH – Horticulture Pages – Growing Peas. Lots of other good advice can be found on bestgardening.com Vegetables – Peas and Mangetout. I dropped around to my mother-in-laws this morning and her peas are already over 10cm tall so it’s inspired me to get going!