Slightly skanky morning shower today. I’ve run out of hair conditioner so I put a little warm water into the bottle and gave it a good shake to get the last dregs out. It was watered down by about 50% so I left it on twice as long as usual, and it turned out fine.

Friday was fairly quiet during the day, and I was feeling a bit sleepy and demotivated for some reason. Lunch was a lazy and uninspired cheese sandwich with a packet of crisps, some orange juice and an apple, and three cups of coffee failed to wake me up. I needed to give myself a swift kick up the backside.

After getting some work done I decided that the best thing to do was power through, so I did 100 sit-ups and then went off to look at the garden. There were two boxes of garden stuff to sort out, so I took one of them and sifted out everything that needed to be recycled or thrown away. Then I washed and sterilised half of the empty plant pots I’d found so that I could put them away nice and clean for the winter. That was deeply unglamorous, but it did feel like progress.

Got changed and put some lippy on and went out to meet The Beau and some friends for a night out. We started in a bar that had ‘buy one get one free’ cocktails for happy hour, so I happily drank the ‘one free’ which fortunately happened to be a long drink and lasted ages. Then we went out for fish and chips in one of the few places in London that makes nice fish and chips. The Beau had agreed to pay for my dinner seeing as I’d picked up the remaining tab the night before, so I chose the cheapest platter on the menu. It turned out to be just the right size and cost under £6.

Someone also bought me a glass of wine, so the drinks are on me next time. Left £1 for the waitress.

Spent today: £1.00

Total spend: £7.03

Saturday was very lazy with a long lie-in. Had to use some deep conditioner on my hair to avoid looking like a scarecrow, although I’ve remembered I have a free sample of a new brand knocking around somewhere – must try to find it tomorrow.

We made toasted sandwiches with cheese and pickle, and tried to wake up. I had been planning to take down the plants in the garden and dig the ground over, but was really surprised to see bean plants still flowering, tomatoes growing and courgettes fruiting etc. Decided to give them another week, or at least let them go until the first hard frost instead.

I moved all the plants in pots off the decking and gave the boards a good scrub down, then I fed, watered, pruned and tied in anything that’s still giving us edible produce and put it back on the sunniest part of the deck. Garden waste’s been tidied away, and tomorrow I’ll sort out the handful of plants that have died back.

My rationed remaining hour of TV is going to get used up tonight, split between a 30 min episode of Spy recorded on Friday and an episode of The Walking Dead with the ad breaks blipped out. This might end up being 70 minutes in total, if I’m being honest. Not sure yet.

All that remains is to catch up on some reading for forthcoming book reviews, and make some tasty dinner. Tonight it’s risotto with rice, onion and stock granules from the store cupboard, and home grown pumpkin, sage and chilli. Yep, definitely risotto weather now.

Spent today: £0.00

Total spend: £7.03

If you’re trying out Tenner Week for yourself, how are you getting on? Any bright ideas?

Midday today was the half way point of Tenner Week, and I had a very decadent lunch of scrambled eggs on toast with fresh herbs and truffle oil. While truffle oil might not sound like a cheap ingredient, it’s very good value for money if you buy it from the right retailer, such as a non-posh Italian market stall rather than a fancy supermarket. Mine cost £8.00 for a 250ml bottle and it even has a slice of white truffle at the bottom of it. A few drops are all that’s needed to turn an average dish into something very special indeed. Also, the eggs were about to go off and they needed using up.

Following the truffle-y eggs I had a glass of pineapple juice. Yes, you’ve guessed it, I was sick of having orange juice every day so I’d saved the natural juice I drained off the canned pineapple yesterday. I also had an apple, but this time it was a green apple I foraged from the railway sidings, plus a handful of juicy fresh blackberries that were growing nearby.

At this point it is time to confess that I didn’t do any thrifty chores today, or any exercise. I was caught up in work and basically took my eye off the ball. Will make up for it tomorrow, promise. In the blink of an eye it was time to head out to join The Beau for dinner.

We had £30 of Wagamama vouchers to use up, and oh boy did we spend them. We were given them in the first place because we had a really poor dining experience at a far flung branch of the chain a couple of weeks ago. We politely complained and the very next day they contacted us, apologised, and offered us vouchers. We were very impressed by their dilligent customer care, and knew we’d be happy to give them another go (at a different branch). The meal tonight was lovely, perfectly cooked and served, and in the end we spent a little more than the £30.

I chipped in £5 to cover the tip and the extra few pence-worth of food, and in return The Beau is buying me fish and chips tomorrow.

Today’s spend: £5.00

Total spent: £6.03

Am I going to get through the rest of the week with my remaining £3.97 and one hour of telly? It isn’t going to be easy…

My brilliant plan *cough* was to have a no-spend day today. Mondays are supposed to be easy, right?

However, the lack of fresh fruit was not something I thought should be ignored, and I wanted something tasty to add to our Mexican-style evening meal. During my lunch break I went for a walk around a nearby park hoping to forage some blackberries, but I didn’t find any so I decided a quick trip to Lidl was in order.

My luck was in – one of their weekly special offers was a bag of seven apples for 69p, and they were also selling Hass avocados for 34p each. There were lots of other offers around the store, like 49p for a bag of spinach, 75p for 100g of peppered salami, 99p for big bottles of sparkling perry and so on, but I was strict with myself and made it to the checkout with just the apples and an avocado. Fortunately I had a reusable bag with me so I didn’t have to pay for a carrier bag.

I had a late lunch of omelette and used up two eggs and some spinach lurking in the bottom of the fridge. Normally I would add some ricotta or mushrooms but we didn’t have any hanging around. Tasted pretty good though. This was followed with a glass of orange juice and an apple.

After I’d finished working for the day I picked some veggies out of the garden and off the windowsill to make dinner with.

We have coriander, plum and cherry tomatoes and jalapeno chillies to go in a fresh salsa, spring onions and Satan’s Kiss chillies to go in guacamole, and Tom Thumb lettuce plus a mini cucumber and a sweet Padron pepper to make a crunchy salad. I needed to add 1/4 onion, juice of half a lime, an avocado, and a little grated cheddar to make the meal work.

We had two mismatched packets of opened flour tortillas in the freezer plus some frozen leftover black bean stew which I reheated. I also marinaded some sliced leftover chicken with vegetable oil, spices and the juice of 1/4 lime before chargrilling it. Job done – tasty, fresh, spicy dinner.

The last bit of lime was cut into two tiny wedges and chucked in some beer.

Before we ate I realised there had been no real exercise so far today, so I managed a quick 200 sit-ups. It hurt after the first 150 ‘cos I’m a bit out of shape compared to last year, but no pain, no gain as they say.

After dinner I went upstairs and started tidying the office. Good news, I found a £10 TopShop voucher and a £5 Boots No7 voucher in a drawer. Maybe it isn’t going to be so bad after all. Going to spend the rest of the evening reading and listening to music.

Today I’ve managed to spend £1.03. Curses! Wonder how long the remaining £8.97 will last?

How’s everybody else doing?