March Spring Clean: Tenner Week: Day 7
It’s the final day of Tenner Week – can you live on £10 a week? It’s always a challenge, but the effort does seem to pay off.
Today’s action is to have a no-spend day. This does take a bit of planning, with packed lunches and suchlike, but it’s certainly manageable for most people.
Last night, The Beau told me he’d seen a skip full of pallets and broken furniture around the corner from our house. I’d been looking for some free planks to do a garden project with, and I figured it might be my lucky day, if I was quick. I went out this morning before breakfast in my scruffiest decorating clothes and knocked on the front door nearest to the skip.
It’s always polite to ask first, so I asked the skip owner nicely if I could take some of it away. It turned out he’d rented the skip two days previously, and when he wasn’t looking the contents had been dumped in there without his permission. He was very glad to get rid of some of it – so that he could finally put his own rubbish in there – so much so that he helped me carry away as much as I wanted. Result!
After that I got changed into some less scruffy attire, and got on with some work. I’ve been doing a lot more writing recently, including a blog for Gumtree about making a profit from your spring cleaning, and an article for VoucherCodes about some of the best spring bargains in home storage and soft furnishings. Have a look if you have a moment! I’m also available for more freelance writing, so please contact me if you’re interested.
As it was a no-spend day, I stayed away from all high street and online shops to avoid temptation, and had a home made lunch. Reheated leftover potato Dauphinoise might not sound like much, but it was very tasty and it helped to keep out the cold too. I didn’t have too much at lunch though, because I was off out to an event.
The event was a tea and biscuit tasting, hosted by luxury biscuit brand, Bahlsen (you know, the people who make Choco Leibniz) and the tea tasting was organised by Alex Probyn, the master tea blender from Blends for Friends. It was such a fantastic way to spend half an afternoon, and perhaps my longest, most favourite tea break ever.
In addition, I managed to munch my way through quite a few Hit, First Class, Messino and Deloba biscuits, and at the end we finished with a specially blended tea designed to complement the Messino jaffa cakes. So, thanks very much to Bahlsen and everyone else for a great time. They’re running a ‘reclaim the tea break’ campaign, and as someone who loves tea and nice little treats, I wholeheartedly agree with them.
Then it was back home to do some more writing and admin, and to put the dinner on. I took the saved extra two portions of black bean chilli from the fridge, added more chilli and a little dark chocolate, and served that piping hot in bowls with some cheddar grated on the top, plus home made bread rolls, and a side salad with lime, herb and yoghurt dressing.
Somehow I did manage to make it through the day without spending anything, which was good news.
Then, confession time, I watched the weather forecast, and some news headlines. That took about 10 minutes in total, which means I went over my allocated TV time for the week. Having said that, the frost warning was useful so I knew to protect my tender herbs and veggies, which should save me a fair bit in the longer term.
Spent today: £0.00
Total spent all week: £7.44 (SUCCESS!)
TV watched today: 10 minutes
TV watched in total: 190 minutes (10 minutes over allowed amount)
Have you tried doing a Tenner Week? How did you get on?
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