I have exactly £25 in my bank account right now.

In the last 7 months I have:

Paid off £1,278 of Overdraft debt.
Bought a £500 computer
Saved a £490 emergency fund.

Plan:

Learn to drive
Pay off at least £500 ‘extra’ of my student loan. I want it under £10 grand by next december.

Of course, back then I was planning on house sharing in Cambridge.

Anyway, we did sort of do some things - we went to Manchester for the NINJA concert, as opposed to going to the Eden Project.

Most of it was dependent on getting my bills down and my income up, though. And since that didn’t happen, most of the rest of the stuff didn’t either. I still want to join a martial arts group, but there is no way I could afford subs or clothing.

I also couldn’t risk building MR up, when I can barely stay on top of the work that I have!

Knowing that we have the next costly step of the immigration process next year, and the leery spectre of learning to drive hanging over my head, I’m not sure that anything should be planned for….

So yeah. Watch this space.

Tonight is Halloween. I don’t know if we’ll get a lot of trick-or-treaters on the main road though. We were invited to a party at a pub last minute, but we have no costumes so probably won’t go.

My internet is being bloody crap at the moment which is annoying me. It keeps hanging and chugging slower than molasses. Given that I pay over the odds for it, it’s even more annoying than it would otherwise be. Because of it’s slowness, I had to upload some files and then set an alarm for 3am so I could wake up when they would finally be done!

Also, I want to buy a kitchen compost bin. It looks cool. But it’s £20. I’m so poor!

But I do have an emergency fund now £500 and growing!

I am starting to see the reward for the slog though - money that came in so far this month

£53.71 from one project
£130 from another
£70 from a third.

and I need to send an invoice for $380
I have a cheque for £100 on its way.

Someone is coming to look at it on Monday to see if they want to rent it. Heh.

I am a bit of a green at heart. Like most people, though, I plead lack of time and money as an excuse. Truth is, if I followed permaculture principles, I’d be going hand in hand with frugality.

Anyway. My move next week is hopefully going to give me a starting point to start practising what I preach.

I have lots and lots of ideas (I want to grow food in big pots, I want to learn to can and jar fresh produce, I want to build my own solar oven). My dream, eventually, is to get to a completely self-sustaining state, where I am actually giving energy/food back to the system, rather than just being a consumer. That is a long long way off, however.

So. What am I going to do?

1. Reduce/Conserve

There’s no shower, only a bath. I want to conserve water as much as possible. I will wash with the mixer tap and not take two hour baths where I re-fill with hot water halfway through. I will get a rain-butt to water my garden with. I will re-use grey water for cleaning the toilet and anything else I can think of.

I will not get a dryer, I will dry my clothes outside or on a horse. I will use the slow cooker more, and get this solar oven built. I will get re-usable sanitary towels again. I will cut down on air-miles, and buy local wherever possible. I will try Basil’s ‘English-only’ diet for 30 days, in which I consume nothing that I can’t get from a local farm (no bananas, or out-of-season strawberries. Worse, no non-herbal tea.)

2. Stacking Functions

I will find alternative uses for everything I can. I will re-use packaging as plant-pots. I will not buy single-use devices (Juicer, I’m looking at you). I will ride a bike as opposed to drive. (Exercise + transport). I will use my PS3 as my music player, game console, DVD player, and general media centre.

I need more ideas in this area.

3. Repeating Functions

I will grow lots of different food, so that if one lot fails (as it surely will) the others might come through. I will have alternate methods of heating food (solar oven, slow cooker, regular oven). I’m out of ideas! I need to research this.

4. Reciprocity

I will compost my kitchen waste. I will water plants with the soaked water from my re-usable sanitary towels (whatever P. says…) I will use grey-water to flush the toilet. Ummm. Will use cardboard packaging to grow plants in. This is actually pretty hard (we’re such a specialised based culture)

5. Appropriate Scale

I’m pretty up on this. I work close to where I live, and since I’m not in charge of building dams and what not, I don’t get to pick the scale of industrial action.

6. Diversity

Lots of different plants. Also, using lots of different ingredients in food for a varied diet. Doing different things every day, and avoiding staring at the TV every evening. Playing games. Getting a water element into the garden. Diversifying my income stream, so I’m not reliant on one wage packet. (i.e. write the damn novel)

7. Give away the surplus

I donated 2 bags of clothes and a bunch of books to charity today, but that’s not quite it since I didn’t make those clothes and books. I guess I can give away food, but I can’t think of much else people would want!

Having major hassles with BT. Remembering the way they screwed up so much when I moved into Alchester, and wondering if maybe switching to Primus or someone might be a better idea. I’m currently getting charged £24.50 a month for BT, and Primus definitely is cheaper (£9.50 for line rental, as opposed to £11.25). But is the service any better? No idea. Might switch internet too, and go into a package deal, even though Fast does have excellent customer support.

Alright, scrambled eggs, and then up to the charity shop. And then packing….

Spent 7.5 hours at work.
Ate porridge, salad, a packet of hula-hoops, and vegetable soup.
Went shopping for carrots and ice cream.
Did 3.5 hours Monochrome Rainbow work.
Cooked beef & barley stew in the slow cooker for P when he gets in, and my lunch tomorrow.

Wrote out two huge checks to give to Jackie Oliver tomorrow.
Organised a ‘man with a van’ for Sunday or Monday.
Acquired two more volunteers with cars for moving.

This is pretty much how my life works right now.

Procrastinating horribly. Got some soup cooking though. Everyone likes soup. Mmmm, soup.

Think I’m going to have a bath and a cup of tea and pretend like this weekend didn’t happen. I can start afresh tomorrow.

P. has a job interview tomorrow. Wish him luck.

But I woke up at 5.30am feeling like someone had plunged a knife into my left eyeball, and was now wiggling it around in sadistic pleasure.

3 extra-strong ibuprofen, an ice pack, a cold shower, two cups of strong coffee, and about 7 hours later I finally felt like I could move without screaming.

Sigh.

I did do a meal plan, go grocery shopping, and start laundry. But. Bleh. Really don’t want to do focused computer work today. NEED A BREAK.

I may go for a long walk….

Cheaper than my current flat.

Yesplease?