The cheapest place to buy diesel is at the supermarket and the most convenient to my journey is run by Tesco. I save their points with the clubcard and about once every month or so, they send me £5 in Clubcard vouchers. I then save them until I have £10 of voucher. If you then log onto the Tesco clubcard website, you can treble the value of these by exchanging them for rewards voucher. I changed my £10 of vouchers, that could be spend on £10 of goods in Tesco for £30 of Cafe Rouge vouchers.

I can’t actually remember the last time Dearly Beloved and I went out to a restaurant, it certainly wasn’t this year, and it wasn’t any time last year so it was probably 2009! It was lovely! I had a salad with chicken, bacon and egg and DB had a steak. It cost us £3.25 for a litre bottle of sparkling water and the diesel to get there!

Not free, not entirely frugal but what a treat to sit down, have some one else do the cooking and more importantly……someone else do the washing up! I noticed other people paying with their Tesco reward vouchers and I will go back when I’ve saved some more.

Tonight, Liskeard had its ‘Lighting up’ ceremony. It’s one of the many community events that happen in our little Cornish town. All of the schools, youth groups and local clubs such as the ‘Royal Naval Association’ (a club for retired members of the Royal Navy) make lanterns from withies, covered in tissue paper, then coated with PVA to make them water proof and they have little lights inside them. My photos just don’t do the parade justice. A huge amount of work must have been made and I take my hat off to the volunteer youth workers who coordinated Brownies, St. John’s Ambulance cadets, the Liskerret youth club and a multitude of other organisations who helped children to make their lanterns.

I was really impressed with the way that some of the lanterns are articulated to move and people manipulate them like puppeteers.

The procession wove its way through the little streets preceded by the local brass band and followed by the Samba band. Traditional Christmas carols drifted away as the cheers of local people lifted to the sounds of samba.

The streets were closed and the town was thick with participants and spectators; it was a wonderful evening’s entertainment.

The procession ended on the parade, the count down began and the lights of the town were switched on as fireworks light up the night sky. It was just delightful

There was a real buzz of excitement tonight. I love a night on the town. A huge thank you to the local Rotary Club for organising, for the incredible efforts of all the people who made the lanterns, put on the firework display, played in the Brass band or Samba band, who directed traffic, kept their shops open late, rang bells, stood in the cold to cheer for making my night just so lovely! Thanks Liskeard xxxxx

We went to see DB’s mum in Bristol today. Everyone else had the same idea. A38 was nose to bumper, so the was the M5, M4 and M32! We had to stop at those dreadful service stations, you know, the places that want £3.50 for an expresso. Today, I saved a fortune!

We make left at a reasonable time and made sure we had a good breakfast. We took a snack to eat on the way, a flask of coffee and a packed lunch of a homemade pasty.

We did stop at the services to use the loos. I am amazed at the stupidity of people who use them!Whole families buying burgers, sweets, drinks and being totally ripped off. I cheer when I see the ‘tupperware’ families eating their packed lunches and pouring drinks from their flasks! Good on them!

Let’s work out what we saved! We didn’t buy a Burger King lunch each. Saving! £10. We didn’t have a cost a lot of money coffee each for £3.50, there and back. Total saving? £24!?

It is so easy to let money drip out of our fingers. Take sandwiches, a pack of cheapy biscuits, a flask of tea a bottle of diluted squash for the kids, a bag of supermarket own brand mixed sweets for the kids and you will save your selves so much money.

We had lunch of the homemade pasties with mum in law in Bristol and I knitted there and back whilst chatting to Dearly Beloved. I got to spend all day as close to him as possible and he has a new scarf and I have also knitted half a blanket. A lovely day out, we’d saved money for the diesel there and back and of course, it’s always lovely to see mum.

Pay day on Friday, £5.37 in my bank account and £3.78 in my purse and a three quarter of a tank of diesel to take us to mum in law’s (Bristol) and back on Friday. It’s like this every month. I have just enough. There is plenty of food in the house and everything is paid by direct debit. The lodger pays me on Friday and that will cover my water bill. I reassure myself that it’s all OK.

Yesterday with mum has left me feeling ‘out of sorts’. I don’t usually go in ‘normal’ shops and therefore don’t have many reminders of how some people live. As you all know, I deal with the mess I’ve made for myself in a positive way and walk on the sunny side of the street. Today though, is not so good.

What I saw yesterday, in Fowey, were people escaping from their reality. They were away from home, on a break and I know that’s what we all need once in a while. My own mum, who doesn’t have a car, dropped lots of hints yesterday that it would be nice to go out for the day; to somewhere like Tavistock and go round the shops and go for lunch. I don’t have the heart to tell her “Mum, I could afford the diesel to come and see you today and I can afford the Diesel to go and see DB’s mum on Friday, but that’s it.” Our (with Dearly Beloved) days out are lovely. We go somewhere, find somewhere free to park, go for a walk and usually sit in the car with a flask and a bit of homemade cake, we chat and enjoy each other’s company. We’ve no money, but for that moment, in our moneyless world, it doesn’t matter.

I look positively at having what is truly necessary and no more. I have food, clothing, enough heat not to be chilly, the library, nice places to walk, a decent home. I also think that a social life, hobbies and life enhancing experiences are also truly necessary; they all make us who we are. Today, I feel like the last miser in the village who can’t afford to take my mum out for the day and although I don’t feel ‘down’ about it, it doesn’t make me feel good either.

We always try and have a ‘treat’ once in a while and today we went to Tavistock. Unfortunately, so did everyone else! It was packed. We visited the pannier market and I bought some string and grease proof paper to wrap my soap, which I will give as gifts. We looked for somewhere to eat and have a cup of tea and I got what I can only describe as the ‘jitters’ about spending any money! I know a cup of tea and a piece of cake can blow our budget. We ended up having a pasty and a cup of tea each, which cost the incredible amount of £8 for the pair of us! That just seems so much money to me and could provide the pair of us with three meals a day for the weekend.

As you all know, I am a huge fan of the BBC and think that the world is a better place because of BBC2 and Radio4; the radio is on all day and Radio 4 keeps me informed of the day’s events from around the world. I love documentaries and in particular; ‘Coast’ where a team of historians, engineers, archaeologists and geologists looks at our little island from the water. Being the British Isles, we have so much coast and so many little islands that I have to admit, I didn’t know about most of it. Tonight, I watched the journey from Glasgow, around the coast and then through the Caledonian canal and then down the east coast to Edinburgh. I llllllllllllllove Neil Oliver’s perfect pronunciation with his Scottish accent enunciating every consonant so perfectly. I thought tonight of my own coast and the cliffs that I played on and where I still feel free on when I walk them now.
I’m going to start my coastal walk in Fowey and end up in Par, which is a day’s walk as far as I’m concerned, unless you are athletic, which I am not. You can have a look at the coast in detail HERE and look at the interactive map at some of the places that are so familiar to me. The walk starts in Fowey by heading to the beach, crossing the beach and through the woods up onto the fields above and carrying on to the next beach. Locally known as Polridmouth but know by those who read the books of Daphne Du Maurier as Menabilly, where the author had her home for many years (claim to fame…………..old Daphne had a Yugo Zastava/Trabant type pre-Gorbachev type worthy old pile of rust and used to make our school bus late when we would get stuck behind it every day after she’d driven to Par for her daily paper………….so my education suffered because of a literary giant!). Polridmouth (pronounced prid-muth) can only be accessed by foot and you walk from Polkerris or Fowey to get there. It’s rocky, isolated and still a place to this day where I can actually hear the stillness of my own soul.
After Priddy you make the breath stealing ascent to Gribben Head and the day marker that guides ships back by daylight, the steer a clear course between Dodman and the Gribben and head straight for Fowey. When I was at Fowey School, the sadistic bastards in the PE department had us run to the Gribben and back for our cross country run!!!! It was agony…..freezing cold, waist deep in mud and cow shit; with the Atlantic hitting us sideways on blue thighs! I have to say, I have a greater appreciation now I can enjoy this at a plod with a camera and a flack.

After Gribben head is gentle decline to Polkerris, which is a deep harbour and once a herring packing took place on the factory on the beach………………a hundred years of more ago. It’s now a busy tourist destination, but be warned, be there and parked by nine with the decision to stay until at least five. There is one road in and out, one car wide, a thousand year old deep ravine carved by rain water……………….unless you can reverse up a 1:9 hill in a road no wider than a Mini, then you’re there for the day. Funnily enough!! We always walked there!

Again, after leaving Polkerris, you have steep inclines and the half hour walk (it might only be five minutes but I dawdle) onto Par. The factory on the beach is what is left of the clay driers…………..mostly defunct. Par is a mass of sand and a low tide you walk for what seems hours through the water, only to find it isn’t over your knees yet. There is a huge caravan park at Par Sands and so many people I have met holidayed there as a child.

So there ends my coastal walk for Fowey to Par, just a few minutes of my coast of my small island.

Today is technically the last day of Dearly Beloved’s holiday as he goes back to work on Monday and my life resumes as usual. Today we went to Totnes. I love the place even though it’s so far up its own ar*e that most of it is totally pretentious. (Apologies to anyone reading who lives in Totty, but you have to admit…………it is almost a parody of itself). Totnes is wonderfully ethical, fair trade, organic, vegan/vegetarian/macrobiotic/local food that you can actually spend money every where and anywhere and not have to spend every minute with a magnifying glass; reading the labels trying to decide whether the product is fit to buy or not. I must add readers, that I should do that, I know I want to do that but I’m realistic and buy with what I have and certainly not the way I know I should. But I think we all know that we have to buy what we can afford.
We arrived in time for lunch and headed to what I believe to be the World’s best restaurant- Willow. I came across this tiny place by accident years ago and have never been to a restaurant as good since. It’s vegetarian and predominantly vegan, the food is local, organic, homemade and as you can imagine fekkin’ expensive but I would like to add that it’s worth it. It’s very much part of the slow food movement and once lunch is gone it’s gone, so get there early. Lunch is between £6.90 and around £9.00 and with two drinks today we spent about £16 but that is the only sit down, eat out meal we’ve had so far this year and this is the last day of our holiday.
We parked at the bottom of town by the quayside of the river Dart and walked up the hill. It was pouring with rain and also extremely hot but we made the best of our day out. I couldn’t take photos outside as it was just too wet, so you’ll have to make do with stock photos. We made our way to the market after lunch, mostly to walk off what we had eaten. We bought a bar of soap from Emma (see her website here) and I was interested in her ingredients, her packaging and what real homemade soap felt like. It feels like a massage bar from Lush, it feels quite greasy. When I got it home and tried it, it was so soapy and luxurious and left my hands feeling like I had just used hand cream. I think I will wrap my soap in cotton and use a small ribbon when I give mine to people for gifts. You can see this on her website.
We didn’t buy much at the market as it is very expensive, although I don’t mind paying more for ethical and local products, there is a limit to my expenses. My favourite stall is run by a collective called Common Loaf and I had a good nose, so I can make similar loaves myself. In fact, I spent today being very nosey and looked in bakers and food producers windows for ideas, in shabby chic emporiums for ideas and have filed away a lot of things I might do myself.
Below is my actual lunch of soup, smoked tofu dip, salad, cheese scone and I can assure you that I won’t need to eat again today. I bought smoked tofu today and will try to make a smooth smoky tasting dip for us to eat tomorrow. I also dug out my sprouter and have some seeds soaking.
My usual splurge from Totnes market was off cuts of fabric, all at £1 each from the rummage basket outside. Tonight I shall enjoy cutting out lots of squares as I work towards my target of 1080 squares needed to make my quilt.