Day to day happenings

The car was filled with petrol on Tuesday afternoon. I almost died of shock as I was watching the bowser tick over. Normally an expensive week for me would be between $75-$78. The bowser reached $75 and kept going. I was sure it was going to stop soon. $78. I just looked at it. $80. I started shaking my head. $82.37. A week's worth of groceries. Ouch. Mind you I've never bought petrol at 130.9 cents per litre before. I put off buying it until Wednesday morning in the hope that it would drop a little more. No such luck and I am glad I didn't wait because by the time I was on my way home it had jumped up again. All the figures have been entered into my little notebook so I can keep track of this challenge.

I have noticed that driving to keep the revs under 2000 seems slower but I'm still getting to where I want to be in around the same time. I've been laughing this week at the rev heads who sit at the traffic lights and creep forward every few seconds and then take off in a burst of speed, only to arrive at the next red light with me right behind them. Then they start the process all over again. The only thing they are gaining is a bigger petrol bill and a whole lot of stress. All that impatience can't be good for them.

I think I'm all pickled out at the moment. The store cupboard is full of zucchini pickles and pickled cucumbers and now the apple tree is starting to drop apples so it's time to stock the freezer with stewed apple for winter. Just the thought of homemade apple pies and yummy apple sponge is making me long for cold weather. And free fruit is always a good thing :)

With the weather cooling down a little we haven't been going through quite so much drink but the ginger beer is almost at an end and the lemonade is finished. I made some lemon barley water up the other day, mainly because it is quick and I had the lemons and pearl barley on hand. It's ages since I've made it and I had forgotten just how refreshing it is. And easy and cheap too.

Thomas is feeling very flush at the moment. He has been doing some surveys for an educational study and they sent him a $50 Coles gift voucher last week as a thank you. He's really excited because there are some wii games he's been hoping will come on sale and now he has an extra $50 he's hoping they'll come on sale and he won't need to add too much of his savings to buy them. All junk mail is being pored through at the moment in anticipation. He's so determined to get the best value for his dollar that he doesn’t mind waiting and Cheapskate that he is he's worked a deal with me where if they come on sale somewhere he can't use the gift card I'll give him the cash for the card.