Booted and suited, and meter-reading

Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned 'rain' yesterday.  I was all geared up to paint the garage door this morning (or indeed, anytime today) but the weather decided to be undecisive and throw in the odd sporadic drizzle so Plan A has been put on hold until tomorrow.

The carrot seedlings are beginning to get some feathery leaves

There is, however, always a Plan B.  At 9 o'clock this morning N made some phone enquiries about bulk compost.  By 10 o'clock it had been delivered!  A cubic metre of lovely, local compost, dumped in it's bag on the front lawn and needing to be bagged up and moved to the back garden.  We booted and suited up - welly boots and boilersuits - and got stuck in.  N later informed me this is why he loves me, not for any romantic reason but because I'm more than up to heavy manual labour!  

About a quarter of the way there

There was a lot of compost (and it is lovely rich dark brown crumbly compost) and we have topped up all the raised beds, got big pots ready for potatoes and tomatoes next season and still managed to fill 13 plastic bags; we never throw the empty bags away, they get used over and over for storage, taking rubbish to the tip, etc.

We've made more progress with the porch, although we are a little concerned that the T&G we've lined the walls with gives the impression of an outside loo.  Or a beach hut.  

We always read our gas and electricity meters every Monday morning and record the figures and work out our weekly usage.  We can see straightaway if we've used more than usual - last week, for example, we ran the central heating for half an hour (as it's a new system) and that was reflected in a higher usage figure.  However, we seem to be using far less than the 'average' comparable household, according to our energy providers.  We are mindful of the energy we use, not wishing to pay for any more than we need to.  We don't need lights blazing in all rooms, just the ones we are actually in (and very often we just have a table lamp on).  We watch very little TV, preferring to read, listen to the radio, sew, knit or do puzzles and we couldn't justify keeping Sky so that's gone, and we have no need to leave anything on stand-by now.  We chose not to have a bath installed in this house, and we have short (ie 5 minute) showers.  Winter is approaching and we are interested to see how the house performs in colder weather.  We anticipate being able to close off some rooms and concentrate the heating in just the ones we are using.  Our heating thermostat will be set at a sensible (ie lower than most!) temperature.  We have double-glazing and cavity wall insulation, and the loft is thickly insulated as well.  Monitoring our weekly usage keeps us vigilant and hopefully means we will stay within our budgeted payments.  To us it seems such an obvious and sensible thing to do but we are aware of people who are quite happy to pay way more than we do, and just accept it.  It's surprising how easy it is to waste money unnecessarily.  I've often thought I'd like to see how much I could save on their bills by making some very simple changes, most of which would have little or no impact on their lifestyle.  Is it being thrifty, or frugal, or simply being a bit more aware that if everyone wastes energy, then we all have to pay the (higher) price?