there'd be no trade for tinkers, as granny used to say. My little saucepan has sprung a leak after 35 years of almost daily use. It saw me thru boiling eggs in student days and heating milk for ds' cocoa, plus making gravy every Sunday. When granny was a young housewife in Dublin she really did take the pan to the tinker to be mended, but there's not much chance of finding one nowadays, so I am mentally preparing for sticker shock when I go to buy a new one. I doubt if I will find one that lasts another 35 years either.

I have lost 2 lb.

not sterling, tho I dropped a fair few of those on my trip. I have been eating a lot of comfort food since my dad died and am now -gulp, 198 lb. So I'm revisiting the weight loss category. No more cheese and cookies. Gotta gat back into that size 12 dress.

left the heater on all night. No refunds due to carelessness.

is sometimes inconvenient, but saves me a lot of money. I get all my exercise from walking so don't have to pay expensive gym membership - can't understand people who drive to the gym and run on a treadmill. Besides, running stuffs your knees. Need to lift weights? Try carrying a 10 kg (22 lb) sack of rice a mile home from the shop - okay, that's beyond me now, but I did when I was young.

Not having a car saves me time. I've been late any number of times when someone offered me a lift because the car wouldn't start or we couldn't find a park.
when I walk somewhere I always know how long it is going to take me and I allow for that. If it's raining I catch the bus, whic is cheaper.

Now you're thinking, yeah but I have a full time job. I don't have time to walk everywhere. Here's the thing; because I don't spend money owning a car I don't have to work as many hours. I can meet all my needs with 30 hours a week - and that leaves me time to walk.

And walking, I spot all those coins dropped by rushing motorists at the parking meters. Found .70 cents today.

Today I ran out of bread but didn't want to go to the shop just for a loaf, so I made flatbread. Add generous tablespoonful of nonfat milk powder to one breakfast cup flour. Stir in pinch of salt and one teaspoonful baking powder. Add enough liquid to make a firm dough. You could use plain water or left over stock. I used the left over cooking liquid from a packet of chicken instant noodles. It had some fat in it which is probably why it tasted so good. Flatten out the dough with your hand to about 1/4 inch thick. Fry until brown on both sides. Eat while still warm. I spread avocado on mine - and ate the lot.

a no spend day and I found 10 cents. So I am richer tonight.

More bad weather is forecast to arrive. I have been filling up my pantry to survive another snow. I now have:

10 kg rice
4.5 kg oats
2 kg flour
8 cans fish
9 cans meat
19 cans beans (but no jelly beans...
8 cans spaghetti
8 cans corn
8 cans tomatoes
8 cans veges
8 cans fruit
4 cans soup
1 kg milk powder
2 liter oil
3 kg sugar
5 kg onions
2 kg potatoes

I think that will keep me going for a month if the roads get blocked

I thought my broadband seemed slow. I'm on a plan that allows me to use 1 gig (I don't download much) before reverting to dialup speed. Now the ISP has sent me a letter saying their little whizzometer has miscalculated the amount I've been using over the last six month. Their apologies and they're crediting my account with nz$66