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Friday 17 February 2017

Frugal Friday


This week we were down to only four at home and for a quite a few meals MissShoestring was away so that meant we could eat leftovers quite a few days. MissShoestring likes leftovers too but often there is only enough left to serve 3 rather than 4 ! USAShoestring eats a different special diet to us as well so now he has gone home, we miss him, but we don't have to add so many extra items to the grocery bill. This meant that the total grocery bill was £15.04 this week. Pretty good and I still have some money left in the budget for next week and have already paid for MasterShoestring's lunches for next week.

I went to the dentist this week and had budgeted the usual fee of £19.70 for a checkup. However, it was time for x-rays and these showed a tiny bit of decay under an otherwise perfectly, good tooth ! The dentist said that she could fit the filling in this week as well. I wasn't best pleased as being allergic to local anaesthetic means having the filling with no pain relief at a cost of £30.20 which I had not reckoned on ! I decided that it was lucky that the problem had been caught when it was so small, so probably wouldn't hurt getting it done and as it was without anaesthetic the dentist put in a more expensive 'white' filling as you do not have to drill away so much tooth when these are done. The filling hardly hurt at all and whilst she was at it the dentist whipped out an old mercury filling in  another part of the tooth and did all the repair work in 'white' so now the tooth looks brand new ! I am very careful with oral hygiene precisely to try and avoid fillings but the dentist said it was just one of those things that a bit of bacteria had got under the enamel through a tiny fissure ! In the end I decided that I had got value for money !

It was a bit warmer this week so we kept the central heating off quite a bit and we did not go for an outing on Valentine's Day as I had a horrible cold, so that saved a bit of petrol money for another day. I also got books for free for my course with a book token and through the library. I decluttered the linen cupboard and got rid of 2 single duvets which we did not need. Now I know exactly what we have I know that I do not need to buy any household linen for a very, long time !

MasterShoestring had fun with friends and saved money on feeding them all by coming home and we have started to spend the £1 coins in the cash box so we do not get caught out when they cease to be legal tender. We were given USAShoestring's coin jar this week too and I was going to take it to Coinstar to be counted but then I discovered that they take 9.9% of the value that is counted and decided that I would just spend the change at jumble sales once they get started again.

Now that we are halfway through the month I also counted up how much we have spent and we are on target for another frugal month inspite of the unexpected filling !

2 comments:

  1. Greetings! I don't know if this will go through, but I wanted to give you an alternative to the rice milk problem. I've made oat milk before and it is so easy and tasty. You can buy bulk oats or organic so you know that it's not contaminated. Recipes are all over the web but I'll tell you how I make it.
    I take 2 cups of oats, regular or fast cooking, and add 8 cups of water. Stir, put in the refrigerator for two days. Stir once in awhile. Strain out the oats, which you can use for something else or compost, and your 'milk' is ready. If you don't drink it by a week or so, it gets funky, kind of slimy. Most recipes call for honey but I leave it out. Also, I tend to strain it twice because it leaves a lot of residue. If it's too strong, add more water. I hope this helps.

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  2. Dear Blog Reader,

    That is so kind of you ! I really appreciate that you took the time to comments and with such a useful recipe. I shall definitely try it and many thanks for sharing.

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