Frugal Friday

This week I tried to keep a note of all the frugal things we did and it ended up being quite a long list !

First, on Sunday I gave MrShoestring a haircut, he looked quite nice with much shorter hair and no curls ! This means that we have enough money to pay for the barbers for MasterShoestring, as at 14 he does not like his Mum cutting his hair !

I also bought a cheap black printer cartridge, getting an extra large size for 3 pounds cheaper online than I pay for the normal size one locally. Monday we made turkey potpie using the last of the turkey saved from Christmas and there was enough left over to eat as leftovers for supper on Wednesday as well.

We made the petrol last until the end of the week but when MrShoestring said that he would not go to collect more free pallets for the stove without more petrol in the car I cracked and went and filled up at the cheapest, local station. There are a couple of sporting events over the weekend for MasterShoestring so I knew that I could not hold out any longer !

We also made bread, yoghurt and breadcrumbs and ate 3 vegan meals this week. I was also really careful to price my grocery shopping before going to the shops and took into account the cost of driving there as well, to work out the cheapest possible place for shopping this week.

I sorted out all my files and discovered over 100 plastic pockets for re-use. We use these all the time and it was great not to have to buy any new ones and just put out the ones we already had. I also found a display book which MasterShoestring can use for school. I also put 4 cartridges for a pen MrShoestring uses into his desk where he can find them so no need to buy more. the rubber bands from the post were placed in the stationery drawer so we know we have plenty and will not buy them.

The mustard and cress for this week's salad was grown on a couple of cotton flannels which can be re-used rather than blotting paper which has to be thrown away and full loads in the washing machine was a rule we stuck to this week. The beautiful weather on Monday also allowed us to line dry some more bulky items.

This week was unusual in that we also earned some extra money from using Swagbucks, selling some books to Ziffit and tutoring someone. So all in all a good week ! 

I'm really interested to reckon up expenses next week, at the end of the month as we have also had some extra expenses, so I am wondering if we have anything to save this month ?