Frugal Friday

So there were a lot of little things we did this week to save pennies ! We re-used the foil which I use to cover the pancakes as they come out of the pan to keep them warm until they are eaten. MasterShoestring had pancakes every day this week for breakfast apart from Shrove Tuesday, when he had them for supper, so re-using the same piece of foil all week was quite a saving. Once it was too wrinkled to stretch out again I scrumpled it up and used it to blind bake the pastry for a quiche.

At the start of the week I took meter readings for the electricity and gas and submitted them. This makes sure that we never have an estimated bill and just pay for what we use. We pay monthly on a direct debit and sometimes this has meant we have built up a large credit with the energy company. The last time it happened it took quite a lot of effort to get the £300 back so I don't want that happening again !

The other thing we do is timing telephone calls to family and friends, MrShoestring's Mum likes to chat but we don't like it if it goes beyond the free hour we have on Unlimited calls, so we always replace the receiver and re-dial to get another free hour !

We made yoghurt, bread, rolls granola and grated old bread for breadcrumbs, planted cress and froze celery. I re-used the plastic bags we freeze the bread in and downloaded some free Kindle books. I also went to the library for 5 free books to read and bought 2 other books for studying using Swagbucks.

The biggest savings this week were due to making a menu plan for March and shopping in 3 different stored for the ingredients for it. Two of the stores are right next door to one another so there was no extra petrol cost and the other one is on the way to the other two, so I was able to take advantage of the cheapest prices without it costing more.

Here's hoping we can keep up the frugal living now that jumble sale season has started ! I have a list of things we need and there is a moratorium on clothes buying for anyone apart from MasterShoestring ! So that and the stash of free Kindle books should ensure that I only buy what we need at the first jumble sale of the season !