Frugal Friday

So, this was a lovely frugal week, with a couple of outings and plenty of home-cooked food ! It started out with a great haul from the jumble sale, some for me and some for the gift cupboard. We had a great time in and around Hampton Court Palace and went to see a thought-provoking film. Two outings in one week is a record for us !

I made a menu plan for May, trying to get the bill slightly lower than the budgeted £170 a month so that I have some extra for stocking up on good deals. This week I spotted 500g of mince beef reduced to £1.18, since the cheapest price elsewhere is £1.59 I stocked up but it meant that we had to eat from the store cupboard this past week. I also made from scratch tortillas, meatloaf, chocolate cake. pizza, pizza sauce, spaghetti bolognaise, salsa, pancakes, muffins and biscuits.

MrShoestring got a home haircut this week which saved us £10 and I re-used some foil and plastic bags. I used free stamps on several parcels and bought a book for a new baby using a gift token. We protected the seeds in the garden using fleece we already had and I got some more free seeds from a 'Kitchen Garden' magazine for which we have a free subscription through Tesco points. That is really a saving because of all the free seeds which come with each edition.

Another little tip is that the lovely blogger over at Simple Living 31 has reduced her ebook of thrifty tips to half price this weekend. You would probably save the cost of the book several times over by applying the tips !

I'm looking forward to slightly warmer weather this weekend to go and look at the bluebells in all their glory ! I hope that you have had a lovely, frugal week !