Frugal Friday

A quiet week round here as MasterShoestring has been on work experience so no need to go to school everyday. I made sure to drive as little as possible by combining trips such as my volunteering with paying something into the bank.

An unexpected contribution to frugal living came about as a result of our application for tax credits, MrShoestring and I were granted an NHS exemption certificate for glasses, dentist and prescriptions. I already had one for prescriptions but not having to pay for the dentist or glasses will be a big help.

I downloaded a few Kindle books as finally I am running out of spare ones from the jumble sale. There hasn't been a jumble sale round here for ages and I suppose they won't start back up again until the Autumn. In the meanwhile, I researched all the books I shall need for my course in September and ordered the ones that I could from the library.

I bought a couple of punnets of discount fruit just to make a change from what we have in the garden, it was 49p for a punnet of plums and the same price for one of peaches, which was a good price, especially as the plums had 8 in a pack.

The real savings have been in all we have had from the garden: courgettes, garlic, lettuce, cucumber, raspberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries, blackberries and blueberries, when we can beat the birds to them ! We made plenty of food from scratch, such as bread, soup, tortillas, refried beans, cake, flapjack and fudge. The latter was for an end of term gift for one of MrShoestring's classes and was nicer and cheaper than buying something from the shop.

We also enjoyed the lovely weather ! I hope that your Summer is going well too !