Frugal Friday

The last Frugal Friday before Christmas and we have been quite busy this week ! First of all I pulled the last of the leeks, chopped them and froze them as well as making a big pot of leek and potato soup.

I also did a bit of decluttering as part of the Christmas cleaning and sent 2 loads of books off to Ziffit. This will give us a bit extra to put in the gift budget for next year.

I inventoried the pantry, the kitchen cupboards and both the freezers and now have a master list hanging in the kitchen where I can check off items as we use them. This should make sure that I don't buy things which we don't need ! We also got lots of yellow-stickered vegetables which are now safely stored in the garage or the freezer and should see us well into the new year!

When we bought the Christmas tree the Forestry Commission gave us a free sapling and instructions as to how to look after it so that in a few years we can have a free Christmas tree. I thought that it was such a good idea to replace the tree that had been cut down with a new sapling that I think we might try and do this every year.

We made tortillas, refried beans, salsa, beefburgers, chips, a gingerbread house, mince pies, chocolate cake and cinnamon buns from scratch. MisterShoestring took his own coffee and breakfast on the train to Glasgow to visit family and I reused foil and baking parchment.

I mended my cardboard Kindle case, which was starting to split down the side, by gluing a piece of felt all over the case. It worked very well, saved buying something new, looks nice and was done using glue and felt we already had. I also downloaded 3 new ebooks and collected some reservations at the library.

I redeemed Swagbucks for a £5 Amazon voucher which I used to purchase 2 rings of florist's oasis for making next year's Advent wreaths. The ones we have are 10 years old now and were really needing replaced.

I started to work on a cross-stitch cushion cover for MissShoestring's birthday next year as I've decided that all gifts next year need to be homemade from the 'great stash' of craft materials or else budget neutral, funded by selling stuff or gift cards !

I hope you have had a lovely frugal week too !