Thrifty Inspiration

The water bill arrived yesterday as we are on a meter. We got quite a shock to discover that our monthly direct debit is to go up by nearly 100% from £9 a month to £17. I checked the bill by reading the meter myself and comparing it to last year's bill and we are using almost the same amount of water, just a small increase for MissShoestring. The big change is because they have started to add a fixed charge for mending pipes etc. As there is no choice but to take water from the water company in your area I went to the library looking for thrifty inspiration !

The first book I found was about frugal interior design. MissShoestring will probably move out at the end of the month and I am looking forward to a giant clear out of all the stuff we have been keeping for the oldest two, "just in case" ! With fixed spending going up, any home makeover will have to cost nearly nothing so this book looks like good inspiration !

This one has lots of good ideas for using the stuff we grew in the garden to make nice gifts, some of which could come in handy for MrShoestring later in the year !

This one I can imagine using already, as I have quite a few clothes which would benefit from being taken in a bit. As I'm still trying to limit adult clothes purchases, altering the waistbands would be very helpful and this book shows me how to do it properly.

This is a short little book which I hope will help me take another look at our budget and see if there is anything else I can cut or be more efficient about. I've checked it out before and remember finding the money quiz at the front of the book very funny !

I had seen this book advertised and had a look at some of the recipes on the author's website. I was not too keen on them as I think the portion size is just fro 1-2 people. However, there is nothing to lose from checking it out from the library and if it has a few ideas of keeping 'hollow-legged' teenagers fed on a tiny budget I'll be well pleased.

So, lots of reading to be done this week and hopefully a plan to cut water waste and the bill formulated by the end of it !