Frugal Friday

Lots of frugal living happening this week, firstly in the garden. I cleared two beds of their old produce and planted lettuce and spinach seeds. I put a cold frame over them and so far have remembered to water them every day and the little seeds are showing through now, very exciting and with a bit of luck should keep us in salad for a few months more. We also picked more tomatoes and apples and as the sweetcorn got blown down in the wind we'll be eating some of that over the weekend. I made more apple juice as well but it was a bit sour to begin with, so I added a tablespoon of sugar and then it was fine !

In the kitchen I made bread, tortillas, chapattis, pizza, roast chicken and roast potatoes, vegetable curry, slow cooker bolognaise, butternut squash soup using squash from the garden and homemade chicken stock and an apple crumble. I also made some homemade curry powder and some mixed herbs. Next week I'm planning an 'eat it up' challenge with what we already have in the garden and freezer, so that I don't have too much leftover from September's groceries.

I was delighted to see that the supermarket had 5 litres of sunflower oil and 10kg of wholemeal chapatti flour on special offer. So I bought 1 of each, bringing the price of the oil down to 70p a litre and the price of a kilogram of flour down to 35p. That should make bread making pretty cheap for some time to come. I also got a free supermarket magazine with some good recipes in it. It has been interesting to see that my closest supermarket now rarely has 'yellow-stickered' bargains and if they do, you really have to search for them or they turn out not to be a bargain because an own brand would be cheaper anyway.

Over the weekend we enjoyed two free outings and a free Sunday paper. All this week we have been enjoying our books from the library and I also sold some books to Ziffit and a violin on Gumtree. Just as well to have a little extra, as my course fees are due next week and it looks as though I'll have to pay full price for the residential, whereas last year I got a 50% discount.

Another bonus this week was getting a £50 payout from Yougov surveys and another £5 Love2Shop voucher from the postal survey. The Yougov payout went towards the textbook fund and the Love2Shop voucher has been added to the rest for spending in the January sales to get presents for Christmas 2019. Planning ahead helps to keep the cost down !!

Hope you had a great frugal week too !