Mending !

Master Shoestring camped out in the garden with some of his friends last weekend and one of the air beds started to let them down. Fortunately we had another one but then wondered what was wrong with the old one ?

We found a tiny tear which must have been made by a sharp stone or thorn as they dragged it to the tent and I thought that it was ruined !

Not so cried Mr Shoestring producing his bicycle repair kit. Sure enough, a little rubber patch and some tyre cement did they trick and it is as good as new. Just so long as no-one drags it along the ground again !

Save with a car kettle !

Imagine beautiful holiday scene here !



We have had a car kettle since Master Shoestring was little and needed baby food warmed up when we were out and about. I was fascinated to learn that really early cars had an in-car cooker which could warm up your fish and chips next to the engine as you were travelling to a picnic !

Our kettle plugs into the cigarette lighter when you are travelling and ensures that when you stop for a break the water is already boiled for a cuppa ! A jar of coffee and/or a teabag and you are all set. The little cups wash very easily at the services and then you are all set for the next brew at the next stop. It saves quite a bit on a long journey when you want to stop regularly but do not want to pay motorway service prices !

No picture today as blogger seems to having trouble with them ! I hope that it is fixed tomorrow !

Carry your own water and save !

I have been travelling quite a lot recently and now go on the train everyday. One of the things I do not leave home without is my stainless steel water bottle filled from home. I have found that if I leave it in the fridge overnight before going out the following morning it stays cold all day.

This has saved me buying water when out and I have often found places where I can fill it up for free. Since it stays cold all day it also came in very handy for staying cool on the Tube, which over the past few weeks has been at a temperature of over 100F on some routes !

Saving my pennies and my cool, so it's a great addition to my kitchen !

Saving Money on the Tube

Back to work in London today and as well as having an Oyster card I have discovered that varying your route to work also saves money.

Driving into work is not so cheap now that Islington did not respond to my oft repeated request for a parking permit ! But if I travel and avoid Zone 1 then I can pay almost the Off-Peak rate during the Peak times.

In order to discourage people from travelling into Zone 1 at busy times the Oyster card offers a peak fare of just over 4 pounds as opposed to 7 pounds at these times. If you do the same during off-peak times you save just under 2 pounds for each journey.

I worked out that although this is not the quickest route to travel the £25 pounds a month it will save me are well worth it. It is even more if we add the saving which Mr Shoestring will make, so we're going for slow travel. I've got a stock of library books to read on the commute so will class commuting as leisure time now !

Menu Plan

So this month's menu plan is based on having the same thing to eat each day of the week apart from a bit of a variation on Sundays. Some people would find that this is insufficiently varies for them but when I asked the family last month they said that they like having old favourites and also like being able to start a meal no matter who is the first in the house. So here is our plan !

Breakfast - Wheat biscuits, porridge or beans on toast, tea or coffee

Lunch - school lunch or sandwich, fruit and piece of cake, water to drink

Suppers

Sunday - Meatloaf or roast chicken, roast potatoes, gravy, vegetables, steamed pudding or crumble

Monday- Pizza, salad, leftover Sunday pudding

Tuesday - Baked potatoes with choice of filling, fresh fruit

Wednesday - spaghetti bolognaise, salad, fruit salad

Thursday- Soup, bread and cake

Friday - Shepherd's pie, vegetables, steamed pudding

Saturday - Totillas or sausages, salad and chips, sorbet

This plan gives a basic outline but enough variation that people can take the initiative e.g.) with what type of soup we are going to have.

Last month I experimented with quite a few new recipes none of which the family liked so I ended up putting lots of leftovers in the compost. This month I'm hoping that family favourites will lead to less waste and more praise !

Grocery Shopping

Yesterday was grocery shopping day and I had a £5 off a £40 spend voucher for Lidl so decided to go there. I knew that they would not have everything we needed e.g.) Rice Milk but hoped to get the bulk of the groceries there. I was quite worried when I made the list as I knew that I could only spend £90 in total in order to have some money left for school lunches and for produce shopping in subsequent weeks. In the end, I need not have worried as Lidl had a lot of offers on e.g.) fruit and vegetables at 29p or some things that were labelled XXL so you got one and a half times for your money. The XXL promotion meant that in some cases I had budgeted for 3 packets of something but only needed two, so that was a real help.

I used a calculator to keep track of how much I was spending and as soon as it went over £40 I went to the checkout. So that first transaction cost £35.35. I went round a second time to buy other things on the list and thought that I might be able to use a second coupon but the groceries only cost £32.09. Grand total at Lidl £67.44 much less than I was expecting !

Then I went to Tesco to get a few things that Lidl does not have  and a few things, like washing up liquid, which are cheaper there. This smaller shop was £13.73 and I got a free magazine ! Total so far for the month is £81.17 which gives me plenty of room in the budget to top up in subsequent weeks so I was very relieved.

I usually do not go to Lidl as it is a bit out of the way, around 7 miles away and does not advertise its prices anywhere so it is difficult to cost out whether it is worth going there. This time it was worth going so I might try it another time too !

Budget Busting Month

August was a budget busting month. We still made ends meet and were able to save around 16% of our income but this was a far cry from the over 50% saved every month up until now.

I am pleased that we still saved something as our income fell and will continue to be smaller than before in the months to come.  Mr Shoestring is only going to be working 3 days a week and although I will be working full time the job is over an hour away and transport costs will be around £10 a day.

Big expenses were for the garden as we bought new equipment and re-did the driveway stones. We paid car tax and insurance, building and contents insurance. training fees for new courses which will start in September, and school uniform costs. There were also some holiday related expenses from the start of the month.

I'm not sure how much we will earn in September so may have to adjust the budget after I know that. Until then I'm doing a lot of planning to make sure that we can still save something !