Our Word of the Week is Frugal

We decided last week that we would try to do a no-spend week. The main reason for this is that we noticed that we have hardly been having any recent restraints on spending. As soon as we wanted something, we would go out and buy it or order it online. It was really getting a bit too much. There were times when we felt like we needed something and we just held back. Not only did we save money, but we made some money too.

First of all, when Leisa and I checked our fridge, freezer, and pantry, we realise that we had more than enough food to last more than a week. We just had to be creative with our meals. Some vegetables that we use a lot, like carrots, were missing but we still had a delicious salad almost every day. Our freezer also had some meals that we had prepared over the weeks. As it is mostly just the two of us at home these days, whenever we make dinner, there’s always extra which we then dish up and freeze for future meals. We didn’t miss a meal and we had some very delicious food.

Some time ago the kitchen sink seemed a bit slow to drain the water out. So I took matters into my hand and did a little ‘gunk clearing out‘. I think you’d be impressed and it might even help you too!

This week we also started officially learning how to make a sourdough starter. This is something we are very excited about. Just thinking about the wonderful loaves that we will be able to make gives me such a buzz. We have a friend in the States who is good at it so on Sunday we had a video call with her to talk through things. The starter is doing well, even though some days there was hardly any rise. The ingredients for this were just flour and bottled water and we had enough of that at home.

So we will keep feeding it for the next week and we should have a viable starter to make sourdough bread. We have to ‘get rid’ of some of the mixture each time that we feed it. This we now know, is called ‘discard’. It is not totally wasted as we have added parmesan, olive oil, and salt to it, along with Everything but the Bagel seasoning mix that my friend in the States sent to me about a month ago. This was then spread thinly on a baking tray and made into the most addictive crackers ever! The batch didn’t even make it to the day after as they were that delicious!

During the week we did a clearout and found that we had too many sheet sets and duvet covers etc. We both agreed that each bed only has on one set at a time. I suggested that we put away two good sets per bed, in addition to what was already on each bed. We must have found at least 10 to 12 decent sheet sets with all the matching pillowcases etc! Those are now at the charity shop to find new homes.

The clearout also helped us to make a little money as Leisa decided to part ways with one of her keyboards that the girls used to learn to play when they were little. The £20 she got will go nicely into her holiday fund. We also saved too, by cutting the back and front lawns ourselves. They really need a proper gardener to come in to do the real heavy-duty work as well as the fine-tuning and then we can maintain it. But for now, we will continue to do what we can.

We weren’t in much of a gym mood this week so I think we only did 2 or 3 days. Apart from that, the only other day we left home was to go to the post office to send off a package. The only reason we did it during the no-spend week of being frugal is that it had a deadline and we would have missed it if we let it stay for next week.

So, all in all, we had a good frugal week where the only money we spent was £2.20 at the post office. That gives me such a good feeling. We have run out of fruits and vegetables though, so we will top up and then go back to our frugal ways. Maybe only fruits though as in the freezer, we still have a lot of okra, spinach, sweetcorn, and mixed vegetables.

How was your week? Tell us about it in the comments below.