I have been thinking about spending or rather not spending. Living on less. With prices rising - fuel, petrol, food - I want to make my money stretch further but do not want to compromise on nutrition or quality. No battery chickens who have led a life of misery and torture thank you. But equally no month left at the end of the money either!
Menu planning is the corner stone of my plan, what have I got in the freezer and the pantry, which nights will we be sitting down to eat at the table together and when we need a casserole that can be dipped into at different times as swimming lessons and Brownies intervene. I add items to my shopping list as we run out of them and them include anything extra I need to make the planned meals. I bake our bread, well really the bread machine does but you know what I mean, so I keep the pantry well stocked with flour especially when it is on offer.
I also try to shop flexibly, we need some biscuits? If the ones on offer are ones we like, those come home with me. The local co -op often has great reductions on meat that is coming up to it's sell by date so those go in the freezer too. The Poundshop/Wilkinsons and their ilk are handy for washing powder, loo roll and basics at great prices and I am happy with own brand goods too. The supermarkets wheat biscuits taste the same as Weetabix and are a fraction of the price.
This is my latest addition in the kitchen, a friend did not need it any more and it's perfect for drying using the heat in the kitchen from cooking. Currently the hand embroidered goodies I picked up for a couple of quid at the jumble sale this weekend. Now clean and dry waiting to be made into draught excluders. Both designed to reduce my heating bill. I've also lined the door curtain with an old woollen blanket, as the stained glass front door is pretty but draughty.
I suppose recycling jeans and linens into draught excluders is cost saving too as it stops me buying scrummy new ( but expensive!) fabric.
So it's a homemade Christmas on the cards I think, using up some of my huge fabric stash and getting inspiration from some of the amazing tutorials around blogland.
One brilliant idea I picked up recently from Frugal Trenches is a no spend day. Simple but harder to achieve than I anticipated! It's a change in mindset I think, I often confuse 'want' and 'need'. Sometimes is it need - tights for the Big Sister for school as the weather gets colder, but also want comes into it - a pretty spotty jug for the kitchen. So I came home with the tights but not the jug. Just cutting my cloth.........