A Big Thank You and Mrs Miller

First of all a very Big Thank You to "Frugal In Norfolk" for her post about my blog. I  am so touched at the kindness and generosity of strangers.  The www is a wonderful thing.So if you are visiting me for the first time, I bid you welcome, enjoy and thank you for reading. Hello, to my new followers  - Scarlet, Hilde and Miss Thrifty herself. I am so thrilled at actually having followers! x

This weekend started off not so good and has got better and better.

I did manage not to spend over my £5 this week which always please me, so I celebrated with a bit of food shopping. On Friday after work I took myself off to M&S.

Hmm. Yup I know what you thinking "M&S Abigail!!" but the truth is I mentioned earlier this week about how I wanted to buy a present for someone I care about. Well it was for The Chap and it would have cost £45.00 (after much googling of prices) and I just decided it was too much. I mean you can really go mad with this Valentine's Day thing can't you? I decided that really the only time to buy a present is Birthdays and Christmas. But, I did want a treat for us both to enjoy so I bought the  £20 meal deal. Not frugal, nope not at all. But delicious!

Unfortunately, The Chap ended up working late on Friday and did not get back until very late so we scratched meeting up that evening. What I did not realise it that M&S Millionaire's Shortbread actually sings to you from the fridge like a grocery Siren of the Cold. Result, I ate one by myself on the sofa watching rubbish and dressed in my baggiest velour tracksuit. Yes, I can do a very good impression of Waynetta Slob when I can.

So Saturday morning, off to Tesco I pop and spend £11.85 on this little lot

The Pizzas were reduced by the way to £1 and I think they could be useful to keep in the freezer.

So £19.92 left to play with this month in the food budget. I took the £20 for our meal out of my personal weekend spending allowance.

We ate it last night and it was delicious. M&S food - a treat that will not be seen again for the foreseeable future.

Today we met up with some of The Chaps's friends for a birthday do. Very good company.

Getting home this afternoon, I realised that I only had three quarters of a loaf left in the freezer (reduced obviously) and perhaps it was time to face my nemesis again...dum dum dum bread making. So I became Mrs Miller the Baker.
Actually, I am very good at bread making, if you wish spread butter on the grain equivalent of a sliced housebrick.
Here, they are pre baking.

And post.

They turned out better than hoped and I got the recipe from the great british bake off, but next time I think I am not going to use wholemeal flour but a mixture of wholemeal and white. For a lighter loaf.

Any bread making tips gratefully received, though "buy a loaf" is still looking very good.

Menu plan - sorry no time this weekend to review fridge, but I will post on this tomorrow.

Have a great week folks!
Frugally yours
Abigail
x