PhDs and frugal menus

Good Evening Lovely Readers

Mr Thrifty and I got up at the crack of dawn (okay slight exaggeration) to make sure that the house shone for our viewing today and then after lunch the estate agent rang to say that the prospective viewer's sale had fallen through so they wouldn't be viewing today after all. Was I fed up? Not at all. It meant that we had a lovely clean house to enjoy and an afternoon to do as we pleased. I had even managed to beat the rain today and dried a line of washing - there are definite benefits to living on the east coast.

PhD number 1 is complete. I have set myself a target of trying to complete one "Project half-done" each week until they are no more. On Friday evening I got to work on the half completed baby cardigan and here it is:

 I am really rather chuffed with it. It feels divine.
The pattern had a plain collar and I decided to use my newly discovered crocheting skills to make a more ornate collar, as well as trimming the cuffs. Instead of knitting it separately as the pattern suggested, I picked up stitches around the neckline and then knitted in garter stitch for a few rows. Then I swapped to crochet to make the frill and finished it off with little flowers on the pockets. Do you like it? I wonder which special baby will end up wearing it. It has one of my special labels stitched into the collar saying "handmade with love" and a tiny sheep - aren't they adorable?

 Here's the pattern book I used. I also changed the yarn because I wanted to use baby bamboo. It feels so soft and I would imagine is pretty much hypo-allergenic for sensitive babies. For the edging I used soya wool which I discovered in my local wool shop. Both yarns would be suitable for vegans. The bamboo is quite a heavy yarn but very soft and smooth and lovely to knit with. I use bamboo needles too and the yarn just slips through the needles beautifully. The soya yarn in much lighter, but just as soft.

This week's menus are also done and the shopping completed. Next week I will try and post our spending for the month, but it's going well and with all the Ebay sales I am hoping to be able to add to the savings fund. Hope you find it useful. For UK readers, Morrisons have large bags of baking potatoes for 30p and packs of pears also at 30p this week.

Menu planner week beginning: 18.2.2012
DAY	BREAKFAST	LUNCH	SUPPER
Saturday	Porridge or granola	Watercress soup Homemade wholemeal bread	Vegetarian chilli + jacket potatoes Cheese + tortilla chips
Sunday	Scrambled egg on toast	Shepherd’s pie (quorn) Spring greens Panettone bread pudding	Cheese on toast Scones + jam
Monday	Porridge or granola	Vegetable soup + Homemade wholemeal bread	Tuna + sweet corn pasta bake Side salad
Tuesday	Porridge or granola	Vegetable soup + Homemade wholemeal bread	Spanish omelette salad pancakes
Wednesday	Poached  eggs on toast	Tomato + basil soup + bread	Spaghetti + sardines + anchovies in sweet chilli sauce
Thursday	Porridge or granola	Cous cous salad with feta + olives	Homemade mushroom pizza
Friday	Porridge or granola	Cheese + tomato rolls Yogurt	Wild mushroom risotto

Sleep well xxx