The Month of Frugality has begun!

This month has been offically declared by the Jorth household as The Month of Frugality. That's right - we're being tight-arses for a month! It came about a few weeks ago, when the Galumph and I were paying bills, thinking about our savings plan and having a moan and groan about money in general, and in particular our lack of it. Then I came up with the most sterling idea - how much money would we have left at the end of the month if we did nothing but paid for rent, bills and food?

We quickly tottered up the sums and then sat back in our chairs, thinking "You know, old chap, this might just work!" The money we save won't have us running out to buy a house next month (gah, or even next year - house prices in Melbourne are BLEEPING RIDICULOUS!), but every little bit helps, and the whole frugality thing fits in well with plastic free and Wardrobe Refashion. One week in, and we're doing surprisingly well. We haven't succumbed to buying any lunches at shops, take aways in general, books, magazines or anything! I'm telling you, thriftiness is the next black, doncha know?!

The only fly in the ointment was the fact that Grumbles 3rd birthday falls in the middle of it. However, the troika of frugality, craftiness and resourcefulness has come to rescue in the form of this:

Like it? I'm enamoured with it! (What's that sound? Oh, my trumpet). It's the Sangsang doll, made from a pattern by Melly and Me. And the best bit is that she is made completely from scraps. Scraps of clothes made for Grumbles in fact, so there's some nice little memories sewn up all together.

Just a quick note on the construction of the doll: I wasn't sure if the pattern included a seam allowance or not, so I added a 1cm one. Also, it says to glue the felt face, eyes etc onto the doll, but I don't fancy using fabric glue on a toy that Grumbles might sleep with, so I handstitched mine on.