Five Frugal Things we did this week {1 February 2019}….

Every week I share five frugal things that I’ve done during that week just to show you that the small things you do all add up to a great frugal lifestyle where you can learn to live a fabulously frugal life.

Before I start though, as always feel that I should say that being frugal to me is about getting the best value for our money – it’s not about doing without for us or about not having nice things.  We all have different financial situations and we’re all frugal for different reasons.

1) It’s been a while since I started one of these posts with some bargain flowers but I have some beauties to share today!

This is two bunches which were 50p each and they’ve been sat on my bureau brightening up the corner of the kitchen for almost a week so they were well worth the money!

2) We don’t pay council tax in February or March here as our council charge it over 10 months rather than 12 s0 that’s £160 each month that we’ll have extra.  I’ve been good and split February’s payment by paying half off our mortgage and changing the other half into dollars ready for our trip in a couple of weeks.

I knew if I just left it in our bank account that it would just be absorbed into our monthly spending as we’d be tempted to splurge on things that we don’t really need.

3) I made a batch of homemade hobnob cookies earlier this week while I was waiting for the kids’ tea to cook.

They literally take five minutes to mix up and then when I get tea out of the oven, I just pop these in there to cook.  The oven’s already heated up and 12 (ish) minutes later and I have a batch of homemade hobnobs which always makes me popular with the kids.

4) This one isn’t frugal by choice but it’s still frugal so I’m going with it.

Monty is a very lovely but very odd little dog who is growing out of a lot of his weirdness – until a couple of months ago he refused point blank to come downstairs without being carried!  He would literally just stand at the top and howl until someone carried him down which was cute (and apparently normal) for a while but he kept growing until he was like a lead weight.  

Another he’s always hated is a haircut and he just howls from the second that anyone tries to get near him with clippers to the point where the dog groomers we’ve taken him to have given up before they’ve even started.  We’ve tried everything but in the end, it’s not worth stressing him out. 

We bought some clippers of our own and gradually got him used to them with me literally turning them on for 30 seconds at a time until he was used to them.  He’s still not a lover of having a haircut but he lets me do it and yes, he would look much better after a £35 session at the groomers but he looks OK and he’s much happier so home doggy haircuts are on my list for this week.

I gave him a trim earlier this week and he looks like super cute if you ask me!

5) At this time of year, I love burning candles on a night when it’s cold and dark outside to make the house all cosy inside!

I seem to have stockpiled a good few candles through the year that I’ve bought when I’ve seen a good deal in preparation for the dark nights and I think (unless I have some hidden away that I’ve forgotten about) that this is the last one I have to use up.

I try and buy things that I know I’ll use when I see a good deal even if I don’t necessarily need them right at that moment – as long as I know I’ll use them and they won’t go to waste then I’ll try and buy a bargain.  Things like wash capsules when they’re on offer, toilet rolls and shampoo are great to buy when you see them on offer – just don’t buy too much.

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You don’t have to share five things you’ve done, anything thrifty or frugal that you’ve been doing is perfect.

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