1) This week we’ve saved some money on our broadband and TV package just by ringing and asking if there was a better deal available for us. I’ve written a separate post on this but basically we’re stuck with the same provider as they’re the only ones who do the superfast broadband which is pretty much an essential with a teen, a tween, a gamer and a blogger in the house. The company know they’re the only ones who supply this at the moment so it does hamper our negotiating ability a little. 😉
We have the smallest TV package available so that kind of counteracts the price of the broadband but the £20 a month saving that Mr Frugal negotiated this month is very welcome. I can’t wait for some other companies to get in on the super fast broadband act on our street because then we’ll be able to really negotiate like you can with Sky.
2) Every time we go shopping the kids without fail head to the freezer section to drool over the huge selection of Ben and Jerrys ice cream tubs. At £4.50 a tub though it’s not happening so we decided to try and make our own version.
(PS I’m totally trying to up my YouTube game so someone did this video for me to show me how to do it – they’re totally not my hands 😉 although they may well be in the next video as I think I have an idea what to do now)
3) For most of January I managed to avoid the January sales totally because there wasn’t really anything that I needed and 2017 is going to be about reducing our ‘stuff’ and not adding to it. I did find a great bargain when I was in TK Maxx last week though….
I bought a clip board from the clearance section for just 50p and it’s so pretty – clear plastic with shiny gold polka dots. I wish there’d been a few more as I’ve wanted a few for my kitchen wall to hang up and display my favourite quotes after seeing something similar on Pinterest a while ago. The sheet attached to it is just for display really but I love it so I’ve put this on my kitchen wall as it is!
4) I’ve been experimenting a little bit in the kitchen this week and trying to make some cheap but tasty meals to share with you all and one thing that was a total success was my homemade chicken stock. I’ll share more about how I made it in the next few weeks but I wanted to share my creamy chicken stew with you. It’s kind of half soup, half stew and it tasted delicious although I did cheat a little to give it the creaminess because I wanted to use what I had in rather than buy anything.
I added a tin of chicken soup that I had in the back of my cupboard! It’s been there since before I got my soup maker as tinned soup doesn’t taste the same since I started using that so I thought it would just add a little creaminess to the stew. Honestly, between the homemade stock and the soup it tasted AMAZING! There was enough for tea and lunch the next day when it tasted even better!
5) January wasn’t an easy month for us with illness after illness but I feel like, for the kids at least, we might be turning a corner and February might not leave us feeling as wiped out as January did. Honestly, I even had the kids to the doctors one day last week because it felt like they’d been ill for so long. They started between Christmas and New Year and literally have just passed what seems to be a normal cold with a particularly bad cough between them since then. And whilst it might just be a normal cough and cold, the fact it’s gone on for so long has literally wiped them out. They’ve been coming in from school and putting their pyjamas straight on, not eating much and not sleeping very much at all. The doctor said to me that he’d seen more and more of this kind of illness recently where it drags on longer than normal and the more it drags on, the weaker your immune system gets meaning that you’ll be more susceptible to the next bug that comes along.
(I have an amazing photo of them both looking suitably pathetic complete with bags the size of suitcases under their eyes and matching red noses but I suspect they would sulk for a year if I shared it so here’s some pretty flowers instead!)
My frugal point with this woe is me story is that the doctor told me to save my money and stop buying vitamins for them and to stop buying any fancy cold and flu relief stuff because the only thing that was going to help them was a healthy diet and lots of rest. I had been buying them vitamins to try and help them fight it off but he said that as long as they eat a balanced diet (which they do when they have the appetite) then that will provide them with anything they need.
As far as my children’s health is concerned there are no limits to how much I would spend and being thrifty or frugal doesn’t come in to it but if the doctor says I’m wasting money buying vitamins and that they won’t help then I’m happy for a small saving. 😉 And let’s face it, the vitamins I’ve been giving them since Christmas have done no good at all!
As always, we’d love you to join in with us by sharing what frugal and thrifty things you’ve been up to this week – whether it’s an Instagram picture (#5frugalthings), a blog post or even a video. Just add your link to the linky at the bottom of this post.
You don’t have to share five things you’ve done, anything thrifty or frugal that you’ve been doing is perfect.
You’re more than welcome to copy and paste the badge above but it would be even better if you could let your readers know that you’re linking up with us by adding a little line to the bottom of your post like this one:
I’m linking up with this Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Five Fabulously Frugal things I’ve done this week’ linky.
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