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) I spilt nail varnish on my favourite quilt cover and since them, I’ve had my eye on a new one in our local Morrisons which has a matching light shade and all sorts of other things that match.
It wasn’t ridiculously expensive or anything at £20.00 but as I was looking at it the first time, a little old lady commented to me that they were always changing the ranges in the home section so if I keep an eye out then I’d get it cheaper. I decided to do just that and every time I’m in Morrisons, I have a quick look.
This week it was finally on offer so I saved myself just under £5 by waiting a couple of weeks. I even got the matching light shade at 20% off too.
And I know this is the worst photo ever thanks to the random light and the fact that the bedding clearly needs a good iron but it gives you an idea.
I do usually iron our bedding but this was put on at the last minute as it was so muggy on Tuesday night that we decided fresh sheets would be refreshing – even just for a little while. Now I keep looking at it thinking I want to iron it but can’t be bothered to take it off to iron it and put it back on just to take it off again to wash in a few days.
The wrinkles are irrationally annoying me though so I may just have to.
2) If you read my July’s Frugal Fails post then you’ll know that I was super disappointed that a basketball hoop that we’d bought broke within weeks of buying it. To be fair, it was a pretty cheap basketball hoop at £60 and I should have known it wasn’t going to be all that good quality when it was half the price of the others on sale but hey ho.
After speaking to Argos initially, I had thought that there was nothing they could as I couldn’t find my receipt. I kept at them though and tried again and this week, they said if I took it into the shop then they would see what they could do and although they couldn’t make any guarantees, they were hopeful that they could at the very least swap the hoop for a new one.
The lady in the shop was so lovely and nothing like the previous person I’d spoken to and spent a few minutes typing away at her computer before finding our receipt on her system and offering to swap the hoop. We’d already decided that we didn’t want the same one and had picked out another, unfortunately, more expensive one which the lady happily brought out for us.
We took home our hoop and then spent almost four hours that night putting it together. The last bolt was too small which was ridiculously frustrating – especially when we read the reviews and at least three other people said the same thing. We had to go to B&Q the next night after work to get a longer bolt to fit and then come home and spend another hour putting it together!
Honestly, it was the hardest thing we’ve ever built and at times we could have quite happily given up but we kept at it and it was so worth it as Master Frugal loves his new improved hoop.
It was worth paying the extra to get a good quality hoop this time that’s going to last! Being frugal isn’t about buying the cheapest thing and this was a big lesson in that for us.
3) I made a double batch of my breakfast egg muffins on Sunday and used them for breakfast on Monday and Tuesday for the whole family as well as managing to stash some in the freezer that I got out last night to use for this morning’s breakfast.
I made a bit of a random mix of fillings for them as I had little bits of all sorts to use up so they were like a muffin surprise.
4) Do you know you can use your own containers in some shops now?
Our local Morrisons now sell eggs from local farmers that you can buy individually for 20p each which isn’t bad considering they’re large free-range ones. I just take back the same egg box I got my first lot in each time I go and fill that so I’m supporting local businesses, reducing packaging and only paying about an extra 3p per egg (according to my extensive research which consisted of a 10 second Google search to find out the average cost of an egg).
You can also take your own containers to the meat and fish counter which I did when I went shopping last week but actually didn’t end up buying any fish so it stayed tucked away in my bag.
5) I spend a fortune on petrol thanks to my 80 miles a day round trip commute so when I saw the increased price of petrol in the petrol station nearest to me, I drove right on by to the Asda petrol station a few miles down the road (also on my way to work). I saved 4p a litre by doing that which isn’t a huge amount but it absolutely adds up when you’re putting in as much petrol as I do.
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I’m linking up with this Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Frugal Friday’ linky.
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