Every week (ish) I share five frugal things that I’ve done during the previous 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. This week is a bit of a special edition as it’s about what I plan to do this year and why… 🙂
Hey! 👐
Happy New Year.
Last year wasn’t the easiest year for me health-wise but this year is going to be so much better – I feel like I have a bit more of a handle on my diabetes and everything that comes with it so I’m feeling really positive about my future right now.
I wasn’t as sensible as I should have been last year at times with money as I was definitely feeling lots of frustration around my diagnosis. That frustration manifested itself in lots of ways including pretending it wasn’t happening and also telling myself that I deserved the odd treat because of what was happening. The odd treat got more often and although I still kept an eye on money, it wasn’t as close an eye as usual.
This year, I plan to get my focus back and be much more accountable for what I choose to spend. I’m not setting New Years Resolutions but I am saying that I plan to get back to the old me in as many ways as I can.
1) Meal Planning is definitely going to be back on my agenda!
My partner works a shift pattern which consists of four days working (a mix of days and nights) and four days off so meal planning can be a bit more of a challenge especially when you take into account my diabetes.
I know that we won’t always be able to eat the same thing as I have to be so controlled with the things that I eat at the moment but there’s definitely meals that we can both eat variations of the same thing with just a few tweaks and even just from a me perspective, more planning and batch cooking diabetic friendly recipes can only be a good thing.
So for that reason this year I am going to make meal planning work for our lifestyle to save those time, money and even more importantly to help us be more healthy.
2) I want to do as much as possible this year – to discover new things and visit new places.
Discovering new places doesn’t have to cost a fortune and doesn’t need the good weather as I’ve learned this year when trying to get out more just to walk which we’ve done often as walking lowers my blood sugar.
We even went for a walk on New Year’s Eve at around 10pm in the cold rain, we wrapped up warm and went out for a long walk and you know what? It was so lovely and a great way to end 2024 so I plan to keep this up in 2025.
We have warm clothes, umberellas and a love of getting outside, either with the kids or on our own so we’ll be doing that as much as we can this year.
We have our National Trust membership and a plan to visit at least one new place a month this year (hopefully more) and we also share any posts that we come across on social media about places that we would like to visit so we have ideas whenever we have some spare time.
We also take a few snacks when we do go anywhere and after a Christmas gift of a flask, we’ll also be taking hot chocolate (not for me unless I can find something that’s diabetic friendly that actually tastes nice) and some water so the temptation of the cafes along the way don’t get us.
To be clear though, in case you think I’ve changed into some sort of super-fit hiker, these are just gentle strolls in nice areas – often to a pub if it’s just us, or to a play park if we have the kids.
3) We’ve got lots of plans this year to do things to the house and we plan to do as much as we can ourselves to save money.
Our aim is to write a list of everything we want to do this year over the next week or so and then prioritise the jobs on there so we have a bit of a schedule for doing them and so we can set aside money where we need to.
Even just savings that we make on the smaller jobs add up so we’re looking to do as much DIY as we can – whether it’s spray painting a second hand frame to match our decor, fitting shelves ourselves (I promise I help a little bit), painting a wall or bigger jobs like fixing the roof or building a fence.
4) I’m going to start selling more on Vinted again to earn extra money for our travel fund.
I just bought a pack of 100 envelopes from TikTok shop for £5.99 and I plan to list as many items as I can this year from my own clothes, any that the kids grow out of and anything that I pick up in a charity shop as something I think I can sell on.
I’ve had quite a lot of luck selling things on Vinted over the last couple of years although I’ll be the first to say that people on Vinted and looking for a bargain and it’s rare to get a really good price for an item that you’re selling. A few pounds for something we won’t wear anymore though is always welcome.
I guess Vinted to me is mainly about making a little bit of extra money on the side from things that I already own, I don’t expect a fortune but I have learned that all of the little bits add up.
I have occasionally found a bargain in a charity shops that I’ve been able to go on and sell on Vinted for a bit of a profit but rarely anything significant.
I don’t want to set myself a target of how much I earn or even how many items I list but I am who I am and I’ve done some cheeky sums in my head and worked out the even selling four items a week at £5 makes £20 which is £80 a month.
5) I will be continuing to make use of cashback sites, comparison sites and voucher sites – anything that can save me money!
The little savings add up and the more little savings I can make, the bigger the impact it will have on our finances.
So, there’s this years’s five frugal intentions – I hope you all have an amazing 2025!
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