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.
Hey! 👐
Just in case you get a bit confused, I wrote the first three things here just after the winds that hit a few weeks ago and the last two just this last week as my life has been chaotic to say the least the last couple of weeks for a couple of reasons – nothing bad but I literally haven’t had time to open my laptop to read an email never mind write a blog post.
Safe to say that my carefully planned blogging schedule for 2025 went out of the window for January but life is quieter again now so I am hoping that I can get back into things because if nothing else, blogging about the things I do to save money genuinely makes me feel more accountable.
1) It’s not often that I share a picture of me on here. 😉
This is me in my new coat which I bought in the sale for £24 reduced from £80 and I love it. I’ve been in need of a new coat for a while but I’ve been putting off buying one as I couldn’t find the ‘perfect’ one.
I wanted warm but not too warm, padded but not too padded and long but not too long.
Honestly Goldilocks has nothing on me!
I found this one in a garden centre we went to as we’d been told they had a good range of sheds which we’re in need off after last week’s storm which took out our shed! We didn’t find a shed but I found this bargain which is exactly what I was looking for – it’s a good make too but I can’t remember what it is and it’s currently in the back of the car and it’s way too cold to go look for you.
I knew that I needed a coat and I’d set aside some money to buy one when I found the one I wanted so the £40 that I’d moved into one of my money spaces in Starling (like mini savings accounts) was more than enough and I transferred the rest into my holiday fund.
I won’t lie, if I hadn’t have moved money over for a coat when I ripped my last one, I wouldn’t have been able to buy this bargain as it was close to payday when I spotted it and January was a looooooong month!
2) We used our National Trust membership this week for a free day out visiting both Brimham Rocks (again) and Fountains Abbey for a cold but fun afternoon outside.
I love our annual memberships as we use them so often and I know that we can always have a good day out for the cost of a picnic and a flask of hot chocolate! January is a tough month where every penny counts and a day out like this without having to pay out anything is fantastic!
3) This photo made me sad this week when I saw it on Facebook! It’s the street where I grew up and the tree is one that I’ve watched through many seasons from being bare as it is now to being blossom filled in the Spring.
The wind was horrific wasn’t it? I hope no-one was impacted too much.
The reason I’ve been a bit quiet here is that we’ve been super busy as two walls of our shed were literally blown away and we’ve been spending lots of time emptying what was left and finding places to store everything that was in there while taking down the rest of the shed as I have no idea how it was still standing.
We’ve saved money because we’ve not just jumped into buying a new shed which we could have done. We had three options – the first was to buy what we could afford right now which wasn’t exactly what we wanted, buy one on credit now which would have meant the right shed but having to pay for it monthly and pay interest or waiting and saving for the one we want.
We took the third option so we don’t have a shed but everything is stored in our Summer house until we are ready to buy the one we need.
4) I bought a drinks bottle from one of the charity shops in our village for £4.00.
I had a Chilly’s bottle a few years ago and never had any problems with it leaking but I left it on a train and bought a cheaper one instead which leaked all over my bag one day which really put me off carrying my own drinks bottle around with me.
I’m really conscious now about the amount I drink every day so I’ve been considering buying a Chilly’s bottle again (mainly because I trust the brand) but they’re pretty expensive at £20+.
This cute one came in it’s original box with the tags still on it so I’m super pleased with my bargain.
Being diabetic, I drink a lot so having a refillable drinks bottle again is going to help me drink more and spend less.
5) Just a small one to end with this week but the small things add up, don’t they?
This was one of my batch cooked soup portions from a couple of weeks ago and I had it for my lunch yesterday when I was having a super busy day at work.
On a bad day, with nothing in the freezer, I would have popped to the shop which is literally two minutes walk from my house. I would have bought a sandwich and come straight back and eaten it at my desk.
Cooking this took the same amount of time as my walk to the shop would have done and it was much healthier for me – despite the fact that when I made it, I mis-estimated the carbs in it so it was a bit higher in carbs that something I would eat for lunch usually. I made it work though with less carbs for tea so I was still within my goal for the day.
So, there’s this week’s five frugal things – I hope you’ve all had a happy Frugal week!
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