Almost one Thousand Pounds in Savings in one Week!

I’m excited about the five frugal things post this week. Can you tell? Look again at the title? Well, here’s how we did it. You can skip to number 4 if you want to go straight to my favourite this week. But then again, why would you want to miss out on ideas for ways in which you can spend less and save more?

Extra Moisturising Cream

My favourite cream to use is a Nivea one in a tube like those that toothpaste comes in. I love it and my skin does too but I am often fed up with some extra bit of cream which wants to remain in the tube. No way! My hard earned cash is not going to waste! So this week I decided to take out my frustration on the tube. I cut the bottom of the tube off and was able to access all the remainder of the cream. I don’t think that’s being ‘too frugal’, do you? The landfills don’t need all that cream.

 

 

Entertainment Bundle

I know I have titled this paragraph entertainment bundle but I don’t really mean that! I think that there is enough on TV that we don’t really have time to pay for and watch any more. Anyway, what I do have from my provider is landline and broadband service. Strictly speaking, I don’t need landline service. But since I cant have broadband without the phone, I had to have both. I don’t even know what the number is.

Anyway, I have noticed that the bill keeps creeping up so that it is now even more expensive than that of people who have TV, broadband and phone service. I was getting really depressed by it all. I decided to shop around and check other providers. As part of the check, I did a speed check on Moneysupermarket.com to see how the service I have would compare with those on offer.

Well, it seemed I was already getting the best speed available. (I was also dreading having to tell the teenagers that the internet is now going to be slower. I might as well tell them their life was going to be over. You know what teenagers are like!) So I decided on a plan. With all the bravado I could muster, I called Virgin Media and informed them of my intention to stop the service as it was costing me too much and I could not afford it anymore. Virgin Media staff do have the power of persuasion! I give them that! To cut a long story short, they reduced my monthly bill by almost £20 so I decided to stay with them!

 

Sumptuous Summer Salads thanks to Aldi’s Super Six

In my favourite supermarket, in addition to the cool deals they always have on offer, they have a section of the supermarket dedicated to 6 items that are super cheap for the week. That’s my first place to stop whenever I go shopping. Well, this week, so many fruits and vegetables were on offer, we decided to indulge ourselves and buy enough to make some juicy, fresh salads as part of our meal planning for this week. They came in super handy and were inexpensive and full of vitamins and minerals. We visited a friend in the hospital and took her one of the jars of salads and she was super impressed.

See me making the salads here.

 

Switching energy suppliers

For years I had been with British Gas for both fuels and I wasn’t careful enough to check whether I could get a better deal elsewhere. It’s easily done, isn’t it?  When you live the busy life of a teacher, you are drained and sapped of energy and tend to feel too tired to look at another sheet of paper or document showing more figures (or anything for that matter). I was working and could afford all the bills, even when they sent letter after letter saying that the bills for both gas and electricity were going up.

 

Well, after 12 years of British Gas, I finally heard about Money Supermarket, put in a few details about my home in terms of size etc and made the switch to NPower. It wasn’t the cheapest, but I decided to go with it as it offered to lower my bills somewhat.

 

This week, I heard that NPower was about to increase their prices again! So before I received the official email from them, I made the switch again with Money Supermarket This time, I went with the cheapest which is going to save me over £400! I immediately told my Twinnie to put her details into Money Supermarket to see if she could get a deal too. Guess what? She got a saving of over £400 as well. My lesson from this is that as soon as they said you a notification that your bill is going up, go to Money Supermarket and switch! It takes about 4 minutes and you don’t even have to discuss anything with your old supplier!

 

And here’s the other one

Hair Care

I love to feel pampered. I love to have my head back in a shampoo basin in a posh salon whilst the hairdressers work their magic to make me beautiful. What I don’t like, however, is the cost associated with black-hair-care. It used to cost me an arm and a leg for the 3 of us to get our hair done at the hairdresser. That is until I decided to take steps to ensure that we could do it for ourselves at home. So this week, all three of us got our hair done at home at a fraction of the cost that we would normally pay at a salon. That was a saving of over £75.

Come to think of it now, the savings we have secured for ourselves this week total over one thousand pounds. I am so happy for the frugal journey that I am on. You would be happy too if you decide to adopt this lifestyle. Look for where you can make savings, haggle, plan ahead, learn how to do some tasks so that you don’t have to pay exorbitant rates. It pays to complain sometimes too. Even if you only recognize small savings, embrace them, they soon add up.

Be sure to tell us about any savings you have made that can inspire the rest of us. Have a great week. This week I’m linking up with Cass Emma and Becky in this week’s Five Fabulously Frugal things I’ve done this week.

Jo and Leisa