Frugal things in September

September always signals a special time for many reasons: It’s back to school usually, it shows signs of the days getting shorter, especially towards mid-September, new schools, colleges and universities for a lot of us, the beginning of Fall/Autumn, and time to look forward to Christmas. At this time of the year we tend to put away all the thinner, lighter clothes, and take out the ones that will provide us with more warmth as the chill comes in.

Here are some of the frugal things we did in September. The first one is definitely the worst tasting but the best for us healthwise.

 

Making up a batch of Nature’s Penicillin and starting on it

Guys, I don’t give my stamp of approval to any and everything so readily. But this one gets 5 out of 5 stars for me.

You might be asking what is Nature’s Penicillin. If you think of the two words, then you will get the clue to what it is. It is a concoction we heard about from a friend a few years ago. You use a few natural ingredients to blend up a great remedy to stave off any cold, sore throat, and flu when you feel it coming on.

It almost always works to get rid of the ill-health and you feel much better to be back up on your feet again.

So as the cold weather is coming on and more and more people are getting the sniffles, we get to blending the mixture and taking spoonfuls at a time throughout the day. It is honestly one of the best things I know that works and you don’t have to worry about terrible side effects. We found the recipe for Nature’s Penicillin here.

We love that this is cheap to make and can save a lot of headaches of trying to get an appointment at the doctor.

Garlic bread

September also signals a time for cosy warming meals that are quick to prepare as you have fewer daylight hours. At this time we tend to go for more soups which can be batch cooked as part of our meal planning. A quick and easy accompaniment to some hearty soup is some garlic bread.

You can use any type of bread to make your own garlic bread. All you really need is some butter and a clove or two of garlic that has been crushed or chopped finely. Fresh parsley or dried parsley flakes are optional.

Just mix the butter and garlic together and then spread it on your bread, baguette or even croissant and toast it in the oven or under the grill until crispy.

We do this all the time and the aroma just helps to bring on that Fall feeling.

A frugal tip for you is that you can make a big batch of garlic butter and freeze or refrigerate it until you are actually ready to use it. It does store well.

 

Cleaning and Stashing BBQ for next BBQ season

We have two drum barbecues that have served us well over the years. Some people choose to get rid of theirs at the end of the summer season and then get new ones for next season.

Not us. So this week we used the hose pipe to give them a good wash and then left them to air dry. They are now clean and covered, ready for the next BBQ season. Isn’t that a good frugal thing to do in September? I know who won’t need to buy a new one.

Making a Fall pumpkin from an old woolly jumper

You might have read our post last week about some of the crafts we have been doing for Fall or you might have missed our Instagram video where we showed how we made over the living room to create a cosy Fall atmosphere.

Well, Leisa outdid herself since that by creating this stunning white pumpkin to add to the decor. She used an old woolly jumper with a crocheted stem. For the filling, can you guess what she used? She used plastic shopping bags.

That’s such a frugal thing to do. Also, when we need to put away the pumpkin, we just need to remove the bags and use them so that the pumpkin can be stored flat. This will, of course, take up much less space. We do the same thing with most of our cushions too: Just make cushion covers to use on your old cushions.

 

Creating cosy scarves

Before we came to live in England almost 20 years ago, we never wore scarves. It was truly strange but now we have gotten used to it and we love wearing them.

We also like to see the array of colours, patterns and styles of scarves that people wear nowadays.

We like the fact that you can make your own scarf and customise it to suit your taste. Well, we like making crocheted scarf and almost always have one on the go. Our most recent ones have some Fall colours in. Let us know if you like them.

The stitch for this is called C2C (corner to corner). It’s very easy and relaxing to do once you get the hang of it. The yarn only cost £1 each and we used less than 2 for one scarf.

There’s something relaxing about sitting down and crocheting in the evenings especially after all the work is done. Knowing that we create something useful and customised at a fraction of the cost makes us smile too.

 

If you like this post, please consider sharing the image below on Pinterest.

 

I’m linking up with Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Frugal Friday’ linky.

 

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