I didn’t want to spend even a penny this week. I had had enough of frugal fails and I keep thinking that I must do better. And with this cold spell we are going through, I just wanted to stay in and get my work done. Well, I am pleased to say that I have done better than the past couple weeks and can report a few wins, which I hope will inspire you.
Before I go into the wins I had this week, can I just say just how pleased I am to link up with Cass, Emma and Becky each week. I love reading about what they do each week to ensure that the frugal lifestyle is maintained. I am learning so much! When I grow up, I want to be like them. Do check their posts each week.
Flowers
I read last week that you can actually find out when the flowers in your local supermarket are going to be yellow tagged (reduced to clear) and buy them then. I had all intentions of going to get some at my local Tesco today. But guess what? I didn’t need to. We were pleasantly surprised when the doorbell rang today and we got a lovely bunch of flowers to say thanks for a Pinterest presentation we did for other bloggers last week. So, result, I’ll save the pennies I was planning to use to buy flowers until these ones fade. Thanks to Amelia, the little group of Birmingham bloggers, and to my sissy for helping with the presentation.
Butter
We had another go at making butter today. It wasn’t because we necessarily needed butter, but because we discovered that we still had an unused tub from the half term activities we did last week. Rather than throwing out the cream, we made butter and refrigerated it. That definitely cuts down on food waste. See the post I did today about cutting down on food waste.
Surveys
One of my favourite ways to make some cheap easy money is by completing surveys. My favourite one was QMEE. I love QMEE because apart from paying for survey completion, it also pays you small amounts (which add up) when you just browse online for products. You don’t actually have to buy anything in order to be paid. This week though, I heard about another site that allows you to complete studies and then pays you. I have only just opened my account but I’m hoping to ‘grow’ some free money fast. If interested, check out the site here.
Soup
When the weather is cold, I always feel for some hearty soup. This week, we made one which was just a mix up of any vegetable left in the fridge, along with two potatoes and two stock cubes. You’d never believe that we didn’t go out and spend any money. All we did was to boil all the ingredients and use our handy stick blender to make it a smooth, warm, filling delight. Have you ever made such a soup? To me, as long as there’s some celery in it, it has a really good flavour.
Foot Soak
My feet have been feeling especially sore recently and so I called up the nearby Chinese parlour that does manicure and pedicure. I was told that for a basic pedicure, I would need £35! I had no intentions of parting with my cash so easily so I made my own foot bath and added some Epsom salts to ease the soreness. After a long soak, I dried, exfoliated and lotioned them myself. I didn’t spend a penny and was also able to get some reading and Pinterest work done while my feet were soaking. Of course, that caused the others to become jealous and so they did their own foot soak too. Here are some tips I wrote some time ago for having beautiful feet.
Snowy Weather and School closure
We live in Birmingham and, although lots of areas are at a standstill due to the heavy snowfall, we are grateful that we don’t have it so badly. The roads are still drivable and shops are still opened. We really should count our blessings. Here are some of the things we could have spent money on this week due to the bad weather:
- snow tyres
- Waterproof car cover
- Tobaggon for the kids, of course
I am hoping that my stroke of good fortune continues into next week so that my planned trip to Jamaica will come to fruition. I truly can’t wait to see what life has in store for me next week.
What has been your biggest frugal win this week? Please share in the comments below. Don’t forget to check out the ladies above to see what they have been up to this week too.
OOh a foot soak sounds fab thanks for joining in 5 frugal things