FOLLOW US

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • About
    • PRs Work With Us
  • MEDIA
  • DIRECTORS CUT
  • Contact Us
Joleisa logo
  • Frugal living
  • Eat for less
  • Start a blog
  • Recommendations

Frugal Things I’ve Done This Week- Mostly fails

This post may contain affiliate links

You will have to have some pity on me this week. I must say I have really enjoyed saving money by being frugal, and reporting on it every week. This week, I have had a hard time thinking of much that has worked in my favour. For this reason, I’ll list my frugal fails first, and then any wins at the very bottom. The hope is that you will try to avoid some of the mistakes I have made.

The old car

I’ve always heard that buying an old car is one of the things that will just drain your pocket. If it’s not one thing that needs replacing, it’s another. I am living proof!

The used car I bought for my son to learn to drive with has served us really well so far. As a result of him going on his travels, my son’s car has mostly been parked. I didn’t really mind that as it would be there when he came back and was ready to drive again.

Well, I am well aware that I do need to turn the engine over every now and again and take it for a spin to keep the battery alive I think. Well, after about 3 weeks to a month of not driving it, I switched it on last week and got nothing! After speaking to a few people, they suggested I get a jump start (called a juk start in Jamaica), and then take it for at least a half an hour drive. I was told the battery would be ok after that.

I don’t know if I had taken off my frugal living hat or what, but I told myself that I am paying for AA breakdown coverage every month so I should call them up. When the man from the AA came and hooked up the car to his device, he said that, apart from needing some water, the car was fine, except of course, that the battery was dead.

When I asked if he would suggest that I buy a second-hand battery, he said no because I could get a new one for a little over £50 from auto places, or the AA one from him for about £86 and he would fit it for free. I told him thanks, but no thanks, that I would go to the auto shop and purchase a £50 one.

As much as I like talking about saving money, I didn't do so well this week. I did some frugal things but also had some frugal fails. Life has its ups and downs. Just keep at it. Let your budget work for you.

Fail

After calling around to the auto shops near me, I found that the cheapest was over £100, including fitting. I felt so stupid as by now, I had sent the AA man on his way, having signed the document that basically said that I was satisfied that he had diagnosed the problem but that I refused the repairs.

The cheapest place I could find was Halfords. They fitted the cheapest battery for £100 including fitting. I am not happy thinking about it.

frugal things Halfords receipt

My options were:

  • Leave the car alone since it was hardly being used (£0)
  • Get the jump start and take the car for a little run every now and again (£0)
  • Purchase a cheap, used battery. Lots of cars are written off even though the batteries are good (£25)
  • Foolishly buy a new battery (£100)

What would you have done? You can leave your comments for me below. I’ll seriously have to consider selling my son’s used textbooks, or trainers, or something to get my money back.

Jamaican Food

You should know by now, my absolute love of most Jamaican foods, especially Jerk Chicken, oxtail, rice and peas and curried chicken. Well, despite me trying out, and even writing each week about our meal planning exploits, we felt really peckish the other day and made a rushed decision to go to the Jamaican restaurant nearby to get some lunch.

Fail

We really can’t justify spending nearly £20 for lunch for two! Afterall, we already had our meals planned out. I suppose you could say we let our appetites get the better of us. It would only take us half an hour to one hour if we really could be bothered to make some sort of takeaway style meals for ourselves as we always have the ingredients in anyways. True, the meals were delicious (but greasy) but our pockets and waistlines are feeling the pinch.

Snow shopping- silly me!

Last week it was rather cold and it was rumoured that we would get some Armageddon snowfall! Well, I read the news item wrongly. It wasn’t meant for us, but for Scotland. Before I figured that out, however, not wanting to get caught out, I went shopping for some canned goods and other long-life foods. We stockpiled for nothing! We already have enough of such foods in, just in case. We always have, being used to hurricanes in Jamaica. It was another £25 spend.

I don’t think the foods will be wasted, but we will have to make sure to do some proper stock rotation so that we use up what we already have at first.

And even if we didn’t have many foods in during a snow storm, I consider myself an expert in preparing exciting meals when the cupboards are almost bare. You just need to be willing to experiment with ingredients and flavours etc.

 

New Frugal gem

Do you shop at Sports Direct? Well, we have found out a little trick that we will let you in on. If you have a Sports Direct store near you, it’s worth ordering what you want online and also opt for pickup in store. The reason is that you get a free £5 voucher each time you pick up. So, for example, if you wanted to order a jogging top and bottom, make it two separate orders. That way, when you go to collect your item, you get two £5 vouchers, even if you collected them on the same day. If you ordered them together, you’d only get one free voucher for £5. last week, we made £15 that way. The vouchers can be saved up to start your Christmas shopping early. Is that a good deal or what?

Argos has a similar deal. If you ring up near to your birthday and tell them (you must have an account that they can verify), they send you two £5 vouchers for free. My sister did that and got them. We are twins, so you’d think I’d write up too, right? Well, I didn’t really believe that they would send the vouchers but they did. She’s used them to purchase a small handheld vacuum which we’ll unbox soon!

Meal Planning

The other win that I can think of is that we continue to do our meal planning and that is going fairly well. The last bag of potatoes I bought also began to sprout so we used them up this week to make a batch of delicious fish pies. You can check out the video we did for that.

It really does save money to plan ahead and get the ingredients you want to use for your meals. It’s also best to make the meal in batches, otherwise, sometimes you use some of certain ingredients and leave the rest for too long, causing you to have to throw out the rest if you had kept it too long (meat, fish and vegetables are prime examples).

When we make the meals in batches, they are refrigerated or frozen once they are cooled, depending on when we need them for. So far, it’s been doing well for us. You should try it too.

 

 

Hoping that next time we report, we would have done better, and inspire you to do better too. Have a good week, and thanks for checking in. Thanks to Cass, Emma and Becky.

Grammarly

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • More
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email

Related

Filed Under: Frugal, Give Back

About Joleisa

« Meal Planning – Fish Pies
How to get Your Child to Love Saving »

Comments

  1. Lady Janey says

    February 9, 2018 at 3:16 pm

    Thanks for this Joleisa! Think sharing the fails is a great idea as can definitely relate to them. Nothing is ever really a fail if you can learn from the experience for next time 😉

    Reply
  2. Emma Maslin says

    February 11, 2018 at 1:38 pm

    I loved that you stockpiled for a snow storm!!!

    Reply
  3. Cass Bailey says

    February 16, 2018 at 12:50 pm

    Aaaw what a week you’ve had lovely! AT least we’re in a whole new week now 😉

    Thanks so much for joining in with us x x

    Reply
  4. Esther McCartney says

    February 23, 2018 at 1:59 am

    Don’t beat yourself up too much about the failures! You live and you learn! I drive an older car, and I just replaced a battery a few months ago. It does seem like things go wrong all the time, but i still think it’s cheaper than a new car.

    Preparing for the snowstorm cracked me up! We have scares all the time in Atlanta. It never hurts to have some extra canned goods.

    Reply
    • Joleisa says

      February 28, 2018 at 6:30 pm

      Hi Esther. My sentiments exactly. We live and learn. The learning bit is very important. Thanks for stopping by x

      Reply
  5. Holly Lasha says

    February 23, 2018 at 7:28 pm

    You guys are funny! I love the fails! I do that soooo often too!

    Reply
  6. Joanna Clute says

    February 23, 2018 at 11:18 pm

    Where I live, people easily get suckered into the snow shopping thing. But I don’t blame them OR you! You would rather be safe than sorry.

    Reply
    • Joleisa says

      February 28, 2018 at 6:22 pm

      Joanna this snow has caught so many of us out! But you know what I say? Better to be safe than sorry. Certainly. Thanks for stopping by.

      Reply
  7. Kim says

    February 24, 2018 at 7:18 am

    You win some and lose some eh? That part bout the Jamaican food hit me in the soul haha.

    Reply
    • Joleisa says

      February 28, 2018 at 3:33 pm

      I know! But there are always lessons to be learned. So if we learn then that’s a plus…. and believe me, we have. If anything we will make different mistakes. lol. Anyway thanks for stopping by.

      Reply
  8. Ann says

    March 3, 2019 at 7:05 pm

    I can identify with those decisions. It’s a lesson if you think 🤔 clearly you will get the answer.

    Reply
  9. Genny says

    February 16, 2020 at 2:08 pm

    Its good to share a less good week too, we are humans and good things and not so good days happen. We should not be to affraid of a not so good day. Plus it makes us all allert, how to avoid the failes. Last but no least, without failes no shining. 😉
    I congrates to both on beautiful lessons for us all, thank you for sharing. ♥️

    Reply
    • Joleisa says

      February 16, 2020 at 2:28 pm

      Hey Lady G. Thanks so much for stopping by. We do appreciate your kind words and we know fully well that we will make mistake and failures at times.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Hey guys and gals!

Hi, we're Jo and Leisa, twin sisters and authors of Joleisa.com. Originally from the sandy beaches of Jamaica we now reside in England where we followed our calling to teach. But sometimes that call changes and our new passion is writing. We're here to give the ups and downs of it all with our lifestyle tips and tricks to help you avoid the sour lemons that can get in our way of frugal budgeting, intentional living and happiness. Join us and learn more about how we found the simplest ways to achieve easy living. Read More…

AS SEEN ON CHANNEL 5’S

We are Sociable

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Recent Posts

  • Our Word of the Week is Break
  • Easter is our Word of the Week
  • Our Word of the Week is Grateful
  • Adjust is my Word of the Week
  • Hyperkalemia is my Word of the Week

MOST POPULAR POSTS

Why we left teaching

  • Be your own boss
  • Set up a blog
  • Making money from your blog
  • Using Pinterest to help your blog
  • Fixing sleep problems
  • Frugal family fun at half term
  • Having to plan a funeral!
  • Let’s show you how we save money on food
  • Our time on Channel 5’s Shop Smart, Save Money
HIBS100 Index of Home and Interior Blogs HIBS100

Copyright © 2025 · Tasteful theme by Restored 316

Copyright © 2025 ·Tasteful Theme · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress · Log in

YOUR PRIVACY

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
 

Loading Comments...