Frugal Things We’ve Done During the Last Week in February

When January finally says it’s goodbyes I always start to feel a bit better mentally and physically too. Then when February decides to do the same, I feel on top of the world, looking forward to warmer times, being outdoors more often, and checking out what others are doing as we all endeavour to live better quality lives.

This week was such a good one for us in our frugal living endeavours and I will share with you some of the things that we did in an attempt to save money.

 

Frugal February and the last week activities

With February being the shortest month, it is the month where many people took part in a no-spend challenge for the whole month. We didn’t however. Like I said last time, we focused this month on doing some DIY and home renovations mainly involving decluttering and basically getting rid of too much stuff. We also found lots of uses for some of the stuff we had but that was tucked away and forgotten.

Here are five of the frugal things we did in the last week in February.

• Floral arrangement
• Dining table decor idea
• Furniture repurposing and updating
• Wallpaper picture frames
• Cosy cushions

Come see some of my handiwork…

Floral Arrangement

One night we popped into The Range just to see if we could pick up decor ideas as well as pick up any bargains that would help us in our renovations. It was brimming with ideas and as usual, we had a good time walking around and dreaming about what we could do with lots of the pieces we saw.

Well, in the section with faux flowers, we found these beautiful teals and cream coloured stems of flowers on offer. Right away I thought of an idea I had seen on Youtube to create a lovely round vase of flowers using them. I don’t even remember what we got in this round plastic container but we have had it for years.

I broke up and added some of that styrofoam packaging stuff and added it as a nice contrast to the clear colour of my new ‘vase’. I then put three strips of masking tape across the top and three going across at right angles to the first lot. This gave me some gaps in which the place the stalks of flowers which I had cut at different lengths.

 

 

All that was left to do was to position the stems of flowers in and I think my new vase looks absolutely fabulous. The green leaves with the white bits came from another bunch of red roses I’ve had for years. Do let me know what you think.

I love using fresh flowers but fake ones are even more versatile, can be washed, and work out much cheaper.

 

Dining table decor idea for the last week of February

I know I am not an interior designer or anywhere close but I do love fixing up the home and experimenting with different ideas.

Well, on one of our morning walks this week, we came across a big open field with daffodils covering one half of it. I couldn’t resist the urge to cut about six unopened stalks. They came home with me so I made an eye-catching centrepiece for our dining table. The limes were given to us by an elderly lady and I popped a lemon on top to bring the colours all together, The white flowerpot actually holds a milk bottle which houses some water and the daffodils. By the next morning, the first daffodil had opened its eyes to greet us. I love the look and it is so simple, yet it reminds me of something I have seen in a magazine before. I might have dreamt it up, who knows?

By the next day, the other daffodils had opened too.

Furniture Repurposing and Updating

Well, my attempt to do some renovating in the living room, resulted in some frustrations, truth be told. We had totally forgotten how we painted furniture before, and so used two whole days and 5 cans of while metallic spray paint from Poundland. We struggled and the overall effect up close is not as good as we wanted, but it has saved us some money so that’s good.

 

 

For the second table, we used the tv table and painted it white using chalk paint, and then a spray sealant. This one worked much better so we are pleased.

Painting it white has saved us hundreds on a new table

Wallpaper Picture frames

Fancy a look at how I got a nice feature on my living room wall for only £5.00?

Here’s how:

Purchase A3 picture frames from Poundland

Collect wallpaper samples from a shop (We went to Homebase)

Cut and frame the wallpaper samples and mount!

Here’s mine

 

 

My favourite picture frame is the one in the middle. I am thinking of using just that one in all five frames. What do you think? I’d love to know.

Cosy Cushions

Well, we needed some teal colour on the sofa so we went on the hunt for cushions. We only found cushion covers which worked out just right as the old cushions were black and purple, and we just inserted the old cushion into the new cushion covers and zipped them right up. Each one cost £3.

Living frugally is living with a purpose. We would not have been able to achieve a lot of what we have, with spending aimlessly. We are inspired by other bloggers too, and we learn so much from the frugal living decisions they make daily.

This week, we are linking with Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Five Frugal things I’ve done this week’ linky