Home and Away: Five Frugal Things

When I posted on my Instagram this week about my friend’s reaction to seeing me at her fiftieth birthday party in Connecticut on Sunday, I was taken aback especially by the direct messages I got. Folk wanted to know how come I didn’t tell them I was going. Well, the truth is that it was a surprise that was planned for months.

The operative word there is SURPRISE. So I couldn’t share before it happened for fear that the news would get to her and the surprise element ruined.

You can check out my friend’s reaction here. Even two days later, she was still hoarse.

So yes, I am across the pond for the next few weeks. That won’t deter me from making savings. I will still have my frugal hat on.

I will still be sharing #FiveFrugalThings on the blog each week. Leisa will be sharing form the UK and Jo will be sharing from the States. Showing ways that we continue to grab bargains or make a saving inspires us to carry on and make our money stretch even farther.

Savings at Ihop

So my friend Dahlia picked me up on Monday morning and we went to Ihop for breakfast. It was my first time there so I could be pardoned for not knowing what they sell, right? I always thought it was a supermarket.

Well it turns out that they sell a large range of fast foods, some healthier than others, but all delicious.

I ordered the spinach and mushroom omelette and I didn’t expect it to be that big! You know what they say about food in the states.

So after I ate the accompanying bowl of fruits, and drank the hot chocolate, I could only manage half of the omelette. Luckily, they provide trays if you want to take some of your meal with you. So that’s what we did.

My friend had the scrambled eggs and ‘cheesecake flavoured’ pancakes.

Taking in the view on foot

I love to get my bearings when I’m in a new place and I wanted to explore the local streets around a bit. In order to do this, we donned our t shirts and Jeans, along with some comfortable footwear and we took a walk around the streets nearby.

So far I’ve spotted a Mexican restaurant, a pizzeria, a McDonald’s, and a Family Dollar. I like the family Dollar and I’ve already spotted a few things I would like to get for the kids but I haven’t bought them yet, since I will have some more time to look around in other shops.

Amazon Prime or not so prime

I’ve been eyeing this particular laptop on Amazon for a week or 2 now. I took note of all the specs, seller, etc. Then on Prime day I checked the same product from the same seller and found it to b £300 more!

That just reinforces for me that not because a product or shop has the word SALE on it means you will actually get the product at a discounted price.

I count that as a big blessing that I had actually checked out the product before Prime Day. I would certainly not be happy if I had bought it. This would definitely be one of those times when it pays to complain.

Now over to Leisa for her savings

Well, Hi! Leisa here.

I too have my frugal hat on. I want to tell you about some of the best savings I have made this week.

I have been looking to upgrade too to an apple laptop. I have saved up some money to get it and I was careful to not squander it on anything else but to buy what I had been saving for.

I checked around for the price and found that the best deal would be to buy the product directly from Apple. They have a deal on where you can get a ‘free’ Beats headphone along with the laptop if you are an educator and have ID to prove it or if you are a college or university student and have ID to prove it.

 

Well, my teaching days are over so I asked my nephew to use his ID to purchase it on my behalf! When I checked online for just the cost of the headphone, it was nearly £300. So I am so glad I got it. That’s one Christmas gift ticked off my list.

 

 

The girls are home now for Summer and being teenagers, they don’t get out of bed most days until past lunchtime! I let them. They are no worry to me and plus I don’t mind having a quiet house to myself so I can get some work done (especially those which require much thought). They miss breakfast so that in itself is a saving!

That’s not the main thing I want to tell you about though. They are creative girls and one has searched for, and learned how to make bracelets with embroidery thread. She found lots of ideas on Instagram, Pinterest and Youtube.

It is going well so far and she has even taught me. Now we have had those embroidery threads for years and years and each time we do a decluttering, I am tempted to throw them out as we have not done any embroidery in years. Thankfully they have come in to good use and would cost us a whole lot more if we were to buy them now. The plan is to sell them so she can have some extra money for Summer.

 

So even though we are separated by a Great Big Pond at this point in time, I’m impressed by Jo’s frugal finds and I am sure she is proud of us too. Remember to let us know how you get on with your attempts to be frugal. Have a great week.

It would be interesting to see how well we do next week, so watch this space.

xoxo