1) I had to buy the last of Master Frugal’s new school uniform this week and although it’s pretty hard to save money when most of it is compulsory, I did manage to save a little bit. I have no idea why he needs both a short and long sleeved top along with a hoody but I was a good parent and bought them all along with the school socks! I drew the line at the shorts and the tracksuit bottoms as the PE teacher told me that he’d never wear the tracksuit bottoms and any shorts were OK as long as they were black. He has a pair of black nike shorts that he’s going to wear and a pair of plain black tracksuit bottoms that he can pop in his locker for if ever they are needed. Just by not buying those two things, I saved £24.00!
2) I bought a dining room table and four chairs a while ago off ebay and for a while, I absolutely loved them (although the chairs really needed recovering) as it was just my style. It was a shabby chic style gateleg table which fit lovely in my kitchen and was a bargain at £70.00. The problem was that the gate leg style meant that you either had to sit on on angle or have a bulky chair leg between your legs which isn’t ideal. I managed to ignore it’s faults though because I loved it so much. But then one of my friends was selling her dining room table which was very similar in style but without the dodgy legs so I bought that off her for £40 and managed to sell my other one for £30 so it cost me just £10.
You can’t see properly in this photo but the base of the table matches my bureau in the background perfectly! Also this extends massively so I could easily seat 8 if I needed to.
3) Of course once I got a new table, I had to do something about those ugly orange chair covers didn’t I? I searched high and low for the ‘perfect fabric’ and I found it in the oddest place in the end! I’ll tell you more about that in the next few days but here’s a sneak peak at the new chairs following their £4 makeover. That’s right, £4.00 to recover 4 dining chairs and I think they look amazing!
I think the chairs need a lick of paint to match the table as they’re a bit darker but it’s not at the top of my priority list right now. Also, the chairs look dirty in this pic but they’re not – it’s the way they’ve been painted. Honest.
4) I might have mentioned this once or twice (probably more knowing me) but I’ve not been feeling too great lately and I’ve been taking painkillers along with the medication that the doctor has given me. The difference in price between supermarkets own brand medications and the big name brands is ridiculous and even though I bet a lot of people buy the most expensive one because they think it’s more likely to be effective, the ingredients (or at least the ingredients that count) are almost exactly the same. By buying own brand over the last few weeks, I’ve saved a small fortune.
5) Our local pound shop is selling pre-owned but refurbished CDs and DVDs (some Blu-Ray) for a pound which isn’t a surprise in itself always have a random selection for sale in there which more often that not comprises of CDs filled with sixties folk songs or dodgy Christmas songs sang by a random choir along with DVDs that almost no-one would ever watch. Here’s the surprise – some of them were actually good when we went in the other day, or at least I was impressed by them.
So, I bought the Boyzone Greatest Hits album as I lost mine and it’s nice to listen to in the car, the John Barrowman album because it’s filled with show tunes that I love and the Nickelback album for Mr Frugal. He also bought another couple that are now in his car. This little lot might not be to your musical taste but there was plenty of other ones to choose from. It’s well worth a look if you’re passing your local pound shop.
What frugal or thrifty things have you done this week?
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