This week has been a pretty good week in our house – both in the frugal and the family sense. 😉
1) For the last couple of months I’ve been organising a charity football match for work and I’ll be honest, I’ve been losing a little bit of sleep as I was worrying that we’d bitten off more than we could chew and that it would all go wrong on the day. Â I couldn’t have been more wrong as I couldn’t have ever imagined a more successful day – starting with Master Frugal scoring a penalty at his beloved Riverside Stadium and ending with Mr Frugal scoring the winning goal in the final minutes of the match.
As part of the day we had 12 children taking a penalty and I wanted to give them something special to remember their day by so when I came across 12 gorgeous silver photo frames reduced from £8 to £1 in the clearance section at Boots I was over the moon.  The only problem was that there were literally only 12 left and a woman picked 1 of them up as I started to add the rest to my basket.  She wasn’t very happy that I’d picked up the rest so I explained why I needed 12 and she very kindly gave me the one she had too!
2) Our two hamsters, Juninho and Casper, are developing cute little hamster characters and the kids are taking their role as hamster parents VERY seriously.  Miss Frugal has become a hamster expert and declared last week that they needed a hamster playpen to give them space to play.  I checked online and there really is such a thing as hamster playpens and if I was that way inclined, I could have paid £39 for one this week.  Instead I decided to make my own and went into the garage to find some materials for my project – what I actually found was a small ball pool frame that folds down to flat which has been in there since goodness knows when stuffed down the back of the fridge. Â
I used it to make our very own frugal version of a hamster playpen which the hamsters love!
3) Considering it’s half term, we’ve not done very much or spent much money this week! Â I did have plans for this week but I think sometimes, you just need to completely recharge your batteries so that’s what we’ve done. Â We’ve visited a few local parks and the woods to get out of the house and the kids have had a great time just relaxing.
It’s been just what we needed!
4) How are you doing with your Christmas shopping?
*runs and ducks for cover*
I’ve been buying the odd Amazon or Boots gift cards when I do my weekly shopping because the older the kids get, the less they ask for but the more it costs!  I just checked and I’m up to £30 in Amazon Vouchers and £20 in Boots which is a good start.  It would have been more but I used a couple of the Boots vouchers I had to buy some holiday treats.  I won a £25 Amazon card this week and I’m going to add that to the pile rather than spend it although I’m seriously tempted not to – I’d only buy something I don’t need though so i’m going to stay strong. 😉
5) As I type this, I have one eye on the weather outside as I’m hoping to get out in the garden today to start making it look pretty for the Summer. Â I’ve finally got my shed built and I want to paint that and my garden furniture up so the garden looks pretty – I have beach hut style in my head but no idea how I’ll achieve that yet. Â I’ve also found some great little posts to scatter about at the pound shop so I’m going to buy a stack of them and fill them with flowers.
Now I just have to wait for the rain to stop!
What frugal or thrifty things have you done this week?
Don’t forget to follow the ‘Five Frugal Things’ Pinterest board as I’ll be pinning all of our five frugal things photos on there. You can find it here if you want a quick peek….
Follow Cass bailey’s board 5 Frugal Things I’ve done…. on Pinterest.
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Image credit: Shutterstock, Gstockstudio
