Every week I share five frugal things that I’ve done during that week just to show you that the small things you do all add up to a great frugal lifestyle where you can learn to live a fabulously frugal life.
So, before we start, I should tell you that I’m currently in LA with Miss Frugal and I actually wrote this post last Sunday, hence the slightly different post title this week. Travel is one of our family’s main motivations for being frugal and trips like this really do make it all worthwhile. It’s just me and Miss Frugal for this trip as the boys weren’t overly keen on the long flight for a short-ish trip. Hopefully next week I’ll be able to share some of the frugal things we did in LA!
1) I know I’ve shared with you before how I meal plan for when I’m not here but basically I write a super simple meal plan that isn’t as balanced as I usually like but it’s better than the alternative. If I don’t meal plan or if I plan things that take too long to prepare then they’ll just exist on beans on toast and takeaway when I’m not there so a slightly unhealthy at times plan means that I know they’ll at least eat better than they would otherwise.
I’ve done a shop based on these meals so I’m pretty sure they’ll stick to it otherwise they’d need to pop to the shop and I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen. I’ve also found a BOGOF deal from Domino’s Pizza so that’s on the front of the fridge to save money on that! I also have a snack drawer which I’ve filled with healthy(ish) snacks for if they get hungry and a plan for breakfasts and lunches too.
2) I made a batch of homemade mini cheddars and made them up into little snack bags for Master Frugal to enjoy when we were away. They’re so more-ish that it’s easy to polish them off in double quick time but I find that if I batch them up in little paper bags, they last so much longer.
I prefer paper bags to sandwich bags these days as they’re much more sustainable and these are my favourite ones. A pack of 100 is £3.40 so they only cost a little more than sandwich bags and they’re so much better for the environment.
PS. I know that’s the worst photo ever but I forgot to take one before I left so I asked Master Frugal to take one so I could add it while I was away and this was the last remaining bag – credit to him for posing it in front of the lightbox I suppose. 😉 . Shall I wow you with a photo of the mini cheddars from last time I made them instead?
3) I do love a good read when I’m on holiday and in the past, I’ve just filled up my Kindle with as many free books as I could find. When I went away to Cyprus though I decided to buy some actual books as I’d read some fab reviews of a couple of new releases and thought I’d treat myself to a good holiday read. I think it was the new Sophie Kinsella book and also the new Marian Keyes book that I bought and they were 2 for £7. I then left them in the library in the hotel and took the new Danielle Steele book in exchange which I thought was a good swap. 😉
I enjoyed reading a good book around the pool and despite loving my Kindle, especially when I read on a night in bed, there’s nothing like reading an actual book on holiday. But for this week, I thought I’d pop to our local Tesco and buy a couple of books from the charity bookstall that’s permanently set up there. I bought two books for 50p each which I think are going to be great reads around the pool.
I’ll leave them for someone else to read when I’m done.
4) I knew that Sunday was going to be a super busy day for us so I took advantage of the extra hour we got from putting the clocks back and got up early. By mid-morning, the house was spotless and I was two loads of washing in so I made some crusty bread and some of my spicy butternut squash and sweet potato soup for lunch which was lovely.
After lunch, we went for a walk to the woods with the dogs despite the fact it was freezing cold and blowing a gale but we had to come home when it started to pour down so I had a hot bath and a lovely relaxing afternoon with the kids watching Netflix before I finally decided to do some packing.
There was enough leftover soup and bread to for lunch the next day (not for Miss Frugal and I as we left Monday morning) and aside for the £1 parking costs at the woods, we spent nothing at all but had a lovely cosy family Sunday.
5) And finally, not very excited I know but I used up some bananas that were past their best by making some banana bread on Sunday morning.
I make a little cinnamon drizzle with icing sugar to pour over the top while it’s still warm and it tastes so delicious!
As usual, we’ve been having some really good discussions this week over in our Live Well, Spend Less Facebook group. We’d love to welcome you to our little community if you fancy popping in.
As always, we’d love you to join in with us by sharing your five frugal things from your week – whether it’s an Instagram picture (#5frugalthings), a blog post or even a video. Just add your link to the linky at the bottom of this post.
You don’t have to share five things you’ve done, anything thrifty or frugal that you’ve been doing is perfect.
You’re more than welcome to copy and paste the badge above but it would be even better if you could let your readers know that you’re linking up with the five frugal things linky by adding a little line to the bottom of your post like this one:
I’m linking up with this Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Five Frugal things I’ve done this week’ linky.
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