Every week I share five small things we’ve done to save a bit of money, make life easier or help us spend more intentionally.
None of them are usually huge on their own, but that’s kind of the point. Those small choices add up over time and give us more room for the things that really matter — whether that’s days out, holidays, home projects, treats we’ll actually enjoy or just a bit more breathing space in the budget.
It’s Friday again, which means it’s time for another Five Money-Saving Things post!
I’ve had one of those weeks where lots of little things have worked out quite nicely on the money-saving front, including a couple of things that I wasn’t even expecting to save money on. Nothing particularly groundbreaking, but that’s the whole point of these posts really, isn’t it? Just sharing the little things we do that help us make the most of our money. 😁
Anyway, here’s what I’ve been up to this week…
I made a huge batch of homemade fruit compote
I managed to pick up a big box of reduced fruit in M&S this week which was full of blueberries and raspberries so I thought I’d make some homemade fruit compote to go with my porridge on a morning.
I had a few bags of frozen fruit in the freezer that I’d bought from Sainsbury’s when they were on a 3 for 2 offer so I added those in too and ended up making a ridiculously big batch of compote for not very much money at all.
I say not very much money at all – I reckon it was about £10 all in which is actually brilliant when you consider the number of fruit compote portions I now have sitting in my freezer!
I’ve kept some in the fridge to use over the next few days and frozen the rest in smaller portions so I can just get some out when I need it.
I have porridge most mornings so I’ll definitely get through it all and it’s nice knowing that I’ve got plenty made for the next few weeks without having to spend any more money. I’m quite pleased with this one as I’ve made the most of two different supermarket offers and turned them into something I’ll use every day.
I’ve kept some in the fridge to use over the next few days and frozen the rest in smaller portions so I can just get some out when I need it. I have porridge most mornings so I’ll definitely get through it all and it’s nice knowing that I’ve got plenty made for the next few weeks without having to spend any more money.
The only thing I didn’t think about when I was making it was that I’d left out the apples I usually add, which turned out to be quite important as they bring a lot of the sweetness. The finished compote was a bit more tart than I’d planned, which leads me nicely on to my next money-saving thing…
A little loyalty card win at Holland & Barrett!
As my fruit compote was a bit on the tart side, I needed something to sweeten it up and, because I’m diabetic, I didn’t want to just tip a load of sugar into it and undo all the good work of making a healthier breakfast topping.
I decided to pop into Holland & Barrett for some sugar replacement and found what I needed for £4.25. When I got to the self-service till, I scanned my loyalty card and it asked me if I wanted to use my £4 worth of points towards my purchase.
Erm, yes please! 😂
The funny thing is that I only signed up for their loyalty scheme last month and I definitely haven’t spent enough in there to earn £4 in points already. I’m guessing there must have been some sort of joining offer that I didn’t pay much attention to, but I’m not complaining!
So my £4.25 sugar replacement ended up costing me just 25p, which I’m calling a win. And it’s a good reminder to actually use those loyalty cards because you never know what points you might have sitting there waiting to be spent!
I made some homemade candles
I had a little charity shop trawl this week looking for pretty containers that I could turn into candles and found some lovely bits for no more than £1.50 each.
I used soy wax, some tester fragrance oils that only cost around £1 to £1.50 each and had a bit of a play around making my own. There were a couple of minor disasters along the way involving wicks that refused to stay where I put them, but they turned out really well in the end and they smell amazing. 😂
I’ve written a full post about how I made them because I’m already planning another batch with Christmas scents, but this definitely counts as one of my favourite little money-saving projects from this week.
Getting into the habit of using Sprive
We’ve got into a really good habit of using Sprive whenever we’re shopping now and it’s such an easy way to save a little bit of money without really having to do anything extra.
We’ve got our little routine sorted at the checkout now so it literally takes about 30 seconds. While my partner is scanning the shopping, I get the Sprive app ready on my phone and then when he presses pay and we know the final amount, I quickly buy a gift voucher through the app and use that to pay for the shopping. It sounds like more of a faff than it actually is and now we’re used to it, we barely even think about it.
This week alone, we’ve used it for a freezer shop at Iceland, some winter PJs from Primark and a few bits from Morrisons, all things we were buying anyway so why wouldn’t we take the extra 30 seconds to save a bit of money?
We average around £15–£20 a month in rewards through Sprive which might not sound like a huge amount but the money goes straight towards overpaying our mortgage. And the clever thing is that making those extra payments means we’re also saving interest over the remaining term of the mortgage. Based on our mortgage, the interest saved is usually around the same amount again, so that £15–£20 could actually be worth more like £30–£40 in total savings.
That’s potentially around £480 a year just for taking an extra 30 seconds at the checkout whenever we shop. I know it’s not going to make us rich but for something that takes so little effort, I think it’s a complete no-brainer!
A bargain Christmas present for Miss F!
I managed to get a really good deal on Miss F’s Christmas present this week! She’d been wanting a Nespresso machine for a while so when we were out at the weekend, we went to have a look at them and she picked one she loved. It was half price at £54 which I was already happy with, but for some reason it went through the till at just £49 so that was an even better start!
They also had an in-store promotion where you got 50 free coffee pods and two free travel mugs if you bought any pods at the same time as the machine. The cheapest pack was £4.70 so that was a bit of a no-brainer. 😂 We did buy her some of the fancier flavours too and in total, we came away with the machine, 92 coffee pods (all with nice long dates on them) and two travel mugs for just under £70. She’s absolutely over the moon with it and I’ve managed to get her exactly what she wanted for Christmas without spending anywhere near what I expected!
This is the deal we got from Currys and for what we got, I think it’s brilliant. She’s had it on her Christmas list so it was probably going to happen anyway but to get such a good deal means that she can have more pressies for her present budget. 😁
As they’re adults now (how scary is that?), I want to buy them gifts that they will use and enjoy so I tell them how much they have overall to spend and they can choose what they get. I will still get them some smaller presents if I see things I know they will like but on the whole they pick their own presents now and it works really well for us all.
And that’s my five money-saving things for this week! I’m quite pleased with how this week’s turned out, especially as a couple of my savings were completely unexpected.
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And if you’re looking for some extra meal planning inspiration, you’ll find me over on my other blog, Meal Planning Made Easy, where I share simple meal plans, family-friendly recipes and plenty of ideas to make feeding everyone that little bit easier.
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