Five little things that have saved us money this week {17th July 2026}….

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.

1) We’re starting off strong this week with a bargain buy that we just couldn’t leave behind. 😁

I’ll share more about it in this month’s pre-loved finds post but, in a nutshell, we spotted a vintage fireplace complete with a marble hearth and back panel for just £50. It was far too good a bargain to leave behind, even though we weren’t planning on redecorating the living room until next year.

It’s one of those purchases that’s a long-term saving rather than an immediate one. We’d already planned to replace the fireplace at some point, but finding this one at such a bargain price means we’ve been able to do that part of the room much sooner and for a fraction of what we’d expected to spend. We’re still holding off on decorating the rest of the room for now, but even with everything else exactly the same, the new fireplace has already made such a difference and looks so much happier in there.

2)Last Saturday, Asda had one of those offers where you could save £5 off your shopping if you spent £15 between 5pm and 8pm because England were playing Norway.

I’d already been to the farm shop and just needed a few bits to go with the jacket potatoes we’d planned for tea, along with some washing capsules that I’d run out of. I popped into Asda on the way home, picked up some salad, a few extras and my wash capsules, and because I’d spent just over the £15 minimum, £5 came straight off at the till.

By the time I’d taken the discount off, the bits I’d bought for tea had effectively cost me nothing. We’d already bought the potatoes from the farm shop, so our salad and all the extras were covered by the discount. I do love it when an offer actually saves you money on things you were going to buy anyway, rather than tempting you to spend more just to get a deal. 😁

3) Did you see my homemade energy balls earlier this week.

I had a random box of muesli that was sitting at the back of my pantry so I decided to make some homemade energy with it. I’ve been meaning to have a go at making energy balls using oats for a while but I haven’t gotten around to it so when I spotted the muesli, I thought I’d finally give it a go. 

They turned out really well so I’ll definitely be making them again! 

A pack of shop-bought protein or energy balls can easily cost £1.50–£2, but this homemade batch made 20 for a fraction of the price and what made it even cheaper was that I only used things I had in the pantry already!

4) I bought a huge box of tomatoes from our local farm shop for £5 last weekend and spent half of Saturday making tomato soup with them. 

I’ll be honest though, I under-estimated how long it would take to turn just short of 7kg worth of tomatoes into tomato soup!

I now have a freezer-full of delicious tomato soup.

5) I bought a new meal planner from the festival of thrift a couple of weeks ago and it looks so much prettier than my old one. It doesn’t save us any more money or make us any more organised but it looks cute sitting on the kitchen counter so it makes me happy. 😁

We’re trying to sort through our freezers at the moment as they’re so full that we can’t fit much else in there. 

Every day this week, we’ve used up something from the freezer to try and make some space and we managed to clear a small amount – which I then filled with my batch cooked tomato soup. 🍅

It did mean that our shopping this week cost a fair amount less than usual which is always good! 

And that’s pretty much it for this week!

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