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.
Hey! 👐
1) I’ve decided to be super prepared for Christmas this year and start putting money aside weekly for our Christmas food shop with one of those Asda Christmas savings cards.
I figure if I just put £2 a week on it between now and Christmas then I’ll have plenty for our Christmas food shop and yes, I know Christmas is a long way away but I just don’t want to get there and be struggling because I have no idea what situation we’re going to be in at that point. 😟
2) I’ve been working from home loads lately (an absolute nightmare with our Wifi) and I’m super conscious that my energy bills could shoot up as the house has never really needed to be heated through the day.
I’m not one to sit and shiver to save money or to load myself up with three jumpers and a cardi to avoid putting the heating on but I have discovered that a good think pair of fluffy socks does wonders to warm me up so I don’t need to put the heating on so early in the day, if at all.
3) Have I already mentioned that my printer died at some point during the last lockdown? We didn’t use it that much to be honest so I didn’t replace it instantly but when the announcement came last month that the school’s weren’t re-opening after Christmas then I knew we were going to need a new one
We bought an HP one as we’ve pretty much always had them in the past and I’ve just got around to signing up for Instant Ink which is HP’s ink cartridge delivery service. a new way to print that’s affordable and easy. I pay a monthly fee and my printer cleverly let HP know when I’m about to run out of ink and they’ll send me new cartridges so I have them before I need them. There are different subscriptions depending on how many pages you think you’ll print a month so I’ve gone for the £3.49 a month package which means I can print up to 100 pages a month.
Considering the fact that a colour and a black cartridge costs upwards of £25 I think that’s a pretty good deal that should save us some money.
4) I often batch cook chicken in my Instant Pot to make Shredded chicken because I find it so handy to have in the freezer but I rarely do this with any other meats. Last weekend, I got some chicken breasts and a gammon joint in the reduced section so I did the usual with the chicken using the Instant Pot and cooked the gammon joint in the slow cooker and then sliced it up into little cube pieces to pop in the freezer. I’ll be able to use it as a pizza topping, in pasta bakes, in my Potato, ham and sweetcorn chowder and in so many other meals so hopefully, it’ll be a new freezer staple and I’ll be making it more often.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but shredding or cubing meat like I do means that it goes so much further. I can make a batch of shredded chicken using four chicken breasts and then portion them up into three portions to freeze – so just over one chicken breast per portion. I’ll then use one portion to add to pasta bakes, soups, nachos, quesadillas, risotto, pizza toppings and so much more.
I’m starting to use the Joie reusable silicone bags now rather than the sandwich bags (which are the IKEA resealable and reusable ones) as I’ve now used up the stash of sandwich bags I bought before I discovered these bags as an alternative. I love these little silicone bags and they’re perfect for things like this!
5) I had some broccoli that needed using up so I popped it in the food blender to make it the consistency of breadcrumbs and mixed it with some garlic, chopped chilli, chicken mince and some grated cheese and popped it in the oven to cook.
They’re little mini burgers and they tasted amazing – way better than they look! I’ve never blitzed broccoli like this before but it makes it super easy to mix with things like chicken mince to make really moist and yummy burgers. I’m going to be using broccoli loads going forward now.
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As always, we’d love you to join in with us by sharing anything you’ve done that’s been thrifty or frugal from your week – whether it’s an Instagram picture (#5frugalthings), a blog post or even a video. Just add your link to the Frugal Friday linky at the bottom of this post.
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I’m linking up with this Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Frugal Friday’ linky.
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