Five Frugal Things we did this week {23rd October 2026}….

Every week I share five frugal things that I’ve done during the previous 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.  

It’s Friday again, which means it’s time for another round-up of five money-saving things I’ve done this week. This week has been a bit of a mix of making the most of what we already have, getting organised and finding a couple of bargains that I’m really pleased with.

I’ve stocked up the freezer with homemade flatbreads.

I’ve made a big batch of homemade flatbreads this week so I’ve now got a nice little supply in the freezer ready to use over the next month or so.

I know I’ve said this before but as much as I love the idea of batch cooking, I’m never going to be the person who spends a whole Sunday in the kitchen cooking meals for the week ahead. I much prefer to just make a bit extra of whatever I’m cooking anyway and pop the leftovers in the freezer for another day.

I was making flatbreads to go with our tea this week so I just doubled the ingredients and made enough to freeze a few batches. It barely took any extra effort and future me will be very grateful when I can just grab some out of the freezer rather than having to make them from scratch.

I still use my old homemade flatbread recipe but these days I make them with wholemeal flour as that’s a better option for me with my diabetes.

They’re so cheap to make and really versatile too as you can use them as wraps, tacos or even little pizza bases depending on how thick you make them. We had ours with chicken kebabs and salad this week and they were absolutely lovely, although I might be a tiny bit biased. 😁

Last year’s Halloween bargains have finally come out of storage.

This time last year was a bit of a nightmare if I’m being honest. I wasn’t very well and we were about four months into what turned out to be a ridiculously stressful house move with absolutely no idea when we’d actually get the keys to our new home.

I was trying my best to stay positive though and kept thinking about all the lovely things we’d be able to do once we finally moved in. One of those things was decorating our new house for Halloween, so when all the decorations were reduced after Halloween last year, I decided to buy a few pumpkins ready for this year.

I only bought ones that were reduced to bargain prices and then packed them all away in the hope that by the following Halloween we’d be settled into our new house and I’d be able to get them all out.

And here we are, a year later, finally in our new home and I’ve been able to get all those bargain pumpkins out of storage. It’s such a little thing but it genuinely makes me happy to see them all dotted around the house after everything we went through to get here.

I may have gone a little overboard with the pumpkins though. I bought a couple from TK Maxx this year before I remembered just how many I’d bought in last year’s sales and then I spotted another couple in a charity shop that were too nice to leave behind.

So yes, it does look as though I have a bit of a pumpkin obsession going on right now but at least most of them were bought at bargain prices. 🎃

I’ve had my flu jab.

This might seem like a bit of an odd thing to include in a money-saving post but trust me, having my flu jab is definitely something that can save us money.

I’ve been getting it for about ten years now and the two times I’ve missed it, I’ve ended up with a cold that’s turned into a horrible chest infection. Both times I was poorly for around a month and pretty much all I could manage was sleeping, coughing and feeling sorry for myself.

When I’m that poorly, all the usual things I do to keep our spending down go straight out of the window. Meal planning doesn’t happen, cooking is the last thing I want to do and there’s absolutely no chance of me standing in the kitchen making extra portions of anything for the freezer.

My partner is pretty good around the house but when he’s working 12-hour days, it’s not really fair to expect him to do everything as well. Both times I was poorly we ended up spending so much more on food because he’d just call at the shop on his way home and pick up whatever we fancied for tea.

Then there’s the cost of prescriptions on top of that. The last time I had a chest infection, before I was diagnosed with diabetes and started getting free prescriptions, I ended up needing about three courses of antibiotics, codeine to help with the cough, an asthma inhaler and something else that I’ve completely forgotten about now.

At almost £10 a prescription, that all added up pretty quickly!

Obviously a flu jab isn’t going to stop me catching every bug going but I like to think I’m doing what I can to avoid being knocked off my feet for weeks at a time. And if that means I can avoid another month of feeling awful and spending more than we need to, then that’s a win as far as I’m concerned.

I’ve saved a small fortune on our home insurance.

Our home insurance renewal came through this week and I was definitely not impressed with the price!

Our current insurer wanted £31.49 a month for buildings and contents insurance, which was around £5 a month more than we’d been paying despite us not making a single claim since we took the policy out.

There was no way I was just going to let that renew without checking what else was out there so I headed straight over to TopCashback to see what offers they had.

I searched for home insurance and found a comparison site offering £38 cashback if I took out a policy through them, so that was a good start before I’d even looked at any prices.

It took me about five minutes to get some quotes and straight away I could see that we were going to be able to save a decent amount as some policies were coming up at around £14 a month.

I had a look through the different options rather than just going for the cheapest and ended up choosing LV=, which had a great Defaqto rating and came in at £16.17 a month.

That’s a saving of £15.32 every single month, or £183.84 over the year, just for spending a few minutes comparing prices. Add on the £38 cashback and that’s a potential saving of £221.84 over the next year, assuming the cashback tracks and pays out.

I’m pretty pleased with that!

And if you don’t already use TopCashback, it’s definitely worth having a look. I’ve been using it for years and always check it before buying anything online or renewing things like insurance. Here’s my refer a friend link if you fancy signing up and getting a £10 bonus. 😁

I’ve found a £1.50 version of a lamp that I loved for £195.

I’ve been looking for a lamp for the shelf in our living room for ages but I wanted something a bit different to the usual ones you see everywhere.

I found one online a while ago that I absolutely loved but the lamp base alone was £195, which is just not the kind of money I’m going to spend on a lamp when we’ve got so many other things to do around the house.

It was very pretty though, wasn’t it?

Anyway, I put it out of my mind and decided I’d just keep an eye out for something similar that didn’t cost quite so much.

Then last week, when I was walking into the village, I spotted a lamp base for just £1.50 and I couldn’t believe how similar it was to the expensive one I’d been looking at.

OK, it’s not exactly the same but it’s definitely got the same sort of look and if you squint a bit, you can barely tell the difference. 😂

Mine is actually from Next and when I had a look online afterwards, I found pre-loved versions of the same lamp selling for £35 upwards, so I’m even happier with my £1.50 bargain.

I just need to find the perfect lampshade for it now, ideally for another bargain price, and then it’ll be ready to go on the shelf.

I’m so pleased I didn’t give in and buy the expensive one because I genuinely love this one just as much and I’ve saved myself a ridiculous amount of money.

And that’s my five money-saving things for this week! I’m especially happy with the home insurance saving because that’s money we’ll be saving every single month without having to do anything differently, but I think my favourite has to be the £1.50 lamp. You know how much I love a good second-hand bargain and this one is definitely up there with my favourites.

If you don’t want to miss future posts, you can add your email address to the subscribe box on this page and new posts will land straight in your inbox. You can also follow along over on my Facebook page or on Pinterest for more money-saving ideas, recipes, family life and everything else I share on Frugal Family.

And if you’re looking for some extra meal planning inspiration, you’ll find me over on my other blog, Meal Planning Made Easy.

Do your future self a favour – Pin this post for later.