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! 👐
Even before I start writing this post, I know I’m going to struggle to get to five things because I’ve not really done too much of anything at all if I’m honest. Let’s see how we get on though…
1) Miss Frugal and I went charity shop shopping last weekend for the first time in ages and we found some brilliant little bargains which I’ll probably tell you more about in one of my monthly pre-loved bargain posts but there was one purchase that I’m super pleased with that I wanted to share today.
I bought the cutest little black crossbody Coach bag for £2.99 from the Oxfam shop – what a bargain! I think Coach is a bigger brand in the US than here in the UK to be fair but I love Coach bags and have a couple that I’ve bought from TKMaxx and the store at York designer outlet. They’re usually pretty pricey though and looking online, this particular bag is selling for anywhere between £68 and £102 which makes the £3 I paid an absolute steal.
I know charity shops are usually brilliant at spotting the designer items but I think they missed this one as it’s not very in-your-face with the branding. It was the fabric pattern that gave it away to Miss Frugal who shouted me over and at first, we thought it must have been a copy at that price but it’s really not and I’m really pleased with my bargain.
2) Lunches this week have been soup as I’ve been working from home and trying to save on pennies and calories at the same time. Yesterday and today’s soup was made with some random frozen butternut squash that I had in the freezer to be used up, a pack of just about past their best tomatoes, and a bit too much chilli and garlic.
I then added a bit too much pepper resulting in a soup that had more than a little kick to it but it was good for me and gave me the chance to use up some random ingredients so cost me nothing really.
3) Did you see my post about my exercise bike this week?
Honestly, I won’t bore you again but I will just say that it’s definitely the way forward if you’re looking for a way to save money on going to the gym or paying for spinning classes. I’ve been popping a YouTube Spinning class tutorial on, turning up the volume and joining in with that at home this week and I’ve loved it.
I’ll not lie and say that I’ve been able to keep up with it all the way through but I’ve done an OK job and even when I’m not doing a full-on session, I can quite happily cycle away at a moderate speed for a long enough session that I know it’s doing me good.
I’ve even moved the bike outside a few times this week when it’s been nice!
4) Master Frugal uses a special shampoo on his hair as he can be prone to a bit of an itchy scalp and this shampoo is the only one that stops that from happening. It’s called Nizoral and isn’t cheap at £6 something for a 60ml bottle but worth it because it’s the only thing that works for him.
I was picking up a prescription for Miss Frugal (don’t even go there – she’s fine now but gave us a bit of a panic mid-week) and noticed a larger bottle of this shampoo behind the counter which, it turns out, cost £3 more than the smaller bottle for pretty much double the amount of shampoo which felt like a bargain.
Anyway, fast forward to this morning and I’m sat writing this post thinking I’d find this magical shampoo online so I could show you what it looks like and I found it on Amazon – EVEN CHEAPER! And I discovered from the reviews that it’s recommended to prevent hair loss, to treat dandruff and to soothe eczema so it’s a good little all-rounder.
I’ll be honest, I’d pay the higher price for this every day for the comfort it brings him but to find it with such a saving is a definite win. And if you’re interested, here it is on Amazon (that’s my affiliate link by the way).
5) Well, I wasn’t convinced that I’d get to five this week but we made it! 😇
We had some strawberries to use up and I convinced Miss Frugal to make a cake for us using them and some ground almonds that I found at the back of my baking cupboard when I had a tidy out a while ago. It tasted way better than it looked!
I think she said she missed the step where you covered it up with baking paper for the last part of the cooking time and she’s very relaxed with measurements and swapping ingredients about so the person who takes the first slice is always taking a bit of a risk. 😂
It tasted amazing and I’d love to share the recipe but she went so rogue that she’s not even sure what she added and replaced from the recipe she was ‘following’. I think we’re going to try and recreate this weekend with frozen raspberries or cherries as we have some in the freezer.
Come over and join our fab Facebook group – Spend Less, Live Better! We’ve hit 35,000 members in the group now so it’s a great place to be and I’ve got Miss Frugal in there helping me out now.
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.
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 ‘Frugal Friday’ linky.
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