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! 👐
It feels like forever since I’ve shared one of these weekly posts but I’ve not been well (you can read more here if you’re interested. Spoiler Alert: it’s not that exciting) so I’ve not been up to anything exciting and even if I had, I wasn’t up to writing a post.
I’m feeling a bit better now though so I’m back and I’ve actually got some things to share with you…
1) I’ve talked plenty of times about the Too Good To Go app which is an app you can use to buy food at reduced prices from local retailers to save them from having to waste it because it’s going out of date. I’ve managed to get a couple of really good Magic Bags from them recently including a couple from a local diner who do healthy home cooked food which comes all portioned up in containers that just need to be microwaved for 4 minutes.
I won’t lie, the portions are small but they’re a macro-based meal prep diner so they’re very focused on the ingredients and nutrients to help people who want to lose weight or maintain your current weight. I like them more because they’re tasty and homecooked and a great deal when you consider that I only paid £4 for the above selection. This bag was made up of two salt and pepper chicken meals and one chicken tikka meal.
Don’t tell anyone but I ate the two salt and pepper chicken ones for my tea as I was super hungry and Master Frugal had the chicken from the tikka in a wrap with some lettuce and curly fries for his tea.
The potatoes from the chicken tikka meal were used the next day for lunch with some eggs that I also got from a Too Good to Go bag in an omelette with some tomatoes. I know it doesn’t look as appetising as it could but it tasted lovely and filled me right up.
Here’s more about what I’ve had in Too Good To Go Magic bags before if you fancy trying it out for yourself. It’s a risk you take as you never know what you’re going to get in a bag and some are undoubtedly better than others but I’ve not had too many disappointing bags yet and I’ve had quite a few bags since I first discovered the app.
2) I saved myself some money by switching from Virgin Media to Sky once our contract ended. I used the refer a friend scheme which should have meant that we both got £75 but we had difficulties getting it applied and after a terrible experience trying to get through to someone on the phone, I did some Googling and emailed the CEO’s office to formally complain.
I saved so much time and frustration doing that as I got a call the next day from the Exec team who looked into what had happened and credited both of our accounts within 24 hours as well as finding my friend a better deal for their existing contract saving him £10 a month.
I’m not a big complainer but when I do, I often go straight to the top (I used to work for the exec office of a large financial company so I know that this gets things done quickly) and often get speedy results. I’ll often email the CEO of a company with praise too so it’s not just complaints that I go straight to the top for. 😂
This is the site I use usually but you can just Google ’email address of CEO for ….’ to get the same info.
3) We’ve turned on our heating as it was just too cold not to but we’re being even more conscious of the costs of energy this year so we have it on for as little as we can. There’s only me and Master Frugal here now and neither of us is a fan of having it on as it makes the house feel stuffy to us so we have it set for an hour in the morning and a couple of hours at night – it takes the chill off the air and we can always pop it on manually if it’s too cold.
I think I said in my last frugal things post in September that I’d bought a super thick fluffy snuggly top from Primark to keep me warm if I do get cold rather than popping the heating on and this plus some thick socks is really helping me avoid pitting the heating on through the day. I bought mine from Primark in August when we were camping as there were a couple of colder nights and I wanted something there and then – it was £20 which I thought was a bargain when I bought it as it was exactly what I needed but actually, they do have cheaper on Amazon if you want to buy yourself one to keep warm.
If you have a look here (aff) then you’ll find a huge selection to choose from in lots of different styles and designs – I’m tempted to get a full-length one myself. 😂
I also have this amazing quilt that Jen from Mum in the Madhouse made me on my bed on top of my usual quilt so I’m super snuggly warm at night. How beautiful is it?
I may have gotten a little bit teary when she gave it to me! 😁
4) I had a little ding in my car – completely not my fault as I was reversing and a signpost came out of nowhere and hit my bumper. Luckily there wasn’t too much damage to either party with just a light scratch on my car and I know someone who (after telling me off for not being careful) was able to sort out the damage in no time.
I can’t remember what it was he used to repair the damage but apparently it cost under a fiver and if I hadn’t done it then I would have had a rusty bumper in no time which isn’t what I want at all! I’m now inspired to have a go at sorting out the scratches on the back of Miss Frugal’s car as she scraped along a wall a couple of weeks ago…
I think it might be beyond repair but I’m going to give it a go. If it works, I’ll share how I get on.
5) I’ve had a really good declutter of my garage which involved two tip runs and lots of giving away of things to people I know or my local charity shop. Some of the things I’ve passed on are my freezer and my tumble drier because I can do without them and not having them will save me money.
The freezer was the one I got from my Dad a few years ago and when there were four of us living at home, it was amazing but now there’s just the two of us, we just don’t need it so there’s no point having it sitting there using up energy. And the tumble drier has barely been used so someone else might as well have the benefit of that rather than it sitting there gathering cobwebs and dust.
I also got rid of lots of other things so I have a lovely space in my garage to start accumulating more junk. 😂
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