Five Frugal Things we did this week {8th November 2025}….

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.  

Hey!

Did you miss me last week? 😁

I’ve not been very well lately so I spent most of the last couple of weeks in the house resting up and relaxing which means that money saving has taken a back seat if I’m honest although spending as much time doing nothing as I have has given me lots of time to think about my life and my own general well-being and the things that I want to prioritise in life. 

More so than ever, saving money is important so these weekly posts are even more important to me – they keep me accountable and also motivated when the savings are small as I sometimes start these posts thinking I’ve not done much that week to save money and then I start thinking about it and realise that I actually have. 

So, let’s do this…

1) Take this as your weekly reminder to always use your loyalty cards. 

This was my free lunch last week after I decided to take a walk to have a wander around our village high street. 

It’s less than a ten minute walk usually but it took me a bit longer than it normally does and I felt a bit wiped out when I got there so I had a little cup of tea and half a sausage roll in Greggs so I could have a sit down before I walked back home. They were free as I always use the Greggs app when I buy anything in there and I’d hit the number of purchases needed to get a hot drink and a bakery item free. 

Free tastes way better!

And if that wasn’t enough, I got £5 off a £30 Asda shop this week just by using my Rewards card and checking to see if there were any vouchers in my Rewards wallet at the point I was paying. 

I’ve added as many of my loyalty cards as I can to my Apple wallet so it’s easy to get to them and I feel like it’s money (or products) for free with so little effort that I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t do it. 

2) I know that prices have increased massively over the last year or so but I was stunned when I went to add a pack of mince (the 5% fat variety) to my trolley last week and saw that it was £7.19 for a pack. 

It was a large pack and I can’t remember how much it used to be but I am convinced it was about £5 ish. 

I bought it anyway and made a big batch of slow cooker mince and onions with carrots and peas added to it to bulk it out. I put about two thirds of it into a dish and topped with some mashed potatoes made from the last of the potatoes that we got from our little farm shop and made a cottage pie.   

I didn’t have any cheese to add to the top of it so it looks a bit anaemic but it tasted lovely and did four of us for tea with some extra veggies and a few Yorkshire puds on the side and there were two large portions leftover which did the next two days worth of lunches for my partner at work. 

I used the remaining third of the mince mix to pop in the freezer where it will be used when it’s just the two of us one night for tea, maybe served in a giant Yorkshire pudding or as a jacket potato topping. 

So my mince might have been more expensive than usual but the extra veg and potatoes that I added to make the meals will have been no more than £3 so for just over £10 I have got 8 meals out of it and I think that’s good going for such healthy, filling meals. Especially when you consider how easy it was. 

3) I think it’s really important to support local business as well as reducing our food miles where I can and for that reason, I do shop at our local farm store each week for the bits that I can buy in there and I generally pop to our local farmers market at least once a month. 

This does often work out more expensive so it’s a balancing act between saving money and supporting local businesses and reducing food miles but I do find that this is an area where it can be worth it to spend a little more sometimes – especially when the quality can be so much better. 

For the last three or four months, we’ve been buying the most amazing locally produced burgers at the farmers market we go to. 

We usually buy a few packs each month as they are always sold on a 3 for £12 offer and because they freeze really well, three packs of four burgers lasts us through the month easily.

I went back last Sunday morning for a little wander around the farmers market and the burgers were top of my must buy list again but the stall we’d bought them from weren’t there. I can’t for the life of me remember their name and because we’ve used up all our burger stash, I don’t have the packaging anymore.

I could wait until next month to see if they’re back again but in the meantime, I started thinking about how I could make my own burgers instead. I decided to invest in a small burger press from Amazon which cost me less than a fiver so now I can make my own instead of relying on someone else to make them for me. 

It’s not as wholesome as knowing that we’re supporting a local business and reducing food miles but at least we can continue to serve a healthier version of burgers than we can buy from the freezer section in the supermarket cheaper than I have been paying for our burgers. 

And if the stall is back next month, I might try something else from their range with the money saved. 🧺

4) I promise I won’t keep going on about it but I’ve not been feeling amazing the last couple of weeks and my lovely partner has been doing most of the cooking for us which is all good when he’s on his four days off or even his night shifts but when he does his day shifts, it’s a lot to expect as he does 12 hour days so working 6am to 6pm. 

There’s been a couple of times, where we’ve been tempted to get a take away on those shifts as it’s easy and convenient. 

This week, I got a notification on my phone to say that Subway had some magic bags that needed saving for that day so I clicked on it and found that our local subway had a few different bags available – one of which being a jacket potato bag for £4.

It said it included two potatoes, a filling in each one and a side salad so I bought the bag and sent the details to my partner to collect on his way home from work. I planned to serve with some gammon on the side leftover from our Sunday dinner so asked him to choose fillings that would go with that. 

These are the potatoes that we got, they look smaller in the photo than they actually were for some reason but trust me, they were pretty substantial. Two of the cups behind are half filled with beans and one is half filled with grated cheese. Also not in the photo is two little pots of butter and two salads made up of cucumber, tomato, lettuce, red onion, sweetcorn and more cheese. 

So we got a takeaway but a cheap and healthier version.

(We also got a few other bags at the same time which I’ll share later as I wanted to do a separate post on Too Good to Go as it’s been a while since I did a TGTG post.)

5) I popped out this week to get some more bloods taken and remembered that last time I’d driven my car, I’d noticed a headlight out. 

My partner can change the bulb on any car in no time but I thought I’d try and save him the job! 

I drove to Halfords on the way home and lifted the bonnet but there was nothing obvious that stood out as being the way to change the bulb so I had a Google and this was the instruction given…

Now it could be because my brain is mush with being off work but that makes absolutely zero sense to me. Zero! 😁

So I gave up and walked into Halfords to see how much they would charge me for a bulb and fitting and it was £18.99 which seemed like such a lot to pay. I decided that my partner would rather do it himself than me pay that so I left bulb-less. 

He rang the car parts shop he uses for car parts and picked up a bulb for £1 which he then fitted within twenty minutes – it’s usually a lot quicker and I’ve seen him change them in other cars in no time which is why I thought I could do it but it was a bit faffier than usual but a saving of £17.99 for twenty mins work is a win, right?

Not a bad week’s money saving if you ask me!

See you next week.

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