Every week I share five small things we’ve done to save a bit of money, make life easier or help us spend more intentionally.
None of them are usually huge on their own, but that’s kind of the point. Those small choices add up over time and give us more room for the things that really matter — whether that’s days out, holidays, home projects, treats we’ll actually enjoy or just a bit more breathing space in the budget.
I feel like this week’s five have got a definite autumn feel to them and I’m very much here for it. 🍂 The darker nights are creeping in, we’re starting to think about getting the house ready for colder weather and I’ve somehow convinced myself that next year is going to be the year I finally get to grips with the garden.
As always, none of the things we’ve done this week are huge money savers on their own but there’s a bit of using what we already have, getting something back on money we were spending anyway and finding ways to make things work without automatically going out and buying something new.
And there’s even a tiny bit more knocked off the mortgage which always makes me happy.
We knocked a little bit more off the mortgage
Whenever it’s one of the kids’ birthdays, they get to choose where we go out for tea and last week we finally managed to have Miss Frugal’s belated birthday meal. She was away for her actual birthday and then she came home just as her brother went away so trying to get everyone in the same place at the same time has been hard work. 😂
She chose Nando’s which, to be fair, was probably one of the cheaper birthday meal choices that have been made in the last couple of years.
We used Sprive to pay the bill which meant we got £6.60 cashback on something we were paying for anyway. That £6.60 going off the mortgage saves us just over £8 in interest too, so altogether it’s around £15 that we don’t have to pay towards the mortgage.
It takes less than a minute to use Sprive and costs us nothing, so I really don’t see why we wouldn’t do it. If I realised I’d left £15 sitting on the table in Nando’s as we were walking out, I’d absolutely walk back across the restaurant to pick it up and this feels exactly the same to me. Not doing it would just feel like leaving money on the table.
None of these little amounts are going to make a huge difference on their own but the more we do it, the more they add up and Sprive is currently predicting that if we carry on doing what we’re doing then we’ll shave a whole year off our mortgage just from this.
For less than a minute here and there when we’re spending money anyway, I’ll take that.
We used paint we already had for the ensuite
Our ensuite makeover is finally finished! I’m not sharing a photo just yet because there’s a whole post coming on that one and I don’t want to give it all away, but one of the easiest savings we made was on the paint.
I spent longer than I’m willing to admit standing in B&Q looking at paint colours and was torn between a few different whites and creams. My partner eventually pointed out that the ensuite is a pretty dark room because it doesn’t have any windows, so surely most of the colours I was looking at were going to look pretty similar in there anyway.
As soon as he said it I realised how pointless it was to keep faffing about trying to choose the perfect shade. We already had some Farrow & Ball Dimity left over, we know we love the colour and we were bringing all the drama into the room with the panelling we’d chosen for above the sink unit anyway.
So Dimity it was and we spent absolutely nothing on paint. And now it’s all finished I’m very glad I listened to him, although obviously I won’t be making a habit of admitting that. 😂
We made ourselves a potting bench
Last month we bought some slate from a salvage yard with grand plans to make a table and a little bench for the garden but, now we’re heading into autumn and winter, we decided we’d probably get much more use out of a potting bench instead.
I really want to get to grips with our garden next year and I’m completely convinced I can do it, despite not having much evidence to back that up just yet. 😂 I wanted a little potting area at the end of the garden as a starting point and this is step one. Step two is a little greenhouse of some kind, but that’s a battle for next year.
The potting bench itself couldn’t really be any simpler. It’s literally one of the big slate slabs laid across some slate bricks that we already had and I love it. It cost us nothing extra to make, we’ve used something we already had rather than buying a potting bench and if we change our minds in the future then nothing is permanent so we can just turn it back into something else.
For now though, I have my little potting area ready for all my grand gardening plans for next year. What could possibly go wrong? 😉
I planted some rocket in a free potting tray
I think I’m getting a bit carried away with my plans for the garden next year because no sooner had we made the potting bench than I wanted something to actually grow on it. 😂
I got a shallow potting tray for free from the garden centre recently and it’s about 10cm deep, so rather than buying anything fancy to get started I’ve filled that with compost and planted some rocket seeds. I love rocket anyway so if it actually grows then it’s something we’ll genuinely eat rather than me growing things just for the sake of it.
It might grow a bit slower at this time of year but I’m hoping I’ll be able to pick the leaves as we need them and leave the rest to keep growing. And if the weather gets too bad then the tray is small enough that I can move it somewhere a bit more sheltered.
So my grand plans to get to grips with the garden next year have officially started with a free tray, some rocket seeds and a potting bench made from old slate. I’m practically a professional gardener at this point. 😉
I restocked the bird cafe on a budget
We popped to the garden centre this week and I spotted some suet balls and pine cones for the birds, but they were £6 each which felt a bit much to me compared to what we usually pay. I did still want some though because the birds seem to enjoy them more than my homemade bird feeders, so I decided to have a look elsewhere before paying that much.
So, on the way home we stopped at Home Bargains and I found basically the same thing for 99p each, which felt much more reasonable and let’s face it, if something is going to be cheaper anywhere then it’s going to be cheaper at Home Bargains or B&M!
The bird cafe is now fully restocked, the birds are happy and I’m very glad I didn’t just buy the first ones I saw.
So that’s this week’s little wins and I think the homemade potting bench might be my favourite, although that could just be because I’m currently very enthusiastic about my new career as a gardener. Ask me again when it’s freezing cold and my rocket has refused to grow. 😂
We’ve saved a bit, used things we already had and knocked another little bit off the mortgage without really feeling like we’ve gone without anything, which is pretty much what these posts are all about for me these days.
And now I’m off to admire my free tray of rocket and pretend I know what I’m doing. 😉
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