This week’s five frugal things round up demonstrates once again how the small things count and really can add up. A conscious approach to our spending every day means that we rarely waste money (I won’t say never!), so have enough for things that are important to us. An example is our upcoming holiday to Wales. We have been adding to our holiday spending fund. Every penny counts!
Family gathering, Father’s Day
I am fortunate to still have both my parents. This week my lovely dad was 87. It was also Father’s Day last Sunday, of course. We could have gone to a restaurant and spent a load of money. Instead we went for a more relaxed approach and gathered at the home of my brother and sister in law. They made us a lovely afternoon tea and we raised a few glasses.
Since I have to be careful what I eat this suited me – M&S do a great gluten and lactose free range and they bought lots of bits to try.
Stuff for the freezer
We will be off on holiday soon leaving my daughter in charge. When she is at university she shops a lot at Iceland so I plan to stock up on some easy meals and ingredients for her whilst we are gone. The advantage of frozen over fresh if she is just feeding herself is that there is a lot less waste. She can eat more varied meals and just defrost what she needs.
I don’t want to leave her burgers and chips though – she tries to eat healthily. I will go for things like their zesty bean quinoa, which is not a bad price at £1.69, some of their Mumbai street food range (which actually looks rather nice), pizzas, loads of frozen vegetables, smoothie mixes and things like sweet potato chips. I shouldn’t need to spend too much to set her up for the week.
Reading material
I used to love fiction and read loads when I was younger. Now I prefer non-fiction books. I think this is because I don’t have enough time to really get into a book and lose the plot (literally). Non-fiction books are easier to pick up and read for ten minutes.
I had an Amazon voucher for my birthday and decided to buy some books for my holiday. Obviously I tried to get them second hand!
Two were available but one I had to buy new. Now I have plenty to read on our holiday. I bought The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy, The Million Dollar Blog (if only – I can but dream) and Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work That Matters.
You can probably tell from these choices that my mind is on both money and work! Let’s hope they are as inspiring as they sound. There is lots going on at work. I can’t go into it but it’s an unsettling time.
eBay charges
I listed a couple of things on eBay this week. Now, you know that generally I enjoy selling on eBay and find it pretty easy. However, they have introduced some changes recently that really irk me. I even had a bit of a moan at them on Twitter about it.
Firstly, they have started defaulting your settings to auto relist. Auto relist is something they charge customers for. It therefore seems an under hand and sneaky way to take money from their customers. Fair enough if you want items to auto relist – it is handy and I have used it in the past. However, if I want to keep my costs down I don’t. When I go to relist manually it turns the auto relist button back on so you need to actually notice that it has reverted back to auto relist. If you don’t you will be charged!
The other thing that is annoying me is around allowing customers to make an offer. For low price items I don’t always allow offers. Now eBay has decided to turn those on after a while whether I want them to or not. I think that if I wanted to accept offers that is how I would have set it up.
However, until eBay have some serious competition, which they don’t really, I expect they will do what they like.
Mercari
Another online vehicle to sell you unwanted stuff is Mercari. I listed about 10 items on their recently, but hadn’t had any interest. This week I finally sold something! As I say, I don’t think it is stiff enough competition for eBay just yet.
What I like about Mercari is that it is an app and very easy to use. What I don’t like is that it won’t let you list postage separately – it has to be included in the price. This is good for the buyer I guess, as they can see the total amount they will pay. However, if you are used to selling on eBay it is easy to forget the postage is in the cost and accept an offer that is too low. If I have a dress that costs, say, £6 and someone offers me £4, I mustn’t forget that just under £3 of that will actually be the postage cost. That would mean one whole pound profit on the deal – hardly worth the effort.
If you fancy giving it a go, you could use my recommend a friend code and get £2 to spend: XATXYQ.
So, these are my frugal things this week. The small things count and add up to something significant I believe. Any frugal achievements to report this week?
As ever, I am linking up with Cass , Emma and Becky in this week’s Five Frugal Things I have done this Week linky.
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Margaret Powling says
Belated birthday greetings to your father. What a lovely birthday he must’ve had, with the family around him. Much nicer to have it at home – we tend to celebrate at home whenever possible.
Oh dear, your reading matter, Jane! I thought you were going on holiday. HOLIDAY, dear girl! You are taking work-related reading material! You might as well take your accounts to work on, too, or some spread sheets, ha ha! Is this really your holiday reading? What about a lovely heart-warming novel? No Veronica Henry or Erica James? Perhaps something a bit different, Ella Griffin’s The Memory Shop or The Flower Arranger? Or a lovely historical novel by Charlotte Betts or Katharine McMahon? Or non-fiction which isn’t work-related? OK, OK, you enjoy reading about how to become a millionaire! Meanwhile, I’ve just won £10 on the postcode lottery! I’m on my way to becoming a millionaire, too … the next one could be the biggy!
Margaret P
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
I just wouldn’t get into them! I need something meaty . I know! I’m odd
Susan says
My holiday reading last year was Sarum – 1300 pages – so I don´t think meaty reading is odd 🙂
Julia says
Susan, Sarum, and other Edward Rutherfurd books, are among my all time favourie reads!
So much so, I actually bought it (and his London one) as I know I’ll read them again one day!
Currently working my way through Bernard Cornwell’s The Last Kingdom series (of the TV show fame) after having thoroughly enjoyed his Arthur series over Christmas! 🙂
Margaret Powling says
Oh, believe me, I read ‘meaty’, too, Jane, but I do like a sorbet of a book between the main course and the dessert. For an article not long ago I researched the history of the re-building of London after the Great Fire – that was a meaty subject, believe me.
A lot of people dismiss fiction, thinking it’s just ‘stories’. This means that they dismiss Shakespeare, Dickens, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the Brontes, Jane Austen, et al. We can learn much from fiction and how, for example, social inequalities were highlighted in Dickens’ novels. Not all fiction is chick-lit escapist stuff or Harry Potter. I have no doubt you don’t think all novels are simply escapist ‘stories’ but I trust that you will give fiction a fair crack of the whip along with non-fiction.
And, of course, as I’ve said time and again, non-fiction, whether history or biography or whatever, is only one person’s viewpoint; someone else might have a totally different opinion. In other words, there is a lot of truth in fiction, and a lot of fiction in so-called non-fiction. I rest my case (says she, with a grin.) Sorry, I’ve gone completely off piste as they say with this, when it was all about making small savings which add up!
Margaret P
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
I read it sometimes of course, but non fiction is more interesting to me. I will enjoy my holiday reading! Horses for courses. Not taking Shakespeare on holiday though!
Margaret Powling says
Ahh, garn. Take Hamlet with you, Jane, or perhaps The Merchant of Venice. They’d enjoy a holiday, I’m sure! I wouldn’t bother with King Lear, you’d have to keep curtsying to him, him being a king and all that. And Julius Caesar and all those Romans would be a bit dodgy, I think, too fond of violence. One book I loved which I read on holiday is Mistress of the House, Great Ladies and Grand Houses 1670-1830 by Rosemary Baird. My non-fiction of choice is always social history especially the books of Anne de Courcey (I enjoyed her latest, The Husband Hunters, about the American heiresses who came to the UK in Edwardian times searching for a titled mate.) Oh, and the books of Pamela Horn, who has written several books about life above and below stairs (real-life Downton.)
Lee says
I’m on the same page with you when it comes to your reading material (sorry ’bout the pun!) 🙂
Let me know how you get on with Million Dollar Blog too, of course that’s one I need to get around to!