All over this frugal lifestyle #5frugalthings

I have been all over my frugal lifestyle this week. June tends to be an expensive month of birthdays for us anyway, but this year we have hosted a delayed baby shower and are helping to cater for my dad’s 90th birthday party too. With the extra expense entailed, and with our holiday in Norfolk fast approaching, I have been looking for savings elsewhere. 

I have noticed the cost of everything starting to rise a little as well, as I said in my post in the week How to cope with rising inflation and price hikes. Take a look if you want some money saving advice from some expert frugalistas and money bloggers.

Anyway, here are some ways I have embraced a frugal lifestyle this week.

Buying second hand gifts

When I popped into the charity shop I picked up some things that will make good stocking fillers. Yes, I am talking about Christmas already! However, when you are buying only second hand, you can’t go out in one go in November and hope to find all that you need. So I have been keeping my eyes peeled and adding little bits to my stash as I see them.

I bought some unopened stationery gift sets, a tea infuser still in its box and a big Christmas mug in excellent condition.  Another thing that caught my eye was this stunning pottery fruit bowl for just £2. Sadly when I got it home I realised it had a chunk out of it that had been stuck back on, making it much less valuable. I checked the maker, Selbourne Pottery, and a bowl this size would have cost £145 new!

I think I will still use it as a gift, but will fill it with some nice toiletries, so that it is a very fancy gift basket!

A second hand mixer

Another bargain I found this week was this mini Kenwood mixer. It was only £4 and, as I knew my daughter didn’t have one, I thought she might appreciate it. She did!

Again, it was in its original packaging and didn’t look used at all. Another unwanted wedding gift maybe, like my second hand bargains from a few weeks back?

Eating from the larder

I have decided to do a very basic milk/eggs/bread type shop this week and use what we already have. The larder isn’t exactly stuffed full and there isn’t much in the way of meat in the freezer either. This means  we will be using some of the cheaper – but actually very healthy – ingredients that we tend to have in the stores.

So this week’s meal plan will use chick peas, curry sauces, some fish, tuna and canned tomatoes in some way, plus some frozen mixed veg that has been hanging around a while.

I am going to write that out tonight and will publish it over the weekend. It’s good to have a clear out periodically, although I will be building up my stores again. I have a bit of a siege mentality and like to keep quite a bit of non-perishable food in the house. This certainly proved useful at the start of the pandemic, when other people were panic buying!

Having said it will be a basic shop, I also have to buy some bits for my dad’s party, so will spend more. However, it’s likely we will bring home some leftovers too so can hopefully use those for lunches and snacks.

Abandoning food waste bags

We always put raw fruit and vegetable waste, tea leaves, etc straight onto the compost heap.  Other food waste, such as cooked stuff, gets collected by the council. I keep a container in the kitchen for this job and buy compostable liners to make it less messy.

However, no more! At this time of the year, when the weather is warmer, I find that the compostable bags start to break down before you even get them off the roll. Last night I had a meltdown when I was transporting what looked like a stable bagful of rotting nastiness from the kitchen to the larger bin outside and it disintegrated! There was stinky mixed up food waste all over the hallway, under the dresser and on the rug. The air was blue, as you can imagine!

I have decided compostable food waste bags aren’t worth the trouble and expense on a frugal lifestyle. They will be added to my list of things I no longer buy to save money and waste. From now on I will use some newspaper on the bottom and tip the whole thing out when it’s full.

Cheap party fun

Our delayed baby shower took place last Sunday and was a great success. Mr S’s sister was in charge of silly games. We had a piñata that she picked up cheaply in Home Bargains, filled with sweets, which went down well.

She also bought some cheap kits to make spoon people, a colouring book and some pencils. Who would have thought that 11 fully grown adults would have quietly got on with craft activities under the gazebo whilst they chatted and drank Prosecco?

Even the rain didn’t dampen proceedings too much. Here are the results of our efforts and a few photos of the day, including the star of the show, Birdy Blue, meeting Archie for the first time. 

Anyway, I hope your week has been as fun as ours has. You can have a good time on a frugal lifestyle! 

I’m linking up with this Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Frugal Friday’ linky.