Eating from the pantry and a new side hustle!

It has been a very hot week here in Essex. Me and Archie have been fighting over his cooling mat! I remembered I bought one last year but he refused to sit on it so it got put away. Now he will lie on it, but only if I hide it under a sheet. But seriously, I have used it myself and I am thinking if this heat wave continues it will be worth investing in another one. Cheaper than having the fan on all the time. Anyway, apart from feeling the heat, I have been busy with other stuff too, including finding a new side hustle. Here are my five frugal things for the week.

Eating from the pantry 

If you watch my YouTube channel, you may have seen my recent video about eating from the pantry. I thought we had no food in, and we didn’t have much fresh stuff to be sure, but we had lots of food in the freezer and cupboards. 

I went through everything, jotting down meal ideas as I went and making a note of things that need using. Then I wrote a meal plan from that and barely needed to buy anything at all on top! As I am doing a no spend July (which is more like a low spend July, as I ended up keeping a couple of cheap bits and bobs I bought to sell), this is good news.

It is really worth eating from the pantry every now and again to ensure food doesn’t sit around too long and get wasted.

Yellow sticker haul

I did have to pop out to get some milk, and went early evening to our local Coop. Usually, I don’t buy much in there as it is a convenience store and quite expensive. However, I arrived at exactly the right time for a load of very reduced yellow sticker items.

I picked up asparagus for 30p, four packs of vegetables for 17p each, some ready made mash for 66p, two pots of mushrooms for 15p each, some mixed berries for 30p and a punnet of nectarines for £1.13. I even got some reduced price chocolate  – four bars for 71p!

So, although our meals were planned, I have adapted it to use up these short date items. I was very pleased with this little lot though!

Cleaning

I have mentioned before that we are missing our lodger income. Because we are planning on moving, we can’t get a new person at this point. On top of this, eBay has gone completely flat for the summer. So I have been looking around for another side hustle to bring in some money that didn’t involve getting an office job. Been there, done that, and don’t want to do the 9-5 again. 

My daughter does some domestic cleaning work for an agency from time to time, when she needs a bit extra, so I decided to sign up too. I was amazed at how much work I was immediately offered. It seems good cleaners are hard to find. So – I am now Mrs Mop! I have done four jobs this week so far, which has more than covered our lodger money, but I have turned several down. 

I only want 10-15 hours tops, so that I can continue to do the other side hustles that I enjoy. It is very flexible, I don’t have to travel far and I can pick and choose the jobs I want to do. 

Boot sale haul

My daughter dragged me to a boot sale on Saturday. It was a little one, which was nice as it meant there were no traders. I picked up some lovely things, some to sell (my main side hustle) and some (despite my supposed no spend July) to keep. The thing is, when you see something you need for £1 or thereabouts, it would be crazy to leave it behind.

I never include business costs in my no spend months, as that wouldn’t be practical.

Selling on Vinted – problems!

I have been putting some of my cheaper items on my Vinted account, and have sold a few things this week. Generally, I think Vinted is really easy to use and I like the fact that it is free to list.

However, if something goes wrong, it is more or less impossible to even find a way to contact their customer service team. One of my parcels went astray, but could I get any help? No! I can’t even find a phone number or email address. The chat bot is useless too. In the end, I messaged them on Twitter, but five days later I still don’t have a reply. When I looked at other people’s comments, it appears they are notoriously bad in these types of instances. Some people have had conversations on live chat that have not been resolved in any sensible way. They have done better than me so far. 

This is a shame, as Vinted seemed to be the perfect answer to eBay’s ever increasing fees. However, I am wary after this experience. At least I can get hold of someone at eBay’s customer services team and they have always been helpful.

Has anyone else had any negative experiences such as these?

Anyway, the thing about cleaning as a side hustle is that when your own house is dirty you don’t feel much like doing it. But it is calling me! Look out for my next video on my YouTube channel, and don’t forget to come join the community at my Facebook group. See you next time.

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