Welcome to another (belated) round up of my frugal week. It has been quite a productive one, getting the last bits prepped for Christmas. All the presents are wrapped, my shopping list for our groceries is ready to go and the house feels Christmassy. Nevertheless, we are keeping a careful eye on our finances and following some extreme frugal living tips.
Deck the halls
We tend not to put up our Christmas decorations early. When the girls all lived at home, they would do it as early in December as I would allow, but never in November. Too soon!
I love them when they go up, but get fed up with them if they are in place too long. Nevertheless, I finally got round to doing the decorating this weekend, and they are up.
I rarely buy any new items. The tree itself we worked out is almost 15 years old, a bargain from the post-Christmas Argos sale. Many of the baubles are either very old or came from the charity shop. These are totally brilliant for unusual bits and bobs. Last year I even found some vintage baubles, which were going for an arm and a leg on eBay!
I have also bought over the years a selection of china, wooden and metal Christmas ornaments, which are nice to display. So, if you are short of festive decor, get down to your nearest charity shop.
Freebie freezer
My eldest daughter is moving flats soon. As she rents, the white goods are usually included. They are in the new flat too, but she was pleased to see there is also a space for an under counter freezer in her kitchen.
To save her some money, I put a wanted ad on our local Freegle group. A lovely lady came back to say she had just moved house and had a freezer going spare, so we had a trek out to a little village a few miles away, and got her a freezer in excellent condition for the price of the petrol!
Freezers save so much time and money, especially when you work full time as she does. It means she can buy and freeze reduced items, get a few ready meals in and do some batch cooking too.
Ask and you shall receive
Most of the year we use a small dining table at one end of our sitting room. My office has taken over what was previously a small dining room! This is perfect 90% of the year. However, at Christmas, when we have more people to feed, it is inevitably too small.
I was looking on the free sites and some of the online selling sites to see if we could pick up another small one to extend our eating space. When my mum asked how the Christmas prep was coming along, I mentioned this and she said they had exactly the right thing in their garage!
Its a small, square bistro table and two chairs from Ikea, and will be perfect. This proves what I already knew – it’s always worth seeing if you can borrow items that you will only use occasionally, rather than buying them.
A bit of culture
My parents used to love going to the London to see various shows, particularly the ballet. These events can be very expensive, and it’s too much of a long trip for them to manage these days.
However, my mum discovered that the Royal Ballet were streaming a live performance of the Nutcracker from the Royal Opera House into cinemas last week, and asked me to take them. Easy Christmas present that I don’t have to wrap, I thought!
So we went along to their small, old-fashioned and comfortable cinema to see what was a wonderful performance. I hadn’t seen a ballet since I was a teenager, and I really enjoyed it.
Dad’s been unwell, and he opted to stay home and watch the TV, so we took an old family friend, Maureen, and she loved it too. I think we will go again! Much cheaper and less stressful than hiking up to London!
If you fancy seeing a ballet or an opera, the programme is here.
Frugal food
There are few ingredients that are as versatile and cheap as the humble potato. As the weather has turned colder and colder, I have found myself eating more of them too. Nothing like a few carbs to keep you warm.
I mentioned this recipe for a potato bake in my recent post Extremely Frugal Food, so I thought I would make it this week in the slow cooker. It is just very thin slices of potato, layered up with salt, pepper and butter and cooked in a mix of vegetable stock and milk. When the potatoes are tender, I add some grated cheese and let it melt in. We had it with sausages, but you could easily make it the main event served with some vegetables with an egg on top. In fact, this is exactly how I ate it for lunch the following day!
I don’t eat onions, but they would have been nice layered up with the spuds. It’s similar to what the French call potatoes Boulangere.
We have been trying to eat from the pantry as much as possible – it’s part of an extreme frugal living lifestyle to use what you already have after all. However, we are at the point where we will need to stock up.
If you are in the UK and read this before the 15th December, it is worth noting that many newspapers are running a £10 off a £40 shop at Lidl to help keep your costs down. I will be using mine! In fact, one of the moderators on my Facebook group, My Second Hand & Frugal Life, got two coupons and asked the cashier to separate her shopping into two separate transactions, so her £80 shop cost £60! Worth doing if you have a lot of people to feed.
So that’s me for another week. Are you striving to keep your costs down this Christmas and using some extreme frugal living ideas to help you? If you need to scale back your spending in January, I will be doing another no spend month. Keep an eye on my YouTube channel if you want to join in.
NEED TO SAVE MONEY FAST? CHECK OUT MY POST EXTREME FRUGALITY: 12 FRUGAL LIVING TIPS FOR A BUDGET LIFESTYLE FOR MONEY SAVING TIPS!
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