Five Frugal Things and a bit of DIY

Welcome to my regular (ish) review of my week, where I share some of the things I do to save money day to day and live a frugal existence. Here are five frugal things that I hope will inspire you.

In the last couple of weeks, I have finally started making some changes to the house. If you are a regular reader or viewer of my YouTube channel, you will know that we moved home back in November. I think you have to live somewhere for a while before you make decisions on new decor, but I have finally begun to feel inspired to get started. The kitchen/dining room is the first room to get a frugal update!

Upcycling furniture

I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea for a kitchen, but I love pink and green together. I have used this combination before, but this time I thought I would go for a real candy pink on our old Welsh dresser. If you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you may even have seen the last time I painted it. That time it was green, but it has also been Brittany blue. 

I really should have gone over the green with plain white first to save on the paint. As it was, I went straight in, which meant it took four coats to get rid of the darker green underneath. I love it, though!

As well as the dresser, I chose a sage green for one of the shelving units, and intend to paint the other one the same colour in the coming weeks. Then I will get down to painting the walls and ceiling. At the moment I am torn between plain white or a very pale pink. I am going to pull all my accessories together first to bring in the colours I want and then decide.

Incidentally, this dresser came from my parents’ house and was made for them by a local carpenter in the 1980s. I think it has done pretty well!

Upcycling is so much cheaper and more sustainable than buying new furniture.

Upcycling the kettle

Whilst I was in painting mode, I decided to copy something I have seen on Facebook and paint our old kettle as well. I would never have thought of attempting this, and was a little worried about how it would look. In fact, I think it is a huge improvement!

I have seen pink kettles for sale for over £60. As this kettle was given to us, I thought it was worth the risk. It’s not perfect, as you can see some brush strokes, but only if you are looking closely. If I do something similar in the future I will try using a small paint pad instead of a paintbrush.

Make do and mend

I recently dropped the lid from my three-tier steamer on the floor and the handle broke off.  Not wanting to try to find another one to fit, I asked Justin if he could do anything to mend it.

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He had a hunt through his workshop and found a silver metal knob from an old set of drawers. He often saves bits and bobs like this, ‘just in case’, and this time it worked perfectly as a replacement for the broken knob. He drilled a hole in the metal part and screwed it in. I don’t think you would know it didn’t always look this way!

Finding charity shop bargains

There is a great new charity shop in a village I pass on the way to my parents’ house. I often stop by, but this week was delighted to discover that they had a sale on all clothing. Everything was £1!

I picked out several items, including a Monsoon dress and a Coast skirt, both of which were in excellent condition and would have been extremely expensive new. 

I shall pop in again next week and hope the sale is still on!

Freebies

Justin did even better than me with my £1 bargains. He was browsing Facebook and found that a house round the corner was giving away a load of stuff for the garden, including a fabulous mirror and several metal ornaments. He shot round and was first in the queue, so picked up the better bits. What luck!

You can just about see the mirror in the picture – it’s my favourite thing! 

What have you done this week save money? Did you manage five frugal things?