Five frugal things for a cost of living squeeze

Hi again frugalists, and welcome to another round up of my money saving week. Everyone is talking and thinking about saving the pennies as people start to feel the pain of another cost of living squeeze. Always super cautious with money, I am being even more careful than usual.

Before I start, did anyone spot me in Yours this week? Faith Archer, who writes the Much More With Less blog, is the magazine’s new finance expert. She interviewed me to find out my tips to saving on household bills, as well as making a bit extra. If you want to read it, look out for the issue with Joanna Lumley on the cover, dated 8-21 March. 

Faith wrote several pages on this theme, and it was a really useful feature for those of us looking to cut costs.

Sprouting seeds for good nutrition

If you watch my YouTube channel, you may have spotted me attempting to sprout some alfalfa seeds on the kitchen window sill. As I don’t have a special sprouter, I just used an old jam jar.

A few days on, the seeds are beginning to appear. I reckon we will be eating them at the weekend! Next time I will use a bigger jar and grow more – I managed to pinch one from somebody’s recycling. Waste not want not!

Sprouted seeds are said to be super nutritious and are great for people who want to grow some food but don’t have a garden. I have been told that you can sprout lentils and beans that you buy in the supermarket too, so will try some of those as well in the future. 

Regenerating the veggie patch

We have also decided that, in view of the rising cost of food, we will get the veggie patch back up and running. We have had a couple of years off as we have been so busy, but now seems the right time to get back on it.

Justin has been out digging and is in the process of creating a large raised bed. I have been cleaning and clearing the greenhouse and sowing a few seeds.

Luckily spring really has sprung in the UK this week. We have had some wonderful sunshine, which hopefully will get the seeds germinating.

Cleaning my car

I always intend to clean my own car to save money. Even though the hand car wash up the road does a brilliant job, at £20 a go it feels a bit extravagant during a cost of living squeeze.

Nevertheless, it was so dirty that I paid to have a thorough clean last month and vowed to keep on top of it myself. When I was in Home Bargains I spotted some waterless wash and wax spray for £3.49 and thought it was worth a try.

We had heavy rain the other day and it brought a load of sand from the Sahara, leaving our cars and all the windows of Shoestring Cottage filthy! Did you have that? Anyway, it was a good opportunity to try out the spray. It worked a treat, and will help me stay on top of the dirt over the summer. Much easier than going out front with the hose and soap to wash it the old-fashioned way, which means I will be more inclined to do it.

Charity shop bargains

I have gradually been whittling down our mug collection to get rid of all of the old cracked and chipped ones that we have been using for years. You can always find them in good condition in the charity shops, so I have been looking out for nice ones. 

Yesterday I found five really decent ones for 50p each. There were two lovely pottery mugs plus three William Morris ones, which came from the V&A and were probably quite expensive. 

Now when someone comes for coffee I won’t be embarrassed by my mugs!

Cheaper cuts

Did you read my recent blog post about how we are saving money on food (click here if you missed it)? One of the ways we are spending less is by eating different sorts of meat.

We have tried offal – liver and kidneys – which are both very cheap and nutritious. But chicken wings are another often overlooked meat, which are usually very inexpensive. I had a 1kg pack from Aldi in the freezer, which cost £1.75, so this week I made a spicy marinade for them. We had them with home made chips and they were finger licking good!

This is something I often made for a buffet and they always go down well. 

How has your week been? Are you trying to cut back on the cost of your groceries to deal with the cost of living squeeze?

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