Five frugal things for chilly days

Officially it is still Autumn, but it really feels that winter is here today! The wind was bitter when I walked the dog earlier. I wished I had taken some gloves and a hat. When the weather turns cold it can be tempting to just hibernate, but I get restless if I sit about too much. So I have been thinking of frugal things for chilly days, and ways to entertain ourselves without spending too much money. Or preferably none at all! 

Here are some frugal things we have done this week. We have been keeping things simple, with lots of warming comfort food.

A morning yoga routine

Rather than whack the heating on in the mornings, I try to get up, take a hot shower and then do my morning yoga practice. I find that I warm up nicely and that warmth lasts much of the morning on these chilly days. 

A friend introduced me to some great, free yoga classes on YouTube this week. I tend to do my own thing, but sometimes it gets a bit samey and I fancy a change. If you want to try yoga but can’t afford a class, check out Yoga with Adriene. She is very good at expressing the finer details of yoga. It can be quite a subtle exercise, and I think she nails that element.

Adriene has some nice routines for beginners and some good flowing sequences too. I enjoyed this one to wake and warm me up.

A second hand wedding

We attended Mr Shoestring’s brother’s wedding this week. It was really lovely. I was impressed that the bride had found her fabulous wedding dress second hand! I think she looked amazing. 

It was a small wedding with just family and a few close friends. I much prefer this sort of event to a massive do with loud music so you can’t talk to anyone.

We both wore outfits we have owned for a while. I bought my dress a few years ago for my work leaving party, and Mr Shoestring has had the same suit for 20 years!! It is a good quality one and he only wears it once a year or so, so why buy a new one?

I bought my shoes second hand for £1 and my wrap was from a recent charity shop haul – also £1! Mr S’s silk tie came second hand as well, from eBay.

A new to me bag

Another thing I wanted for the wedding was a small cross body bag. I usually lug around quite a large one, but really didn’t want to be encumbered with that. 

We were passing a charity shop on our dog walk, when I spotted this little pink one for £3.99. It was exactly what I had in mind so I grabbed it, although I would have preferred to pay less (obviously!).

I do love my second hand life!

A winter warmer – thrift soup!

As the weather has turned colder I have started making more soup to warm me up on those chilly days. I know people love their soup makers, but I don’t need one. All I need is a big stock pot and a hand blender and I am good to go. We have enough gadgets already!

This week I made a flavoursome chicken stock first, using this method. I then chucked in some frozen courgettes and mixed veg, some leftover mashed potato and cabbage, celery and seasonings, cooked it up then semi blitzed it so that it still had a few lumps.

It was delicious with my home made sour dough bread. I even put a couple of portions in the freezer for another time.

I love home made soup, and even wrote a post on why you should make it here.

Making the best of the apple harvest

Mr S has a friend with an assortment of lovely fruit trees in the garden. We have had cooking apples and pears, and this week she gave us a large bag of delicious rosy red apples.

There were too many to just eat, so I have been cooking with some of them. I got some of the blackberries I foraged a month or so ago from the freezer and mixed them together with an oaty crumble on the top.

It does make a nice change to use oats instead of some of the flour on a crumble topping. This was yummy, so I am going to make another one this weekend to take to my parents when we go for lunch.

So – all free fruit. We only had to pay for a few oats, some flour and margarine and a bit of brown sugar.  Delicious!

My five frugal things for chilly days is a fairly typical week for us at this time of year. I absolutely love autumn, when you are more likely to get clear, sunny skies, even if you do have to wrap up cosy warm.

If you want to see more of my frugal ideas, please come and subscribe to my YouTube channel. It would be lovely to see you there. And don’t forget my Facebook group, My Second Hand & Frugal Life, which is full of inspiring people who know how to save a penny or two.