Five Frugal Things for February!

After my no spend January, I have certainly not had a spend free month. I have been shopping for clothing actually, mainly second hand on Vinted, but also in the sales. Yes, some of them were still running this month and the prices were very good! But I still managed five frugal things for February and here they are.

New shoes 

Although I often do purchase shoes second hand, I treated myself to two new pairs this time in the Hotter sale. I like Hotter shoes, partly because they are really nice quality and partly because, unusually, they are made in the UK. Hardly any clothing is produced here these days. 

I am making a determined effort to buy better quality, classic items of clothing (and anything else actually), instead of fast fashion produced in some sweat shop in China and then shipped half way around the world.

However, this does make them more expensive, so their sale is worth exploring. I bought a pair of walking shoes and some slip on leather loafers. They were reduced from £99 each. The trainers were £25 and the loafers were £28, which I think are quite  good prices. It is worth checking out their outlet section for similar reductions.

Hopefully, these will last a long time. I have a pair of Hotter boots still going strong that were purchased a couple of years ago, again in the sale.

Vinted bargains

As well as my new footwear, I found a brand new padded coat on Vinted for £20. It would have been almost £70 new. I think it must have been an impulse purchase the seller regretted.

I have a similar warm coat that I have been wearing for about five years, but it is looking very worn out now. It will do for muddy dog walks or working in the garden, and I can keep my new one clean instead of covered in muddy paw prints. Well, theoretically anyway!

I hadn’t thought to check Vinted for cosmetics before, but this time I did and came up trumps. For Christmas one of my daughters bought me a gift box containing Farmacy products. They are absolutely lovely, and really suit my dry skin. However, they are pretty pricy! The cleansing balm that I particularly like costs around £30 a pot – not exactly frugal. However, I found the exact same pot on Vinted for £15. Another impulse purchase, or perhaps an unwanted gift, but I snapped it up. 

Even £15 is a lot for me to spend on a cleanser. However, my skin is so dry and sensitive these days and gets irritated by a lot of products. The Farmacy products are so gentle and moisturing, plus they are minimally packaged. So I am happy with my find!

Gluten free baking

I have changed my diet quite radically this week. This is because I continue to have issues with Grave’s disease, which is an over active thyroid. I had hoped that after a year of taking meds it might go into remission, but last week a blood test showed it had suddenly got worse.

After doing a bit of research, I thought it would be worth trying to improve it through diet. So I have gone gluten free, sugar free and dairy free! I have also cut out alcohol completely and reduced my caffeine intake to one cup of coffee and one cup of tea a day. 

However, it is hard to find gluten free stuff that doesn’t cost and arm and a leg, so I have started looking for easy recipes. I started with this gluten free and sugar free banana muffin recipe and it was a huge success. It uses almond and coconut flour to replace the wheat flour. I have always found almond flour in particular so much nicer than gluten free flour containing mainly potato and rice starch. I couldn’t believe how nice a sugar free cake could be!

Next week, I will be trying to bake some bread or rolls. At the moment, I am buying Schar rolls, which taste a lot better than some varieties, but they are expensive.

A new (old) kettle

Don’t you get fed up with modern electrical appliances only lasting a couple of years? So much waste and expense. Our electric kettle was the latest thing to stop working. Luckily we had a stove-top back up that I bought several years ago second hand. I didn’t use it before because my daughters complained that it made the tea taste bubbly. I decided to risk it and, if you leave it for a minute before pouring, the bubbles have gone!

It is fine, and we have decided not to buy a new electric kettle. It is cheaper to boil it on the gas anyway, I have been told. Plus, I like how it looks!

Using my dehydrator

I actually did this a few weeks ago, but forgot to share it here, so here goes. Because I mentioned on my YouTube channel that I wished I had a dehydrator, one of my lovely viewers offered to send me a spare that she didn’t use. It arrived at the right time, as I had a huge bag of kale that I was struggling to use up.

I decided to dehydrate about 3/4 of the bag and then grind it to a fine, super nutritious green powder. It was really easy to do, and now we can give anything we eat a boost with a sprinkling of kale powder. 

It took several hours to dehydrate, so I kept an eye on the smart meter, but it didn’t go up alarmingly. This will be so handy in the summer, when we often have gluts of fruit and veggies but no space in the freezer. I plan to have a go with frozen vegetables this week, following the example of Prime of Mid Life on YouTube.

So those are five frugal things for February. We still have a bit of the month to go, so I am aiming to spend very little for the remainder. How has your month gone?