Five frugal things I have done this week

Happy Friday and welcome to another of my weekly round up post, where I go through five frugal things I have done this week.

I find the small things really do add up when it comes to saving money. Being a cheapskate pays! This means that we can afford the things that we really want and need without any anxiety.

It also allows us to live free of debt, which is really important to me. I never want to go back to lying awake at night worrying about money.

It also allows us to top up our emergency fund; very important in these uncertain and worrying times.

So here are my five frugal things I have done this week.

Line drying

At last! The weather was actually nice enough for a whole day for me to get the first lot of washing on the line this year.

It was sunny and windy – perfect clothes drying weather. Our laundry came in smelling of spring, which I really like.

I don’t have a tumble dryer because they are costly and not very green. If I can avoid using energy unnecessarily, I will. 

However, this does mean that we tend to have clothes drying inside all winter, which does take up space and can cause condensation.

We get round this by putting the rack in the spare room and leaving the window open. If it is really cold we turn on the dehumidifier. I have mentioned before that we purchased a large one several years ago and it is brilliant for drying laundry.

Much cheaper to run and less energy guzzling than a tumble dryer as well.

Another soup run

Regular readers will be aware that I love soup! I wrote a whole post on the wonders of home made soup here.

Making your own soup is a very good frugal habit to get into as it allows you to use leftover and all the odds and ends of vegetables and even meat that accumulate. It makes a brilliant, healthy lunch and costs very little to make. 

When I went out to work I often took a Sistema Microwave soup mug* with me to heat up on my lunch break. Now that I work from home, I still have soup!

This week I made a large pot of Stilton and broccoli. I had tried a few recipes but tweaked a few to make one I liked the best and the recipe is here if you fancy trying it. It fits in with my current low carb keto regime. As I am not eating bread, the Stilton makes it more filling and substantial.

I made enough of this to last several days. If I am really hungry and I follow it with a couple of soft boiled eggs.

Keeping up with my accounts

As this is my first year of working for myself, I am slightly nervous about making mistakes with my accounting. I may employ an accountant to go through everything before I submit my first tax return next year..

However, in the meantime, I am recording everything and keeping every receipt. I have made a spreadsheet, which works well for me. 

I try to do each month’s accounts within a few days of the new month starting but got a bit behind, so spent yesterday morning catching up. Hopefully, this will keep me in control of my business finances.

Stocking up

The Corona Virus thing is very worrying. I haven’t had to join the panickers and rush in to clear the shelves of loo roll in the last week or so, since I tend to keep a good emergency store of everything anyway. As soon as the corona virus thing became known I added a few more tins to my stash, just in case.

This was something I started to build up in the first rumblings of Brexit and I have kept a big store under the bed ever since. It has already come in handy when I have been too busy to actually go shopping from time to time.

However, although I had some dried cat food in my stash I had no puppy food. I took a trip to B&M to stock up and now have a couple of large bags for life full of pet food stashed away. 

I hate to think that we will need to self-isolate on experience the kind of lock down they have seen in Italy, but if the worst happens I don’t want the animals to go without.

B&M, Asda and Home Bargains all offer excellent value pet supplies.

Cheap hair repair

I recently lost my blonde hair! The so called blonde shade I purchased turned out to be a reddish brown. This was quite a nice colour actually, but I don’t like it on me. I find dark colours  quite aging.

As it costs an arm and a leg to have highlights put in at a salon, I have booked myself a full head of highlights at the local college, where they have a large hairdressing salon.

It will take longer than a salon, but at £28 is so much more affordable. Hopefully I will be a blonde bombshell again next week!

So those are the five frugal things I have done this week. How has your week been, and are you prepping for Armageddon or do you think it is all a lot of scaremongering?

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