Another week has swept past, and I am struggling to think what I have done! We seem to have achieved five frugal things at Shoestring Cottage, but it’s a bit of a blur.
I have been working quite a lot. Just want to put that out there, since I had a rather acerbic comment from a reader who suggested that, if I needed to live so frugally, maybe I should get a job!
I have several streams of income, thanks. I work a lot of hours and don’t actually just sit on Instagram all day. My frugal lifestyle was borne from necessity when I was working full time for a not very generous salary and trying to support three children. Now the pressure is off a bit, but we choose to continue to live this way to keep ourselves financially solvent whilst being able to afford to do the things we enjoy doing.
Other people might prefer to work long hours for an employer and to buy stuff on credit. We don’t and it’s our choice how we live. If you don’t like it, no one is making you read this stuff….
Fortunately, I find most readers are on the same wavelength as me and leave really nice comments.
Rant over, and on to this week’s frugal achievements.
A cleaning frenzy
I seem to have been doing a lot of deep cleaning – moving furniture and hoovering underneath, cleaning windows and upholstery and generally having a good sort out. A spring clean, but in the autumn.
There is always so much to do! I have been whizzing through my stocks of cleaning stuff, so need to order some more. I don’t ever spend much on cleaning supplies. I try to avoid harsh chemicals and too many plastic bottles, so keep it simple with cheap and effective products such as soda crystals, bicarbonate of soda, vinegar and citric acid.
I wrote a post on my plastic free cleaning routine here.
Bargain shoes
I was perusing the charity shop, as I do, when I came across a pair of brown flat leather pumps for a princely sum of £3.50. You can’t go wrong with shoes at that price, and they seem to have been worn very little.
Because I now work from home, I do spend quite a lot of time in my slippers! However, I need to get dressed occasionally and these will go with pretty much anything.
I think I already mentioned buying a pair of cosy granny boots recently – I think they were only a couple of pounds at a boot sale. Now that the weather has got so much colder I am wearing these quite a lot with jeans. Not glamourous but warm and practical.
Making stock
It is most definitely soup weather anyway. Actually, I love the stuff and eat it all year round, but there is something particularly comforting about a nice bowl of soup and some crusty bread on a chilly, dark day.
I collect chicken carcasses up in the freezer and make home made stock every time I have two or three of them. They make such a flavoursome and nutritious base to any meal where you require stock, not just soup.
This week I made chicken stock, but also collect up odds and ends of vegetables and peelings and make a veggie version from time to time.
Foraging
We went for a lovely long walk in the woods last Sunday. It was a proper, sunny Autumn day but, even so, we were surprised at how many people were out and about.
We were on the look out for sweet chestnuts as we went, but other folk (and the squirrels) had obviously had the same idea and there weren’t many to be found. They also seemed much smaller than usual – maybe it wasn’t the best summer for them? I honestly don’t know, but we managed to find some eventually anyway.
I want to make a nice chestnut stuffing for Christmas so I hope we manage to find a few more. If not, I will have to buy some. The bigger ones from the supermarket never seem as sweet though.
Reviewing the budget
I have been through all of our bills to make sure we aren’t over paying for anything and to see if there are any tweaks to by made. This is done periodically, and I check through all the bank statements too, just in case there are any off or unexplained payments.
It’s a job I never look forward to, but actually it takes no time and has probably saved us a fortune over the years. I think it’s really important to know where your money is going.
Some fun stuff
So that’s my week in a nutshell and our five frugal things at Shoestring Cottage. Not the most riveting of weeks! Although, Mr S got another free pass at the gym and spa he has joined so I spent the day there on Wednesday with him, his mum and sister. It’s a lovely place to chill, but I wouldn’t want to do it that often. I am also off out tonight to the pub with my old work colleagues for a catch up. So it’s not all sitting at the laptop and cleaning.
What have you been up to this week and have you managed to avoid spending lots of money?
As I have mentioned previously, I am doing a daily frugal tips post for the whole of October on Instagram. Come over and take a look!
As ever, I’m linking up with this Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Frugal Friday’ linky.
You rant away !!! It never ceases to amaze me how rude some people are! Like many other people I read and enjoy your blog very much. Just because you choose to live and be in control of your life and finances, this is your decision. I follow and enjoy all of your money saving tips and live a very similar life, our choice. Keep up the fantastic work.
Thanks, sue. Much appreciated
Hello, there, not looked in for a bit but I have enjoyed reading your latest post! No, that’s not a rant, that’s just talking sensibly; perhaps if you said that instead of living ‘frugally’ you said you were living within your means wouldn’t cause some people to be a bit snippy (not that they have been, I’ve not looked in for a little while)? I’m all for saving money, believe me! But we splashed the cash just over a week ago. I was taking things into the hospice boutique (yes, it really does look like a posh boutique; it’s in a wealthy area of town and my goodness, the things you find in there!) and husband went to look in the men’s wear dept and found an immaculate YSL shirt for £14. Now we’d not normally pay £14 in a charity shop, but when I looked online the least expensive YSL shirt was £325, and they rose to well over £600. It is lovely, it looks as if it was bought for a special occasion and then not worn again. And as it’s a small size and husband is slim, it looks great, perfect size, perfect colour, perfect fit. Not a particularly frugal purchase, but a sensible one, i think.
Love those little shoes! Yes, they will go with just about anything! Well spotted!
Margaret P
Hi Margaret! How the devil are you? That shirt is an amazing price. We have a hospice boutique with cafe and it’s one of my favourite charity shops. I love finding quality items like that
So many people just don’t get the concept of being frugal! It baffles me, it really does. We had to really tighten our belts when our circumstances changed. We didn’t feel hard done by and we were horrified at the amount of money we had been “wasting” before. 2 years later things changed again but we found we couldn’t change our frugal habits and they are now our way of life. It has meant we could get a “new to us” car when ours bit the dust earlier this month, we paid off our mortgage, I retired early at 57 and have been able to help our kids through Uni. There have been many other positives – too many to mention but I say good on you and ignore those who may be a teeny bit envious of your lifestyle as you seem so content – like me!
Thanks, Julia. You are a great advocate of the ‘more with less’ approach.
The way you live your life is your choice and it is working for you, it just so happens that you have the wisdom and good nature to share your advice with others and I for one have learnt a lot from you, so thank you and continue what you are doing and s*d the nasty comments.
Thanks! It wasn’t really nasty, just really ignorant
I agree with the rudeness of some people. It never ceases to amaze me either. All I can say is I hope they never have to eat their words one day!
Fairly frugal week here – well most weeks are, but £4 for a talk at a local museum is always good value, but didn’t stay for cake in the cafe as the queue was too long. I don’t normally have cake, but want to help the museum out – well that’s my excuse!
Today I’m off to a free Hogarth exhibition in a free museum (John Soanes in Lincloln Inn Fields) but it will cost me the Oyster fare so I’m making a day of it.
Tomorrow, a free walk following a section of the Capital Ring (the weather is forecast to be awful!) so there’s always plenty to do – not least the garden when it dries out a bit!
You do so much! We need to find a good cheap day out for Sunday. Will do a google!
I agree with responses to your rant. Keep on doing what you are doing and ignore rude people, they are probably jealous of you. Thank you so much for your posts they brighten my day and keep me on the staright and narrow.
Thanks, Bev
That was a rant? I think you need some lessons! Seriously you know what you’re doing is right, ignore the ( in debt, rude but loud) naysayers.
Must try harder!
Love your cute shoes.thansk for linking. Ive had a rubbish budgeting week
I had a rather acerbic comment from a reader who suggested that, if I needed to live so frugally, maybe I should get a job!
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Some people can be so rude when commenting on blogs. I’ve had my fair share of them too. I monitor my comments as a result now.
We’ve been enjoying soup weather too. I made a potato soup last weekend and this weekend I’ll be making a taco soup. Crusty bread is terrific with soup.
We avoided spending this week better than last week when we had a birthday for dd to celebrate.
Ooh, potato soup! Love that but think it really needs lots of onions and I’m avoiding them
You need to come to Exmoor for sweet chestnuts. Here on a short break and collected loads of very plump ones today.
Don’t let the weirdos get you down, it’s usually just people who feel threatened who feel the need to say something snide when no-one’s asked for their opinion.
You’re an inspiring frugal example! I don’t know a thing about chestnut foraging 😀
Thanks Lee
Love your blog, I have learned much from you.
Kind Regards,
Lisa (Sydney Australia)
Hi Lisa and thanks
I like to read your blog. Ignore people who don’t like it, they’re not worth bothering with anyway. We’re still recovering from the business going bust the Christmas before last but things ARE better now. Was gutted when we had saved for ages to buy a new mattress, handed payment over and that company went bust so that wasn’t very good this month but think we will get the money back anyway.
I like to read your frugal things, you do MUCH better than me.
So, can’t think of anything for this week particularly frugal but last Saturday we walked a LONG way as we’re doing the Elmer Elephant trail round the north east so we were at Gateshead, South Shields, Jarrow, Howdon and Newcastle. The app cost £1, I have a metro pass, it cost £1.10 for Rachel’s ticket and £1.50 for Adam’s to travel all day. Only other thing we bought was lunch at Wetherspoons, still a treat for us and just beginning to be affordable again.
We walked through the pedestrian tunnel from Jarrow to Howdon as part of the walk; that’s free, just opened recently and thankfully, dry, as it started to rain just after we did Saltwell park in Gateshead, which was our second destination that day. Didn’t get to South Shields for Wetherspoons till 14.45!
Only other thing was I won a voucher for Taste Inc chicken so used that for part of my packed lunches. Oh yes, Rachel did cookery yesterday so we had her potato gratin with corned beef and cheese for lunch today – but she didn’t like it!
I don’t know that area of England at all but that trail sounds really interesting. Glad to hear things are on the up for you and thanks so much for your comment.
Just caught up with after a few weeks away. Lovely useful informative blogs, ignore the small minded comments about your life. I for one know how hard you work with your writings etc. Don’t be deterred, you bring pleasure, interest and money savings to all who are you’re regulars and new converts coming on board all the time. Keep it up and we’ll done.
Thanks Elizabeth, I appreciate your comment