Hey frugal folk! Here is the news from Shoestring Cottage, with five money saving things we have done this week.
More painting
Regular readers and viewers of my YouTube channel will have been watching my very slow progress redecorating our bedroom on a budget. The time consuming thing has been painting all of the old pine furniture in there to create some light and colour.
I have paused for a month or so as I have been busy with work, but this week I was determined to get one of the two remaining pieces finished. Mr S took the larger of our bedside tables down to his workshop as the drawers wouldn’t close properly.
I thought I may as well do the painting in the workshop too, to keep the mess out of the house. I sanded it, washed it thoroughly with sugar soap and got the first coat on. However, when I went back a couple of hours later to do the next coat, it was still really wet! Usually the water based Frenchic paint I tend to use is touch dry in 30 minutes, but I think it was just too damp in the workshop.
I couldn’t bring it back to finish it here either as it was too wet to move it, but hopefully we can do that this weekend and complete the task.
Not everyone is a fan of painted furniture, but I am! If we had any really quality wood I wouldn’t touch it, but old bashed pine is fair game. It also saves lots of money! The small pot of paint I have used for both bedside tables cost £18.50, and the new knobs were about £6. Somewhat cheaper than buying a new pair!
Cleaning the oven
Our oven works ok, but is old! It was in the house when we arrived 12 years ago, and wasn’t new then. The numbers on the front have faded, the seals are going and it has a lot of baked in grime that I haven’t managed to remove with elbow grease.
As I am on an entirely second hand year, I am obviously not going to buy a new range oven. Whilst it still works, we will be keeping it. However, I had been considering getting the professionals in to do a deep clean. I have been told this will cost upwards of £80, and possibly a lot more as ours is a double oven with built in grill.
As you know, I am not a fan of harsh and dangerous chemicals in the home, but my daughter recommended a cheaper option would be to do it myself with an oven cleaning kit. The idea is that you soak the trays for several hours in a special bag full of cleaning solution, as well as wiping more of the liquid all over the inside of your oven.
I splashed out on an Oven Pride kit, which cost £3.99 from B&M. As I type this, it is doing its work. I will let you know how it went!
Yellow sticker bargain
I spotted this huge pack of chicken breasts in Lidl this week, 11 of them for just £6.29! They were only £8.99 to begin with, which was good value anyway.
They have been separated into five portions of two and one single portion and put into the freezer. I will build some of them into next week’s meal plan.
Meal planning
Talking of which, I have decided to go back to low carb eating for a bit. I always feel better eating this way and the weight around my belly actually shifts! However, I have found it hard to maintain this way of eating in the past. Let’s have another go!
Here is this week’s meal plan:
Fish pie and vegetables. This is using high carb potatoes, but they needed eating!
Chicken breast, peppers and mushrooms in a creamy parmesan sauce with broccoli.
Cheese stuffed portobello mushrooms and salad.
Fish in lemon cream sauce with vegetables.
Low carb courgette fritters with vegetables.
Sausages with mashed swede, carrots and broccoli.
Lemon garlic chicken in the slow cooker with more mashed swede and veg.
I am also going to make some keto peanut butter cookies.
Christmas wrapping
I have booked myself onto a free Furoshiki zoom event with the lovely Zoe from Eco Thrifty Living next week. Furoshiki is the Japanese art of wrapping gifts with fabric. Last year I used old scarves and material to wrap all of my Christmas presents and will do the same this year. Hopefully, after this event they will look more professional and slick!
Anyway, those are my main money saving things for the week. What frugal things have you done?
I’m linking up with this Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Frugal Friday’ linky.
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