It’s been a busy, fun and thrifty week here at Shoestring Cottage. This isn’t one of my five frugal things for the week, but I can’t not mention it. At the weekend I am….
Off to the SHOMOs
As I write this, I am really looking forward to Saturday, when I will be attending the UK Money Bloggers awards, otherwise known as the SHOMOs. Exciting!
I will let you know how it went next week. It would be nice to win an award this year, although I don’t really mind – it’s just nice to go! Shoestring Cottage has been nominated for three: Best Frugal and Thrift Blog, Best Money Saving Blog and Best Frugal Food blog.
As well as that – and all thanks to YOU – I am in the final six for the People’s Choice Awards. That is the category where we get our readers to vote for us. Getting to the last six when there are 80 or so amazing blogs in the running is amazing. So thank you so much if you voted for me.
It’s so interesting and I always learn so much from attending, so I can’t wait.
Anyway, onto this week’s five frugal things roundup.
Hitting my target
This week I finally became a target member of Slimming World, which means I no longer have to attend every week. I can still go along to keep an eye on my weight but as long as I stay within 3 lbs of my target weight it will be free.
I will try to go once a month, I think. As many people do, I have found it a very easy and healthy way to lose weight. It is also a very budget friendly way for the whole family to eat. Let’s see if I can stay at my target weight going forward.
Joining Slimming World has inspired a lot of blog posts from me – I hope you have enjoyed them whether you are losing weight or not. My latest one will focus on Slimming World breakfasts, so keep an eye out for that on Sunday. Honestly, I am actually addicted to the overnight oats. They are delicious!
Boots from the car boot
I have bought two new (new to me anyway – it is #SecondHandSeptember, so I am not buying brand new clothes) sets of footwear this week. The first were a pair of cosy granny boots. I put them on Instagram and was surprised that I wasn’t the only person to like this sort of footwear! These will be lovely to wear in the winter. They cost a whole pound!! Bargain.
I paid a little more for the second pair, an almost new pair of white leather trainers from Clarks for £10. The last pair of trainers I purchased cost me £15 and were also second hand Clarks ones. After 3 or 4 years of heavy wear they are extremely tatty. I have been thinking about getting some new ones, so when I spotted them in the charity shop I thought they were easily worth the investment.
Plum crumble
We planted a plum tree in the front garden about 5 years ago, in a free plant giveaway by the local council. It has got steadily more productive. This week, Mr S picked loads of them. Lots went in his favourite crumble – it has been ages since I made a full fat one!
I added a bit of ginger to the plums, which I wasn’t sure would work well, but it really did. It tasted lovely.
I need to pick some more and freeze them at the weekend.
The changing of the seasons
It was freezing here on Monday and pouring with rain (odd as it has been boiling hot again over the past few days). It inspired me to get out the mass of coats, jackets and jumpers I have been hoarding to list on eBay.
I spent the whole day listing and the following day I sold two coats! Obviously, the weather had other people feeling they needed to start prepping for the changing of the seasons.
Researching postage options
Coats are heavy to post, though. One of those I sold was a huge faux leopard fur number. It weighed far too much for Royal Mail – if you go over 2 kg it suddenly gets rather expensive.
I checked out Topcashback* to see if there was anyway to get cash back whilst posting. I was pleased to find their were loads of delivery services on there. One was a comparison site called My Parcel Delivery. I had never heard of them but they gave 8.4% cash back so I thought I would give them a go and they helped me to find the cheapest way to post the coat.
Always check the cash back sites for everything! You will be surprised at what’s on there. If you are going to be buying something online anyway it only takes an extra couple of minutes and you can earn quite a bit of money back.
*This is my referral code and if you use it I will earn a commission. Thanks if you do!
Reminder: book giveaway
A quick reminder that you can enter my giveaway to win a signed copy of Eco Thrifty Living by Zoe Morrison via my Instagram page. You just have to follow me and post a comment to go in the draw. The closing date is this coming Wednesday, 18th September, so don’t hang about!
My review of the book is here.
Have a great weekend and I hope you have a fun and thrifty week ahead.
As ever, I’m linking up with this Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Frugal Friday’ linky
Congratulations on achieving your target weight. Well done you. Your posts relating to SW have shown that even if you don’t like cooking, there are plenty of easy, nutritious meals that can be made from everyday foods without the need to buy foodstuffs in especially to make the meal.