This week’s frugal and money saving practices

Welcome to this week’s round up of frugal, money saving practices.

I have been trying my best to be super frugal this month and have been putting everything I write about into practice. In fact, I have done a daily post on Instagram with all of the small things I do to save money. If you don’t already follow me, come on over and take a look here. 

Keeping cosy

Time to get your winter drawers on – it’s getting chilly! I hate feeling cold, but don’t want to blast the heating on all the time this early in the season. So I have brought some cosy throws into the lounge and keep a knitted shawl in my office for those cold mornings.

It’s good to layer up rather than immediately whack the heating on and is one of the most obvious money saving practices for this time of year.

I dislike the way that central heating dries you out. My skin feels particularly dry as the seasons change. However, I am glad to have it for when it’s really cold.

We have the wood burner too, of course. I absolutely love it. There is nothing cosier than sitting with a mug of tea in from of the fire.

Life is a minestrone

Talking of keeping warm, I have been eating soup all week for lunch! I made a huge potful of Minestrone Soup last weekend thinking that my daughter would be around to help me eat it. As it was, she was barely here so I had to finish it all myself.

That wasn’t too difficult as I really enjoyed it, and I tweaked the recipe to make it Slimming World friendly too. It’s such a cheap, nutritious and filling dish.

Mindfulness

This may not seem massively frugal but bear with me! I attended a mindfulness and meditation workshop last weekend with the British Wheel of Yoga. Even though I don’t run any yoga classes at the moment, I hope to again at some point so need to achieve a certain number of CPD (continuous professional development) points each year.

It was so interesting and I learned a lot. The tutor was Darren Cockburn, who has written two books – Living a Life of Harmony: Seven Guidelines for Cultivating Peace and Kindness and Being Present: Cultivate a Peaceful Mind Through Spiritual Practice – and he was great at delivering his message.

I have felt really inspired this week and, as well as my morning yoga practice, I have spent 15 minutes each day meditating. And here is the frugal bit. Darren contributes to a great website full of free resources so I have been exploring that to learn more about mindfulness.

If you want to learn more about it for free check out mindfulnessonlinetraining.org.

Tempting their royal highnesses

By their royal highnesses, I mean our two cats! Anyone who is a cat owner knows, they can be ridiculously fussy when it comes to food. They won’t eat the cheap stuff either.

I have tried so many different brands. They seem to like them for a few days, so you buy loads, then they decide they hate that particular type. It really is maddening.

Anyway, I think I have cracked it. For the last three weeks I have bought several of the nicer (and generally more expensive) types of cat food from B&M. They are one of the cheapest places for cat food I find. Rather than buying several boxes of just one type that I think they like as I have done in the past, I have bought a small amount of several varieties and have been ringing the changes each day. This seems to keep their interest. Maybe cats are like people really – they like a bit of variety!

Anyway, if it means I don’t have to throw half of it away it is a money saver as far as I am concerned.

Buying for Christmas

Each time I have been grocery shopping over the past few weeks I have bought a few little treats for Christmas. It’s good to spread the cost.

I have an old picnic hamper in the bedroom and have been stashing it all away in there. I even managed a few second hand but unused gift sets and books as stocking fillers in the charity shop.  I can’t show you those as they are secret though!

I have no issues giving or receiving second hand items. In fact, I am perfectly happy to do so and always have been. Why not? A gift is a gift and it really is the thought that counts.

How has your week been?

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