No spend January update: five frugal things

We are at the end of the first week of our no spend month already! Well, day 4, but it’s Friday… here is my no spend January update and my five frugal things for the week.

I have spent no money at all since January 1st, apart from some groceries. I didn’t need to buy much, just some fruit and juice. We have quite a lot of food in the house. So my first frugal thing was to work out what we have and plan some meals for next week around that.

Larder stock check

I got everything out of the food cupboard, then made a note of what was in there and what needed to be used up first. After that, I did the same with the fridge and the freezers. We have loads of frozen fruit from the garden, so at some point I need to make some currant jelly and some crumbles.

I am putting my meal plan together and will be publishing it tomorrow.

Yellow sticker bargains

I made a point of going into Asda on my way home from work on New Year’s Eve. It was packed! I needed more painkillers anyway and thought I would find some reduced food. Luckily, I was right and it was worth fighting my way through the hoards. As you know, I don’t eat meat, but Mr S does. I found stewing beef and lean beef mince, both at half price. It seemed a good idea to stock up so I bought three packs of each.

Then I looked in the reduced fruit and veg section and found a large bag of chopped casserole veg. I don’t usually buy pre-cut vegetables as they are expensive, but these were only 50p. There was also a bag of pre-chopped broccoli and carrots so that went in my trolley as well. The next day I made a huge pot of beef stew and another of bean and vegetable stew, enough for four meals each.

New house plants

We have started to reintroduce some house plants back to Shoestring Cottage. For a few years we hardly had any, but I have read a lot about how they can help clear the air of indoor pollutants. They also look really nice.

My pilea had sprouted little baby pileas, so I decided to pull them off and pot them up. Hopefully, they will take and turn into nice new free plants!

eBay listings

I haven’t had the time to list anything on eBay for a while but I have a pile of things that I want to sell. The clothes have all been washed and ironed. Now I just have to take the photos and list them. Hopefully, if my neck isn’t giving me too much grief, I can do some of that over the weekend.

Safety razor

Santa bought me a bamboo and steel safety razor for Christmas. I have been using it all week and it’s no harder to use than the plastic disposable ones. As well as reducing my plastic waste, I am hoping it will save me quite a lot of money. Even though I make the disposables last as long as possible, they do end up in the bin. Decent disposable razors are quite expensive!

I have cut myself once. However, I quite often did that with the disposables I used to use, so I don’t think this will be a problem. I just need to slow down!

So that is my no spend January update and round up of frugal things achieved this week. I am posting tips and updates on my no spend January most days on Instagram. If you don’t follow me already, please pop over and find me! I am @shoestringcottage or you can find me here.

If you are joining in let me have your no spend January update in the comments below. I love to hear how everyone is getting on.

As ever, I am linking up with  Cass , Emma  and Becky in their Five Frugal Things linky.As ever, I am linking up with  Cass , Emma  and Becky in their Five Frugal Things linky.