Old fashioned frugality: Five frugal things

It seems to have been a week of old fashioned frugality. I always think it is easier to be frugal and save money in the summer. The days are long and I generally feel more productive, which helps. You don’t have to use much energy for lighting and none at all for heating. The possibility of eating outdoors means more salads and cold foods, so less cooking too.

Here is this week’s five frugal things round up of old fashioned frugality.

The last of the posh makeup

Mr S’s niece is a model and gets sent a ton of expensive makeup. She is always giving me and my daughters loads she will never use. Most hasn’t even been opened.

A while ago she gave me a very posh Dior foundation. When I looked it up the retail price was over £37!! I would never spend that much.

It was, however, a very nice foundation so I wanted it to last as long as possible. As it approached the end I did my usual trick of turning it upside down and using the little tube inside to scrape out as much as possible. It lasted another three weeks!

Back to the cheap stuff now…

Home grown flowers

It’s lovely to have flowers in the house. We have been picking the sweet peas for a few weeks , but yesterday I cut some of our beautiful cornflowers to go alongside them.

We grew these from seed. In fact, I just chucked the packet onto a patch of front garden and left them to it, next to the hollyhocks. They are gorgeous and have come up in various shades of pink and blue.

Bargain compost

As I was coming back from the mid-week boot sale I popped into the garden centre for a quick browse. Whilst I was there I spotted that they had reduced their large 75 litre bags of multi-purpose compost from £8 to £4.

I wasn’t saying no to that. However, I was on my own with a small car already full of stuff from the boot sale. I bought 4 bags and nearly killed myself trying to manoeuvre it in the boot!

It was worth it, though. What a bargain! If you are anywhere near a Wyevale, check it out as the offer may still be running.

Picking blackberries

You probably think it’s too early to pick blackberries. It is for the wild variety. However, the cultivated ones are coming through now.

We are fortunate that our neighbours have a huge blackberry bush which comes over into our garden. Most years we pick several pounds worth. The neighbours are happy for us to do this as they aren’t bothered and barely pick any. Somebody may as well get some value out of them.

They are beautiful. Really huge and sweet. I have picked a punnet full, plus the rest of our own raspberries and put them in the freezer for later.

Lunch out

On Monday, I had lunch out at the Toby carvery with my daughter. She had been sent a voucher giving two meals for £10, so we thought we may as well use it and treat ourselves.

Bearing in mind it is now the school holidays in the UK, we avoided the lunchtime rush and went mid- afternoon. It was very nice!

I kept it Slimming World friendly by just having the meat and veg with no roasties or Yorkshire pudding. There was enough of both to fill me up anyway.

So that’s my week of old-fashioned frugality. Don’t forget to enter the latest UK Money Bloggers giveaway, launched in yesterday’s post. You could win one of five beautiful M&S Afternoon Tea hampers worth £50 or a runner up prize of a “You’re the bees knees” gift bag.

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