Saving money on a hair cut, more foraging and some frugal baking

Hello frugalistas and welcome to this week’s round up of my money saving week! As you will know if you are a regular reader of my blog, each week I share five frugal things I have done. The little things really do add up, and it’s good to share. My favourite thing was saving money on a haircut, but it’s been a good week overall. Here are my frugal wins for this week.

A frugal hair cut

My hair was badly in need of a cut. When I went last time to a salon in town, the hairdresser managed to cut my layers in wonky, so I was growing them down a bit. This time I decided to try saving money on a hair cut by booking into the hairdressing college. I thought, having paid full price for a really bad hair do, I would pay a mere £7 and see if a student could do any better!!

Fortunately, with the help of her tutor, my student stylist managed to even me out a bit. The tutor said it would take another cut to sort it completely as she didn’t want to take the layers too short.

I am perfectly pleased with my new cut. It did take a lot longer than a salon, because the tutor has to check each of her group at various points. This means that sometimes you wait 5 minutes or so before your stylist can proceed. I have always found that the students are very careful, unlike the stylist who messed it up before by rushing it. She literally legged it out of the door before I had finished paying!

Has anyone else tried saving money on a hair cut at your local hairdressing college? 

Home made rose hip cordial

I finally picked enough rose hips this week to make some cordial. Every now and again I came across some on my dog walks, but the best ones were always out of reach and there were never quite enough.

I have been putting them into the freezer, which helps their flavour anyway, since you are supposed to wait until after the first frost before you make your cordial. 

1kg made me two bottles, which are in the fridge to use instead of squash. If you want to see how I made it, check out my latest video on YouTube.

Bread making

I have been continuing to refine my bread making skills. This week I tried wholemeal sourdough, instead of the white loaves I have been making.

It was definitely trickier. The loaf was more dense and stuck to the baking tray, meaning I lost a chunk pulling it off. However, having said that, it tasted just as good.

I think sourdough bread is particularly delicious toasted, and enjoy it with my home made redcurrant jelly.

Finding treasure

I was looking through Mr Shoestring’s office the other day – something I tend not to do as it is rammed with stuff! – when I came across a bag of small brass objects that he and his brother had picked up when they were helping an elderly friend move house.

None of this stuff is massively valuable, but it is definitely worth some money. So I have been grouping them together to sell on eBay. Any of the treasure he comes across he gives me to put towards our camper fund. Slowly but surely we will get there! 

There was also a box of mismatched china, so I will go through that next. It’s all interesting vintage stuff that somebody will surely appreciate.

Getting ahead for Christmas

I am in no way as prepared for Christmas as some of the members of my Facebook group. Some of them have bought and wrapped all their gifts, written out their cards and bought most of their food already!

However, I have been accumulating little gifts for months now and this week have started working through my spreadsheets to see who I still need to buy for.

I also bought the turkey and some pork and put it in the freezer. It seemed a good price, and I have a feeling the cost of meat goes up the closer to Christmas we get.

Has anybody else been getting really organised? I dislike a last minute rush, so it takes the stress out of the occasion if I am ahead of the game.

Have you managed any frugal wins this week? Let me know in the comments. I love to hear from you!

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