Saving pennies where we can #fivefrugalthings

Before I begin this week’s Five Frugal Things post, an important reminder: You have just two more days to enter the UK Money Bloggers Easter giveaway! It closes at midnight on 14th April. See this post for details. I am looking forward to leaving my job next month and saving pennies wherever I can.

Crazy coffee

I am not a huge coffee drinker. In fact, I didn’t drink it for years after my first pregnancy. I went off it when I had morning sickness and just never fancied it after. However, in the past few years I have started having a morning coffee, which I really enjoy. So I thought I would try one of the crazy coffee flavours currently in Aldi. In the Beanies range they have hot cross bun, white chocolate and raspberry and sticky toffee pudding flavours, as well as the chocolate one they usually sell. I opted for the sticky toffee and it’s actually quite good!

I can’t remember how much I paid now – think it was only about £3. It makes a change from plain old coffee. It is extremely rare for me to buy fancy coffees when I am out so why not do it at home?

Back to the boot sale

It was really cold last weekend, but we got up early anyway to hit the boot sale. There weren’t many good stalls so it was a bit disappointing. We only stayed 20 minutes, but I did manage to buy 3 decent tops at £1 each from one of the few people selling who weren’t traders.

They were nothing special but good for wearing with jeans. As I will soon be taking redundancy I need more casual clothes rather than work stuff! I am hoping for better weather this weekend to go to another boot sale.

Getting out the sewing basket

I rarely sew anything these days, but I keep all my sewing bits and pieces for small repairs. If I have a decent pair of socks that develop a hole I sew them up and the same goes for any piece of clothing. I picked up a really pretty top from the boot sale, but when I went to wear it I realised it had a rip under the armpit. I sewed it up and it is good as new!

Seedlings

I was really excited this week to see all the seeds we have sown starting to pop their little green heads above the soil. We still haven’t got round to sowing the next lot as things have been quite busy, so must make time for that this weekend.

Mr S has been outside this week digging over the vegetable patches too, ready for when the seedlings are big enough to go out.

Making money from our spare room

We had a last minute appeal from one of the organisations we work for that organises host families for language students. They had found rooms for all of the students but needed somewhere for the teacher! I hadn’t intended to take anyone until I had finished work, but couldn’t say no, so she will be arriving on Saturday. This means that I need to give the room a thorough going over in readiness.

I have a post here you might find of interest if you have ever considered hosting foreign students.

So that was my week of saving pennies. How has yours been? Don’t forget the Easter giveaway and I hope one of my readers wins!

I am linking up with Cass, Emma and Becky in their ‘Five Frugal things I’ve done this week’ linky so check out their frugal achievements.

As well as the frugal things above, I recently found a service called Contact Numbers, which can put you in touch with the customer services departments of various organisations, such as the Child Tax Credits customer services team.

This post contains affiliate and paid links.