A second hand, low waste week! #fivefrugalthings

I have been focusing on wasting less of everything, making things last and buying used whenever possible this week. It has been a low waste week, which also makes it a low spend and frugal week. Here’s what I have been up to.

Buying second hand

In the course of sourcing items to sell on eBay, I found quite a few nice items for myself this week. I have been to the boot sale and the charity shops. Appropriate, considering it is #SecondHandSeptember!

I discovered that my favourite charity shop had finally reopened, so whizzed round there. Sadly, they have whittled the stock down so much, I didn’t find many bargains . Before, it was crammed with treasures, but they obviously had to make it easier to social distance from other customers and clear some stuff out. 

Never mind, we still have the clearance £1 shop run by the local hospice. I found some good bits in there, as well as a ton of stuff at the boot sale on Sunday.

I do enjoy finding a bargain or two! My favourite buy for myself was a pair of new with tags linen trousers from Next for £1, as well as various T shirts as I am running short of those.

Zero Waste Week catch up

I mentioned in a recent post that this week was Zero Waste Week. The theme this year has been reducing food waste, which is something I really try to do anyway. Throwing food away is such a waste of money, as well as contributing to the build up of greenhouse gases in our landfill sites.

Useful suggestions have been to keep a ‘use me first’ shelf in the fridge, to shop from the freezer and tips to use up food that is past its’ best before’ date.

I haven’t done an official audit, but I have been keeping a close eye on the food we have wasted. I have had to compost some plums that were already too ripe to eat when they were given to us and the very end of a bag of rocket, which had gone rather soggy.

The other thing that gets wasted a lot is cat biscuits! One cat will eat everything you give her immediately. The other one leaves it hanging around all day until the flies have got to it and I end up throwing it away. I am giving her half portions to try to prevent this and topping up during the day if she looks hungry.

I have a couple of posts on reducing food waste here and here if you want to try to tackle yours.

Lo-dough pizza 

I went off last week’s meal plan last night because I managed to get hold of some Lo-Dough pizza bases. They are very low in carbs and calories too, as well as being gluten free and high fibre. 

I thought pizza would be a nice change, especially as we still have so many tomatoes coming through from our greenhouse. 

It was OK, but nowhere near as nice as a traditional pizza base. I put mushrooms on mine, which made it a bit soggy. Next time I will cook it more to get the base really crisp.

You can also use them to make a base for a quiche, or as a wrap. I bought two packs of two, so will experiment and see what works best.

They weren’t hugely expensive – £3.25 for two – so a reasonably frugal alternative to a pizza!

Getting ahead

I have been buying a few gifts ahead of Christmas, as I said I would. If you like pretty glass things, check out the Instagram account of Devon Glass Creations. I bought a couple of lovely presents from her at very reasonable prices. She is so talented!

It is also my eldest daughter’s birthday this weekend. She asked for an Echo Dot Smart speaker with Alexa*, so I waited until it was on offer and grabbed one. 

They are usually £49.99, but regularly appear for £29.99, so it’s worth hanging about. Black Friday will probably be the next opportunity. I think they make really good gifts. We use ours constantly.

I also made her up a hamper of bits and bobs from Home Bargains. Useful bits like nice shampoo, bubble bath and other toiletries with a couple of candles. The basket itself is useful storage and only cost £3.99. I forgot to take a photo before I wrapped it up!

A stitch in time…

I have had a bag of clothing that needed small repairs sitting around for months. As I have decided to get my act together and be more organised, I sat and sewed on buttons and sorted small holes on some bits and pieces whilst I was watching the TV.

I also used my trusty Philips Fabric Shaver* on some jumpers ready for the cooler weather. This is a brilliant little gadget! I love it and use it constantly to revive anything knitted. It’s good on coats too.

I am no seamstress, but I can manage small repairs like this easily and like to keep things wearable for as long as I can.

Anyway, that’s my second hand, low waste week. How has yours been? Did anyone else sign up for Zero Waste Week or Second Hand September?

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