This week’s frugal round-up

Well, I said I was determined to keep up with regular posts for you, so here I am with this week’s frugal round-up!

I published another post a few days ago called How to get stuff for free (or very cheaply), so check that out if you want more ideas on how to save money.

Some vintage bargains

I began the week staying over with my Mum so that we could get up early and go to a new boot sale close to where she lives. We didn’t realise, but it was heavily frequented by dealers selling antiques and collectables. Most of them were incredibly reasonably priced, and we had such a great time going around. If you want to see exactly what I found, check out my video on my YouTube channel this Sunday!

My favourite piece, which cost just £4, was this gorgeous Beswick teapot. I absolutely love it, but was stunned when I found two the same on eBay, one for £65 and the other for £50!

My parents used to be part-time dealers some years ago and loved rummaging in charity shops, at boot sales and at auctions. They sold their finds in a couple of antiques centres. Now I find  I am getting the bug! I love vintage bits and bobs.

Borrowbox

I have mentioned before that I listen to audiobooks a lot when I am cleaning or pottering in the garden. Borrowbox is a free to use app you can get with your library card and you can listen to all sorts of books free, or read them as ebooks.

I am about to start listening to Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which is the latest choice of my book group. It is hard to concentrate on reading at the moment, with all the upset of losing my Dad, so listening to an audio book is just the thing.

Last month’s choice was The Count of Monte Cristo. I couldn’t find it on Borrowbox, but did get it on YouTube, another option for classic audio books. It has been a great distraction, but it’s an epic tome! I think it would have taken me all year if I was actually reading it. 

More courgettes

We have had a great crop of courgettes this year. I mentioned in last week’s post that I had made a load of soup for the freezer. This week I made ratatouille instead. It’s so easy to put together and doesn’t take long. We had it with rice and some yellow sticker pork belly I found a few weeks ago and had frozen. It made a lovely dinner. 

There was enough ratatouille left for the next day’s lunch, but not enough to freeze, so I will make more this week just for the freezer.

Dodging the rain

It has been an odd summer, weather-wise, hasn’t it? Whilst other countries have been suffering heat waves, we have been dodging rain showers. I know which I prefer, actually. It has been awful watching places like Maui burn.

Even with the rain showers, I have been trying to dry laundry outside as much as possible. It’s always preferable to having airers full of wet clothing inside, although I have done that too!

I generally check the BBC weather app, then decide whether it’s worth putting it out or not. Even if I only manage a few hours, at least it gets a good start and dries more quickly than indoors. No tumble dryer here!

DIY on a budget

I plan to restart my decorating efforts in the kitchen and dining room in the next few weeks. The colour scheme will be pink and green. However, I couldn’t decide what to do about the kitchen tiles, which are a kind of rustic brown. They don’t go at all with pink or green!

I considered painting them, but they are so bumpy I don’t think I would get a good finish. Then I came across these fabulous vinyl tiles, which are advertised as heat proof and hard wearing. I have had three samples by the cooker top for a week to test this claim out and they seem very good. Even though they are removable, they aren’t showing any signs of coming off unless I want them to. So I think tiles like this are a good option to revamp the kitchen without the time and expense of pulling off all the old tiles and making good the walls. 

I am going to buy the daisy pattern, top left in the photo. They aren’t super cheap, and I know I could get cheaper elsewhere, but I want them to be long-lasting. Otherwise it seems to me to be a false economy. These ones come from Jes Rose Vinyl, who you can find on Instagram. They have some fabulous designs!

So those are five things for this week’s frugal round-up. What have you done that has saved you money this week?

If you want more inspiration, don’t forget to check out my book, available from Amazon here.*

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