Weekly round up for a snowy week

Welcome to another weekly round up from Shoestring Cottage. I hope I find you well and not too cold this frosty February!

I don’t know about you, but I am very much looking forward to spring. The wet, dark weather of January has morphed into a very cold, snowy February. Still, it’s not like there is really anywhere to go and I am thankful that I no longer have to de-ice the car in the dark and then drive through the snow to work. I can do my work from the comfort of Shoestring Cottage.

Having said that, my concentration levels have been shockingly poor this whole week. I think it is because we have been painting the hallway. Even when we aren’t doing it, there is more chaos than usual in the rest of the house and everything seems to take twice as long to get done. 

We have been doing a few hours at a time, but I feel it needs finishing now so we can get back to normal. I am going to just go for it over the next few days.

Online graduation

Before I go into my five frugal things for the week, I want to say congratulations to my youngest daughter, Izzy (top right). She had her online graduation ceremony yesterday. Not the same as all celebrating together, but I found myself whooping and clapping in my office as I watched on my laptop!

Tough times for these kids, but she is creative and determined, so will get her career going I am sure, even if it is trickier than she envisaged when she first went to university.

I sent her a lovely card from Thortful, which I recently discovered as a nice change from some of the other online card retailers. They have very unusual and unique designs by independent creators, which I like. If you fancy trying them, here is my referral link.

Weekly round up of five frugal things

Bare stairs or carpet? Making do

I may have mentioned in my previous weekly round up that our hall carpet has been damaged by both the cats and the dog (mostly Archie, to be honest – destructive little bleeder).

My preference was to rip the whole carpet up, sand and paint the stairs, but Mr S wants to keep the carpet. He hates the noise and thinks wooden stairs are a slip hazard.

Anyway, we finally came to a compromise, which was to rip up the lower sections of carpet on the first three steps as they wind round towards the staircase itself. This is in the best condition and will remain carpeted, and I am going to borrow a Vax from a friend and give them a really good clean.

The bottom three steps will be painted with Frenchic paint. Having used it to paint the cupboard in the hall, I am now a huge fan. It is eco friendly and non-toxic, you seem to be able to paint more of less anything with it and it goes on so easily.

I have ordered a pot of Black Jack for the horizontal sections and will do the verticals in white, something like this that I found on the Frenchic Fan Forum on Facebook. This is definitely worth a look if you want to revamp your home on a budget!

The landing section of carpet is quite damaged, so we are going to use tape to do a rough repair and then find some rugs to cover it all.

I have pledged to buy only second hand for the whole of 2021, so a new carpet isn’t an option anyway. We need to make do and mend!

If you are interested in buying more second hand, both for the sake of your bank balance and the environment, then come on over to my Facebook group. There are some amazingly creative people in the group showing how they live well on less.

Fun in the snow

Having a young dog is like having a child when it comes to snow. Archie absolutely loves it! Rather than cosying up all day and looking at it out of the window, we have been forced out twice a day and I have to say it has mostly been lovely.

It is that really soft, dusty snow that is easy to walk on. Having said that, it is starting to turn a bit icy in places today. The side roads are awful.

We wrap up really warm with loads of layers, warm footwear, gloves, scarves and hats and we are good to go. Yesterday the sun even came out when we were down at Fingringhoe, which made the snowy landscape look so beautiful.

An emergency hair cut

We were going to get Archie’s fur clipped just before we went into tier 4, but the lady who did it was concerned whether she should still be operating so she cancelled.

However, Archie has been collecting the snow on his fur – big balls of the stuff – especially around his legs and paws. You may have seen me using a whisk to get them off on my Instagram story!

In the end, the groomer decided she could justify seeing him for a welfare cut, which is why we were in Fingringhoe. He looks like a puppy again!

We are very lucky with this lady. She is friends with Justin’s brother so we get mates rates. It’s only £25 instead of £35.

At some point I will invest in some clippers and brave cutting him myself, but this was his first proper cut, so I wanted to see what it looked like first. Anyone else cut their dog’s hair?

This week’s free food

They say there is no such thing as a free lunch, but this is nearly one! This week I got rocket, tomatoes, cucumber, potato salad and four pasties free via the Olio app. 

I also found some half price baguettes and brioche buns in our local corner shop and still had the last of the free Stilton from a couple of weeks ago. So the lunch above cost about 20p!

I love the Olio app and helping to prevent food waste too.

New duvet set

The beastly dog keeps trying to ‘bury’ his chews and toys in our bedding! Quite funny to watch, and I have also noticed that he has made a few small holes in one set. 

I actually only have two duvet sets for our bed, so I thought it was probably a good idea to invest in another. Because I am only buying second hand, I found this Cath Kidston inspired set on eBay, which goes with the bedroom decor. 

I paid £12 for this king size duvet cover and pillow cases. Although I am sure I could have found something cheaper if I was allowed into some charity shops or the boot sales were open, but I am perfectly happy with these. 

The bed itself was second hand as well! It came from Facebook a few years ago for £70.

So that is another weekly round up. I am hoping that next week I can report a mini heat wave here in Essex, but maybe not….

How has your week been?

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