Working and saving #5frugalthings

Welcome to this week’s frugal round up, where I talk about all the small things that I have done to save money.

We all know that if you watch the pennies, the pounds will take care of themselves. At this point, with inflation on the rise, let’s hope this is true!

We are still struggling with the fall out from catching covid. Justin got it first, then me and his mum. We were most concerned about her, as she is 89. However, we are all testing negative now, but feeling completely shattered. I also keep losing my voice!

Trying a natural remedy

We are all coughing well too. Somebody in my YouTube comments suggested trying some mullein tea. I had never heard of it before, but a quick Google search suggested that mullein leaves are very good for promoting lung health. Worth a try!

The teabags seemed to be horribly expensive, so we decided to buy a large bag of chopped leaves instead to brew in the teapot. It was much cheaper to purchase it this way.

I can’t tell you if it works yet as we have only tried it once. It didn’t taste the best so I think we will mix it with ordinary tea leaves next time!

Working the election

I often help out at the elections, counting the votes and sometimes working at the polling station.

This was obviously organised pre covid, and I wasn’t expecting to feel so exhausted. However, I have dragged myself along for the past couple of days to open some of the postal votes, and will do the same next week.

It’s quite nice to get out of the house and chat to people, as well as earning some extra money. As you probably know, I work from home usually so I am on my own a lot. It makes a nice change, although I’m glad I don’t have to do it every day.

Taking lunch out

As you would expect, rather than buying my lunch out whilst working I packed a salad and flask plus some snacks! I will do the same next week.

I could have bought a sandwich and coffee at the venue, but I worked out that would have been about a fiver. If I added some snacks on top I could easily have spent £7 each day. My home made lunch and flask cost about £1.50!

A nice freebie

My YouTube channel has been slowly growing. If you haven’t yet subscribed, please do! A few weeks ago I was contacted by Salter, makers of kitchen and other equipment for the home, to ask if I would like to review a slow cooker on my channel.

They sent me a beautiful rose gold slow cooker and you can see me using it here.

I was happy to do it as slow cookers are a really good investment now that energy prices are getting so expensive, plus it was a nice gifted item. My old slow cooker is cracked, so perfect timing.

Potential lodgers

I mentioned last week that our lodger is leaving. We hadn’t been able to advertise the room because we had the lurgy. However, I set the ad to live again and we have two potential roomies coming this weekend.

It’s always quite nerve wracking showing people your house and trying to work out if you will get along. However, it really helps our budget and we have been very lucky with the people we have had so far. If you have a spare room, it can be used to make some extra cash, as I wrote in this post. 

So that’s it from me for this week. Don’t forget to come and join my Facebook group if you enjoy chatting and sharing money saving ideas. Also, if you are stuck for ideas for what to do with the kids during the coming bank holiday weekends, you might like this post that I wrote for Money Magpie.

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