Every Friday I share five frugal things that I’ve done to save or make money. I believe that a frugal lifestyle is an individual thing and there is no right or wrong way of going about it. From the smallest of savings to the greatest it all adds up and contributes to us living the life that we want for less.
Five Frugal Things
- I’ve been busy planning and preparing for a no-spend September. I frequently add a few no-spend days into the month but I have never successfully completed a challenge like this. My goal is to cut all unnecessary spending in the month of September putting any money saved into my savings account for Christmas.
I have printed some spending trackers for free from Mrs Hawkin’s House blog and am currently drawing up some realistic rules for myself.
2. This has been our last full week of the summer holidays and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to make use of what we already had at home. The kids still had some activity sets from Christmas and birthdays that we had never gotten around to completing so we used them up.
It’s so tempting when the kids are complaining of boredom to go out and spend money on them just for something to do. I try to combat this by thinking about the things we have in our cupboards or drawers that would be fun to do instead.
3. This week’s meal plan included using up lots of the reduced items I bought and froze in the month of August. I like to do this to make room for any reductions or bargains I come across the following month. Any money saved from the weekly grocery budget can then be transferred into savings.
4. My quest to reduce our food waste continues and it’s going really well. I ended up with a surplus of eggs thanks to receiving some fresh eggs from a family member. The ones I had bought were past their best-before date, after checking they were all still okay to eat I boiled them all up and made some tubs of egg mayo for lunches.
As I made more than we could eat I was able to pass some along to my eldest daughter and grandson for them to enjoy too.
5. I put all of the extra money I made completing surveys in August into paying off my daughter’s upcoming residential trip. It feels so good to be able to put the money I earn towards something fun like this. I also used some Argos vouchers that I got for free (see last week’s Five Frugal Things post) towards a sleeping bag for her to take on the residential too.
If you have enjoyed reading this you might also like last week’s Five Frugal Things.
FOR MORE FINANCE POSTS LIKE THIS SEE OUR FINANCE ARCHIVE.