This week’s Thrifty Finds second week March 2019

 

I had last week off work as I still had annual leave to take. This meant I could get on top of some decluttering jobs and sort out some finances.

1. I sorted through my younger girls’ bedroom and filled a couple of bags for charity.
2. I was also able to get on top of some of our savings accounts. I’ve rejigged what we are saving for some things as we are about to have a salary drop. I discovered that I had been over saving for one fund which will come in useful as…
3. The car broke down again! We were warned that the problem may be more serious and it may need to go back to the garage. I think the next job they will do on the car will involve the engine and is going to cost a lot more 😦
4. I spent a quiet week at home working through my list of jobs as well as enjoying some time to read. I went out for lunch twice with friends but just to local cafes. I had planned to go to the cinema but there wasn’t anything I wanted to see.
5. However my husband has just discovered his Vodafone rewards app so we can claim two Odeon tickets for just £7! He also challenged his new bill and was able to get the discount he was originally promised (although it involved two phonecalls, filling in an online form and then returning to the store!)

 

On a completely separate note at the weekend I completed a Fearless Flyer Course with Easyjet!

I haven’t flown for 13 years and this summer we are taking a long haul flight. I’m not a great flyer and, having not flown for so long, it has been building up in my mind. As the course was only in Bristol I decided to go for it. The first day was in a hotel in Bristol and involved motivational talks, mindfulness and some very mild hypnotherapy techniques. We also had a talk from a pilot who explained all the noises and – basically – how planes work. The following day was a short 40 minute flight from Bristol airport. Having done the first day I felt surprisingly calm at the airport and didn’t mind boarding the plane. The take off, and landing, though were pretty bumpy (due to the tailend of the recent storms). The course pilot talked us through the take off and landing which was so helpful. Although I felt uncomfortable and uneasy I was a lot better than I would have been having not taken the course. I still can’t say I’m looking forward to our summer flights but I feel I have more tools and techniques to utilise.

Thrifty Finds for last week February 2019

These are my Thrifty Finds for the last week in February:

1. My parents were able to pass on the girls’ old playhouse to someone else in the village. This playhouse had originally been a play fort which my parents had – very cleverly – turned into a playhouse. However the girls (and their cousins) are growing too old for the playhouse so we put it on the village ‘Free, Sell, Swap’ page and had three offers to collect! By the end of the weekend it had gone to a lady who was going to give it to her granddaughter – so it will now have its third incarnation!
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2. I borrowed the book we are reading for Book Group, rather than buy it.

3. I had a big win with a Boots offer and points! I received a money off voucher for Number 7 cosmetics (my go-to brand for foundation and concealer) but was also able to make use of their ‘Three for the price of two’ offer at the same time. What should have been £45, only cost £28. I was also able to claim my double points voucher so I already have nearly £5 saved for Christmas (I save all my Boots Advantage to help buy Christmas presenrs).

4. I decided to take part in the #10x10challenge on Instagram. The idea is to wear just ten items of clothing for ten days. I thought it would be a good idea to see how much use I could get out of my clothes, and make me rethink how I wear some of them. I’ll post the results next week! Interestingly, only about a third of the items were second hand.

5. Knowing I was only going to be wearing ten items of clothing (incl shoes) made me get my sewing kit out and mend a couple of items!

Have you tried a clothing challenge? Are there any tips you can pass on?

Thrifty Finds for first week January 2019

Happy New Year! How was your first week of 2019? I took the first week off as the girls weren’t back at school until 7th January. We had a lovely, lazy week.

These are my Thrifty Finds:

1. I went through my food spending for Christmas and made a note for 2019 of the things we didn’t really need. For example we never got round to eating the Christmas pud :0

2. My mum picked up some Christmas wrapping paper for me that was reduced at the charity where she volunteers (Dorothy House Hospice).

3. After two weeks of ridiculously slow internet I called BT and they came round to fix it. As a result we have a brand new phone line (the old one was over 40 years ago and corroded, which explained why our internet would drop during bad weather). I also upgraded to super fast – all for no extra cost.

4. I had an honest clear out of those clothes that are now too tight for me 😦 I also donated a bag of books and games to a charity shop,

4. I couldn’t resist a little trawl around the charity shops in Weston, Bath. My daughter had an appointment at the hairdressers there and I had a few minutes to spare. Once more, the Dorothy House Shop came up trumps! With some Christmas money, I bought a pair of trousers (originally Mango, on sale for £7) and a gorgeous 50s style dress from Country Casuals (£10).

Apparently January is a good time to browse the charity shops as they have lots of post Christmas donations!

Thrifty Finds: last week in November

Last week I started my Christmas Shopping – by browsing the charity shops!

1. I didn’t think I’d pick up much for the girls as now they are older they don’t really want anything second hand. However I did find two money boxes which I was specifically looking for. We have a big holiday planned for next year and I want them to save for it too. I had briefly looked for holiday-themed money boxes online but they were too expensive. However, a couple of trips to local charity shops resulted in me finding two ‘saving for holiday’ money boxes 🙂
2. I also bought a brand new make up purse as requested by one of my daughters, for £2 from the Dorothy House shop.
3. While browsing the charity shops I did end up buying a couple of Christmas themed items for the home:

I have been searching for some red cloth napkins for ages and was delighted to find a set of five (perfect for our family!) from Oxfam for £2.99. I also bought the Coca Cola tray (£1.99) and the Jostein Gaarder Christmas storybook

In the Dorothy House shop I picked up this brushed cotton bedding for £7, which is warm as well as very seasonal.

4. We also had a clear out of children’s books which I have donated to Oxfam.

5. Finally, although not a Thrifty Find, I did buy the girls’ advent calendars and our Christmas crackers from Oxfam.

Have you started Christmas shopping yet? Do you shop for second-hand gifts too?

This week’s Thrifty Finds: Week One, June 2018

 

 

How has your June been so far? It’s been very warm here but the pollen count has been really high, making it almost unbearable at times ☹️ But I’ve still got out and enjoyed the garden.

1. My parents bought us a new set of garden furniture and we were able to free cycle the old table and chairs. They were collected within two hours of posting!

2. I also donated a bag of children’s things to a local charity shop.

3. A friend gave me the most beautiful bunch of roses from her garden. She had taken my daughter camping for the Bank Holiday so it should have been me giving her flowers! They smelt sooo amazing 😄

 

 

4. After being caught out (again) last Saturday by not having space to pack a reusable coffee cup I treated myself to a collapsible Stojo cup. It’s amazing! It works as an ordinary cup but collapses to pocket size. There’s no excuse now for buying single use!

5. I also managed a (nearly) plastic free trip to the local town. Buying from the greengrocers is easy peasy using my produce bags or buying the items loose. I managed to buy a whole chicken wrapped just in a plastic bag (without a tray) from the butchers, but I failed to get an Ecover refill at the health food store as I had bought in the wrong bottle ☹️ Apparently they can only refill from Ecover bottles!!

Tomorrow (5 June) is World Environment Day and this year’s challenge is to avoid single use. Follow #BeatPlasticPollution to find out more. I’m going to London tomorrow so will try to avoid plastic packaging all day. I’ll let you know how I get on…

 

This week’s Thrifty Finds (30 April – 7 May 2018)

 

 

Welcome to another post. Here in the UK we’ve just had the most amazing May Bank Holiday weekend (the hottest on record!). As I had done my monthly supermarket shop last week we were well stocked with ice lollies, which meant no trips to the shop. We did, however, take a day trip to the seaside yesterday but I shall include our ‘Thrifty Finds’ from that day out below:

1. We donated another huge bag of clothing, books and games to the charity shop. Now that our kitchen is back to normal we have been able to sort through other rooms which were overflowing with stuff we no longer needed. We have also been quite ruthless about the arts and crafts and play storage in our kitchen as the girls have outgrown quite a lot of stuff.
2. I harvested my first produce from the garden! Only a few baby radishes but I was very pleased. I haven’t grown veggies for ages but a new vegetable bed makes it ideal to start again. I have also sown lettuce, carrots and nasturtiums (that just look so pretty!)

3. My daughter was on ‘chicken duty’ again at school so we received even more eggs for free!

4. As mentioned above we had a day out at the seaside on the Bank Holiday Monday. In total there were six of us (one of the girls brought a friend) so I was determined to keep the costs down. I spent Sunday making food for a picnic, including homemade Spanish tortilla and fairy cakes. I also tried to cut down on our plastic waste by taking very little pre-packaged food, and reusable water bottles. As a treat on the beach I bought a pack of six ice creams from the local & Spencer for £3. They were still luxurious, but a fraction of the price charged at the kiosks.

5. Not quite a Thrifty Find, but we did come across a lovely package free soap stall at the harbourside market yesterday. I couldn’t resist buying a Rose scented Savon de Marseille. It smells so lovely that I’m going to use it to scent a drawer. I also splashed out and bought a bamboo hairbrush from Body Shop, which I’d wanted for ages.

What were your Thrifty Finds for last week? What did you do over the Bank Holiday?

 

 

This week’s Thrifty Finds (22-29 April 2018)

 

I’m not sure how we’ve reached the end of the month and I only managed to write one Thrifty Finds post! That certainly wasn’t the intention but time has just flown by this April…

This past week my Thrifty Finds have been:

1. Having had a good clear out we donated about half a dozen bags to a local charity shop.
2. Following the clear out I was also able to sell some children’s books to a second-hand book stall in Bath.
3. My youngest daughter picked up this pretty summer dress from Oxfam:

 

4. We were also given a couple of items of children’s clothing from a friend.

5. About a year ago we were given a second-hand Wii from grandparents. However the girls never played it and, while having our clear out, we decided to sell it to our local CEX Games Exchange shop. We were given an £80 store credit in exchange, which will go towards buying a second-hand ipad for the younger children. They will have to save up some of the money themselves and look at selling their unwanted dvds in exchange for more store credit.

 

What were your Thrifty Finds?

This week’s Thrifty Finds (19-25 March 2018)

 

Hello and welcome to another week of Thrifty Finds. This past week I have:

1. Donated a bag of clothes to school for a fundraiser.

2. Saved £12 off a supermarket shop with a voucher I had.

3. For the first time I made a homemade waffle mix, which turned out really well! We have a sandwich toaster which also has a waffle plate. I hadn’t made waffles before and – for some reason – I thought they would be difficult. In the end I googled a simple recipe and discovered the waffle mix is very much like pancake batter (I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before!). I ended up making a double batch which lasted us two days :

4. A friend lent me the book for our reading group so I don’t need to buy it, or source it from the library.

5. Finally, my proudest achievement of the week: I took part in our annual Community Litter Pick. About 30 volunteers turned up on Saturday morning to help clear the village of rubbish. I went off to the Recreation Ground and spent about 90 minutes clearing the hedges around the football pitch and the skate park. I came across three footballs, one bike and lots and lots of plastic drinks bottles and crisp packets. I created two bags of rubbish. The total for the village was 40 bags of rubbish – 10 more than last year. But maybe this means there were more volunteers and more was cleared, rather than an increase in the rubbish that was produced?

What were your Thrifty Finds? Do you have any ‘thrifty’ plans for Easter?

This week’s Thrifty Finds (21-28 January 2018)

 

Welcome to another week chronicling my Thrifty Finds.

1. I picked up three jars of Nutella spread for just £1 each! Debenhams had been selling them for Christmas and had reduced their stock from £2.50. My kids love Nutella but I don’t always buy it because of the cost (they had some small jars in their Christmas stockings which have now become drinking glasses- one of the advantages of Nutella is that it comes in glass jars). This new supply should keep us going for a few weeks!

2. We are still sorting our kitchen out and donated another bag to charity.

3. In preparation for being without a cooker and oven for the next three weeks I undertook a mammoth baking session. I have frozen lots of cupcakes which we put in packed lunches.

4. A friend picked up more than 40 vinyl albums for £40. We split the collection with him and paid £20 for about 25 albums. Some of them aren’t so great but we did find some classics, including U2’s Rattle and Hum (I’d forgotten what a great album that was!)

5. I finally booked a free eye test through work. I know I need new glasses for work and should have done this about six months ago. Still better late than never…..

 

I’d love to hear about your Thrifty Finds too! Please  share your Thrifty Finds on my facebook page, or use #thriftyfinds on Twitter or instagram

This week’s Thrifty Finds (8-14 January 2018)

Hope you had a good week. Last week we started back at school and work and it’s amazing how quickly we all got back into the swing of things (even though it’s hard getting up in the dark)

1. I spent the last of my Christmas gift money on some amazing sales-priced clothing at Marks and Spencer. I bought a jumper, shirt, top and pair of trousers for under £25. If you get to M&S at the right time their reductions are amazing – I picked up some gorgeous trousers reduced to just £7!

2. We cleared out a lot of drawers and cupboards in the kitchen (in a couple of weeks’ time the kitchen is being ripped out and we are having some damp proofing work done, then a new kitchen installed). We donated quite a few bags to local charity shops as a result.

3. We also sold some unwanted DVDs to the local CEX shop and received a voucher.

4. I finally cancelled our Amazon Prime subscription. I don’t know why we still had it as it was something I accidentally signed up for. We don’t use Amazon enough for it to be worth £80 for the free postage, and the Amazon/LoveFilm channel isn’t that good, either.

5. My middle daughter is learning to play tennis and I picked up a  racquet for her for half price in the sales.

I’d love to hear about your Thrifty Finds too! Please  share your Thrifty Finds on my facebook page, or use #thriftyfinds on Twitter or instagram