This week’s Thrifty Finds: third week of March 2019

My Thrifty Finds for last week included:

1. I went back to work after a week off BUT I was very good and just bought in food from home, rather than being tempted by the many food shops just a stone’s throw from work. One day I even bought in a can of soup as I had run out of time to make sandwiches. Fortunately we have a kitchen with microwave which makes lunchtimes so much easier.

2. I had a free eye test on Tuesday. I get a free eye test on the NHS as my Dad has glaucoma. I was pleased to hear I don’t need new glasses this year.

3. My best Thrifty Find of the week was trading in some old bus tickets for a new one. I regularly buy an eleven journey ticket and, until the end of this month, I can trade in ten old tickets for a free one – saving me £34.50!

4. The weather gradually got dryer and warmer last week so I was able to line dry. The tumble dryer is not working at the moment but I haven’t looked at fixing it as it encourages me to hang the washing out and save energy (and money).

5. I picked up a secondhand book for my husband by an author that had been recommended to me.

A glass bottle turnaround…..

Last week I received this email from my doorstep delivery service:

(Actually it was sent to me in error as I don’t get plastic bottles but I’m so glad I received it!)

This note marks an amazing turnaround for the UK milk delivery industry as, only a few years ago, they were planning to cease glass bottle production altogether (see my blog post here).

I recently bumped into a representative from Milk and More (formerly Dairy Crest) as he was knocking on doors trying to encourage my neighbours to get a doorstep delivery. He explained that the public are so much more aware of the problems of plastic and since the ‘Blue Planet’ series, interest in reusable glass bottles has dramatically increased. In fact Muller (who own Milk and More) were investing in their own glass bottle factory.

It’s amazing what a change in public attitude can do! So when you wonder if ‘doing your bit’ for the environment really makes a difference, the answer is YES!!!

Thrifty Finds: second week in October 2018

 

It’s been fairly quiet here this past week. As I’m on a ‘no spending on clothes’ month I have avoided the charity shops on my lunch break, which may have saved some money…

1. I turned the large gift of tomatoes into some delicious roast tomato and garlic soup, and took it to work.

2. I was gifted two butternut squashes from a friend. As they keep for quite a long time I haven’t worked out whether to turn them into soup or something else.

3. I borrowed a book from the library.

4. I had a good look at our budgets and started some forward planning for next year. In 2019 we have (potentially) two large financial decisions to make and I want to be sure we can afford them both. I also want to start saving towards having three months’ expenses put away in case of job loss or any other emergency. This is rather ambitious as it will take quite a while to do this but I fell happier having a ‘safety net’. Last year our car was written off and having savings really helped – ‘rainy days’ do really happen!

5. Following the UN Climate Change Report last week my husband and I have been talking about a couple of things we can do. We only own one car (which is a challenge in a small village – see here) and the girls and I use a bus or walk to school/work. I’d like to think our carbon footprint is fairly low as only my husband flies for work (usually once a year). But there is so much more we could be doing. I’ve been talking for ages about switching to a green energy supplier, but have failed to do something about it. We could also reduce our meat consumption. One of our children is vegetarian and we already eat a few meat free meals, but we could make more of an effort to switch to a plant-based diet.

The author Mark Lynas will be talking at the North Wiltshire Sustainability Day in Chippenham this Saturday 20th)

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 (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?

2017: My best second-hand picks

I wrote a similar post this time last year and thought it would be fun to trawl through my second-hand finds from 2017.

This year I started a new job which, while giving me more spending power, meant I also had to invest in a work wardrobe. While I have definitely bought more first-hand clothing this year, I’m still a sucker for charity shops and some of my best finds of the year have come from them.

1. Clothing-wise, while I have bought some first-hand items (my favourite being a pair of denim dungarees which I have lived in for the past six months), I’ve still found some great items second-hand. I was very pleased with these Boden ankle-length trousers picked up in Wales in November for just £4.50. These are ideal work-home crossover trousers, something I’m trying to buy more of.

2. These two tops were bought from my favourite Bath charity shop: Save the Children. They originally came from LaRedoute and French Connection and were £9.50 in total, I’ve worn them on their own and, when the weather’s cooler, with a polo neck underneath.

3. I picked up this former H&M top from Dorothy House Hospice shop for £7  and it has been my ‘going – out’ staple all over the festive period. I had been wanting a dressy green top for ages and picked this up purely by chance on the very day I needed to wear something new (to me)! My mum has also started volunteering at this local hospice, so it is a cause that has become close to our hearts.

4. I bought a couple of Summer staples as well which I was very pleased with. This white cheesecloth shirt proved invaluable when on holiday in the South of France. I originally bought it from Save the Children for a pricey £10, but I wore it a lot in the summer so I think it was worth it.

5. I instantly fell in love with this Henry Holland/Debenhams dress found in the Julian House Shop in Chippenham for £8.50. I loved the style and the unusual horse-themed print! I wore it to a friend’s wedding in the summer and layered it with leggings and jumpers into the Autumn.

6. My final clothing find of the year was this red seventies/early eighties? style homemade dress. I picked it up in a vintage store in London for £9. The material is quite thin but, so far, I’ve been adding jumpers and tights to make it winter-proof. (Incidentally, if you ever want to learn more about wearing layers in the winter read this post here from the Freelancers Fashion Blog. Ulrika has the most beautiful vintage style and lives in Finland so is an expert on how to layer up for the winter – while still wearing gorgeous outfits!)

7. I’m also very pleased with a few second-hand items I bought this year, which weren’t clothing. I had been looking for a new handbag for ages and was delighted to find not only this bag, but also the cute purse for £6  in total, from the Dorothy House shop in Malmesbury. I also made use of my old bag by cutting out the inner pocket and turning it into a small purse I can store my reusable shopping bags in it.

 

8. Vinyl-wise I picked up a  couple of second-hand LPs that I had wanted for ages – and my lovely husband bought me Rumours on vinyl for my birthday (40 years old and still in good condition – the album, not me!)

9. Finally, after many years of avoiding a smartphone I decided that, with my new job, I needed to bite the bullet and buy one. Staying true to my second-hand principles, I decided to purchase a second-hand iphone from CEX, using the money my husband had received for trading in his old phone.

When I read about the incessant need for new gadgets and the speed in which items become obsolescent it makes me really angry. I refuse to buy into the idea that businesses like Apple sell to us that we must always need the next and the best iphone on sale. (I guess it also helps that I’m in my mid-forties and don’t need to worry about my street cred if I buy a pre-loved, older version too!)

Looking back I realise that I have got a lot of wear and use out of the things I bought second-hand. There were a few items that I did buy by mistake and which have since been re-donated – so I don’t always get it right (!). And, although I did buy more items first hand, partly out of necessity and a lack of time to trawl the charity shops, my second-hand finds are definitely my favourite.

How were your second-hand finds this year? Do you plan to buy more pre-loved items next year?

Advent Calendars: love ’em or hate ’em?

 

Every year my children receive chocolate advent calendars from their generous grandparents. However this year I was able to buy paper calendars for the girls from Oxfam – which received a mixed response 😦

I personally believe that traditional paper calendars are better than chocolate ones – but am I being mean, and a little old fashioned?

These are my thoughts on why they are better:

1. A paper advent calendar gets better day by day: each door reveals a new picture and by the end of advent you have a joyous Christmas scene.

2. However by 24 December chocolate calendars are a mess of torn cardboard, ripped foil and plastic packaging: hardly festive!

3. Why do multi national confectionary companies (such as Kraft) get to tell us how to celebrate advent? And don’t get me started on the £95 L’Oréal advent calendar, or the heavily criticised £50 one created by Zoella.

4. At the end of the day, traditional calendars can be recycled. However the mess that is left behind by the chocolate ones makes them difficult to recycle, only adding to the 736,571 tonnes of rubbish that is created each Christmas.

5. There is enough over consumption and debt generated at this time of year anyway. Why not buy a simple charity calendar and enjoy the mindful task of opening a door each day to reveal a picture, rather than wolfing down chocolate (which doesn’t even taste that great!)

What are your thoughts on advent calendars?

Paper or chocolate?

Or do you own a perpetual calendar: one that can be used again and again? Some families also take part in ‘reverse advent calendars’: donating an item a day to a local foodbank.

I really enjoy reading the ideas and projects from New Dream, a not for profit organisation which is working to challenge American perceptions of consumption and consumerism. They produce an online advent calendar here, filled with ways you can step off the consumption conveyor belt at this time of year.

I really recommend reading their website and looking at some of the ideas they have to ‘Simplify the Holidays’.

This week’s Thrifty Finds (16-22 October 2017)

 

How was your week? Last week we were on count down for the school holidays (the girls actually broke up on Wednesday and Thursday). This week I’m off with them so looking forward to spending time together, while watching the pennies.

Last week my Thrifty Finds were:

1. I went to a Vintage Fair with a friend. I’ve been to a few of these before but this was by far the best. I really enjoyed browsing, and people watching (some of the customers were dressed in the most beautiful period pieces). I was very restrained, though, and just came away with some hair pins and a brooch:

 

2. I took the kids swimming on Sunday – for free. During the school holidays, swimming is free for children in our local area 🙂 . So we took advantage of this and went to a ‘fun and floats’ session.

3. In preparation for the school holidays I did a load of baking to keep everyone fed. I made a huge batch of rock cakes, lemon cake and some cupcakes. I don’t think they’ll last the week though…

4. My clever husband has been landscaping the garden this summer. He finished off our new deck this weekend with reclaimed railway sleepers and re-using some old stone chipping which used to be in another part of our garden.

5. Not quite a personal Thrifty Find, but some thing I had to share. At the weekend I came across this Community Fridge in Frome, Somerset. It’s centrally located in the car park and the idea is that you drop off your unwanted food and leave it for others to help themselves (or the other way round). What a great way to reduce food waste!!

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 (18-30 September) – and the end of the Repair Cafe :(

 

I’m not quite sure how it happened but I didn’t post for last week (oops!). Sometimes things get very busy and, if I’m not sticking to my regular schedule, some things just fall off the list..

So I’m going to try to remember my Thrifty Finds for the last two weeks and post them now. (If you follow me regularly on Instagram you may spot when I add #thriftyfinds, which is more of a daily record of my frugal achievements, purchases and non-purchases)

1. My daughter had torn her school skirt quite badly. Although I bought her a replacement skirt from M&S she was quite happy with the hand-me-down pinafore dress that was already hanging in her wardrobe. So I returned the M&S skirt and saved £12!
2. I had a bit of a sort out and donated a couple of bags to charity shops.
3. I finally got my baking mojo back and baked some cakes last week. One batch of fairy cakes has been frozen to use for lunch boxes later in the month.
4. I also got organised and cooked two separate casseroles, which I then froze. On Wednesday and Thursday the kids eat at my parents so it’s only my husband and I who have to cook a meal when we come home from work. However the last few weeks we’ve just been eating convenience freezer meals and I am fed up with over baked chips! So last weekend I spent an hour making a beef stew (in the oven) and a chicken casserole (in the slow cooker). These have now been frozen and we’ll use them for instant meals after a long day’s work 🙂
5. On Saturday we held the last ever Corsham Repair Cafe 😦 We have been running the cafe for the past four years (see here) and I am very proud of the work that we have done: nearly 200 customers have been helped; roughly 150 repairs have been made; and we’ve shown the local community that items can be repaired, rather than just thrown away.                     But, over the past year, volunteers and customer numbers have dwindled and, now that I don’t work in Corsham, it’s harder to find the time to organise and promote. So we took the sad decision to close the cafe.       However I’m delighted that, since Corsham opened its Repair Cafe in 2013, we now have regular Repair Cafes running in Bristol, Bath and Bradford on Avon. Corsham also has an active Men’s Shed who are able to take repairs on too.

I do feel slightly relieved (although also sad) that we’ve taken this decision. I really enjoyed catching up with the volunteers who gave their time, effort and skills to help mend broken items. But I am also looking forward to having more free time – maybe to pursue a new green hobby?!

 

 

Don’t forget to share your Thrifty Finds too! I do love to read them.

This week’s Thrifty Finds – and an inspiring documentary (for free)

Last week we were back into the swing of school routine and starting to think about Christmas (eek!)

This past week my Thrifty Finds have been:

1. Halloween took place last Monday and we were able to dip into our trusty bag of second-hand costumes and accessories to decorate. We have charity shop costumes and buckets, and a spider’s web made from some netting I picked up at the local scrap store years ago. Apart from buying some sweets we didn’t spend anything and made sure the plastic tat had another year’s life in it

2. I donated some unwanted jewellery to a charity shop (this is the season to clear out the clutter so I think there will be a few more trips to charity shops before the end of the year)

3. I had kept some plums in the fridge for over a month yet I was still able to bake with them at the weekend.

4. Not quite a Thrifty Find but the bloomin candle turned up this week and – I have to admit – I have got quite a lot of use out of it ! I don’t normally treat myself but the candle has been quite a lovely addition to the house. I deliberately chose a ‘timeless’ fragrance (sun kissed linen’) and it’s actually really nice….

5. And finally I got to watch, for free, the new Leonardo DiCaprio documentary on climate change: ‘Before the Flood’. It was free to watch on YouTube over the weekend. It’s powerful stuff: depressing but also offering solutions such as a carbon tax and looking at places like China who create more renewable energy than anywhere else on the planet. There are great opportunities afoot to slow down climate change, but there needs to be the political will too. And the film argues that the political will comes from us, the people. See more about the documentary here: https://www.beforetheflood.com

 

What were your Thrifty Finds for the past week?

You can also share your Thrifty Finds on my facebook page, or use #thriftyfinds on Twitter or instagram