This week I thought I’d dive back in again with the Five Fabulously Frugal Things linky! I haven’t done one of these for a few weeks. Truth be told, I was a bit hesitant to do one this week – it’s been a bit of a spendy patch (birthdays etc) and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to think of five things! It’s a great exercise to sit down and really think about what I’ve done to save money. It helps me realise I’ve done better than I thought, and keeps me focused for next week!
- I’ve kept up making my own lunches for work instead of buying them out! I usually make a batch of something on Sunday that will last the whole week. This week I’ve had roasted peppers and cherry tomatoes with couscous. It cost about £2 to make a batch that lasted four days. On the fifth day, I had lunch with my grandma. Even frugal people are allowed to buy lunch where grandmas are involved 🙂
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Reading is a fab, frugal, life-improving and all round excellent hobby, and I have been reading a lot recently. I’ve read three books so far this month and am half way through two others. All except one came from the library! Would have got that last one from the library too, but it’s for a book club and the waiting list was too long.
- I’ve still been using Shopmium and CheckoutSmart to get discounts and freebies with my weekly shop. This week I got money off bread and yoghurt, which is always useful. Shopmium has some awesome deals at the moment which I’m going to hunt down at the weekend, including free Mikado, free Choco Leibnitz biscuits and £3.50 merlot!
- One of my goals this year is to get my savings rate up to 20%. I suddenly realised this week that I had been waiting for the magic day when I would have so much extra income that I wouldn’t even notice the missing money. Well, that’s not going to happen just yet, so I decided to just start increasing my savings rate little by little each month. I have an automatic transfer that goes into an ISA at the beginning of each month and this week I increased the March payment by £10 🙂 It won’t make a huge difference on its own, but the idea is that I will keep increasing it slowly and it won’t be so much of a shock to the budget!
- The last couple of weekends have been pretty busy (and pricey!) so I was happy to find that my husband and I both have the whole weekend free. Neither of us really want to do much, so hopefully that means not spending much either! We’ll probably go for a walk tomorrow. There are lots of nice walking routes near us but it’s hard to make the time sometimes, especially in winter when it’s dark after work. Frugal and healthy!
How has your week gone? Have you got any great frugal tips or achievements to share?
I’m linking up with Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Five Fabulously Frugal things I’ve done this week linky.
Glad you managed to think of five frugal things, I’m always surprised when I stop and think that actually there are things I’ve done that have saved money. The cous cous sounds delicious, and congrats on upping your Isa savings.
Thank you, Faith! Yes, it’s always good to stop and check in with what we’ve been doing. Cous cous is one of my fave packed lunch standbys – it’s so quick! If I don’t have time to roast veggies, I just have it with salad or whatever bits and pieces we’ve got in the fridge.
#4 is a huge lesson.
You talk about savings there, but I’ve heard the same idea applied to paying off debt.
Some people pay the minimum on their debt and wait for the day they will get a large sum of money so they can pay it off all at once. Then, 8 years later the large sum of money never came and they are still paying the minimum. If they had only increased their monthly payment by even a small amount it would have been paid off much faster.
Waiting around for your income to increase or for a large sum of money to appear isn’t a good plan.
I like your plan much better. Do it now. Work with what you have!
Thanks for the comment, Derek! Yes! That’s the revelation I had this week. I thought I would increase my savings rate when I got a pay rise, or when my side hustles started paying out, but then I realised I had to start NOW. I won’t miss £10 a month, or another £10 after that, so I’m planning to just keep increasing until it feels unsustainable. It’s also a good way to stop lifestyle creep!