Friday 17 March 2017

Freebies and Frugal Measures 2

Recent freebies and frugal measures include the following:

1) I received these two packs of free seeds with my subscription to Kitchen Garden magazine this month.  (A gift from a friend for my birthday last year)



2) I borrowed some books from both my local library and a local Little Free Library. (Sadly, this hasn't prevented me from buying a couple of books too)

3) One of my eBay items sold, which was good news and brought in a very small amount of cash, but better small, than not at all.

4) I found a small piece of furniture on the street whilst walking the dog and gave it a makeover.  It is now being used in our bedroom as my bedside table. (See recent DIY post)

5) I got free tickets to the Ideal Home Show at Olympia, London at the end of the month.

6) I bulk bought several staple food and household items this month, which should keep us going for a good while.

7) I got a free pack of Naked Salted Caramel Nibbles using a voucher at Tesco. (Needless to say, this is the empty packet)


8) I finally received the results of my requested Pension Forecast from the Department for Work & Pensions, which was more positive than I thought it was going to be. I still need to contribute NI contributions for several more years to qualify for a full state pension, but as I've started to pay voluntary contributions this year and intend to continue if I don't find a job, this shouldn't be a problem. (I say positive, that's assuming, of course, that there still is a state pension when I reach retirement age)

9) For two out of the last 3 weeks that I've worked at the CS, I haven't bought anything, which is good going for me.



10) I received some freebies this week when OH was sent some samples for his business.  I nice pen, post-its and a 7.5gb memory stick. (I removed the promotional material from this, so it's now empty and ready to use to store some of our family photos - Saves me buying one anyway.)

It's not been a bad couple of weeks all things considered.


8 comments:

  1. Some great feeebies there, always a bonus.

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    1. Yes, I don't actively seek them out these days, but if they come my way, I'll try to make use of them.

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  2. The retirement pension will eventually disappear I am sure, my daughter is ploughing as much money as she can into hers. I like a bargain but have to be certain that I have the space, at the moment I am thinning out stuff.

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    1. Sounds like a very sensible approach. I'm just hoping they don't get rid of it until after I've reached retirement age, but am trying to make provision in case they do.

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  3. Good news then on the pension front - mine will be a full pension now as I have been with this job over 17 years. I am one of the unfortunate who missed the cut off line and my retirement moved from 60 to 66. Some of my friends who are only slightly older than me have been retired for 4 years now! Good job I like my work - though a few less hours would be nice. Getting the memory stick free was good just when you needed one. I want to have a go at ebay selling - no idea where to start - it seems a bit daunting - is there a Ladybird book of Ebay?

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    1. It is really very simple once you have an account set up. I think they tell you all about how to do it on the site itself. That's how I found out. You do of course have to set up a Paypal account to sell on ebay.

      Setting up a business account was slightly more complicated as I needed to open a business Paypal and banking accounts too, but for personal use if you already have an eBay account, I don't think it's too difficult. Try listing just one item and see how you go. I do personally think it's an amazing tool for raising a bit of cash without the hassle of taking everything to a car boot sale.

      I'm really a total non-techie and I managed it okay.

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  4. You got some great freebies.

    I got my pension update from the schools. Not great but at least it is something.

    God bless.

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    1. I have a couple of small occupational pensions and a small private pension policy too, but they are not enough to live on.

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