1) I managed to stretch one bar of organic soap into two and a half large bottles of liquid hand soap by following a video on YouTube. This is now being used as hand soap by the kitchen sink, and as shower gel in the bathroom and I have also occasionally used it as a laundry liquid when combined with bicarbonate of soda.
2) I have been busy sowing and repotting lots of vegetable plants for the allotment and garden at home. Surplus plants, of which there were quite a few, will be given away for free from outside our house, during a Jumble Trail event next weekend.
3) Little Bird and I have been regularly making natural homemade scented bath bombs for our own personal use and have been enjoying using them when I fancy having a soak in the bath (usually after a visit to the allotment). They don't look much, but do work quite well when used in conjunction with a bit of Faith in Nature bath foam.
4) I saved myself some postage on sending part of a 50th Birthday gift to my sister in Australia, by ordering her a Natural/Organic Beauty box to be sent to her direct from an Australian site at a very reasonable cost. They actually sent her two identical boxes by mistake. (I'm hoping I wasn't charged for both!)
5) A couple of days before it ran out, I used a voucher for a free pot of tea and piece of cake at John Lewis Oxford Street, which made a nice treat whilst out on a day out with Little Bird during May half term.
6) I enjoyed receiving and reading my first copy of Top Sante, a healthy living magazine, that I subscribed to for free using my Tesco Clubcard vouchers.
7) I discovered that I can fit into Age 13 Boys Nike t-shirts to wear for going to the gym, so I will in future be endeavouring to replace any old gym T-shirts with these youth sizes, which tend to cost quite a few pounds less than the ladies adult versions.
8) I received some share dividend cheques through the post and these were paid straight into my savings account.
9) I used some Boots loyalty points to buy a concealer this month (a more natural option I purchased recently didn't agree with my skin, so I have reverted back to my original Boots Seventeen product for the time being, to give my skin a rest and chance to recover before trying something different).
10) I placed an order with the Ethical Superstore.com website this month and stocked up on some organic store cupboard items such as tins of tomatoes, chickpeas, sweetcorn, flour, rice, sugar, toiletries and household products. They had a 20% off offer and free delivery on orders of a certain size, made before a certain date and as it was the first time I had ordered from them, I was curious to check out their service. This order has significantly reduced the amount of food I need to shop for on a weekly basis this month.
I found the service to be really good and their website has a vast range of natural/organic food, household, beauty and clothing products available, as well as a customer loyalty scheme in operation. It's a great one stop shop for anyone interested in natural/organic food/products. I will definitely be shopping with them again. (Please note I am not sponsored in mentioning this site - I am simply sharing my experience).
I'm slowly but surely getting back to more frugal ways, but still could do better.
I've never bought food from there, as I'm not overly bothered about organics for most things, but I do think Ethical Superstore provide a good service. I still prefer to buy from a local place if I can, but if I have to buy online I tend to shop there.
ReplyDeleteYes, they have a very interesting selection of things available in their online store.
DeleteI still need to get to grips with sourcing things locally. I'm also still trying to find a balance between organic and non organic, as some things just aren't economically feasible. One of my problems is that I've got used to rarely carrying cash, so buying locally from markets and things isn't always an option unless I've got cash in my purse and I need to make more effort to carry cash and change my way of shopping.
I am very guilty of going for the most convenient option of the supermarkets and need to spread my spending around a bit more. It's a work in progress.
Good going on all the savings you are getting by practicing being frugal. As I have heard many times on a forum "We are frugal so that we can spend where and on what is important to us. We are not cheap."
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Well said. Why pay more for things than you need to?
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