Frugal Measures and Freebies and a big fat Frugal Fail 3

For this post in this current series, I decided to add Frugal fails to these posts, as lets be honest, we all make mistakes or get persuaded to spend more than we intend at times. I'll start this post with my most recent frugal fail in order to get it out of the way.

My major frugal fail this post was allowing myself to be talked in to buying varifocal lenses on my recent visit to the opticians, against my instincts and budgetary efforts to stick to my usual lenses for short sightedness only.

It's my first venture into varifocals and although it will probably be a lot more convenient, as I do spend a lot of time taking my glasses on and off at the moment, the cost was twice that of the normal lenses I've been buying for years and I'm not yet sure that it was worth it, as I haven't actually got my new glasses yet. I'm paying for them across two months, in order to be able to afford them, so I don't know yet whether I'll like them, but I am hoping that I do or I'll be even more annoyed with myself than I am at present.

Anyway, onto the positives, recent Frugal Measures and Freebies include the following:

1) I watched the film Me Before You on Netflix.  I have to admit though, that waiting to watch it for free (well, not strictly free, due to the subscription) was due to multiple reasons and not just frugality.  One reason was that OH wouldn't go to the cinema to watch the film with me, another was that I knew I'd cry watching it and didn't want to do that in a public place and probably the third reason was fiscal. I thought it was very true to the book and the casting was pretty good too.  I'm hoping they'll make a film of the sequel, Me After You, as I enjoyed reading that too.




2) I used two of the yellow stickered cards I bought from M&S back in February, for a couple of birthdays this month.  These two cost 19p and 29p respectively. They're nice quality cards, too.

3) I created a strict budget plan for the next six months, to try to achieve the financial outcomes that I want to achieve this year.  I now just have to stick to it and I should be in a much better financial position.

4) I had a six month check at the dentist and didn't need any treatment, so just paid £20 for the check up. Result. I was advised to book in for a scale and polish in a couple of months time, but I'm happy to do this once in a while to keep my teeth as clean and healthy as I possibly can. I've adjusted my strict budget accordingly to account for it.

Whilst at the dentist, I helped myself to this free sample of my usual toothpaste, as it is perfect as a travel size when we go to Crete next month.

5) I had another week at the CS where I didn't buy anything.

6) Having signed up to my recently acquired life insurance policy through MoneySuperMarket, I qualified for a £75 voucher, once I'd paid my third monthly premium. I got an email through about it today, requesting that I choose between Argos, Next and M&S. I, of course, went for M&S because at least I can use it to buy food, as well as other things.

I will hopefully receive it in the next 28 days, so it should help keep me within budget next month and possibly the month after, if I use it carefully and don't blow it in one go.  I might use it for my weekly top up grocery shop until it runs out.

Not quite as many frugal measures and freebies this week, but the ones I did manage will be very useful indeed.