Keeping It Frugal (Or Trying To)

As mentioned in the blurb on my blog, I do consider myself to be a frugal blogger and I am always trying to live as frugally as I can, although I haven't really posted much about my frugal endeavours in recent months.

During the last couple of weeks, I've managed to save a bit of money by returning to grocery shopping at Lidl, instead of Tesco, who I favoured during and after the first lockdown, as they had a super huge store that I felt safer shopping in. Since then, I discovered a newly opened Lidl store that was convenient to use and I decided to start shopping there. I think this has saved quite a bit of money, as they are very competitive on price. 

In addition, last week, whilst shopping in Lidl, I was encouraged to sign up for the new Lidl Plus app on my phone. It only actually saved me 27p on the day I signed up, but my shop qualified me for a £2 off coupon on my next shop.  It was only valid for a week, however, so the following week, needing to do a top up shop, I intended to use it, but unfortunately, on the day I was due to use it, the car went into the garage for an MOT and some other work and it had to stay in overnight, so I missed the window of opportunity and lost the saving.  Anyway, the following day I was finally able to do the shop, which then qualified me for a £10 off coupon, as I'd then spent more than £200 in one month. Once again, it's only valid for a week, but I will definitely make sure that I use that one when I do a my next shop.  In addition, I seem to have been awarded £2 off at the till, plus a further £1.04 in savings and then I won a 25p off coupon using the digital scratch card they send you every time you shop. Not bad savings in just one week. The app does seem to encourage you to shop there every week in order to use your coupons, but if you do anyway, it's no big deal.

On the subject of supermarkets, I have also received £16 in vouchers to spend at Tesco, as a result of accumulating club card points through shopping with them a lot in recent months. I'll also be using these on my next shop, as invariably I can't always get everything I want from Lidl and need to get the rest from Tesco.

I'm not solely loyal to Lidl and Tesco, I also occasionally shop at Waitrose, which I did last weekend, as I needed to drop my Operation Christmas Child Box off at a shop in the mall, that was still open for Click and Collect. Whilst I was there, I picked up a few bits we needed for the weekend from Waitrose. I made sure to make it worth my while by getting a newspaper for OH, which you can get free with your Waitrose card, if you spend more than £10. As newspapers are £2-£3 these days, this was definitely worth the saving. Whilst there, I also picked up the John Lewis At Home magazine for free. As it was the Christmas edition, I enjoyed reading through it at the weekend and getting into the Christmas spirit a bit more. It was a lot less expensive option than buying a Christmas interiors magazines that cost around £5.99 each, but I might still treat myself to one at some point, as a festive indulgence.

Other savings I've made recently, have been on an order from an online discount shop called Cherryz, that I'd seen several people post videos about on YouTube. It's a kind of online Pound shop, although it does sell more expensive items too, and as I can't visit the pound shop at the moment, due to lockdown restrictions, I thought I'd scratch the itch by giving it a try. I got a 15% discount off my first order which was certainly worth having. I'm still waiting for the order to arrive, but a post will be coming shortly about my haul from them. It was mainly groceries and household products, with a few extras thrown in.

Finally, one non-grocery saving I made in the last couple of weeks was on eBay. A recent new thing on the site, has been for eBay to offer discounts on listings that you watch, presumably to encourage you to go ahead and buy, and the other day I was offered a £10 discount on an item I was watching, which I promptly accepted. I think eBay actually give you the discount rather than the seller. I'm not 100% sure, but whomever, a discount is always welcome. The item arrived yesterday and I'm very happy with it, as it was something I'd been looking to buy for a while. It will be featured in a forthcoming post.

Not the most exciting frugal measures I know, as they mostly involve grocery shopping, but every saving means more money in my pocket, which is all good. Have you managed to save money on anything recently or are you waiting for Black Friday?