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?

More Random Ebay Purchases

As anyone whose been reading my blog for a while will know, I'm very partial to buying things on eBay. I used to be an eBay seller and enjoyed selling on eBay, but now I work in a charity shop, there is a conflict of interest with regard to selling online, so to make things simple I stopped and now just buy on eBay.

In recent months, I've posted a few times about the random things that I've bought, particularly through the last lockdown, but I've continued to buy things during the time the restrictions were lifted, mainly because I was looking for new decor for our living room.

Like many people, I've been making it feel cosy since we redecorated during the last lockdown and I decided that it needed a bit of a new look, so out went all the old random photo frames that we've had for 20 years, plus the random items on the mantel piece and in came a few vintage but new to me things that I really like and want to live with.

I began by buying a few gold coloured photo frames to blend with the gilt picture frames that were already in the room, and which I liked and wanted to keep. 

I then moved on to buying a few new things for the mantel piece, the first of which were these brass herons that I just love. We often see herons on the canals and rivers around where we live, so they seemed a fitting choice. They are lovely and shiny, more so than they look in this photo and look lovely against the blue paint on the wall which is actually darker than it appears in the photos on account of the flash. I bought one from an eBay seller and then went back and bought the second from the same seller. They are a pair after all and are meant to be together, so after being parted for a week or so, they were eventually reunited. I probably paid a bit more doing it that way, but I don't care as I really like them. (Please excuse the dust and dirt in these photos, the room needs a good clean, but there's no point until we've finished decorating the hall as we're still generating more dust)

I also bought a few vintage brass candlesticks for the mantle piece. One was from a car boot sale for £1.50, but the others were all from eBay. I think I paid about £16 for them in all. I went for the open barley twist ones as I really like the design.

Next, I turned my attention to adding some greenery to the living room.  I'm not that good with houseplants, but I wanted to give it a go. It's nice having living things in your home that you can care for, but I have to admit that the whole regular watering thing is a big learning curve for me and I have to try hard to remember to do it. To accommodate the plants, I've recently bought a variety of vintage copper and brass pots, mostly from visits to car boot sales. At one, I bought the smaller copper and brass ones pictured, plus a copper tray and a small brass door knob (not pictured) all for £5. Total bargain.  Car boot sales rock! It's just a pity that the season for them has ended.

The largest pot I bought was on eBay. I say pot, but it's actually a vintage copper coal scuttle that will fit a very large plant. I'm not sure the plant that is in there at the moment will be staying in there, I may buy a big palm or cheese plant instead.  It wasn't particularly cheap, but worth the £40 or so I paid for it, as I really like it.

In my next Random Ebay Purchases post, I'll show you what I've bought on eBay in recent months for when we redecorate the hallway. They are mostly small inexpensive items, but I can't wait to put them into use.

Week 2 Lockdown 2

During the second week of this second lockdown, we finally turned our attention to working on projects indoors. I'd put it off for a week, preferring to spend time outside in the garden whilst the weather was dry and bright and it's probably a good thing I did, as it was windy and rainy for the most part of the second week.

I think I avoided work inside because I knew that this was where most of what we need to get done is concentrated. Re-decorating the hallway and stairs is a big job and is going to be quite disruptive, but it's as good a time as any to do it, so we just needed to get stuck in.

The paintwork in the hallway is currently a disgrace and it's very embarrassing that we've let it get into such a state. It was last decorated before we had the basement built out in 2012, but what with builders coming and going and bikes coming in and out, it's taken some knocks over the last 8 years, hence where we are today.  It would be good to get it done in time for Christmas and have a nice refreshed entrance to the house, not that anyone is coming to visit, but purely for our own pleasure and enjoyment.

As mentioned in my last lockdown post, I did as intended and tried to begin by painting the inside of the cupboard in the downstairs part of the hallway, as this was something I could do without OH's help. This cupboard houses a multitude of things, including sports equipment, the ingredients I use for making natural toiletries and candles, plus a few other things that all needed to be temporarily relocated. 

The walls and insides of the cupboard had never actually been painted by us, since moving into the house over 12 years ago and they were covered with flaking yellow paint, so my first job was to sand it down a bit and then prime all of the surfaces inside the cupboard ready to paint them.

On Friday 13th, primer applied and dried, I then attempted to apply the first coat of the interiors paint I had bought for the job. This was where I ran into difficulty, as the paint I'd bought which was an eggshell, didn't seem to go on to the primed surface very well. In addition, it turned out to be far too dark a colour and wasn't really what I had expected it to be. At this point I admitted defeat and gave up for the day, or at least until I could get hold of some different paint, believing fate was conspiring against me on such a troublesome date.

It wasn't a great start to the week, which left me feeling a bit useless and demoralised, until Saturday, when OH was able to join in and start prepping the walls, i.e. filling in cracks and dents ready to get on with the painting. As he is still busy working during the week, he can only do decorating on the weekend and it was such a relief once he got started. 

He began working in the entrance hall and the lower ground part of hallway, as these will be the easiest parts to decorate, due to there being no high ceilings in this section.  The upstairs part is more tricky and will involve getting on long ladders and moving furniture from the top landing, so this will be done at a later date, once the lower levels have been completed.

The prepping process is always a slow one and for most of the week, things stayed as OH had left them. I tried again to paint the inside of the cupboard, with a bit more success.  The paint I bought is a bit too light this time, so we may add a darker paint to it and darken it a bit for the final coat.

As a consequence, I got very distracted and a bit frustrated with regard to the decorating this week and sought other things to occupy me on some afternoons (i.e. sewing - more in a future post). I'm hoping next week will see a bit more progress.  I'll keep you posted.

Loving Right Now - The Lockdown Edition

I haven't done a favourites type post for a very long time, but watching a favourites video on YouTube the other day inspired me to make one. So here goes.

One of my very favourite things at the moment, is the limited series that OH and I have been watching on Netflix this last week or so. It's called The Queen's Gambit and is about a young female chess player in the US in the 1960's. It may sound like a strange subject matter, but it is so engaging, well made and just a really great watch. If you're looking around Netflix for something to watch, I'd highly recommend it, even if you really don't like the game of chess. The 60's fashion and decor make it worth the watch. We've just got the last of the seven episodes left to watch tonight, before we move on to watching the new series of The Crown. Can't wait to watch it, but I'll be gutted that we've finished the series and hoping for a second one.

Next on my list of things I'm really enjoying at the moment, is Boots Witch Hazel and Tea Tree Day Moisturiser.  I've always used witch hazel on my face for many years, usually distilled, as a toner after washing my face in the morning. Since the start of the pandemic, however, after having experienced problems with maskne, I started to use a witch hazel blemish gel instead of a moisturiser, in order to calm my skin down and reduce any blemishes and it's worked so well. Having run out of that one, the one I'm currently using is the one above from Boots and it's very soothing. I think that wearing less make up has also helped, particularly not wearing face powder, especially when I'm wearing a mask all day at work. I certainly think that the gel and moisturiser have contributed to keeping my skin a lot clearer in recent weeks, which is all I can ask for.

Another beauty/hair product that I've been enjoying lately, is a satin pillow case that I bought from TK Maxx a few weeks ago. I'd seen lots of adverts about Blissy silk pillow cases on Pinterest and in other places and about how they were a beauty must have. Despite the fact that I don't usually fall for this kind of advertising, when I saw this, I just thought I'd give it a try. Why not? After all it only cost £5.99 and is supposed to help your hair more than anything, but I've found that I just love sleeping with this on my pillow. It's so smooth and cool. The colour of this particular one (cream) doesn't actually go with my bedding, but I have just ordered some black ones on eBay and I'm hoping that I will like them just as much. They were two for £6.49. All of them are the kind that zip closed rather than the envelope type. I don't know whether they actually benefit my skin or not, but I do just like the feel of the satin against my face, it feels like a bit of luxury during these troubled times. Who doesn't need a bit of that at the moment?

Talking of which, I have developed a bit of a guilty secret since the beginning of the pandemic. I've become  a fan of the GC, yes Gemma Collins, from the Only Way is Essex.  Although I very rarely ever watched that programme, I have found myself loving her recent Diva series.  Yes, she's outrageous, but I love that about her. I think she's a comedy genius. I'm even following her on Instagram. Her current catchphrase 'I'm Claustrophobic Darren' (Day - her friend) or 'Boris' is just so funny and apt. She's been cheering me up during the dark days of lockdown and I look forward to seeing her Christmas special. In addition, she's a very beautiful curvy lady and I like to see her doing well selling her own range of products online and appearing on TV enjoying herself. I actually find her quite inspiring, mainly because she doesn't seem to give a damn about what people think.  Go girl with that self belief, I think we could all do with a bit of it.

Finally, there's one last thing that I'm loving at the moment, namely lighting candles. I'd fallen out of the habit of lighting candles around the house over the last few years, but despite not using them, I seem to have amassed quite a collection in my cupboard. I've received them as gifts, bought them discounted from TK Maxx or bought a few from work that had been donated. Anyway, I decided to get them out and start burning them and I've been really enjoying it. What can be more cosy in these autumn months, than sitting down and lighting a candle during the long dark nights. I'm gradually working my way through the autumnal/wintery scents, saving the more Christmassy ones for a few weeks time and the more spring like scents for next year.

What have you been loving lately?

Week 1 Lockdown 2

I started this second lockdown by posting fairly egularly about what I was getting up to and how I was trying to make the most of the furlough by trying to get on top of things at home. I've since decided that a weekly post might be better, as some days I'm productive, some days not so much. So, here goes for Week 1.

This first week of lockdown has most definitely been about the garden. I don't know why, but I was just drawn to spending time out there. I started off just generally tidying things up a bit, cutting back climbers and sweeping up leaves. This then progressed to a mighty prune of our fruit trees, which was long overdue, but which caused us to create 6 big bags of garden waste, plus our brown bin, which I filled first. I also created the same number of bags of leaves for rotting down for leaf mulch which will go back on the garden in 6 months or so.

As a consequence, I had to book a slot at our local recycling centre, which has remained open, so that we could drop it all off. Some of the branches that we cut off the cherry tree, OH cut up for logs, which we will dry out over the next year and use at some point in the future, but the rest went into the garden waste at the recycling centre.

I thought about starting other jobs in between stints in the garden, but couldn't motivate myself. Between bouts of ironing (I had a huge ironing pile to catch up on), I kept going back out into the garden, doing a bit more each time, as there were still a few small things to do, once the main cutting back and pruning had been done. 

I decided to pot on a new mimosa tree I bought during the last lockdown, as it was getting a bit tall for it's pot and kept blowing over in the wind. I moved a small maple tree that I'd also bought during the last lockdown, but which hadn't really thrived in the position I planted it. Hopefully it will enjoy it's new position in a sunny border.

I planted out some ferns I'd bought over the last few months, put in some bulbs I bought a few weeks ago, cleaned out the greenhouse, washed all the dirty plant pots and generally got into every corner of the garden and cleared debris that had built up over a couple of years. It felt very satisfying.

By the time that I'd done all that, there was very little left to do bar sweeping up some more leaves here and there as they drop so I could finally step away from the garden. It was a relief to get finished, as we can now more or less forget about our outside spaces for the rest of the autumn/winter and now turn our attention to the inside of the house.

I'm hoping that in the next few weeks we can get the hall decorated, or at least get started with it and I'm going to make a start myself on the wooden cupboard in the vestibule (the downstairs part of the hall next to the kitchen). The inside of the cupboard is probably the only part of the house that remained untouched since we bought it and needs priming and painting. It's a job I've been wanting to do for a good few years, but I only bought the paint for it a few weeks ago. I'm quite looking forward to doing some painting again. I'll keep you posted with progress.

Lockdown - Day Three and Four

No post on day 2 of lockdown, because it wasn't really a very productive day. I managed a few very small re-organising and tidying tasks around the house, ordered a few bits I needed from eBay and did some laundry, but not much else really got done. I thought about starting another big indoor project, but didn't, as I wanted to get the garden finished before moving indoors, so it was a bit of a wasted day really, but it was good to have some down time too. 

When I think about how long this lockdown is, it's potentially only 28 days long, which isn't really that long, compared to the one in March and I suspect that it will go by super fast, so I do really need to make the most of it.  There is already talk that the rates of infection in London are dropping, so I'm sure they'll want us back at work in December, but I guess only time will tell.

Anyway, day 3 was a lot more productive. Whilst OH took the dog out for a walk in Epping Forest on Saturday morning, I got straight out into the garden and did more pruning and tidying down the other end of the garden. By the time OH got back and had had lunch, I had just about done all that I could without his help, so it was then time to tackle the pruning of the overgrown fruit trees. 

Whilst I stopped for some lunch, OH proceeded to empty the compost from our hot bin onto the raised beds, which was another job done and then I was ready to help direct him in the pruning and more importantly hold the ladder, of course.

It was a tricky job, as we hadn't done a proper job of it for a few years and many of the branches had grown very tall and unruly, but within an hour or so it was done and the trees were looking so much better.  We were pretty brutal and removed a lot of the branches, but it had to be done as they were getting way too big for our small city garden and I'm hoping they'll be better for it. 

We managed to finish the pruning just before the light went and then I had to take the dog out. We weren't out to long because of fireworks scaring her home again.  When I got in I found out that the US election had been called and Biden had won. Probably why so many fireworks were going off on November 7th or maybe people were just celebrating Bonfire Night on the weekend.

It felt so good to get the pruning done, partly because the trees are on the boundary with our neighbours property and I'm always conscious that they may be a nuisance to them. The branches that we cut off still needed to be cut up, but that was a job for day 4 of lockdown.

Day 4 of lockdown dawned and I came downstairs to the sight of the tree massacre in the garden. Maybe we were a bit brutal after all.  Anyway, it was too late to worry about it as there was a massive pile of branches was piled high on the decking outside the back door. waiting to be cut up. Once I'd taken the dog for a walk, I got to work on this and cut down the thinner branches and filled up several bags full of them, ready to take to the tip.  The thicker branches were left for OH to saw, some of which we might season in the shed and burn on the log burner next year.

The final job of the day was to sweep up the leaves again, this time the ones that had come off the fruit trees and when this job was done I downed tools for the day.

There are still a few small jobs to do out in the garden, such as washing dirty plant pots, planting some bulbs/planting out some ferns I bought a few months ago, tidying the greenhouse and sweeping the leaves from the front light well and path, but these jobs are relatively small and easily done in comparison and I can tackle them on my own at anytime in the next few weeks.

Tomorrow, I think I may start some household cleaning, starting in the bathroom. I was going to do it yesterday, but LB was planning to dye her hair, so I thought it was better to wait until she'd finished or I would end up cleaning it twice.

On the subject of cleaning, I've just finished reading a small book I bought from work, written by a Buddhist monk, which is about cleaning your house and looking after your possessions and how this can help purify your heart and keep you healthy and feeling positive. It was a good little read and I do think that when your house is clean, you feel much more positive about your life and self, so to some extent I do agree with this point of view. 

Hopefully, by the end of lockdown, I will have worked my way through the whole house and will feel much better, as everything seems to get a bit out of control when I'm at work and I find it hard to keep on top of things.

Hope you're having a productive lockdown, or not, if you are happy to take it easy and enjoy the break from normal routines. I am planning on doing a bit of that myself at some point.

Day One of Lockdown

As mentioned in a previous post, I wasn't 100% happy going into lockdown for a second time, but today I decided to start off the time at home in a positive way, doing something that I really enjoy, but haven't done for a while.

It was one of those lovely crisp winter days.  A bit cold, but dry and sunny with a clear sky. As a consequence, when I returned from walking the dog, I decided to spend the day in the garden and it was fab. 

I haven't spent much time in the garden this year, for a few reasons:

1 - the heat in the spring/summer lockdown was too hot for me most of the time, so I preferred to stay indoors.

2 - there were always lots of neighbours out in their gardens and I like it best when I'm out there alone and can't hear anyone in surrounding gardens. 

3 - since lockdown ended, on my days off I've been way too tired to do anything so physical as gardening.

So, on account of the above, the garden has been a bit neglected this year if I'm honest. That made it all the more satisfying to get out there on day one of lockdown. It made me realise what I love about gardening and what I've been missing this year. It cleared my head completely and getting out there and getting absorbed in the task made the day pass really quickly too. I stayed out until it was too dark to do anymore then headed inside to have a lovely bath and prepare some supper.

It was mainly a case of cutting things back, sweeping up leaves and just general tidying around all the pots on the decking and down the side return today. In the process, I managed to collect a few bags of leaves to rot down into leaf mulch, which will be useful for the allotment next year and I redistributed the compost from some container potatoes and tomato plants onto the beds. I know this isn't recommended, but I've always done this and it's never caused any problems.

There's still a couple of places that I need to tidy, but which involved heavy lifting, such as behind/inside the greenhouse and there's still lots of pruning that I need OH's help with, as many branches will need severing with a saw, whilst standing on a ladder! We're planning on being quite ruthless this year, as the fruit trees have got way too big and I'm also planning to dig out some old established plants that have gone past their best. I'm hoping, weather allowing, that we can do some of it this weekend and get somewhere towards putting the garden to bed for the winter.

As the garden in winter isn't really very interesting, I haven't taken any photos, but rest assured it looks better than before I started.

How was your first day in lockdown?