The Canny Lass

So, this week has been a bit crazy as per usual. I’ve had a few visitors, which has been lovely, and I’m keeping up with my goals of writing on my two blogs twice a week, which is great. I wrote this post about how to use up old bath and hand towels. Have a look at it if you want to stop as much rubbish going to landfill.

This week, I’ve been stocktaking my freezer again. I started last week, but life got in the way, so I’m doing the rest today. That way I know what I’ve got in and can make a plan of what I’m eating. Because it’s been a busy week, I’ve been bad at sticking to a meal plan. I need to find out what I’ve got, create meals from it and then have it ready prepped so that when I finish the day, I’m not too tired to cook. I really want to get into the habit of cooking from scratch, so I want to clear the freezer and batch cook several dishes that I can pull out and cook at a later date. That way we eat more healthily and it’s cheaper too.

This week I’ve been looking out frugalistas on social media, namely Facebook and Tik Tok. I’m always looking for great tips and tricks, so I’ll let you know how I get on with those. I’m mainly sticking to UK based frugalistas, but couldn’t resist some American posters as well. It’ll be interesting to see what they are talking about and what I can learn from them.

Food continues to go up in the UK, but, unlike our cousins across the pond, our eggs are still an okay price. I try and buy free range or organic eggs, which are much dearer, but I can’t stand the thought of chickens not being allowed to wander and scratch freely. It comes from keeping chickens. They are clever and inquisitive birds with hilarious personalities. We’ve still got one wee brown Silkie called Buttercup, after keeping hens for a few years. She’s a lovely girl and has a great personality. She isn’t laying eggs at the moment, so is a big of a freeloader! :-D I keep her in an old dog crate in the kitchen. It started because she was on her own (after the other chickens died) and I worried that she would freeze to death. Now, she’s indoors permanently whilst bird flu is about, but once that abates, I’ll let her run about the back garden again. She loves company, especially if we are in the kitchen, and sits in her crate purring. For exercise, I let her run about the kitchen every day for a couple of hours, then crate her again and clean up any poo. Don’t worry, she’s never near the food prep area.

So, talking of things going up in price, I decided to see how much I was spending on online stores like Amazon, Ebay and Aliexpress. I took note of all the money I spent from January 1 until Tuesday and was shocked by how much I spent. A lot of the items I bought were for the house, but it was more than £1000. Yikes! That works out at more than £300 per month. That is a definite area I am going to cut down on. I’m going to take a look at what I’m buying for the house and see if I can buy it cheaper. It’s things like dog food and food bags and soap powder. Talking of soap powder, I have ditched the brand and am now using an Amazon own make. It’s good so far and I’m pleased with the results. Had to buy Amazon’s own make because I didn’t have a car to go and buy Aldi’s own make. Anyway, it was a huge difference in price: £8.08 as opposed to £23.99 for my normal branded powder. So, we’ll be buying that one in future or Aldi’s own make or whichever one is cheapest. Every penny counts after all!

By the way, I did once try to make my own soap powder and I succeeded at it. It was really easy to do. However, I found that it was actually dearer to make your own powder than it was to buy it, so I never did it again.

What have you done recently to save money on household items? Is there something you’ve swapped for a cheaper version that you’re really pleased about. Let me know!

Top Tip

Invest in re-usable cloths (see article about towels), mop pads, microfiber cloths, and sponges instead of throw away ones. You can throw them in the wash and use again.