Five frugal things we’ve done this fortnight:

This list is full of domestic appliances – I promise it wasn’t planned that way!

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, with a bit more shopping than usual, so here’s what we’ve been up to.

APG coupons

I’m back on the ball with the Asda Price Guarantee coupons! We’re shopping more at Aldi these days, but of course I’m still wombling.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZ1a3lJArkv/

DIY washing machine repair

My old washing machine broke back in May. We hobbled along for months – MONTHS – making do with it before it broke in yet another, even worse way.

Finally, we bought one from Argos in September, and had to wait two weeks for it to be delivered.

Then… about two weeks later, the new washing machine broke.

Aaargh! The soap dispenser drawer was flooding and we didn’t know what to do. But Lord Balders drew on his handy side and voilà! The culprit was a u-bend hose leading from the soap drawer to the drum. It was blocked with soap.

Yep, just soap.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BaCFMS-ABja/

So a simple soap powder clog could have cost us a lot of money. Our “warranty” only covered mechanical failure, not human error, so a soap powder clog would have been classed as our error and wouldn’t have been covered.

Mad, right?

Spiraliser swaps

Recently I’ve been making spiralised courgette noodles, as I’ve finally had one too many reactions to pasta to brush them off as coincidence.

I made the leap because of seeing an electric spiraliser in Aldi reduced to £10, and after a bit of a false start I got the hang of using it. Then… I saw another, more expensive, absolutely identical electric spiraliser on sale elsewhere under the Salter brand name!

The only thing that was any different was the name. It just goes to show that you can’t always judge the quality of an item by the brand name!

A new slow cooker at last!

Yep, I finally got around to replacing my busted slow cooker. I picked one up on sale in Asda for only £9, down from £14!

It might be cheap, but I know it’ll be fine as that’s where my last one came from, and it didn’t fail me – it only got damaged during my last house move. Slow cookers are definitely one of the best appliances to own for saving money in the kitchen.

Vacuum cleaner repair

Now this is embarrassing – I was nearly convinced that I had to get a new vacuum cleaner as my Dyson (which I’ve had for over a decade and has accompanied me on at least one awkward adventure) was just not working very well any more.

Apart from sounding blocked within seconds of firing up, it was… well… more than a bit minging. I decided it was time for a major clean, and took everything apart, washed the filters and dried them, and put it all back together again.

The roar it made when it started made me realise that the only problem with my vacuum cleaner was my laziness in not cleaning it regularly! I could have ended up spending a lot of money unnecessarily, but now I’ve got myself a machine that’s like new.

Over to you…

Done anything frugal this week? I’d love to hear about it!

I’m linking up with Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Five Fabulously Frugal things I’ve done this week linky.