Five frugal things we’ve done this fortnight:

The house is sold! Subject to contract, that is… doesn’t that sound like a dampener? Well, there’s a “sold” sign on the board outside, so we’ve been doing a happy jig and started the process of packing. The daily routine has taken a dent with the sale taking over, but we’ve tried to keep things thrifty. Here’s what we’ve done…

Spreadsheet fever

It might seem to be a weird thing to admit, but I’ve only just got to grips with how to really use Excel spreadsheets to track my business income… and to create budgeting tools. Yeah, I know, last one to the party! I actually enjoy the process of noting down transactions in a real notebook (and an app for tracking household spending), but it’s just so much easier working on the laptop.

We need to use a more streamlined system now as we want to tighten our belts over the next month (even more than usual) to brace against the costs of moving. Having something new to play with helps a lot. Once I get past the initial learning curve and figure out how to make these things pretty, watch out!

Whopper of a wombled coupon

Believe it or not, the biggest wombled coupon I’ve ever had came to me with absolutely no effort.

We pulled up on our driveway one day and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a bit of paper blown against a shrub. We got out of the car and found it was the longest ASDA receipt I’d ever seen! So thanks, universe, for sending me that bit of rubbish that turned out to be a free £8.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BeDtJHjg8PR/

3 books for £5 in the Waterstone’s sale

If we’re out in a shopping centre, we’ll inevitably end up in a Waterstone’s… that’s just how it works with us. I love mooching around the clearance items as well, and this time I got some cracking bargains – one of which was “Goodbye, Things” by Fumio Sasaki. I’m planning to write about minimalism and money later on, and it jumped out as a great resource to refer to.

Compared boiler servicing

One of the last things to do before we exchange contracts is to have our boiler serviced. Getting people in to carry out any kind of work can be a bit of a random draw when you’re relying on the internet to point you to someone nearby, so we did a search and called up three engineers for quotes. In the end, we decided to go with the third person we spoke to; there’s nothing like being able to meet someone and see how they approach the work.

Gathering free packing materials & boxes

This is an old trick of mine – my workplace is a goldmine for cardboard boxes, and as we don’t want to be panicked over moving, I’ve been bringing boxes back to gently ease into the process of packing things away. Ok, the house is cluttered with boxes now but it’s not exactly as stressful as having to run around buying them at the last minute.

Over to you…

I’m buzzing about our upcoming move but hoping it’s not too expensive. Have you done anything frugal this week? Share it below!

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