Getting back into a discarded routine is never easy but with the school term starting again, it has to be done. I feel as though we’ve worked hard over the last few weeks; besides doing the prep for back-to-school there’s been a lot of DIY home improvement and other work – so here’s what we’ve been up to:
Downloaded the Tesco Clubcard app
Sure, some people can’t be bothered with loyalty cards, but we get a pretty good deal out of our Clubcard – mostly because of having a Clubcard credit card that stacks the points up.
Downloading the app was a good move because it helps us to see where the points come in, how much we’ve got and where we can use them.
Naturally, we’re going to keep enough set aside for our breakdown cover every year, but now it’s easier to plan for other things we could do with our vouchers.
Requested my CheckoutSmart cashback
I’ve been using CheckoutSmart (and other cashback apps) since 2014, but recently I’ve been finding it harder to get up to the payout threshold of £20… probably because we’re not shopping where the biggest discounts are these days.
Anyway, I got up to my £20 threshold after joining their new RRP program – where you can review products in exchange for exclusive offers – so that’ll definitely help my grocery spending outcome for this month.
Second hand carpet!
Last time I mentioned how we bought a second-hand carpet cleaner – well, it was only fitting that we would buy a bit of second-hand carpet, right?
We picked up a remnant that was just about 2m² and it was more than enough to replace the piece that the cats had ruined. I fitted it with Ste’s help, and it’s a small enough area to get away with as a non-professional.
The downside is, it’s not the same shade of grey, but that’s not keeping me up at night. It’s clean, new and presentable, and the cats aren’t going to get their grubby claws into it if I can help it.
Cracking on with replacing our skirting board
The skirting board in our living room is keeping me busy, that’s for sure. The bay window area was a major challenge, because of the fiddly internal scroll cuts I needed to make, as well as carving out pieces of the skirting to fit around the radiator pipes.
It’s been a challenging job, but we’re getting there.
Transferring web hosting
One of my annual jobs is switching web hosts. It’s bad enough thinking about switching utilities, but when it’s websites, it adds another layer of stress.
Anyone who runs a website will know about the dread you feel when the site you’ve built and worked hard on goes offline, so I do get more than a bit edgy when I have to go through the process with my three sites.
This time I’ve transferred my hosting to Namecheap, and I’m extremely happy with them. I even updated my art site’s theme to something much more slick and contemporary, and now instead of being a bundle of nerves, I’m incredibly excited about improving all of my blogs!
Over to you…
What have your money-saving wins been?
I’m linking up with Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Five Frugal things I’ve done this week’ linky.
