Five Frugal Things We’ve Done 03/05/19

The last half of April is always a big spendy time – car insurance, vehicle tax – ouch. It can’t be helped, right? Well, it happens every year, so we can’t say it sneaks up on us! Here are some of the fortnight’s frugal highlights and what went skew-wiff:

Free veg at ASDA

We were in the supermarket when I heard the announcement that the 20p veg at the front of the store was going free.

I didn’t really believe my ears at first, but we made it over there eventually (British reserve wearing off) and picked up a couple of swedes, bags of spring greens and bags of parsnips.

This was an absolute winner!

Gift card savings with CardYard

So now that we can’t buy gift cards from Zeek, we had to turn to CardYard for our gift card savings fix.

This time we went big – we bought 16 £10 IKEA gift cards at a total cost of £145.60, instead of £160.

So we saved £14.40 on our new wardrobes without any cashback or other discounts – we’re pretty pleased with that!. The process was a little different from Zeek but it worked out well for us – the only hassle was having to enter 16 different card codes and PINs at the checkout, and that was hardly anything at all.

Saved a fortune on baguettes and rolls

Our weekend barbecue was a washout but we carried on with an indoor lunch for our mates.

Something about the timing paid off for us though, as Ste managed to swoop down on a load of fancy baguettes, buns, rolls and donuts that were reduced to almost nothing… and yes, still fresh!

So whilst I’m still on a careful diet, I had a bit of a carbohydrate bash and I was SO HAPPY.

CheckoutSmart

Yes, still chipping away as ever at our CheckoutSmart balances!

Phone disaster – but not buying another yet

This is a severe test of my frugality, I tell you. On Sunday my phone just died. I mean, it just said, “I gone”. Turned itself off and ghosted.

Now I guess most of us are on our smartphones a bit too much, but I’ve been telling myself it’s all ok, what with running the blogs and generally tricking myself into feeling like I’m being productive 24/7.

But nope – I am definitely on my phone too much. And I like it. And I need a decent phone again! Unfortunately what I have got is my old phone, which was handed down to Ste when I got a newer second-hand version. Now Ste has a newer second-hand iPhone, and I’m back down to the dinosaur phone that won’t charge and won’t stay charged.

And if you know us at all, you’ll know that I won’t be buying a new phone any time soon… I’ll just whinge for a while and wait until we either get it fixed or a better second-hand version comes calling.

Over to you…

How has your frugal fortnight been?

Last fortnight

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