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I’ve almost got whiplash from how quickly this has come around – at least I’ve been a bit more prepared and kept a running note on my phone with frugal things. Otherwise I’d be sitting in the dust, wondering where the time went and what on earth I did for the last two weeks!
Improving the cat litter system
Gosh, what an exciting life I lead, eh?
Hear me out – we spend a lot on litter, what with the three overlords to look after. Besides that, the wood pellet litter* that Ste prefers leaves sawdust on the floor when they hop out. I had been thinking about improving the litter tray with an inner liner with holes to let cat wee and sawdust drain through, but just never got the motivation to do it until I came across this YouTube video:
So as I was already using the pellets, all I had to do was buy a £1.50 litter tray from Asda, drill lots of holes in it (not hard, but tedious) and sit it in the covered litter box.
A layer of card and pellets goes into the bottom of the tray to soak up the wee, and the top layer of pellets stays much cleaner. Definitely worth it!
It would probably be better to get a ready-made sifting tray like this one*, but that’ll have to wait until we need to get a replacement.
Making homemade orange cleaner
Thanks again, cats…
Vader has his share of issues with poop. It’s well documented here. Unfortunately his poop habits sometimes lead him to try to poop right in front of our front door. It’s happened several times in the year-and-a-bit we’ve been here; who knows why exactly, but I’ve had to cut that bit of carpet out and replace it with a rubber mat.
Last week Vader struck again and I caught Stinky in the act of attempting a wee in the same spot. I mean, come on!
I heard that cats dislike citrus, and I know they don’t like vinegar, so I remembered seeing an orange cleaner recipe on Cass Bailey’s blog, and went in search of it. I actually had an orange peel set aside for this purpose – another thing I’ve been meaning to get around to for ages – and I added it to a half water, half vinegar mix and sloshed it everywhere.
So far, so good, but the beasts are locked out of that spot from now on just in case.
Second hand Ikea Detolf cabinet hack
Ste’s been after a glass display cabinet for a long time – he finally got an Ikea Detolf cabinet second-hand on eBay. We cleaned it up with that homemade orange cleaner!
He really needed more shelves though, so he cut down a piece of perspex that I salvaged from a skip at work – from the same lot that made our last house’s kitchen worktop – and used these wire rope clips* to make shelf brackets.
Extra shelf space for a tiny price – and it looks great.
Finally catching up with fintech
Somehow along the way I fell behind with the latest financial technology – the myriad apps and online bank options that have sprung up over the last few years. Well, I’m putting it right!
I’ve signed up for some new ones, got my butt into gear with apps I’ve downloaded and ignored, and updated the post I wrote on my favourite, Curve.
More reviews to follow!
Hand sewing to repair our clothes
Not so many years ago, whipping up a dress or shirt from scratch was nothing for me. Now, it’s not that I’ve forgotten the skill, but it’s just the time it takes. Thinking about the time it’ll take is what’s offputting, not the actual job.
This week I sat down with a needle and thread and repaired my favourite pencil skirt (probably 14 years old), one necktie, one coat, one dress with failing straps and the buttons on a waistcoat.
So much of what I’ve done recently seems to be just getting around to doing things I know I should!
Over to you…
Have you been procrastinating or winning at the money game?
