Five frugal things we’ve done for this week…

It seems as though regular service has ground to a halt now that we have had the house valued. I can’t believe that we’re actually looking at houses online… how did this happen so quickly? Almost everything this week has to do with buying and selling houses!

Most of my spare time this week has gone into finishing the outstanding decorating jobs, like my bedroom mural, which was a mammoth project (and strangely timed, but hey ho).

1 – Mortgage affordability check

Usually, I’ll always say that loyalty doesn’t pay. However, I happen to know that our mortgage rate at Nationwide is pretty darned good and that they do offer discounted rates for existing customers… so I was happy to have our first affordability check with them.

I was extremely happy with our new budget and our new prospective rates, so I’ll be looking around to see if anything can beat them (but I doubt it!).

2 – Estate agent selection…

Normally my first choice would be to go for an online estate agent. However… the fees quoted by the cheapest local agent were very reasonable and are on a “no sale, no fee” basis.

Also, their photography is amazing, whereas mine is not, and we really appreciate the opportunity to have someone else conduct viewings and chase solicitors. And because we had three agents come by, we were able to compare prices and services!

3 – Avoiding unnecessary decorating expenses

We’re no longer in “nest feathering mode” – it’s sell mode now. (Sigh)

So when we had to buy some pendant light shades for the hall and landing, we did as we were advised by the estate agents and picked a couple of basic shades for less than £2.50 at B&M Bargains.

4 – Asda Price Guarantee couponing

This week I printed and used an APG coupon for £1.33 – not bad as they’ve been eluding me recently!

5 – Kayaking and a mini train ride

One of the best things we did this week was to go to our local park (where we’ve been having our workday lunches) and spend half an hour on the boating lake in kayaks. We laughed so hard all the way round, watching Little Balders attacking the water with his paddles and soaking himself in the process! That was £4 each.

Afterwards (and after I managed to dunk my bum in a puddle only on getting out of the boat) we had a mad ride on the miniature railway for £1 each.

They were only small things, but they made the day special!

Over to you…

What frugal things have you been up to this week?