Teaching the art of frugality

I have lots to share but want to start with Lee's journey of discovery with frugal living. He is really picking it up well I dont think he will ever be a fully fledged frugalist like myself but he sure is doing well for someone who had no idea what it was 3 months ago. Since my last post we took a look at Lee's outgoings to see what could be reduced. Unfourtunatly due to being locked into contracts there was not an awfull lot we could do. He has cancelled all magazine subscriptions viewing them online for free instead. After a few words of advice on what to do and how to go about it he also reduced his tv/broadband/landline bill by £20 a month and is even getting a rebate of £13.60. Instead of buying a new computer desk he is putting getting one on hold till we can get one for free on freecycle or freegle instead. He has also replaced all his grocery shopping with a value version reducing his monthly shop from £110 to £50. I am very proud of the steps he has made and although I get a lot of stick for my frugal life I think Lee quite likes having a girlfriend who is not materialistic and always looks for the cheapest way of doing things.

Although I have not been writting as much as I would like the frugal flag still flies in the Till household and I have made some really rather awsome savings recently that I wish to share. I went shopping with Lee and his mum the other day like me Lee's mum is a charity shop junkie and was able to show me where every single charity shop was in their town. I got some great deals I got Brandon a nice summer shirt from next for just £1.49 and a pair of umbro shorts for ben for just 79p awsome. I also got myself a few new clothes as a lot of mine are quite loose since losing a stone and a half all very cheap of course :)

I made a batch of homemade laundry detergent to it cost me a total of 28p which makes 32 loads saving me a small fortune here are some pictures.

I gave some of my homemade laundry detergent to a friend to try out and in return she brought up a big wedge of homemade coffee and walnut cake which was lovely as well as 3/4 of a bag of rabbit food that her guinea pigs did not like for our rabbit Kindy.

I made a lovely frugal dinner of spagetti bolognaise with a twist the twist was I used a jar of mushroom sauce that had been sat in the cupbord for months it was given to me by a friend who had brought 2 for the price of 1 and when she tried it she did not like it so gave me the second jar. The total cost of this meal was £1.04 and served myself and the 3 boys.

I have mentioned my friend S a few times in the past she has 2 little boys each is a year older than Ben and Brandon as a result she often gives me clothes that her boys have grown out of that fit my boys. S gave me a nice little pile of items this week she gave me 2 white school shirts, 2 pairs of shorts, 2 long sleeved tshirts, and a adidas hodded sweater all in great condition. She also had a BEN10 bike for sale almost new her son rode it twice she knew I wanted to get a bike for Brandon for his birthday in October so sold it to me for £30 she paid £90 a month previously for this bike and she is keeping hold of it for me till his birthday.

Now for something that has nothing to do with being frugal. This cute baby bird got itself trapped in our trampoline and was going crazy trying to get out but where she is still so young could not fly properly to get over the enclosure. The mama bird was on one of the posts with a worm in her mouth talking to the baby bird so we rescued the baby bird out of the enclosure and put her out on the grass where mama bird was able to take her home.

Untill next time much love
Claire xxx