5 frugal things this week (27 Sept)

Used up leftover challah bread

I have resigned myself to the start of autumn, trudging through leaves and damp days. We’re all getting back into the term time routine, with added excitement when for example friends came round for lunch.

Here are my five frugal things this week!

Loaded up on extra Boots Advantage points

I was clicking about, trying the new cashback website My Money Pocket, when I spotted that Boots* is offering 20 points per £1 when you spend £60 or more online this weekend. That’s five times more than normal! The points weekend promo runs from Friday 27th to Monday 30th September.

Boots is rarely the cheapest option, but it does offer the best price on my tried-and-tested contact lens fluid. So I spent £65 on 6 months’ supply, nabbed £13-worth of Advantage points, and hopefully a bit of cashback. All helps towards covering the cost of Christmas!

Four hours of my life I will never get back

Used leftover challah for bread and butter pudding

One evening last week my daughter asked for help with her RE homework – baking challah bread. Imagine my delight on discovering the recipe served 30 and took nearly 4 hours to make. Joyful. We had to set a timer to wake us up for the twisting / second proving / baking stages.

Anyway one of the two loaves returned from school, so I decided to use it to make bread and butter pudding when friends came round for lunch on Saturday (photographic evidence at the top of this post!).I tried this once before with leftover panettone, and though it could work well with the honey and egg enriched challah.

Anyway reckon it could have done with a bit more of the eggy custardy mix, but the top was lovely and crunchy with demerara sugar and it tasted great with strawberries and cream. 

Packed house at the Money to the Masses event

Attended a free event about money

On Tuesday, I headed to London for various meetings and the first live event by Damien over at Money to the Masses. (If you haven’t already done Damien’s Money MOT, do try it. It’s free, only takes a few minutes, and is a great financial health check)

 The event, ‘How to live a champagne lifestyle on a lemonade budget’, had a packed audience and lively panel discussion. I marvelled at the technological wizardry for the Q&A session. You could type in your question by smartphone, and upvote any questions you particularly wanted answering.

It’s always helpful to hear which issues people are really wrestling with, from budgeting, side hustles and money saving apps to clearing debt and weighing up whether to pay into a pension or mortgage. Also great to talk assorted money issues when we retired to the pub afterwards!

Postbox in our garden wall

Claimed money back from a delayed train

My return home was less enjoyable, when we all got chucked off the train just before my stop, and told to wait for the next service. No conductor, apparently.

I used the time hanging around on a drafty platform to fill in a ‘delay repay’ form. Despite getting back after midnight, I still nipped out to post the form (in my defence, there is a post box in our garden wall).

As I was delayed for more than half an hour, I should get back 25% of the cost of my return ticket, but you can claim for delays as short as 15 minutes.

Training at Alton Water for the Great East Schools Swim

Got a refund for a waterpark that went bust

This week was refunds all round, but this one might be relevant if you booked with Thomas Cook before it went into liquidation. So dreadful for holidaymakers and even worse for employees.

If you booked a holiday package with an ATOL certificate, then you should get your money back in the end (phew) even if it’s an expensive nightmare booking a replacement. Trouble is, if you just booked flights rather than a whole holiday, you don’t get ATOL protection.

The good news is that if you paid with a card you might still be able to get the money back. If you buy something on plastic and don’t receive it, you can claim the money back from your card company using the charge back scheme.

It worked for me after I booked a ticket this summer for AquaPark Suffolk out on Alton Water – which promptly shut down before the big day, then went bust. I’d paid with my Nationwide credit card, so filled in a form from their website and sent it off with copies of the email confirming my booking,  emails about my booking being cancelled and the AquaPark going bust, and my credit card statement showing the payment. The £19 was credited back on my card this week.

Want more frugal inspiration?  Do head over and join the Much More With Less #MoneySavingYear Facebook group, to share thrifty tips and support. It’s a private group so your comments won’t be splashed all over your friends’ Facebook feeds.

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

*indicates an affiliate link, so anything you buy through it will help support the blog, as I will get a small commission at no cost to you. Many thanks!