Begonias brightening up Ipswich station
Autumn has finally hit with the start of October. Our garden is ankle deep in crunchy orange leaves, but we’ve been lucky lately with glorious sunshine and bright blue skies.
Unusually, I’ve zipped back and forth to London twice in one week. Otherwise we’ve been battening down the hatches for a lower spend October, after the excitement of the summer holidays and the return to school. I posted yesterday with 80+ ways to save money on food shopping, and I’m hoping to put a lot of them into practice!
In the mean time, here’s my round up of our five frugal things this week.
Any recommended recipes?
Given some cookery books
My mother-in-law had a clear out of her cookery books, so I was the grateful recipient of a whole pile of different books. I’m looking forward to scanning the Nigella and River Cafe books in particular. Think I already have my mother’s version of Elizabeth David’s “French Provincial Cooking”, so will whisk that off to the hospice shop (unless anyone else wants it?). There was also a 1950s Aga cook book, with charmingly retro illustrations.
Brand new cook books can be hideously expensive, and I find that often I only use a couple of recipes. Nowadays if I’m tempted by a new title, I try to borrow it from the library first. That way, I can find out for free if I’m actually going to use it, before splashing out money and shelf space.
Parental gratitude for activity books
Used a Nectar voucher in the nick of time
This week I was very grateful I actually read an email from Nectar.
Back in July, I swapped some Nectar points for a Pizza Express voucher for a couple of pizzas or main courses. The voucher cost 1,000 points, which seemed a good deal – normally 1,000 points would only buy £5 of Sainsbury’s shopping, rather than £20 odd for two main courses at Pizza Express.
In the end, we didn’t use the voucher during the summer holidays. Then last week, a Nectar email reminded me that the Summer Rewards vouchers were due to run out on Saturday. Eeek! Luckily we were heading into Ipswich on Saturday morning anyway, so we finished with a family lunch by the quayside. Our family meal out ended up costing £25, including the children’s food, drinks and tip.
Student discounts ahoy
Signed up for a student discount card
I admit I’m not the most obvious member of the National Union of Students.
However, it turns out you can get an NUS Extra card even if you’re not a full time student, but are studying online with certain e-course providers. (Andy over at Be Clever With Your Cash has a great post on this). This week, I duly signed up for a NUS Extra card, which cost £13.50 for a year, including the postage. Among other discounts, I’ll now be able to get 10% off any food shopping at our local Co-op, which will be well worth it.
If you score 5/5 on this quiz you might be a wine genius. Test your skills and win a £20 voucher https://t.co/PeRFzG2VsP
— Majestic Wine (@majesticwine) October 4, 2017
Nabbed a wine voucher
I spotted an offer from Majestic on Twitter, promising a £20 voucher if you took a quick wine quiz. It only had five questions, and turned out it didn’t matter whether you got them all right or not. So now I’ve got a voucher for £20 off when spending £60 or more, which can be used in store or online. It will come in very handy when stocking up on wine for Christmas.
Shuffling between current accounts
Transferred interest across to our main current account
Last weekend, I spent a chunk of time updating my spending diary and checking what cash we have where.
(Here’s why I’m a big fan of spending diaries)
I try to earn as much interest as possible by spreading our emergency savings across several current accounts. Weirdly, some current accounts pay higher interest than most savings accounts nowadays. However, they limit how much money can earn a higher rate (spoil sports). This means that every month or so, I go online and transfer any interest payments above the maximum balance into our main current account. Even though several of the accounts have cut their rates in the last year, the interest still comes in handy for paying bills.
(More on earning interest on current accounts here)
My highest interest rate right now is actually with Chip, the automatic savings app, which pays up to 5% interest. I’ve raved before about Chip, but if you sign up with code 4T0C9I before the end of 13 October, you can choose between getting £10 or 1% interest (and I get the same choice too). For every friend who signs up with your code, you can then earn an extra 1% interest. Interest rates are so rubbish right now that even the initial 1% from Chip is better than many savings accounts elsewhere.
I’ve also been trying out a website that makes it easier to keep an eye on payments from multiple accounts, so hopefully will have a proper post about that next week.
That’s my round up of five frugal things this week. Now over to you – what’s your most frugal tip this week? I’d love to hear, so do share your ideas in the comments.
I’m linking up with Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Five Fabulously Frugal things I’ve done this week’ linky.
Pin for later:
I love reading these. I always think I will try then something happens to make it all go pear shaped.
Anyway, let’s try. On Sunday I won a mini football on Carabao drinks. This will become part of my nephew’s Christmas present. I tried lots of times to win on Oasis drinks but nothing and we don’t even like the stuff so given up on that one.
Even though I NEVER ever go out, Showfilmfirst had free tickets to see Breathe (about Robin and Diana Cavendish) on Wednesday night at Cineworld. My friend Marisa was also free and we had babysitters (aka husbands) so we headed downtown to see that. Amazing film, not sure I could have coped the way Diana Cavendish did. We also got a free bottle of water and packet of minstrels each.
Through work I have an annual metro pass that I pay an amount each month for, as does Marisa, so it did not cost us anything extra to go back into town and it didn’t start til 7.30 so we both went home and had tea first.
The metro is Newcastle’s equivalent of the Underground, only cleaner, and when I take my daughter to her theatre school on Saturdays, I have my pass and it’s £1.20 for a day pass for her (and her brother who likes to ride on the metro at any time!). It’s far cheaper and less hassle than taking the car and I always count the walk up the hill (twice) as exercise.
Clothes are currently drying outside on the line. Actually I always do this, we don’t own a tumble drier, but some people seem to think it’s odd.
Think that’s five. I didn’t do the wine quiz as we don’t drink alcohol. My son has ASD and will only have certain food so pointless cooking anything different. If I did want to, tho, I would google it rather than consult a cookery book, we have far too many books!
Enjoyed the read, as ever
Kathryn
Author
Sounds like you’ve had a fabulously frugal week! Glad you got out to the Breathe showing, great outing on a budget. Now I’m feeling all nostalgic about the Metro, used to love it when we went to visit my Newcastle grandma.
One saving we have made was to spend first, and that was to buy a year’s season pass to our local zoological and botanical gardens (aka Paignton Zoo.) This was expensive I admit, at £92 for two for the year, but once you had visited three times, every other visit was, in effect, ‘free’. The pass also admits us to Living Coasts in Torquay and Newquay Zoo should we visit Cornwall (doubtful, but the offer is there.) We use the Zoo for a walk as much as to see animals, i.e. away from traffic. It is quite a large Zoo and it’s a hilly site, so we get a good walking workout in our old age!
I ‘do’ the Postcode Lottery once a month and have already had three £10 wins. I’m helping charitable causes while the possibility of a big win is always there.
We do have bus passes but I’m ashamed to say we rarely use them. But there again, the Council has to refund the bus companies for all these pensioners riding around free, and thus council taxes rise, so in a way I’m being altruistic by not using public transport, ha ha.
I batch cook whenever possible but have only a small freezer attached to the fridge. So will get a small deep freeze (i.e. spending to save again!) for the garage so I can do more batch cooking. This isn’t particularly to save money but to save me time and energy for when I don’t feel up to cooking. And I don’t mean I don’t want to cook, but physically don’t feel up to it, being older than most of your readers I would guess.
Doesn’t everyone line-dry their clothes whenever possible, unless there is a clause in the household deeds saying you can’t hang washing on the line? This was how it was years ago when we stayed with some friends in a rather posh part East Sussex; we couldn’t hang washing outside in the free fresh air.
Things we don’t do: buy takeaways, buy pizzas, eat out in restaurants at night (much the same meals are cheaper at lunch time and we prefer to be at home of an evening), drink fizzy drinks apart from the occasional mineral water when it’s on offer. Also, we don’t gamble (apart from the postcode Lottery); we only bought a National Lottery ticket once when it started and haven’t bought one since, nor scratch cards (these surely are a tax on the poor?) Nor do we smoke (yuk) nor drink (nothing against a G&T occasionally, but we just don’t like wine, preferring mineral water ice cold with a slice of lemon.)
Ah, forgot. Had a Grand National ticket last April and my horse won, which earned me close to £100!
This we do indulge in: books, good soap, flowers and the occasional good bar of chocolate to share, one or two squares each of an evening … pure luxury!
Margaret P
Next time you are near a LEON, show your student card for a 15% discount. NHS workers get one too! Find your nearest one here leonrestaurants.co.uk
Author
Good tip about Leon. I don’t eat out very often, but sometimes go to the one in Liverpool Street when I’m waiting for meetings. 15% off would come in very handy!
My friend bought me a 1960’s copy of Mrs Beeton for Christmas and her rice pudding recipes are excellent 🙂 I’ve used a couple of the others but I can’t remember what…
I love those two Nigella books. I went off of her a bit when she turned into a Spitting Image puppet of herself, but these are her first two (I think. 1st and 3rd maybe?)
When I got How to Eat I read it from cover to cover- there are lots of good tips in there that don’t come under a recipe as such. I always use her Yorkshire pudding recipe from there- in fact I use it as a reference book for pretty much everything. Not sure of ratio of egg whites to sugar for meringue? How long per kg to boil ham/roast meat? It’s in there.
How to be a Domestic Goddess has my default Victoria sponge, apple cake, scone and American pancake recipes.
I also make the plum sauce, apple chutney and quince glaze most years. She has the easiest marmalade recipe (it’s under pink grapefruit with a seville orange variation but I use whatever citrus fruits need using. Post-Christmas clementine, sweet orange and lemon has been a past success) and the passion fruit curd is worth a splurge (though I used less passion fruits- I think 9 instead of the 11 she stipulates) especially in her meringue sponge cake, though that’s not in either of those books sadly. Feast and Forever Summer, I think, once as lemon and once as a strawberry version.
I’d put less salt in the Norwegian Mountain loaf and I don’t think I liked her banana muffins very much, other than that I’m a big fan of both books 😉
Author
Thanks so much for all the Nigella recipe recommendations! Particularly like the sound of the marmalade and passion fruit curd recipes. Love passion fruit after a while working in Brazil, and I see them from time to time in the yellow-stickered section in the Co-op.
I forgot the supper onion pie (I think it’s called) in How to be a Domestic Goddess! Onion tarte tatin with a cheesy scone base- it’s delicious and we’ve just had it for dinner
First time visitor here….. loving your page. Great inspiration. I’ve given up buying cookery books, I have quite a few here and find that I only every make a few of the recipes. I’m trying to off load most of them but find Charity shops no longer want them and car booting them/Amazon sales are not worth the effort.
I may start leaving them on the train….my attempt to do a ‘books underground’, or see if the local high school could use them. My favourite cookery author is Rachel Allen. So, it’s Nigella who’ll most likely get left on the train… lol
Like yourself I tend to borrow from the Library. My library has an excellent selection. At the moment I have 2 of Tamasin Day-Lewis’ books on loan. Although I’m not sure that I’d buy them.
I don’t have a rail card as I always thought it wouldn’t be cost effective. But I’ve just done a quick calculation and I guess for the 3 or 4 log distance journeys I make it would be beneficial, so one to think about.
I lost my job, my spouse left me and there was no way to get income for my family, things was so tough and I couldn’t get anything for my children, not until a met a recommendation on a page writing how Mr Bernie Doran helped a lady in getting a huge amount of profit every 6 working days on trading with his management on the cryptocurrency Market, to be honest I was skeptical at first but I took the risk to take a loan of $500, and I contacted him unbelievable and I was so happy I received a profit of $5,500 with an investment of $500 within 7 days of trading , the most joy is that I can now take care of my family, i am just sharing my testimony on here. I don’t know how to appreciate your good work Mr. Bernie Doran, God will continue to bless you for being a life saver I have no way to appreciate you than to tell people about your good services. He can also help you recover your lost funds, For a perfect investment and good return on investment contact him on Gmail : Berniedoransignals@gmail.com or his whatsApp + 1 ( 424 ) 285 – 0682
tell him i referred you