Five frugal things with WW this week

Light as a feather 😉

WeightWatchers, or WW as it has been rebranded (eh?) seems to be doing a big push this week. I suppose it’s probably for people like me who’ve just discovered their summer clothes seem to have shrunk *cough*.

As I’m back in an emergency trousers situation, with a wardrobe full of clothes I can’t fit into, so Something Must Be Done. So here are the five frugal things I’ve done this week on the WeightWatchers front.

Dug out my old magazines

Sadly, merely buying WeightWatchers magazines doesn’t mean the weight melts off. Otherwise, looking at my piles of back issues, I would be skinny as a stick.

However, they did seem a good place to start planning more sensible meals for free. I picked out a load of magazines for May going back over the years. I’m guessing rhubarb and beetroot are in season right now, looking at the repeated recipes!

Suitably virtuous meal

Put together a budget meal plan

I’m always frustrated when healthy eating plans involve buying a whole load of weird and wonderful ingredients at great expense. WeightWatchers magazine is particularly bad at chucking curve balls into its recipes. No, I don’t want to buy raspberry vinegar, freekeh, pumpkin seeds, Camargue rice, sumac, tricolour quinoa, shiitake mushrooms, and scotch bonnet peppers to use a small amount in a single recipe (all from May 2017).

However, there were some budget options using ingredients my children will actually eat, so I jotted down ideas for a meal plan including porridge, soups, a chicken traybake, spaghetti bolognese, bean & roasted pepper burritos and ham & pea pasta.

Spot those yellow stickers

Snapped up yellow-stickered bargains

Healthy eating for me depends a lot on what we have in the house. I’m much more likely to stay on track if I’ve got sensible food handy, and banish the crisps and biscuits. So I made a shopping list of the extra food needed for my meal plan, and headed to the supermarket while I still had enough will power to avoid adding anything off limits. I was delighted when I spotted several things on my list cut price in the reduced section – celery, grapes, a pepper, an orange, cherry tomatoes and cheese. Every little helps!

(And for the eagle-eyed, the hot cross buns top left were to sustain my daughter during SATs this week, and she scoffed the lot!)

£1.20 magazine for £19 saving

Signed up for 2 free sessions at a slimming club

I have mixed feelings about slimming clubs, but figured I could do with some extra motivation by facing the scales.

Turns out Woman’s Own for 13 May has a voucher for a 14-day free trial at WeightWatchers (sorry, WW!), to be redeemed before 21 May. It includes 2 free meetings (only now called workshops), so in theory £1.20 on a magazine saves £19 at WW. Afterwards, it costs £21.45 a month if you sign up for 3 months.

So I weighed in on Wednesday, and my current plan is to get a kick start during the free trial and then cancel before the 14 days finishes. 

Cooking what we had in the house

Made meals based on ingredients we had in the house

I remain keen to avoid food waste while eating more healthily, so I’ve been trying to find WW friendly meals to use up food we already had. Hence eating a mediterranean chicken tray bake, which handily used peppers, potatoes and olives that would otherwise go over, plus a pack of chicken thighs and drumsticks from the freezer. I’ve also managed to use leftover mushrooms and new potatoes in a tortilla, ageing butternut squash in a soup, and creme fraiche in wraps. The Brexit stockpile (see previous post) has also proved handy for chickpeas, black-eyed beans and tinned tomatoes.

Much More With Less #MoneySavingYear Facebook group

Just to say if you’d like more updates on my WW progress, or other money saving tips, do hop over to join the Much More With Less #MoneySaving Year Facebook group. I aim to post something each day, and it’s a great space to share tips and support. It’s also a closed group, which means any posts and replies are only seen by members of the group, and not splashed all over your normal feed.

Now – over to you. Anyone else trying to get back into WeightWatchers? Or keen to shed lbs without spending £££? Do share in the comments, I’d love to hear!

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!