Had a good weekend all in.
Salt dough ornaments made (very cheap, about 10p’s worth of salt, value plain flour that we already had in and some paint from S’s craft kit); we used some Christmas cookie cutters to cut out the shapes and now we have S’s Christmas present to his grandparents – very frugal, and I’m sure it will put more of a smile on their faces than something we could have bought.
I had put some change away to take S to the fairground, however on arrival it turned out that they had packed up and gone home the night before. Cue a huge tantrum. However, we bundled up and trundled off to the local Victorian Christmas market, where we had a whale of a time spending those saved coins on raffles, tombolas, bran tubs and home made cake. We had some success at the ‘wine or water’ stand (pay £1, pick a wrapped bottle, take it home if it’s wine – I won a bottle of Pinot!) and the tombola, where S chose a giant box of biscuits. Ended the afternoon with some carol singing in the rain, then stopped off at M&S on the way home to pick up the customary bottle of mulled wine (I’m allowed some treats!).
Sold on a few of S’s outgrown toys, and those £1 coins will go towards our Tesco Christmas savings stamps. £1 profit if you fill the card with £49 worth of stamps.
Carried out a mystery dine which allowed me to treat a friend – great to share the wealth.
So, today.
Contacted Holland and Barrett about an expired 50p coupon, they kindly extended it so I picked up S’s favourite treat for 19p. Returned some loaf tin cases to Poundworld and picked up a chocolate treat to put away for Christmas in exchange. Rejigged my spreadsheet after passing my driving test – that’s £120 a month back in our pockets.
Starting to think seriously about the no-buy challenge for 2015 now and wondering how easy it will be. Any suggestions for similar blogs would be greatly appreciated!
A Frugal Month 