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

The Mr

Well I thought it was about time I revealed the mystery man that has been keeping me so busy and away from my writting. His name is Lee we have been together for 2 and a half months now and things seem to be going really well. Before Lee met me he knew nothing about frugalism and just assumed it was about being a cheapskate. Im pleased to say Lee is slowly coming round to my way of thinking and is getting more and more frugal by the day. Lee used to get a taxi to visit me spending around £25 every time he visited untill I informed him he could get a return bus ticket for £4.10 saving him over £20 every time he came to stay. He would quiet happily spend upto £20 on a shirt but now frequents the charity shops after I showed him he could get so much more for his money (we got 2 very nice shirts from a charity shop for just £8). Before me he would have quiet happily given things away or thrown them away when he no longer needed them where as now he will attempt to sell them first to make a few pennies. He now does research to find the best deal on an item and we are addressing his outgoings to see if he can make some savings in that area. He will also use vouchers now something he never did before. I am so pleased that he has realised its a different path in life and not some sort of fad or being a cheapskate. Well enough about the Mr time to move on to more serious matters FRUGALISM lol. Over the last month I have made numerous frugal decisions that I wish to share with you.

Photography: I am very lucky that I have a friend who is an extremely talented photographer. I have asked her to do an on location photo shoot with me and the Mr so that we can get some nice pictures together. She will take the photos and upload them and play around with them and then email them to me to get printed up. I will be paying Kelly £30 to do the shoot and any costs from our day out such as transport and lunch which I would imagine would be no more than around £10 as we will take a picnic with us. When I get the photos printed I will be using a company called trueprint when you open an account with them you get 50 6x4 free prints to start you off you just have to pay p&p which is £1.95. You can get larger prints upto 10x8 for just 99p so im thinking of getting 50 free 6x4 shots and maybe pick out 3 of my favourites to have enlarged costing £2.97 the 6x4 shots will be put into photo album for me and the Mr. The entire cost for this on location photo shoot, 2x 25 page photo albums, and 3 large 10x8 framed photos will be £53.92. When pricing up the exact same shoot and products with a company the cost was £465 a saving of over £400 now thats quiet a saving im sure you would agree :)

Bicycle repair: I have 3 mountain bikes that are in need of repairs all 3 need brake cables reattached, 2 need new handle bar grips, 1 needs a chain put back on, 1 needs a link removed from the chain and the chain put back on, 1 needs a new crank pedal arms and pedals put on, all 3 need a good derusting and general service. This is mostly labour but I do need a few parts a crank, pedal arms, pedals, handle bar grips. I have managed to find a lovely man from my frugal skill sharing site JFTLOI who is kindly going to do all the labour for free he also has a spare crank, pedal arms, and pedals I can have for free so all I need to buy are 2 sets of handle bar grips. Ive looked around for the best deal and have managed to find a set for just £2.89 with free p&p so for the 2 it will be £5.78. So the total to fix all 3 bikes is going to be £5.78. When priced up with a company the cost would be as follows:
Full bicycle service x3 £239.97
Parts- handle bar grips x2 £19.98
Parts- pedals £8.99 (part of the servicing would be to rethread the pedal arms removing the need for a new crank and pedal arm set)
Total cost £268.94 a saving of over £263 again an amazing saving.

Short Break away: In the summer holidays the boys are going to stay with their nanny for a week so Lee and I have been looking at going away for a few days. I have always wanted to go and see Paris so decided to see if I could get us a good deal on a short break to Paris. I have managed to find us a 4 night break to Paris for just £90 per person this includes travel and accomodation. This is how I did it a company called megabus operates a ridiculously low cost coach service from Bristol to Porte Maillot in Paris the cost is £51 per person return. A short shuttle bus ride from the drop off point is a campsite called Camping de Paris - Bois de Boulogne the cost for a tent pitch is 19 euros a night plus a 20 euro booking fee so for 4 nights the total cost is 96 euros (£78).
2x return seats from Bristol to Paris £102
4 nights at the campsite £78
Total cost £180 divided by 2 (myself and Lee) £90 each
I have put a post up on freecycle to see if I can get a 2 man tent, 2 sleeping bags, 2 roll mats, and 2 inflatable pillows if I am unsuccessfull then I will just borrow these items from someone on JFTLOI. Im sure you will agree this is an amazingly low price at any time of year but we will be traveling in August peak session which makes it even more unbelieveably low in cost.

My Birthday BBQ: I never usualy celebrate my bday but decided this year that I was going to have a bbq. I invited all my closest friends and family if every body had come there would have been approx 35 people so this is the number of people I catered for. I bought 40 burgers and burger buns with 45 slices of chesse, 40 sausages with 40 sausage buns, 2 very large bags of chicken pieces, 2 large bags of pork chops, breadsticks and dips, quiche, vegetarian sausages and burgers, 2 chessecakes, an apple pie, 12 cans of lager, 2 bottles of wine, orange juice, apple juice, and lemonade. I had paper plates, cups, and napkins left over from a previous occassion. The total cost for a bbq for 35 people including food, alcohol, soft drinks, and neccessities was £46. Here are some photos taken by Kelly on the day this will give you an idea of how talented she is with the camera.

And this one I am very proud to say I took myself of Kelly and Brandon I was suprised at how well it came out :)

Well thats it from me for today but I will try to get back again soon and stop being so distracted by the Mr lol.

Much Love
Claire xxx

Links

50 Free 6x4 prints
http://photos.truprint.co.uk/lp-searchprints/index.html?campaign=tp_google_prints50

Cheap photo albums and frames
http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/search?q=photo+albums

Skill sharing site where you can also borrow equipment
http://www.justfortheloveofit.org/

Cheap handle bar grips
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140723417429?var=440062786613&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Cheap travel with Megabus
http://uk.megabus.com/

Cheap campsite in Paris
http://www.campingparis.fr/

Freecycle
http://my.freecycle.org/home/info