Frugal Friday

So, the biggest saving this week was arranging a new phone and broadband deal with Plusnet. We have been with BT, after they offered a very good deal to switch last year, but I noticed this month that prices have gone up and so arranged to change. BT wanted £85.20 in fees to make the change, so I changed the date of the switch to avoid all the fees and now we will switch at the beginning of June rather than May. I do think that service providers should think about offering incentives for people to stay with them rather than making switching the most lucrative thing to do ! Overall though, we shall save £22 a month compared to BT's new prices, so definitely worth it.

We also fixed the car and washed it ourselves, saving at least £100 on garage costs and £10 on a car wash ! 

MasterShoestring borrowed walking boots for a school trip, as he is growing so fast it would not have been worth buying a pair just for a single trip. He is going on an expedition in July and will likely need another size up by then.

 I ordered cheap, electric toothbrush heads, £3.25 for 8 rather than over £17. They have just arrived and appear identical to the much, more expensive ones. I did not need to buy more plastic pockets for schoolwork as I discovered a folder full of them sitting on the bookshelf. I also got some half price shampoo at the supermarket.

We made yoghurt, chicken stock, pizzas, tortillas, soup and rolls. We also bought reduced price vegetables and milk. The vegetables were a special price for the Easter Bank Holiday and the milk was reduced to 22p for a litre, also because the shop would not be open over the Bank Holiday.

I finished a cotton top for the Summer using wool from a jumble sale and started a lovely, round hat which will be used for a Christmas present. I also got a free local paper and magazine and scored 2 free cinema tickets for "The Promise", so we are looking forward to another night out next week.

MrShoestring sold the aluminium frame from an old greenhouse which was too bent to re-use and got over £35 from the scrap merchant. We had just been going to take the frame to the dump, when I had the idea to telephone the scrap merchants and see what they would offer. He is going to split the money half and half with MasterShoestring who loaded it all into the car !

The lovely weather helped us mostly keep the hot water heater switched to OFF. So that was another saving !

I hope that you had a good, thrifty week !