Monday 9 September 2013

Trimming the fat

 
I'm trying to start off our new life with some good frugal habits.  And while it seems counter intuitive to be spending money to save money I have been buying a few things that will save me money in the long term.

This morning I ordered a kitchen maid, in fact that exact one above.  It's the original one with cast iron components and solid pine laths.  I could have got one cheaper but I hope this one lasts me for many years.  The tumble dryer will only be used in exceptional circumstances. And as a bonus it will be raised well above dog level so my clothes should have less dog hair on them!!

I've been looking at other ways to trim the fat, so to speak.  For example, switching more brand labels to supermarket own label.  We've already switched from the well known tomato ketchup brand to a 28p bottle of basics (the Teenager prefers it!!)  We now save 70p a tub on spreadable butter.  I keep trying the own brand labels and some are good.  But I just can't change my coffee brand.  I love my coffee and normally use 1 and a half teaspoons per mug.  So I've changed my mug to a slightly smaller one and gone back to 1 spoon.  Okay so saving 1/2 teaspoon per drink isn't going to change the world but if I can find lots of small ways to save money they'll soon add up.

I'm working on cutting down my car use.  This morning I needed to pick up a prescription.  That's all I needed at the supermarket (Sainsbury's) so I cycled there.  Round trip of 4 miles.  Saving on petrol and squeezing in some extra exercise aiding further weight loss thus trimming my own fat! Win/win, right? :-)

5 comments:

  1. Every penny counts, so that half spoonful of coffee, along with what you save on petrol from cycling and on air drying your clothes, will mount up steadily over the year. Loved my pulley, as I call them, but I think the ceilings here may be too low to have one. To compensate, I have set up my airer in the greenhouse for wet weather use. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Funnily enough we saw one of these kitchen maids/pulleys in a shop the other day and were really tempted to buy it and we are just waiting to see if there is enough height to the ceiling to be able to have one, it would be brilliant above or at least near the Aga if there is :-)

    I bet if you counted up all those half spoonfuls of coffee you would be surprised at how many 'free' drinks you are going to get!

    Every penny counts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think you should do your all work with your own. If you really want your self slim. It woks a lot.

    Regards,
    Kopi Luwak

    ReplyDelete
  4. No, 1/2 a teaspoon of coffee isn't going to seriously change much, BUT it's a saving of 33% over what you used to use with no side effects.
    Just think if you could apply 33% savings to everything you use.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks, that's a brilliant way of looking at it!!! 33% saving on lots of things would be a huge reduction on my outgoings

    ReplyDelete

I love getting comments but I will delete any spam and rude personal comments without hesitation. Thanks