Struggling to find a meaningful Mother’s Day gift on a tight budget? Fret no more, for I have made a quote printable for you to download and print for the special lady in your life. Whether you gift it as is or put it in a frame, I’m sure your Mother will appreciate the sentiment.
*Disclaimer: I am a member of the Amazon Associates program. This post contains affiliate links to products. At no extra cost to you, I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links
We all want to spoil the mother figures in our lives, but don’t let a tight budget stop you. I have scoured Amazon for some nifty gift ideas that won’t break the bank. Seriously, check out the prices for yourself!
*Disclaimer: I am a member of the Amazon Associates program. This post contains affiliate links to products. At no extra cost to you, I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links
These oaty biscuits require minimal effort and taste scrummy. I tend to make these when I have oats to use up. Most of these ingredients are in your pantry right now. A little goes a long way with these ingredients.
*Note, these ingredients can be tweaked to suit your needs. For example, where I state sugar, you can use caster, granulated, brown- whatever you have to hand. You can even substitute the butter for peanut butter. This recipe really is flexible .
What you will need:
75g plain flour
75g oats
75g sugar (I use brown)
75g butter
Golden syrup or honey (I use golden syrup)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Method:
Weigh out 75g of plain flour, oats, and sugar and mix in one bowl. Add the 1/2 tsp of bicarbonate and stir in well.
In a pan, melt your butter and a good dollop of golden syrup together. I tend to eyeball the syrup, but can you really ever have enough?
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and combine.
Form your mix into balls and place on a baking tray with space to expand. Smaller balls for smaller cookies etc. We make about 8 big cookies.
Bake at 170 for about 10 minutes. They will feel soft, so let them cool before attempting to get them off the tray. They harden a little as they cool.
Starting your frugal living or debt free journey can be daunting, especially if you have no clue where exactly to start. Why not take some tips and advice from people who have been there, done that, and got the t-shirt? I have compiled a list of 10 frugal living and personal finance eBooks that have rave reviews and are available from Amazon.
*affiliate links used within this post.
The Homemade Housewife
No matter what budget you are working with, a military salary, fixed income, disability, one income family…there is so much advice here. Even the frugal veteran might pick up a thing or two. There is even advice for getting out of debt and building a savings fast and ideas on making some money from home. How about buying a home and fixing it up on a budget? She has done it all and raised a family on one small income and managed to keep her homemaking position for years. Let her share all this good stuff with you.
Thrifty Ways for Modern Days
This extraordinary book is based on the collective wisdom of the scores of contributors to the MoneySaving Old-Style section of MoneySavingExpert.com – the award-winning, trend-setting website which, in less than four years, has attracted over one million UK users a month.The Old-Style forum started when many of the older visitors to the site decided to share their accumulated knowledge with other younger users. It has swiftly developed into a discussion on living life cheaply, healthily, ethically and thriftily, with all generations together searching for a path to Old-Style bliss.
Living Well, Spending Less
Have you ever felt that your life–and budget–is spiraling out of control? Do you sometimes wish you could pull yourself together but wonder exactly how to manage all the scattered pieces of a chaotic life? Is it possible to find balance? In a word, yes Ruth Soukup knows firsthand how stressful an unorganized life and budget can be. Through personal stories, biblical truth, and practical action plans, she will inspire you to make real and lasting changes to your personal goals, home, and finances. With honesty and the wisdom of someone who has been there, Ruth will help you:
* Discover your “sweet spot”–that place where your talents and abilities intersect.
* Take back your time and schedule by making simple shifts in your daily habits.
* Reduce stress in your home and family by clearing out the clutter.
* Stop busting your budget and learn to cut your grocery bill in half.
The No Spend Year
Personal finance journalist, Michelle McGagh, takes on a challenge to not spend money for a whole year in an engaging narrative that combines personal experience with accessible advice on money so you can learn to spend less and live more.
Michelle McGagh has been writing about money for over a decade but she was spending with abandon and ignoring bank statements. Just because she wasn’t in serious debt, apart from her massive London mortgage, she thought she was in control. She wasn’t.
Michelle’s took a radical approach and set herself a challenge to not spend anything for an entire year. She paid her bills and she has a minimal budget for her weekly groceries but otherwise Michelle spent no money at all.
The Meaningful Money Handbook
In The Meaningful Money Handbook, personal finance expert and podcaster extraordinaire Pete Matthew guides you through everything you need to KNOW and everything you need to DO to build a secure financial future for yourself and your family.
Frugal Stuff that Works
A pick and mix selection of the fifty Top Tips for frugal living by the readers and writers of the Inspirational Blog Mortgage Free in Three. Tried and tested – debated and discussed …. these are the ones that really work from the people that really use them.
Superscrimpers: Live Life for Half the Price
With enough money-saving tips to banish the budgetary blues for good, these collected hints and tips from Channel 4’s Supercrimpers show us all how to be more clever with our cash.
Why waste money when you can have new for nothing? Rediscover the thrill of thrift with our clever tips and ideas to help you have the lifestyle you want without it costing the earth.
These days it’s hip to be thrifty and we’ve looked to the superscrimping skills of yesteryear to find hints and tips to remind us all of the nation’s fine tradition of resourcefulness.
And you’ll find brand new ideas for chic-on-the-cheap fashion, handy homes, beauty, DIY and more that will put some glamour into your life without emptying your pockets.
Proving frugal can be fun, join our proud penny-pinching revolution and learn how to live well for less!
Cooking on a Bootstrap: Over 100 Simple, Budget Recipes
Jack Monroe is a campaigner, food writer and activist, her first cookbook A Girl Called Jack, was a runaway bestseller. The sequel Cooking on a Bootstrap makes budget food fun and delicious, with 118 incredible recipes including Fluffy Berry Pancakes, Self-Love Stew, Marmite Mac ‘n’ Cheese and Hot Sardines with Herby Sauce.
Chapters include Bread, Breakfasts, A Bag of Pasta and a Packet of Rice, Spuds and Eat More Veg. There are vegan, sweet and what Jack calls ‘contraband’ dishes here, as well as nifty money-saving tips. With her trademark humour and wit, Jack shows us that affordable, authentic and creative recipes aren’t just for those with fancy gadgets or premium ingredients.
Initially launching this book as a very limited black and white edition on Kickstarter, Jack reached the funding target in just one day. This beautiful edition contains illustrations and original full-colour photographs to really make your mouth water.
The year of Less
In her late twenties, Cait Flanders found herself stuck in the consumerism cycle that grips so many of us: earn more, buy more, want more, rinse, repeat. Even after she worked her way out of nearly $30,000 of consumer debt, her old habits took hold again. When she realized that nothing she was doing or buying was making her happy—only keeping her from meeting her goals—she decided to set herself a challenge: she would not shop for an entire year.
How I Lived a Year on Just a Pound a Day
Kath Kelly was broke. That was okay, as all her friends were too. But she had an important event to budget for, just a year away. How could she save enough in time, and still have some kind of life in the process? One drunken night, she made a rash decision: to live on just one pound a day for the next twelve months.
This is the incredible but true story of how a mission to cut her spending to the bone showed one woman another side of herself and of human nature. Through the ups and downs of a year like no year she had spent before, she discovered how greed and waste was messing up people – to say nothing of the planet – and came to see how much fun can be had on a few pennies a day.
First published in 2008 and now newly available on Kindle, with brand new afterword and updated hints and tips, this book has all you need to save money and have a good time while you do! Are you up for the challenge: to try living on a pound a day?
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*Disclaimer: I am a member of the Amazon Associates program. This post contains affiliate links to products. At no extra cost to you, I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links
I posted snippets of my daughter’s Darrel Rivers (Malory Towers) World Book Day costume that I have been putting together on Instagram, so I wanted to share with you how we put together a frugal costume that my 9 year old girl is very happy with.
My daughter is a big book worm, so she will not be happy unless she has picked a character that not everyone else is doing (except Hermione Granger who is her favourite, but she dressed up as her last year). So, she chose a character from Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers series, Darrel Rivers. I was thrilled with this as it is a book about a boarding school, so the main dress code is… school uniform.
This is the book she is taking to school, so we wanted to match the cover with the orange tie.
Seeing as it is a school uniform, we opted to stick with a pinafore and white polo shirt that we already had, along with my daughter’s school socks and shoes. Some Malory Towers book covers do show a brown/maroon uniform, so my daughter wanted to wear her burgundy cardigan over the top.
This costume is actually pulled together by the details. The school logo badge was really simple to make. I found a Malory Towers logo on Google and printed it off. I stuck it to cardboard to ensure it would be hardy, and taped a safety pin to the back.
The hardest part of this costume was the suitcase. My daughter had her heart set on a briefcase or suitcase with the logo on it, and I wasn’t buying one just to be used for one day. I made one out of a box, some parcel paper, and a printed logo.
Here is how I made it:
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*Disclaimer: I am a member of the Amazon Associates program. This post contains affiliate links to products. At no extra cost to you, I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links
*Thanks goes to the author for providing me with a free copy of this ebook. I was not paid for this review and my opinions are all my own.
Note: I am reviewing this book with the frugal living community in mind.
Blurb:
We were tired of wasting our time and money. And we were tired of thinking about our hair. When the weather was unusually humid, we worried. When we knew we might be in a steamy room or a jacuzzi, or exposed to fog or mist or sea spray, we worried. We literally chose vacation destinations based in part on how humid they were. It was a constant low-level background buzz of annoyance, and we wanted it to stop.
That’s why we started this project, which took us on a two-year odyssey of exhaustive study. In that time, we uncovered and debunked a lot of myths. We learned why so many products don’t work, and how to pick ones that will. We developed evidence-based, research-backed strategies for controlling our frizzy hair and making it look the way we wanted it to. Everything in this book is backed by independent peer-reviewed research from dozens of professional medical and scientific journals.
Review:
I am reviewing this book with the frugal living community in mind, and of course, people with frizzy hair. This book/ review may not be of benefit for everybody, but if you struggle with frizzy hair, and are looking for some cheap solutions or just some practices to stop doing, then it is worth checking this out. There’s even a little trick using diluted vinegar that I want to try. There are some aspects of this book that are not frugal, but it is up to you what advice you take.
The author has clearly done a lot of research and has a lot of experience dealing with frizzy hair. This book doesn’t only include cosmetic solutions for frizzy hair, but delves into many more areas such as cutting and styling techniques that benefit people with frizzy hair and even different water hardness.
Although we don’t have curly hair, both my daughter and I get frizzy hair. I have used many serums and anti-frizz products in my time, and I did find this book beneficial for finding some ideas to try. Reading this book has opened my eyes to practices that I have been doing that I really need to stop. This will actually save me money.
Welcome back for another monthly tip update. Over the course of this month, I have been posting useful, frugal tips to Instagram, and I have compiled them all into one blog post for easy perusal.
With World Book Day fast approaching once again… didn’t we just have that?? I wanted to repost my list of budget costume ideas that are simple to create.
101 Dalmatians. An old white top with black spots drawn on in marker pen and a pair of black trousers. For added effect, you can draw on a spot around your child’s eye with either black face paint or eye make-up.
Dobby from Harry Potter. Dye a white pillow case using brewed tea water. Cut a neck hole and arm holes out of the closed end and make the edges look frayed and jagged. For ears, cut the shapes out of card and attach to a headband.
Stig of the Dump. You could use the same pillowcase technique as the Dobby costume above. Make the child’s hair messy and cut a club shape out of cardboard as a prop.
Matilda. A blue dress (a blue school dress is perfect) and a red ribbon for the hair. There are two props you could use: a stack of books, or a jar with a toy newt/ cardboard newt in it.
Mildred Hubble from The Worst Witch. Did you keep that witches hat from Halloween? Team that with a white school shirt and black school skirt and tights. A black or stripy tie would be an added bonus.
Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. A blue dress (a blue school dress), hair in pigtails, and a basket with a little toy dog in it. You can add red shoes if you have them.
Dennis from The Boy in a Dress. Any dress will work for this, but an orange one would be perfect. Add a football as a prop.
Veruca Salt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. All you need is a red dress, black shoes, and a print out of a free Golden Ticket template. (You could also draw your own ticket).
Angelina Ballerina. This costume is perfect if you have a child that does ballet and has a leotard and tutu. You can cut mouse ears out of card and attach them to a headband.
Prince Charming/ King Arthur. Take a pillow case and cut a neck hole and arm holes out of the closed end. Choose which side is the front and make the neckline into a V neck. Using a marker, draw a crest design on the chest area. Wear a black belt over the top and dark trousers underneath. If you require a sword prop, cut the shape out of cardboard and cover in tin foil.
Peter Rabbit. A denim jacket would work well for this, although any blue jacket/ cardigan would do. Wear it over brown/ neutral clothes. Cut rabbit ears out of cardboard and attach to a headband.
The Little Princess. This is a very easy costume. All you need to do is make a crown out of card and wear it with a white night gown.
Aslan from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. A lion is not as tricky as you may first think. Have the child wear brown clothing and use a paper plate to create a mane. Cut the inner part of the plate out, so you are left with a ring. Cut the edges in a jagged, mane style and colour or paint brown. Attach a straw to the bottom as a handle. The child can hold the mane up to their face for the full effect.
Skeleton from Funnybones. Get that skeleton Halloween outfit out of the cupboard. You could make a Funnybones mask out of a paper plate for the full effect.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Cut a neck hole and arm holes out of the closed end of a pillowcase. Paint on thick stripes in varying green colours. Create a hat out of red card and draw on the eyes.
Where’s Wally. If you already have a red and white striped top simply team it with denim trousers. If not, draw red stripes onto a white top.
Mog. Do you have cat ears and a tail leftover from Halloween? Mog is the perfect use for them. Team them with grey or black clothing.
Ladybird from What the Ladybird Heard. This is similar to the dalmatian outfit, only you draw black spots onto a red top. Team with black trousers.
Fern from Charlotte’s Web. This outfit relies heavily on a pig prop. A toy pig works brilliantly. The child can wear any coloured check shirt and jeans. Wellington boots are optional, but do tie the outfit together.
Card Soldier from Alice in Wonderland. Take a white pillowcase and cut a neck hole and arm holes into the closed end. With a marker pen, draw a spade symbol in the centre and one ‘A’ in the top right corner and another in the bottom left. Team with black trousers.
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In true Sensibly Frugal fashion I want to leave you with this parting note… It is perfectly fine to send your child to school in a superhero dress up or Disney princess dress etc. If your child already has them and wants to wear them, then let them. It is free for you, and there is nothing lazy about it. They are characters from stories and comic books, after all.
A cucumber that is passed it’s best can be frozen in ice cube trays to add to drinks. You just need to blend it into a puree, pour into ice cube trays, and freeze. Once frozen, pop them out of the tray and into a ziplock bag, and put them back in the freezer until you need them.
You can also add blended cucumber into soups and sauces for added nutrients.
Pickled cucumbers taste lovely on burgers. Slice the cucumbers, place them in an air tight container or jar, and fill with pickling vinegar.
Bananas
Brown skin on bananas can be off putting, especially to children. I like to slice and freeze my bananas when they turn brown. I can then blend them into smoothies or as banana ice cream.
Over ripe bananas are also perfect for making a banana cake.
Tomatoes
If you have lots of tomatoes, you can blend them into a passata or bolognese sauce.
Tomatoes are very versatile and can be added to many salads, sandwiches, and pasta dishes.
Bread
Once bread starts to turn a little stale, you can turn it into croutons for soups and salads. Cut the bread into small cubes, toss in oil, and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
Stale bread is also good in bread and butter pudding or for making eggy bread.
Potatoes
Potatoes can be frozen to use in casseroles and stews or for roast potatoes. Just chop them to size, blanch them for a few minutes in boiling water ,and then plunge them into ice cold water to stop the cooking process. Portion them out and freeze.
If your potatoes have gone too far passed their best, why not let them sprout in a dark, cool place, and then plant them?
Apples and pears
Apples and pears can be peeled and stewed to serve with custard or in a pie. You can stew and freeze apples and pears to use at a later date.
There are also simple recipes for cakes that include apples and pears.
Eggs
My family enjoy homemade, pickled eggs. All you need to do is hard boil your eggs, peel the shells off, and place them in a clean, air tight container. Then, you fill the container with pickling vinegar. They are ready to eat in just a few weeks.
Meat
All meat can be frozen, as long as you do it before or on the use by date. Just remember to defrost it in the fridge overnight for your meals the next day. I do cook meat from frozen in my slow cooker. If you are portioning out your meat, think ahead to whether you will need it whole or diced and do so before freezing it to make your life easier.
Cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower
All these vegetables can be blanched and frozen if you would like to use them at a later date.
I like to blend these vegetables into pasta sauces. My kids won’t eat them as a side, but they can’t taste the difference in a bolognese sauce, and doing so adds so many nutrients.
These vegetable are also good chopped and fried with bacon and mashed potatoes.
Berries
Berries can be frozen with no prep. You can also use them without defrosting. Simply blend them into smoothies.
If you want to add frozen berries to cereals etc, take them out of the freezer and leave them in the fridge overnight.
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Do you have any tips for preserving/ using up leftover perishable items? Let me know in the comments.
Before you throw out or recycle your towels, ask yourself if you are getting the most use out of them. Can they be used in another way to benefit your home and pocket? Here is a list of 10 alternative uses for old towels:
Cut up into rags and cleaning cloths. They are brilliant for slipping over a microfiber, flat mop head instead of disposable wipes.
Cut up into face cloths or reusable make up remover rounds.
Roll up and use as draught excluders.
Cut into strips and tie into a braid for a cheap but sturdy dog toy.
Keep to dry your pets after you bathe them.
Use as an ironing board cover.
Stitch large bath towels together to create an extra large beach mat.
Keep old towels in your car to place muddy boots on as this will save your interior from staining and mess.
Reusable baby wipes. These can be good for both face and bottom, and so much more environmentally friendly than disposables.
Make your own reusable tumble dryer sheets. Cut up the towel into small squares, soak in fabric conditioner, and allow to dry. Pop one in with your load to freshen.
Sensibly Frugal Living 