Sensibly Frugal Living

5 Crafty Makes That Sell Well

Are you looking to discover some crafty makes that make great gifts or to sell for extra cash? Look no further. I have researched 5 popular, simple crafts to make to gift or sell with links to the original craft pages and tutorials.

Wax Melts

Simplemadepretty.com have a tutorial on making natural wax melts. Wax melts that are homemade and reasonably priced sell well. Some popular brands charge a fortune, so cheaper alternatives always appeal to buyers.

Hand Warmers

Gluestickblog.com can show you how to make simple hand warmers in 5 minutes! These sell particularly well at Christmas time, especially if marketed as cheap, stocking fillers.

Painted Plant Pots

Goldstandardworkshop.com have a tutorial on D.I.Y pretty face planters. There is a growing trend with painted pots, especially ones that hold succulents and cacti. It might be a trend to jump on if you have an arty flair.

Bath Bombs

Not only do I love a good bath bomb, my daughter is obsessed. The sparklier the better in her opinion. Rufflesandrainboots.com have a perfect mermaid bath bomb tutorial for all your scented, sparkly bath bomb needs.

Shower Jellies

Happinessishomemade.net have the perfect tutorial for fun, gummy bear shower jellies. Shower jellies are my new favourite thing. Why have I not heard of them sooner? They are quickly taking off in popularity, especially with children.

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Images sourced from links above

Things We No Longer Buy

Once we agreed as a family to save for our travels, we took a long hard look at our spending habits. Today, I want to share with you the things we no longer buy since we started living frugally.

Work Lunches

My husband used to buy the £3 meal deals from the local supermarket to have for his work lunch 5 times a week. That’s £60 a month! £720 a year! Yep, he doesn’t do that any more. Packed lunches and leftovers is the way to go.

Brand Name Cleaning Supplies

I thought I needed the different bottles of bathroom cleaner, kitchen cleaner, tile cleaner. Not only that, I thought I needed the branded ones. The ones that the adverts make look like wonder cleaners. Nope, I only need a multi-purpose cream cleaner to do all the above jobs, and it only costs me £0.80p a bottle!

Also, there is no need to buy cloths. If you have old towels or t-shirts, cut them into rags and use as cleaning cloths.

Ready Meals

Never again. Shop bought ready meals taste awful, and the fancier the ingredients, the more the cost. I’d rather batch cook spaghetti bolognese to feed my family of four twice over for the same price as a ready meal.

New Clothes

We only buy clothes when we are in desperate need of something. However, when we buy clothes we buy second hand. That goes for the children too.

Branded Medicines

Seriously, read the labels. There is little to no difference in the ingredients. This also goes for children’s medicines. Store brand equivalent of Calpol does the same job. I spend £0.30p for a 16 tablet pack of pain meds. Branded packs can cost up to £4.

So, what is the difference? I’ll tell you… clever marketing.

Washed and Prepped Veg and Fruit

I was guilty of buying prepped veg for the longest time. I would spend £1.50 on a bag of shredded cabbage. Now, I buy a whole cabbage for £0.59p. I was lazy in my thinking that it would save me a lot of time. How long does it really take to chop a cabbage?

Tupperware

We do treat ourselves to a takeaway every once in a while on a special occasion, and I keep all the plastic containers. A quick wash up, and I have plenty of storage containers with lids. I also keep large, glass jars with lids for the same reason.

Expensive TV Packages.

We use Netflix almost exclusively. We do have Sky TV, but we have cut our package back to basics. No more expensive movie channels or sports channels for us.

Also, it is worth ringing your provider and seeing if they can give you a deal. We seriously considered leaving Sky, and to keep us they gave us a huge discounted rate for a full six months on the full package. After the six months, remember to ring and cut your channels back down.

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5 Ways to Make Saving Fun for Kids

When most kids receive money they spend it like it is burning a hole in their pocket. My eight year old is the same. However, with these tried and tested techniques you can make saving fun for your children and teach them a valuable life skill in the process.

A Reason

Most children find it hard to save when they don’t have an end goal or motivation to do so. It may be helpful to have your child pick an end goal i.e. games console, bike etc. You could even print out the picture of the item they are saving for visual motivation.

Visual Savings Charts

Keeping on the lines of visual motivation, a savings chart is a great way to encourage your kids to save. My daughter is saving for spending money on our holiday. She has a chart that goes up in £10 intervals, and each time she saves £10 she colours in a line.

Cash Incentive

Many parents match their child’s savings like for like. If you want something a little less heavy on the wallet, then why not offer a smaller cash incentive. Tell your child that for every £5 saved, you will give them £1 toward their savings.

Competition

A little bit of friendly competition never hurt anyone, especially siblings. You can even do this with cousins and friends. Kids can be quite competitive, but making saving fun in the process is a bonus. They may think of ways to make money that they wouldn’t have been keen on before i.e. selling old toys or mowing the neighbours lawn.

Novelty Piggy Bank

As simple as it sounds, a novelty piggy bank or money box can really encourage a child to save. Growing up, I had a money box that looked like a fruit machine, you could even pull a lever to send your cash into the bottom. Lots of children enjoy a clear piggy bank, so you can see all the money inside. If a money box gets your child excited, then roll with it.

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I hope these ideas are helpful to you and your children. Do you have any other techniques to get your children saving? Let me know in the comments.

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5 Habits That Waste Your Money

Do you have any money wasting habits? The following list may seem obvious, but it is amazing how many people don’t realise just how their spending habits can be wasting them a small fortune.

Buying Work Lunches

Do you buy your work lunches? This is a huge money waster. Do you realise that taking a packed lunch can save you a large amount of money? When my husband started taking leftovers or homemade sandwiches to work it saved our family an incredible amount of money. He would usually buy a meal deal from the supermarket of a sandwich, branded packet of crisps, and a drink at the cost of £3. Doing this 5 times a week works out at approximately £720 a year.

Not Meal Planning

I cannot stress enough that everyone should meal plan for every meal (and snacks if you can) before you go grocery shopping. Are you throwing away food that has expired? Do you opt for takeout because you can’t be bothered to throw together an unplanned meal? Knowing what you are cooking and eating at every meal saves money, time, and your sanity.

A Cheeky Costa Coffee or Starbucks Visit

How often do you nip into your local barista for a pick me up? Buying one Caffe Americano in Starbucks a day will cost you £9.75 for a 5 day working week. That’s £39 a month, and wait for it… £468 a year.

Inefficient Use of Appliances

Running the dishwasher when it is not full, washing one or two items of clothes in the washing machine, or filling the kettle with water when you only want one cup of tea is inefficient use of appliances. Appliances such as dishwashers, tumble dryers, and washing machines use up a lot of energy, so use them wisely.

Car Parking Tickets

Do you have to use a pay and display/ private car park for work or on a regular basis? when I lived in a town house, I had to use a council pay and display car park for my car. Some days, I was putting in up to £4 when I was home all day, other days smaller amounts, but it all added up. A permit cost £125, which is a lot of money, but when I worked out that I had spent £112 on tickets in the space of 2 months, I nabbed up a permit before I wasted more money.

Do you have any of these habits? I hope you can start to break them, and that you and your wallet will be much happier.

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Recycling Gift Cards into Postcards

Buying cards to mail to relatives and friends that live long distance can be costly. Why not turn your old greeting cards into postcards. You will save money on the cost of a card, and to post a postcard only costs a basic stamp.

This is such an easy way to reuse greeting cards, you’ll wonder why you haven’t done it sooner.

First things first, save all your greeting cards from birthdays and Christmas etc.
Select a card to turn into a postcard and chop off the back page.
Using a pen, draw a line down the centre of the card horizontally.
Then, draw four or five lines evenly spaced on the right side of the line. Leave enough space before your first line to fit a stamp in the right top corner.
Use the lines to write the address of your recipient.
Write your message on the blank, left hand side of the line.
Apply a stamp and post.

Do you have any other ingenious uses for greeting cards? I shall be doing a tutorial post in the future on how to turn greeting cards into gift tags, so watch out for that.

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Hot Chocolate Spoons

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my posts about using up leftover Christmas chocolates. This also applies to the mountains of Easter chocolate that our children inevitably receive.

One way to use up leftover chocolate before it expires is by making hot chocolate spoons. You can keep them for yourself or gift them as birthday presents. Here’s how you make your own:

What you will need:

Chocolate
Spoons- any type of spoon will do. (I normally use and reuse plastic spoons.)
Bowl

If you are gifting the hot chocolate spoons, you might want to present them in cellophane or paper bags.

Method:

Lie your spoons on a baking tray. (I use a baking tray with a small lip to place the spoon handle on. This ensures the spoon is at a level angle.)
Melt the chocolate. (Either use the double boiler method on the stove, or melt in the microwave like me. I microwave the chocolate for 1 minute, stir well, then heat at 20 second intervals, stirring in between until smooth.)
Using another spoon, spoon the chocolate into the spoon. Do not overfill.
Place the tray in the fridge to allow the chocolate to set.

Once set, you can gift your spoons or keep them for yourself. All you need to do is stir them into a mug of hot milk and enjoy.

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Benefits of a Need List

If you are on a journey of frugality, then you don’t want to waste money unnecessarily. Whether you just want to live a zero waste, simple lifestyle, save money, or pay off debt, the less you buy, the less money you waste. Thinking before buying is an important step to frugality, and need lists are a big help with spending money wisely.

What is a Need List?

A need list is a list you create for items you need/ are a necessity. My need list above is a summer need list. the items on this list are essential to my family. Yes, I want to buy myself new summer wardrobe, but I only need what is on my list. I must only buy the items I need in order to save for our holiday.

Benefits of a Need List

You can weigh up your needs over your wants to ensure you don’t waste money on unnecessary items.
Visual guide to what you ‘need’ to buy or source on one list.
You can keep track of the items you have sourced and those still to get.
It’s a great way to get you in the right mindset before shopping and spending money.

How to Create a Need List Effectively?

Categorise your need list, whether that be seasons or a specific event/ holiday. For the purpose of this post, I shall be continuing with my summer need list.
The first step to creating a need list is to write down everything you think you need and want for that season. Don’t hold back. Include everything you need and want.
Next step is to be ruthless. Cross off all the items you know you can 100% do without.
Now, examine the remaining items. Can you upcycle something you already have? Can you repurpose an item for something else or borrow something from a relative? Check off anything that you cannot find or make from items around your house.
The items you are left with should be absolute necessities. For example, my children both need swim wear for this year. This is not something I have around the house or can make myself (I’m not that good.)
Next, make a note of everything you can/ should search for second hand. I find that 99% of my list can be sourced second hand if I take the time to look. However, there are some things I just wouldn’t buy second hand such as underwear.
Your list is now ready to guide you when out shopping or making decisions for purchases. Keep the list on you i.e. in your bag or wallet.

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15 Frugal Uses for Baby Food Jars

In my opinion, there’s nothing better than finding new uses for things that would either be tossed in the bin or recycled. Not only does it give the item a new lease of life, it also saves you a lot of money.

I have an eleven month old son, and we get through two glass baby food jars a week. Thankfully, these can be recycled, but before that, I have saved us some money by re-purposing the jars. These ideas are not just for those of you with babies, I’m sure you can source these types of jars from family or friends with babies, or even ask on social media free sites.

Re-purposing Ideas

Small toy storage
Spice dispenser
Shed storage
sewing box storage
D.I.Y bath salt container
Seed container
Hair pin container
Craft supply container
Freezer containers for sauces etc
D.I.Y candle holders
Bathroom storage
Snowglobe gift
Homemade preserves containers
Stationery storage
D.I.Y mini hot chocolate jar gifts

Let me know if you re-purpose your baby food jars. I love hearing of unique, nifty ways to save money.

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Money Saving Meatballs

I had a good response to my meal prepping post on Instagram, and thought I’d share the recipe for the meatballs I made and froze in three, family sized portions. Yes, that’s right. I made a whopping 51 meatballs from my ingredients, and I wanted to show you how.

Ingredients:

1kg beef mince
1 onion diced (can use onion powder if you have fussy eaters)
2 eggs
1 tbsp garlic paste
200g of grated Parmesan/ or cheddar cheese
300g of breadcrumbs
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp of preferred dried herbs (I used basil)
Salt and pepper to season

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl with your hands. Ensure everything is combined well.
Take a small amount of the mix and roll into 1 inch size balls.
Place on a baking tray. You should be able to get between 40 and 50 depending on size.

At this stage you can freeze the meatballs raw. (See freezing instructions below). I cook my meatballs before freezing, so when it comes to eating them, they just need reheating.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes at 170 or until cooked through.
Allow to cool.

Freezing:

When cool, place in freezer bags or containers in the correct portion sizes.
If freezing raw, it may be best to freeze on the baking sheets for 15 – 30 minutes before placing in bags/ containers to ensure the meatballs don’t stick together.

Reheating:

Uncooked, frozen meatballs can be cooked in sauce in the slow cooker or baked in the oven. You can also thaw them first. Please remember that cooking them in the oven from frozen will take longer than the times given above.
Cooked, frozen meatballs can be reheated in a microwave, in sauce in the slow cooker, in the oven, or in a skillet.

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