Back to frugality

It’s over a year since we paid off our mortgage and although we declared nothing would change for us financially I have felt recently that my former frugality has slipped in some areas. So, off to the library I went (costs nothing!) and borrowed some of my favourite frugal books to re-read. “Down to Earth” by Rhonda Hetzel is just a fantastically encouraging read and I’ve also found “Saving Mum” by Amy Pleydon and Tiana Johannis to be very helpful.

I’m making getting back to frugal living one of my top priorities and really thinking about what I do and how I do it. As a wife and mother always trying to improve my ways, I relish the challenge. So here are  the things I have done this week to reclaim a little frugality:

* Made laundry gel. I’ve used the recipe from “Saving Mum”, and it seems to work well. The gloopiness makes it a little difficult to get out of the bottle so I may have to tweak it. It is extremely cheap to make and uses easily obtainable ingredients.

* Made cleaning spray. Recipe from the same book and once again, very easy to make and works well, even in the shower.

* Shorter showers. I admit my morning showers have become a bit of a luxury but water prices keep going up so our usage needs to go down. I’m trying to cut about 1 minute off each shower for a start and not stay in for any longer than necessary.

* No water down the drain. I’ve started running water from the kitchen hot tap into a big jug while waiting for it to warm up. I’ve been amazed to find that sometimes 2 litres of water has run before it warms up! By running the water into the jug I can then repurpose it somewhere else and it isn’t wasted.

* Library overdue fees. Oh boy, I’ve become slack with this one. With 4 children each borrowing their own items ( and a Mum who is a bit of a library junkie too!) it’s hard to keep track and before I know it, I’m racking up fines for something that should be free. I’m paying extra attention to this now by keeping all library items in one place and checking my account on the internet to make sure I either renew or return books before they become overdue.

* Bread, revisited. I’m doing my best to keep up our bread requirements, another area that had fallen to the wayside a little. I need to bake 2 loaves every second to third day, so it requires planning but I feel it is well worth the effort for both health and savings.

So that’s my week of getting back to frugality and I pray that I have the time and energy to continue to build on what I’ve started. I’ll keep sharing my thoughts so that perhaps we can all get inspired together and help each other to live frugally.