5 Frugal Things Post 22 – To be truthful it has been an expensive week!

5 Frugal Things Post 22

This week has been one of those weeks where a few expensive events have happened. Unavoidable expenses but all in one week. I have spent just shy of £500 on car insurance, new front tyres, school dinners and swimming lessons…eeekkk. I have tried to save money on them where I could thus giving writing material for 5 frugal things post 22!

It has also the last full week of my 30’s this week..so I have been doing some party preparation combined with money saving.

Car Costs

I finally got around to renewing the car insurance this week, I was quoted £258 as a renewal quote by Debenhams car insurance. I spent 2 hours of my life, which I will never get back (!!) trying to beat it. I checked compare the market and Topcashback (if you sign up to Topcashback clicking on this link at the mo you get £5 for free !!) compare. I even called a company recommended to me on Facebook. No one could beat it, so I stayed with the same company. But I had to pay it one go, as monthly repayments worked out to £350 for the whole year. I also had to pay it by debit card as credit card would have incurred a £6 fee. I hate car insurance time.

We also had to replace 2 front tyres. The mileage we do means not just a service every 6 months it also means new tyres…bad times. Luckily, good times, our neighbour Adam works at a garage and got us a good deal on new tyres. Still £114 out of pocket though. If you ever need a great mechanic and you live near Welwyn Garden City go to John Charles Auto.

Party Planning

40^th birthday party is on 1^st April. I’m not actually allowed to do that much decoration, village hall rules. But I am having balloons, for 10 sets of helium balloons from balloon company it was £40. I have ordered a helium canister and 30 balloons from Amazon for £23, DIY job. I have ribbon and weights already that I ‘might’ have borrowed from a ball I went to a few week ago….

Great Value Exercise classes

I have been eating clean this week in an effort to drop some weight I had put on for my party. I have been super motivated as I have been listening to Heather Hall’s hypnotherapy weight loss recordings that have kick-started me into weight loss focus. And it’s worked, I am so impressed that a recording from nearly two years ago still works.  I have cut sugar, red meat, dairy, gluten and alcohol this week. I have also done some exercise classes with Flex online fitness classes, see my review here. The flex classes are a subscription model where you pay just £9.99 for a month of live classes. But the first month is free!! Check it out

Mortgage renewal time

Our mortgage deal comes to an end in June and we can lock in a rate now. We are currently on a fixed two-year deal with a rate of 2.69%, our repayments are £1050 per month. I’m going to swop over to a 5-year fixed deal after a chat with my fellow money bloggers and I got some great advice from my friend Damien of the website Money to the Masses who wrote this useful post. I have secured a rate of 1.94% which will save us £90 per month. Hurrah. Pleased that we make a saving.

Cake and Coffee for Charity

My friend Marianne is running the London marathon next month. Go girl!! And today to raise money she held a cake and coffee morning at her house. She organised an amazing raffle, see the picture, getting all the prizes for free. And get this, she raised a huge £415 today. She is raising money for the National Autistic Society, if you are feeling generous here is her just giving page where she tells her story. Her son Xander has autism and she is most fabulous mum ever.

Thanks for reading my 5 Frugal Things, come back again next week, I post it every week.

I am linking up with Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Five Fabulously Frugal things I’ve done this week linky.