Sharing season ticket fee with friends

Second week money saving challenge: Sharing my season ticket fee with my friends.

I thought swimming will always be an impossible mission for me. Even a rock swam better than I did a year earlier. I love water especially in summertime. Though I’ve never been courageous enough to get out from the paddling-pool, till the previous summer, when my friends asked me to join them for a swimming course. It took me about two weeks to swim like a good beginner. It was great fun, however I cannot describe it as a budget friendly hobby. Hence this year we decided to look up for a cheaper swimming facility and try it out. We purchased a monthly season ticket and shared the fee between the four of us. 

Slowly, slowly...

Green as the fresh spring grass

Well, changing the swimming facility turned out to be a bad idea. We were swimming about a half an hour when my friends giggled at me for my hair turned greenish (by the way prior to this I had dyed-blonde hair). It didn’t bother me for I thought that the pool’s leds illuminated my hair and gave a greenish colour, so I enjoyed the great ambiance for another half an hour. Entering the dressing-room a huge mirror helped me to realise that the green colour persisted on my once-blonde hair and it wasn’t the pool leds’ fault. We were shocked, even my cheerful friends stopped giggling. In that moment the situation wasn’t funny at all. I tried to wash it out of my hair but nothing helped me to get rid of the green - who knows what- from my hair. My hair became green as the fresh spring grass and I couldn’t do anything about it. 

Aahh!!!....My hair

After a few hysterical minutes one of my friends took the strength to face the facility manager in order to ask our money back along with the value of the hair treatment that I’ve received the next day. We’ve also asked about the products they use for keeping the pool water clean. They told us that it is some kind of anti-algae treatment which getting in reaction with copper might turn blonde hair to green. But the question was: who was responsible for the copper in the pool water and if they knew it could get in reaction with that substance, why didn’t they use something else instead? Hopefully they have solved the problem by now, or at least they put a big sign on the door that says: ‘Keep Away from the Pool if you're Dyed Blonde’

The whole conversation was quite unpleasant but at the end everything turned out well. We got our money back and my hair looks much better now.

My husband’s first reaction was hilarious: “Beware of the hungry cows, they might graze your hair.” - quite a sympathiser actually …

As for a conclusion:

My second frugal week doesn’t turned out the way I planned. Bad luck. Even though I’ve received a new haircut along with a treatment and we swam an hour for free, the experience was quite shocking and distressing which I do not want to repeat again.

I had to realize that the famous proverb says the truth “I’m not rich enough to buy cheap thing”. I know that it sounds like I’m writing against the thrifty mentality but sometimes we should really look twice before choosing a cheap service or product. In my case the facility manager was a good guy for acknowledging the severity of the situation and recouped me for this awkward case. But who knows what other cases might occur that cannot be recompensed with money, like one’s health.

Grill party on a budget

It’s almost weekend and I’m happy for 3 gorgeous reasons. First, I’m thankful for my mother for being in the right place at the right time. The second because it’s Friday and I’m closing a fantastic week and as for the third it’s Summer. Hurray! 

The weather is nice, the birds are twittering and I can hardly wait to join my close friend's grill party. I must say, I’m a lucky person to have friends with a similar mindset as mine. Thanks to this, we get together as often as we can without spending a ton of money.

Organizing a grill party from a low budget is easy as can be. 

Let me share some tips how to organize a grill party in a frugal way.

Try the potluck way

Ask your friends to join you for a get-together grill party. You may also ask them to bring something to throw on the grill. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you should be inconsiderate but your get-together grill party should be something like a potluck supper. Bring and share :). Tell them to bring what is best for them to bring and eat. It’s fun and cheap. I really think most of your friends prefer to contribute to the BBQ parties, this way you can actually take stress off of their shoulders.

But in order to avoid unpleasant situations I would advise this only for those dear readers who are in a good relationship with their friends.

Farmers’ market 

Those of you who aren’t vegetable growers, my advice is to visit the farmers’ market in order to buy fresh vegetables and meat products. It has a lot more benefits than hypermarkets. There is a large variety of fresh seasonal vegetables and healthier fruits. A great place to meet with your neighbours and start a nice chat.

Granny’s drinks

Search your kitchen for granny’s concentrated juice. If you’ve run out of it, don’t worry, you will find plenty of it at the grocery store. Concentrated juices can be great frugal refreshments. Depending on the juice, from one bottle you can actually make 3-4 liter of tasty refreshment. I recommend to serve it with water or soda.

Juice on the loose? 

Are there all kinds of juices hiding on your kitchen’s shelves? That’s even better. Make cocktails by adding a bit alcohol and a couple of ice cubes.

 

Save energy

Save energy by using economical solar lamps. It’s efficient and pretty. Once you’ve purchased it you don’t need to use classical garden lights anymore.

Enjoy

Now that you had dinner and a few drinks it’s time to play by the lights of the energy efficient solar lamps. Turn on some good music and enjoy the party.


Till now I tried corn on the cob, grilled eggplant, fruit and meat kebabs, these are my favourites.

Do you know some great frugal recipes? 
What is your opinion about potluck dinners?

Share them :)

The Nations Weekly Food Consumption

A new survey has been released by the Daily Mail, about the global food shopping habits of different nations. The research was made by Peter Menzel and will serve as a subject of his new book The Hungry Planet.
The writer and his wife visited thirteen families from twenty four countries around the world and asked them about their weekly food purchasing habits. 
The infographic below will summarise the nations weekly food consumption emphasising the differences between price, quantity and quality.
The infographic is divided into two main parts. The first part is visualising families weekly purchase cost range which is between 320£ - 103£ in case of the affluent families and 99£ - 3.20£ in case of less affluent families. It is followed by the affluent and the less affluent families weekly food consumption, then I focused on the quantity and quality differences.

I’m looking forward to read the book in order to find out more details about the families interviewed by the Menzel’s.


Summary:
Affluent families tend to spend more money on sweets, fast foods, takeaways rather than on fruits and vegetables. These meals are less healthy due to the lack of vitamins and fibre, and may seem to be more expensive than healthy foods. Less affluent families eat cheaper but healthier foods. Their weekly meals contain foods rich in fibre and vitamins such as: fresh fruits, vegetables, rice, baked goods, etc. In the meantime, there is no data available about why is their food cheaper or why are they spending less money on weekly groceries. It’s highly likely that they cannot afford more. We may also assume that there are families growing their own fresh vegetable and fruits and because of that they spend less money on grocery purchases, while city residents cannot, mostly due to the lack of vegetable gardening space and not just. Hopefully more details about these families will be published later in the book by Peter Menzel and his wife Faith D'Aluisio.

Click here to enlarge the infographic.

Please note, the information shown on the infographic were gathered only from the Daily Mail website. 
Click here to see the outstanding photos taken by Peter Menzel showing families’ weekly purchases.

Eco-friendly way of cleaning silver

A good start for my first week money-saving challenge: Cleaning Silver with Household Products

Silver is one of my favourite precious metals. I found it more elegant and fashionable than any other jewelries. Unfortunately it is more fragile than its fellow metals. Neglected silver jewelries can get tarnished and may even stain your clothes.

Tarnished silver jewellery before cleaning

There are many ways to get them shiny again. You can take them to a jewelry expert or look up for silverware cleaning and polishing creams in homeware stores and jewelry shops. Choosing the frugal way of cleaning silver jewelry will leave the money in your pocket. 
Why should you pay for it when you can achieve the goal with a simple, cheap and eco-friendly method?

Here it goes!

Accessories:

• A glass bowl or a dish
•  Aluminum foil
• Boiled water
• 2-3 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon salt (sea salt or iodized salt) 
 

Cleaning process
Cover the inner surface of the glass dish with the aluminum foil. Place the silver items into the dish then sprinkle the baking soda and the salt on them. Pour the boiled water on the sprinkled silver items. The items should be fully submerged in the solution. If you can smell the penetrating odour of the sulphur, then you will know that you are on the right way.

Depending on how badly the silver is tarnished the cleaning process should take between 20-50 minutes. My jewelleries were badly tarnished, so I left them for 50 minutes.

After the silver becomes brighter place them on a clean fabric. Don’t wait until they dry start scrubbing them with the clean, soft fabric or you may use a soft toothbrush as well.

This cleaning process can also be used for larger silver items like tableware, candle holders, jewellery, etc.

Voilá!

Silver jewellery after cleaning

Good to know!
For my experiment I used 925 sterling silver
If you have larger silver items I recommend you to use a larger bowl, because the reaction will only be successful if the silver gets in contact with the aluminum foil.
Don’t wear them while you are washing the dishes, having a bath, or getting in contact with mineral water.
Silver jewelries with stones should be handled with care. Use a waterproof plaster in order to protect the stones, then you may place them in the solution.
Never put your silver tablewares into the dishwasher.
If the water is warm the cleaning process will be faster.

Storing Silver
Store the silver in a well sealed box free of excess moisture and chemicals. Place moisture-absorbent near the silver wares, for instance silica gel packets. You can purchase it in most of the pharmacies.

Cleaning silver with baking soda instead of using industrial compounds is not just cheaper but eco-friendly as well. 
Plus, I’m sure all of you have the necessary accessories in your homes.
How about you? How do you clean your silverware? 

Let me know :)

Saving money by earning it!

We are living in a world where luxury is part of our lives, even though we don’t want to take notice of it. We tend to spend money injudiciously on every item which catches our attention. Women are considered to be the spendthrifts. Well, that doesn’t surprise me! The biggest part of the market is focused on them. Seven out of ten ads are about cosmetics, designer clothes, hygienic stuffs, fancy seasonal shoes, perfumes, housewares stuffs and so on. They are trying to convince you to buy them or else you will become ugly by the age of 25, miserable, fat and everything bad you can imagine. The supply is so superabundant and overwhelming that is hard to resist. Persons who aren’t limited financially tend to purchase items they will never wear or use. Be it a fancy watch, designer clothes or accessories, it doesn’t matter if other fifteen are awaiting in the drawer one feels the need of obtaining it and there is no way back. Probably these will not serve any purpose, but that’s not the point, is it?


If you choose this lifestyle, be prepared to pay its price. Monthly bills with their sharp dragon-like teeth can shake us from Cinderella's dreams to face the costs of everyday luxury.

I’m not saying you should not purchase. What I’m saying is live and purchase in a wise way. :)
Don’t be a puppet in the marketers’ hands. You can make a difference!

Thanks, but how?

I’ve always been a frugal person. Don’t get me wrong I’m not a penny-pincher, but a generous person (as my friends say :). I’m just trying to live wisely without spending money on unnecessary things. As a practical person I do believe that reusing your things instead of throwing it out is a wise way of saving money. In the following I will share some money saving tips with you, but let’s see where did it all started.

Back in the days . . .

As a child, I was raised to be careful with money, not to spend it on unnecessary things. Very soon I realised, buying the 19th doll won’t stop me begging for the 20th. Playing with an expensive 30£ plasticine won’t help me socialise with my classmates. Wearing a pink, cotton candy dress on my schoolmates’ birthday won't fulfill my wishes in becoming the fairy of the party. I had to wake up! Having lots of expensive clothes and toys won’t make me become popular and have more friends. After a while I gave up asking for them, just to realise that playing hangman in the sand can be a lot more fun. After all, money is hard to earn and should be handled with care.

In those days earning pocket money was a sweaty job. Several pocket money factors were taken into consideration by my parents. Cleaning my room and taking out the trash was just the start. After becoming tall enough to reach the sink, it was my job to wash the dishes. Planting flowers and keeping our garden clean wasn’t among my favourite jobs. But I always felt that I actually did something beneficial and deserved every penny. 
Back then I didn’t realise that my mother was teaching me to appreciate every penny that I earned with ‘hard work’. I’m quite grateful for my mother.

What’s next?

In thirty days my husband and I are going on a two-week holiday. Lately some pleasant family events have strained our purse. Renting a new apartment, joining a close friend’s wedding and two more wedding invitations, all these has taken out a few pounds from our family pocket. As a consequence, I decided to save some money.

I’m not complaining, really! I have a great job with amazing people around me and even my yearly earning is quite satisfying. But I do think nowadays without a great financial plan one doesn’t have many chances of saving. You never know what the future holds. Money can help you feel safer regarding the future. So don’t go with the flow. Make a difference. Make a great money saving strategy and stick to it.

Let’s save money for the sake of saving

Lately I read a great blog post about 30 day challenges written by Matt Cutts, in a nutshell it’s about trying something out for 30 days and if you like it then turn it into a habit. This blog inspired me to do something that serves my wallet and mother earth as well. Saving energy and water can leave more money in my pocket. So starting a visible money saving trial sounds great fun to me.

My experiment will be about saving money for the upcoming 4 weeks. But I’m telling you now, this will not end here. I have a few more ideas that I’m planning to share with you in the near future.

In the following four weeks I will switch myself on water and energy-saving mode. I will keep you updated about my success and failures (hopefully won’t be too much) and what I learned from them.

Coming soon . . .