Hello Dear Reader,

Having a blog helps me keep a check on my spending. The last time I bought make up was back in September 2011. Aldi haven’t put the prices up since and you can still buy mascara for £2.39, compact powder for £2.39, a concealer pen for £3.59 and lipstick for £1.99. The make up remover clothes are 89p and enough floss for months cost £1.09. it’s a small price to pay for vanity. I did take a look in Superdrug and some lipsticks and mascaras were well over £10.

We all draw the line somewhere with money saving, I won’t do without make up or perfume. I buy Lidl’s Suddenly Madame Glamour……….£3.99 (but I stocked up when it was half price!!) which is comparable to Chanel’s Coco Madamoiselle (see the review here). I also won’t be seen without my hair done (I colour it myself!) or without my face done!

In fact, I’ve looked back through my personal blog archive, Aldi haven’t increased the price of their make up since I started buying it in 2012. Their Lacura beauty range have won several awards, it lasts for ages and I think it is really good quality and value for money. It gets my frugal thumbs up.

Today is the last day to enter my free give away, tomorrow, I will draw a name out of something hattish and then get the address of the winner. See tomorrow’s blog for the draw. If you want to enter, click this link, and you must be a follower to be in the draw.


Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxx

I’m distracting myself this morning whilst Dearly Beloved transports our doggies to their ‘home boarding’. It’s heart breaking to go away and leave the little fellows behind, but they are hard work and they will enjoy their holiday with Christine and Gary and they will receive the very best of care. This morning, I’ve been indulging in my £1 beauty treatment!

In my time, I’ve had my upper lip and brow waxed - £12, a deep moisturising facial £15 and manicure £7.50. OK! Admittedly, it was a huge expense, but it was a treat at the time. I’m also acutely aware of the aging process and pay particular attention to looking after my skin. Here’s how I look after my skin and my pennies.

I now wax my own eyes brows and upper lip and the waxing kit costs £5.50 and there are twenty wax strips in there and two of them does my lip and brows - 55p!

I’m back on my feet today. By the time I arrived at work I was resigned just to pull myself together and get on with it! It’s slow going tonight as I’ve masses to get ready, to pack as we’re self catering and we need to take a lot with us. The cat sent me to hell and back by crying, as if he was being sent to his death, all the way to the cattery! The dogs haven’t twigged yet and I’m not telling them if you don’t! I have a chest cold and moving quickly requires more oxygen that I’m struggling to get in; everything will get done…..just slowly. The first part of the preparation was getting me ready.

Tonight was my hair dressing night. I use ‘Castings’ which is water soluble and fades over the month so I don’t have tide lines. It’s cost around £5 forever! It’s quite an expense and I spend £60 a year on my hair. Foster Mummy cuts it for me and other than two washes a week, that’s it!

I’m off to start to get ready for my trip and I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow……p.s lost another pound in weight, so that 1 stone and 2lbs so far!

Until tomorrow,

Still not spending any money…….Froogs xxxxxx

All week long, frugality reigns. I fill sink up with hot water and have a wash! That’s it. To any clean freaks, that might sound a bit scummy, but you are welcome to a sniff and I assure you that I keep myself clean at the lowest cost. Tonight is Spa night. Long hot soak in the bath with plenty of Tesco bubbles

Light dusting of talc…………..Poundland, of course!

I’m scrubbed, exfoliated (scrubby sponge….3 for £1) and moisturised. It’s a real luxury when I save my bath for the weekend. I’ve left the water in the bath to flush the loo for the rest of the evening….bucket and chuckit!

I’m about the lowest maintenance woman I know!

I do some extreme things to save money. You see, I have a guilt secret. I love baths! But! I live in the area with the most expensive water in the country so baths are a luxury. But, I’ve got a way of having them. All week long, I fill up one sink of water, stand there in the nothing and wash myself from head to toe. Often, I’ll boil a kettle to do this as we don’t ‘switch the water on’ unless I want a bath. So along with new clothes, chocolate or colouring my hair, having a bath is a total treat.

I have another guilty secret. I have a facial twice a week, but I do it myself. All of the Tesco Vitamin E products are just divine on ‘older’ skin. They all cost in the region of 75p each and last for almost two months. So picture this. A hot bath, exfoliating, cleansing, toning and then moisturising and all within a tiny frugal budget.

One thing I will not do without is moisturiser. I stock up on Aldi’s Q10 and I always have a pot in the bathroom cupboard in reserve. It is incredible, it works, it ‘reduces the appearance of wrinkles’ and it soothes and moisturises my skin.

My other minor indulgence is subtle make up. I used to use Yves St Laurent’s ‘touche eclat’, then I down graded to Clinique and then when I woke up and realised the good supermarkets just copy the formula, I found Aldi’s version. Now, I consider £3.59 on make up an indulgence, but it brightens the dark areas under my eyes and makes me feel ‘younger’

I also think Aldi’s mascara is great. I used to love going to Dingles, trying the make up. I had Lancome, Clinique and Chanel make up at one stage and I don’t remember looking any better for the expensive products. You’re probably thinking that £5.98 is a lot of money for me to spend on fripperies such as make up, but they both last me around two months, so I feel they are worth the expense.

Well, tonight was bath night. I put the boiler on for an hour and had a soak and washed my hair. I’m scrubbed, toned and moisturised. I’m off for a very early night with the paper and Grazia magazine that Dearly Beloved found on the train for me. It’s another one of those days, when I’m really enjoying the treats that I have.

The last time I had my hair cut and coloured it cost £75 and I wasn’t happy with it. I complained and didn’t want to pay the full price, the hair dresser was really upset that I had complained and I haven’t been back. There are three other hair dressers in Liskeard and I’m sure they will charge the same price, so I’ve not been back. I trim the ends of my hair myself and colour it with a semi-permanent colour by a proprietary company who can commonly be found in all major chemists. I usually wait until it is on offer for £4 - £5 as it is usually £6.99 and then I buy a couple for the next few months. I colour my hair every six weeks and it makes it shine and covers up the grey stragglers that I’m not ready for yet.

The end result is salon quality in my opinion, the ends are just touched so the split ends are gone and that’s it now until the end of August. So, an exciting night in for me, marking exams and ‘doing my hair’. I’m up early tomorrow to get on with the rest of the marking and make sure it’s finished by the end of the day! Another frugal day!

I’m feeling exhausted. I have a simple solution to feeling grotty and that is to smell nice. My mum used to say that there was no excuse to be dirty because soap and water was cheap! Well it isn’t now. I shower and don’t bathe and time my shower to five minutes…..so actually Mum….water is expensive! I got the shampoo as a total bargain from Co-op at a £1 each and it lasts for over a month for the two of us. The scrubby sponge replaces expensive exfoliators, pink girly razor is for staying pink and girly and the rash expense is the ‘Sanctuary’ perfume, which dearly beloved bought me from ebay(£7) with some money he had made from selling a few bits and bobs. The Boots body spray was £1.39 and although a deodorising body spray, it actually leaves a subtle all over fragrance that lasts all day. Well, I’m off for five minutes of pampering and then off to bed, smelling lovely for very little and cheered up to boot.

Some of the ‘beauty bargains’ are gleaned for me by dearly beloved, who works opposite Poundland!!! I know, some people have all the luck! I often ask him to buy something for me/us as he works in the heart of Plymouth and can ‘pick things up’ in his lunch break. The St Ive’s beauty products are great but much much too expensive for frugal me, unless you can get two packs for a pound in Poundland! To keep my skin from drying out, I don’t use soap on my face, just a clean wet flannel and skin wipes to remove makeup and instead of any astringents.
So here is Frugal Queen, scrubbed, cleaned, showered and bare faced, not seen by many as I go to work and ‘out’ in make up - I have no need of make up as a mask, nor as you can see, have anything to hide, but I’m a pale faced English girl and I like to add a little colour to my skin.
I swear by this moisturiser and it’s won loads of beauty awards as it does as well as products that are ten times the price. A pot lasts me for a couple of months and costs £1.99 from Aldi. It has a delicate fragrance that disappears moments after applying it. I don’t buy eye creams or neck creams - I just use this all over and I don’t expect it to get rid of wrinkles as only surgery or a time machine can do that and I really don’ t mind looking 44 as I am 44!
I used to buy all my make up from Clinique and it was one of the first things that went when I embarked on my frugal journey. There are loads of top quality make up products that cost under £3 and I can recommend the budget range from Marks and Spencers but I feel the best quality you can buy is Lacura, which is again from Aldi. The ‘touche eclat’ click and cover for eye areas, dark circles etc is about £3 and the product when ‘blind tested’ by several beauty magazines was thought to be as good at Yves St Laurent’s original which costs more than £20!!! To my shame, I have to admit that I used to buy Lancome’s version of this for around £20 and I must say the Lacura product from Aldi is better!
I sometimes pick up complete bargains from TK Max and the ‘competence anti-age’ was £1.99 and is one of the best exfoliators I’ve ever bought again; I used to buy the full three step Clinique system and swore by their exfoliator and again, I must say that the TK Max bargain is much better. The end result? Soft skin with less wrinkles.

I’m off out to lunch today as dearly beloved has taken the day off to take me out to Table, Table………..it is a lovely place and two lunches cost £10, which is way over our usual budget for food but we are both going to be working for the rest of the week, dearly beloved as usual ‘at the council’ and me? Ever the frugal have lined up 10 hours of private tutoring this week, which means that debt counter can be reduced by another £300 this week! so I think we can manage lunch.