Frugal Newspapers

I used to regularly buy a paper on both Saturday and Sunday, as I have a romantic notion about leisurely flicking through the paper while I sip coffee and eat croissants at the weekend.

Actually they usually ended up being placed unread and still folded in pristine virgin fashion, into the recycling bin - I never had the time to read them and then they became superseded by events. Obviously in this new frugal era, I can't be spending £5 a weekend on papers (£260 a year!).

Hardcore frugalists remind me that all content is available on-line for free - but firing up the laptop of a Sunday morning and reading online - when I spend 37.5 hours a week gawping at a monitor at work, does not have the same appeal. Besides, I get told off by the work IT people for getting crumbs in the keyboard.

However - there is Waitrose!

 

 

Obviously, my Waitrose shopping days are probably long gone, and I will be making the humiliating walk through the same local Waitrose carpark to the Lidl behind.   However, I do still have my 'MyWaitrose' card. Waitrose dogfood is the best I have found, and the most reasonably priced, at £2.50 for 6 cans. If you spend a minimum of £10 (24 cans of dogfood) you can get a paper for free. So now, I pop in of a Sunday morning to buy 2 weeks dogfood supply and pick up the Observer absolutely FREE. The trick is obviously to buy what you went in for and NOTHING else (I only took £10 in cash lest I be tempted).

 

So this evening (not having time at the weekend anyway) I sat down for an hour and treated myself to a flick through the papers. Although the news is obviously now out of date, this is only about ten pages. Most of the paper is comment, the Weekend section or the Magazine, which don't really date and can be read during the week or even the following Saturday, giving me the feeling I have bought papers every day, for nothing. It is really relaxing to just sit with a cup of tea and read for an hour.

 

The weeks that I don't need dogfood, I will be investigating the prices of their fresh, frozen and value ranges to see what else I can buy that was on my list anyway- and I will not come out with £50 of scented candles, luxury greeting cards, preserved artichoke hearts, avocado oil, baby vegetables or artisan bread!