I am very lucky to have a posh stone affair. It was a wedding present. I can’t afford to feed the birds at the moment, but I can water them. The hedgehogs too.
I make homemade pizza every Friday. It’s cheap and delicious. I also make fresh bread rolls and freeze them to eat with soup or balsamic in the week. It costs to have the oven on, but I fill it with a homemade dessert and roast some veggies or potatoes for weekend too, so we get good value. I am very lucky that my cousin lives in Italy and will bring me some when she comes to stay. Fresh bread always feels like a treat.
I know it’s the first thing people are advised to give up, but a hot bath (which costs me about 80p) is about the cheapest treat you can have. It doesn’t use petrol, involve getting a babysitter or give you a hangover either. Honestly, I’d struggle to think of anything I’d rather do with with a spare 80p. Even better if you can scare up a drink and a candle or two.
Line dried sheets. When I win the lottery I am going to have clean sheets put on my bed every single time I get in it. Including my afternoon nap.
speaking of afternoon naps, they all ways feel pretty special to me. Lie ins are hard with kids, but if yours a beyond school age you can sometimes get them on play dates or settled in front of a film and sneak half an hour. I sometimes my camper somewhere nice for the afternoon and snooze in it at lunchtime.
Fresh herbs. Need almost no space, cheap to buy, super easy to grow but make simple food taste so much nicer. I’ve been making mint syrup and having it with gin and fizzy water as I can’t afford posh tonic anymore (and I have lots of gin from birthdays and Christmases) Strawberries are pretty luxurious and easy to grow too (although they want a sunny corner, you can do them in a grow bag)
Real coffee. It’s a bloody faff in the stovetop pot, but it’s the only way I can afford it atm. I use one packet every ten days, and it’s about £3 in Aldi. A luxury on my miniscule food budget, but worth it.
Bedtime yoga and meditation. Not a real luxury, as such, but free on YouTube and feels good.
Candles. Pretty cheap and candlelight makes anything nicer.
A fire. We don’t have one indoors, but sitting around one outside is still nice.
family board games night.
spritzing my fave essential oil in a water spray. Ok, the oil cost a few quid, but it lasts a long time. Mine is pre-current levels of poverty.
My kid LOVES a treasure hunt. Takes ages to do, but is free and worth it.
A bit more expensive this one; but if I possibly can scrape together enough for fish and chips, we pick them up and take them to a local country park or beauty spot to eat there and hang out for the evening in the camper. A sunset walk and maybe a stargaze is a bit special. Just chips are almost as nice, but the whole works is a special treat. I make a hot chocolate flask too.
hot chocolate dunking sticks (they probably have a real name). I make them in an ice cube tray with wooden coffee teaspoons. Just melt the chocolate, put a sheet of card over the top and stick the sticks in until set. When you’ve heated the milk, you stir the chocolate chunk until it melts and get amazing hot chocolate (or you can keep licking the melted chocolate off the stick). You can also smash a flake up and stir in the bits, but we prefer the chunk method.
Snuggling down on the sofa with the dogs blankets, hot drinks, popcorn or a £1 chocolate bar and watching a film while it’s cold and raining outside.
Being as broke as we are means we are very focused on the things we cannot have or do. It’s still pretty shit, but I work hard to find joy in small things each day, and I have learned to really appreciate my small luxuries as never before. Not that I wouldn’t be grateful for a few larger ones. This too shall pass.