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My favourite food advert. Ever….

Do you know what I’m sick of?

Adverts that are designed to make us feel guilty about eating food and encourage young girls (and most probably boys) to think that they need to diet. It’s just not right.

Luckily my two are relatively unaffected by these sorts of adverts because a) we don’t watch that much TV and b) I’m very positive with them and highlight their strengths to them so they’re proud of who they are.

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But to be honest, I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to protect Miss Frugal from these stereotypes of the perfect body and what she should and shouldn’t be eating (especially when she already has food issues). She’s already a very girly girl who loves to get dressed up and practice putting makeup on and although I think she’s beautiful, I worry about what her own image of herself will be when she gets older and starts to see more of these adverts around her in her everyday life – TV, magazines, billboards, food packaging. It’s everywhere!

So, when I was asked if I would tell you all about LowLow which is a new range of products that contain at least 33% less fat I very nearly said no because I thought it was going to be the same old type of advert.  You know the ones I mean – they tell you that if you eat their product you’ll be half the size in three days time ;-)

I had a quick look at the advert though and not only was I pleasantly surprised, I even laughed out loud while everyone was watching a very serious episode of some quiz show that they all love but I don’t understand!

Have a see for yourself….

And as for the products that they sell, I can tell you that their cheese spread is delicious – especially on toast!

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Seven ways to spend less on fuel….

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I drive a 25 mile round trip every day to work which I know isn’t much compared to a lot of people’s commute but to us, it means that petrol makes up a big part of our monthly budget.

But it is possible to change your driving habits a little to make the best use of your fuel so you can get the most out of it.

  1. Keep your tyres inflated to the correct pressure.  As well as making your car more fuel efficient, it’s also safer for you and your passengers.
  2. Don’t use your air conditioning unless you have to – just wind a window down.
  3. Turn your engine off as soon as you reach your destination.
  4. Accelerate smoothly without over revving and keep an eye on your rev counter.  You should try to stay under 3000 revs when driving and should be changing up a gear when you hit 2,500 revs on a petrol and 2,000 on a diesel.
  5. Drive along speed-humped roads at a steady 15-20mph rather than accelerating between speed bumps and having to brake each time you get to one.
  6. According to the Department for Transport, if you drive at 70mph you are using up to 9% more fuel than at 60mph and up to 15% more than at 50mph. 80mph can use up to a massive 25% more than you would use doing 70mph.
  7. Don’t use your car for journeys where you could just as easily walk – popping to the local shops or going on the school run are great examples of when people don’t always need to drive.

There’s even more information about how to save money on your petrol on The Guardian website.  They say it’s possible to save up to £800 a year on petrol if you change the way you drive so I’m going to give it a go.  Let me know if you do too and if you see any improvements….

Men! (And by men, I mean specifically my man)….

Today I asked Mr Frugal to tidy his computer desk up.

A not unreasonable request considering that it seems to have become a bit of a dumping ground for everything from homework to bills and from Moshi Monsters codes to random bits of paper with children’s scrawl written all over them but you’d seriously have thought I’d have asked him to take a hammer to it judging by his reaction.

I’ll give him credit though, after a bit of general life’s unfair whinging and some muttering under his breath about how he shouldn’t have to do things on Father Day, he did make an effort to tidy it up.  And even though we call it his desk, the kids have been using it more than him since they discovered Minecraft and Roblox.

Anyway, after about 30 seconds, he declared he was finished and went off to get ready to play five aside football tonight.  I was cooking the tea so I didn’t get chance to look straight away but I should have been suspicious at the speed he tidied it and even more so at the speed he left the kitchen afterwards!

When I did get chance to check admire his handiwork, this was the result:

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Now I’m not sure that you get the full effect from the photo but basically any loose bits of paper went in the bin, notebooks were put in a (not very tidy) pile on the shelf underneath and everything else got pushed to the back of the desk while he wiped the front part.  That was him done.  Now we have a clean front half of the desk and a back half of the desk that has an layer of dust an inch thick and is crammed with crap!

So now he’s out at football, I’m going to do it myself.  Maybe.

I might just leave it and sulk with him while throwing general looks of disgust in the area of the computer desk.

(Disclaimer, he is sometimes usually much better than this  and does lots of jobs around the house, I just can’t see how he can possibly think this is OK.)

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