If I’m honest, my usual plan of action, when I know we have a long car or train journey ahead of us, is to charge up all things electronic, dig out the headphones, get the kids to choose a book each and add a pillow or two to the back seat – that usually keeps the kids quiet for a good few hours, which makes for a happier journey all round.But last week we had a slight trauma when we realised just before a three hour journey that I’d forgotten to charge everything up and I hadn’t even remembered to prepare our usual car journey things. The children were mildly traumatised at the thought … [Read more...]
Archives for May 2014
It’s not the type of camera that you have….
I have a brilliant Canon DSLR camera, a really good little point and shoot Nikon camera and of course there's the camera on my iPhone 5 which is also a great little camera. I have an extra lens for my Canon and also a brilliant Macro lens for my iPhone.(It's OK, I'm not showing off, I do actually have a point to make in a minute!)I use sites like Picmonkey on my laptop to edit my favourite photos so I get the best picture I possibly can. I actually have about 10 photo editing apps altogether on my phone if I'm honest but I mainly use Instagram to share my photos and to add filters … [Read more...]
The one where Mr Frugal cooks me tea….
I'm happy to cook tea most nights seeing as I work part time and get home just after collecting the kids from school but every Wednesday I work a full day from 8am - 5pm. I have a fantastic neighbour (you know who you are) who picks the kids up from school on a Wednesday and gives them tea (which is nicer than mine according to the kids) but every now and again, Mr Frugal finishes work early on Wednesday so it seems only fair that he cooks tea on those nights.That's fair enough I hear you say but this is the man who once rung me at work to ask how you tell if Super Noodles are … [Read more...]
How to complain effectively without losing your mind and your temper….
We were in town last week queueing to pay for whichever newspaper it was that was giving away free Lego on Saturday when the lady on the till announced that she only had two packs left. Luckily Master Frugal was close enough to the front of the queue that he would get one of the packs and there was another boy in front of us who got the other one.Most of the people in the queue groaned and walked over to put their newspaper back but one lady started to shout at the lady behind the till saying how it wasn't fair that they didn't have enough for everyone. The poor lady tried to explain … [Read more...]
Cooking with Kids – Pizza Calzones….
We love home made pizza but last week we decided to make a variation of this by making mini pizza calzones together.It was part of an extra effort to get Master Frugal eating new things as he's seemed quite receptive to new food lately and after years of being a fussy eater, he's starting to get a bit braver. I though calzones would be a good way to help encourage him as he can't see what he's eating so he doesn't get chance to fuss over it if you know what I mean.We each made a portion of out own homemade pizza dough which is basically 125g bread flour, 7g yeast packet and 75ml … [Read more...]
Thrifty Thursday – Last minute meals….
I'm a big fan of meal planning but even so, there's often an occasion when I have to magic up a meal with just what I have in the house - usually when someone has eaten a key ingredient of the meal I was planning because they fancied it! I do have a few standby recipes that usually save the day though....Some sort of variety of Macaroni Cheese depending on what we have in the fridge. I generally have some of my homemade tomato sauce in the freezer which is great with most things - mixed with pasta, as a base for tuna pasta bake or even with some grilled chicken wrapped … [Read more...]