The Diary of a Frugal Family | Living a Fabulously Frugal Family Life

The best meals to take to work in a flask….

44442Leave a Comment2026-02-19+09%3A25%3A15Cassandra February 19, 2026 By Cassandra
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Taking your own lunch to work in a flask isn’t just a great way to save money, it also means you can eat something hot and comforting instead of spending a fortune in the canteen, grabbing another meal deal or ordering a take-away. I've had a small pink chilly's flask for a few years now and have used it sporadically over the colder months for my lunches at work but I don't use it as well as I could and get bored easily as I tend to just put soup in it and you can only eat so much soup, right?It also only keeps food hot for 4-6 hours so I can pop food in it at 8am before I leave … [Read more...]

Simple, Realistic Ways to Reduce Your Food Budget….

44940Leave a Comment2026-02-17+11%3A12%3A18Cassandra February 17, 2026 By Cassandra
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Did you catch last week's post about what a realistic food budget looks like in 2026? If not, I recommend going and having a quick look before reading this one? I shared some information about what 'average' families spend in the UK in 2026 and it might really help you to understand where your own food shopping budget fits with that. What I wanted to talk about today is how you can reduce your spend, or at least share what's worked for me.After figuring out our own realistic food budget, the biggest thing that helped me to then bring it down to a level that feels … [Read more...]

Eight ways to use up Yorkshire Puddings {and my tried and true recipe}….

44821Leave a Comment2026-02-16+15%3A42%3A41Cassandra February 16, 2026 By Cassandra
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I’ve got another post to share today from my Love Your Leftovers series and this one isn't one that I planned when I first wrote a list of foods that I was going to feature in this series. I got a message a couple of weeks ago asking if I could do Yorkshire Puddings and I admit, my first thought was 'Why?' - we never have a leftover Yorkshire Pudding in this house. 😁 But I have been batch cooking my Yorkshires over the last few months so I thought I'd give it a go as I have plenty in the freezer. As I say, leftover Yorkshire puddings don’t happen often in this house, … [Read more...]

Small Win: Check Cashback Apps Before You Shop….

44849Leave a Comment2026-02-12+11%3A00%3A35Cassandra February 12, 2026 By Cassandra
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One of the things I love about this Small Wins series is how quick and doable each little action is. These aren’t big changes or complicated money-saving tricks — they’re small habits that quietly save you money without making life feel harder. And if you already do this week’s small win, then you get extra brownie points and can skip ahead feeling smug. 😀This week’s small win is something I do all the time and probably mention it at least once a month on here as it’s made such a difference to me over the years... Before you buy anything online, take a couple of seconds to check … [Read more...]

Eight ways to use up Mashed Potato…

44804Leave a CommentEight+ways+to+use+up+Mashed+Potato...2026-02-09+10%3A36%3A19Cassandra February 9, 2026 By Cassandra
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I've got another post to share today from my Love your Leftovers series of posts and this week, it's all about how to use up mashed potatoes!I don't know what it is about mash but I seem to have an inability to guesstimate and actually make the right amount of mashed potato whenever I make it. In the past, I've under-estimated how much we would eat and made too little so now I tend to go too far the other way but I'm not entirely mad about it because I've found so many ways to make the post of any that we have leftover. Mashed potato is so versatile, so budget friendly and so easy … [Read more...]

Five ways a VPN can make YOUR family life easier….

45172Leave a Comment2026-02-08+10%3A42%3A45Cassandra February 8, 2026 By Cassandra
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I’ll be honest, for a long time I thought VPNs were one of those things that only people who work in IT or wear headsets for a living needed. It sounded complicated, a bit intimidating, and definitely not aimed at normal family life. But it turns out, I was wrong. A VPN is actually one of those quiet, behind-the-scenes things that just makes being online a bit easier and a bit safer, especially when you’ve got kids, multiple devices and everyone doing different things at the same time. I have used VPN mobile for years now and have only ever used a company called Surfshark but … [Read more...]