1) This week we've been really trying to focus on No Spend Days and we've managed 3 since Sunday which is great for us - it would have been more but we had an unexpected school trip to pay for and I wanted to buy some flowers this morning as it would have been my brother's Birthday today.  Tomorrow won't be a no spend day as I need to pop to the shop to get some things for our holiday next week but 3 out of 7 will do me for this week. If you want to focus on No Spend Days then I have a little no spend tracker you might like to use here. 2) I've topped up my Kindle with free books … [Read more...]

1) I've been wanting to go back to Slimming World for ages now but I kept finding a reason not to and saying that I would just do it without actually joining up which is all well and good but without the motivation of a set weekly weigh in I'm just no good.  I've been doing it myself for the last few weeks but struggling a little so I finally bit the bullet and signed up to the online membership.  Before I did though, I searched for a discount code online and got £35 off a three month membership- yes, I went long term because I *think* I'm more likely to stick to it longer if I've paid for it. … [Read more...]

1) Remember a few weeks ago I mentioned that we'd been blackberry picking and I'd saved some to make some blackberry vinegar.  Well, it's taken me until this week to actually get around to making it! You can find out how I made it here if you want to have a look.  Because it took me so long to get around to making it, I ended up freezing a batch of the blackberries and it made no difference at all to the flavour so I might go pick some more for next time I want to make it. 2) I picked up some great reductions in Tesco this week.... They had piles of both and whilst I didn't … [Read more...]

1) This week I proved to the kids that homemade from scratch was better than shop bought packet mixes!  We had a bit of a bake off and I'm pleased to say that they are completely on the side of homemade! There was no way that even Betty Crocker herself was going to beat my homemade chocolate chip cookies! 2) I made a bath of my homemade tomato sauce last weekend and added some homegrown fresh basil to it.  This might not sound like a huge achievement but it felt really domesticated and grown up to be able to use my own basil plant. I'll be sharing how I made the containers … [Read more...]

1) Last Friday, Mr Frugal finally got round to painting my kitchen!  We went with white, which is pretty much my plan for the whole house at the moment.  We have stacks of white paint in the garage as I bought it on offer a while ago when I decided that the goal was a white walled house - we're going room by room though and doing it gradually as we're not fans of painting! Rather than buying new accessories, I decided to update the things we already had with a can of copper spray paint: I spray painted the clock, a vase, a money box, some tin cans and even the bin (stay tuned for a … [Read more...]