1) When my Nana died I was quite heavily pregnant with Miss Frugal so I wasn't really in a position to help when it came to clearing out her home although I did take a couple of things of hers to keep as memories of her. I took a pretty battered looking big metal spoon which she used to use for her baking and a Forever Friends fridge magnet that I'd bought her years before - the spoon is used regularly in my own kitchen now and the fridge magnet is on the front of our knife block where I see it every day. The final thing I brought home with me from her house that last day was some small square … [Read more...]

This week has been a pretty good week in our house - both in the frugal and the family sense. ;-)1) For the last couple of months I've been organising a charity football match for work and I'll be honest, I've been losing a little bit of sleep as I was worrying that we'd bitten off more than we could chew and that it would all go wrong on the day.  I couldn't have been more wrong as I couldn't have ever imagined a more successful day - starting with Master Frugal scoring a penalty at his beloved Riverside Stadium and ending with Mr Frugal scoring the winning goal in the final minutes of … [Read more...]

I'm not sure if I can class this week as a frugal week if I'm honest as I've had so much on that I don't think I've had the chance to be particularly thrifty....1) I went out for a meal to Pizza Express on Wednesday night with my lovely team at work which you might think would have been an expensive night out but actually, we used buy one get one free vouchers for the pizzas (just Google pizza express vouchers and see what comes up) and I drank water rather than buying a drink.  To be fair, the water was more of an accident as I had a slightly sore throat so I asked for a glass of water … [Read more...]

1) I made Slimming World Quiche for tea for Mr Frugal and I the other night and it was delicious!  The recipe is here if you want to have a go at making your own but it's pretty flexible as far as ingredients go - what you can see here is the last of the gammon from Sunday dinner, a pepper left over from fajitas, some tomatoes that have seen better days and some boiled potatoes I saved from tea.I make it without the pastry crust as that's better for Slimming World (it also means it's much easier to make) but you could make it with if you prefer.2) We had a lovely wander around our … [Read more...]

1) My best buy of the week is a book of vouchers that I've been hearing about for ages now in our local area.  The book costs £24.99 and is basically filled with over 400 vouchers for local businesses (mainly foodie, days out and activities but with some health and beauty too) offering buy one get one free or 50% off.  I bought it from our local shop but I've seen them around in lots of local businesses - I've just never taken the time to actually look at a copy because of the initial price.Each company has three vouchers in the book that can be used anytime up until the end of January … [Read more...]

Whatever being frugal means to you and whatever your reasons are for trying to live a more frugal life, there are certain habits you can adopt that will help you along the way.  Here's just a few of them....Make sure you know what your monthly budget is and review it regularly and keep a close eye on your bank balance so you know there are no nasty surprises and you can check that you're still within your budget - the earlier you find out about any problems or overspends, the more time you have to put it right before it impacts you.Regularly check to make sure you're on the best … [Read more...]