OK, so it wasn't quite a near death experience but it was close....I was driving to work today, singing away to Miss Frugal's One Direction album (just because I know all the words does not mean that I'm a fan right?) when I saw a large wheelbarrow lift up slightly from the truck directly in front of me.I slowed down straight away but another gust of wind lifted the wheelbarrow up and blew it right out of the truck and straight towards me.  I know this sounds a bit over-dramatic but it really seemed to be coming at me in slow motion like something out of the Wizard of Oz in the tornado … [Read more...]

Before I had children I had a perfect image in my head of how things would be....My children would always be clean and smart, they'd never answer back or behave in a less than impeccable manner and I would have a tidy house and manage to put a delicious looking tea on the table every night at 5pm.  I would never raise my voice and I'd  always find time to put make up on before I left the house.The reality is very different....Although they do start the day clean and smart, they rarely make it past half past nine before they look like they've been dragged through a hedge backwards. … [Read more...]

Last year, Master Frugal decided he wanted to grow his hair longer - mainly because he wanted to have one of those floppy fringes that Justin Bieber was sporting at the time.I was OK with this and no matter how tempting it was to march him to the hairdressers to get it all chopped, I resisted.But then it got longer and my resolve to let him choose his own hairstyle started to weaken.And the longer it got, the more I hated it but I let him keep growing it because he was determined he wanted to grow it.Until one afternoon last week, I did something bad - I bribed him to get his … [Read more...]

Both of my children are generally very happy, well adjusted little people but they're both very sensitive to what's going on around them in the world - possibly a bit too much so. Master Frugal, for example, cried his eyes out when we watched Comic Relief together as he was so upset at the conditions that some children his age have to live in.  He is a bit of a worrier although he worries about other people more he worries about himself - a  few weeks ago when we were in London, I was so proud when he spent his own money on some food and a cup of tea for a homeless man who we passed a few … [Read more...]

A couple of years ago Mr Frugal and I went to Manchester to watch one of the live audition rounds for the X Factor.  We managed to get really good seats near to the front and really enjoyed ourselves although to be fair it was nothing like we expected!We got our hands stamped with a number when we got there and had to queue in a massive queue for about two hours before they started letting people in to the arena.  They did tell us that there was no guarantee we'd get in as they always overbook the audience to make sure it was full if people don't turn up so as you can imagine, there was a … [Read more...]