The Diary of a Frugal Family

Miss Frugal is ridiculously excited about our fast approaching trip to New York!Even though we don't go for another two weeks (12 sleeps if we're being exact), she's spent some time today packing her carry on bag for the plane journey.  She's been itching to pack it for a few weeks to be honest so there was no stopping her today when she saw me bringing one of the suitcases from the garage this morning.I got her to take a photo of it all for you so you could see exactly what she considers to be her 'essentials' for a transatlantic flight.  And just in case you're interested, she's … [Read more...]

I think I've probably mentioned my slow cooker bolognese recipe about a million times on here but I don't think I've ever actually blogged the full on version for you!  I'm sat here now with the amazing smell of it wafting through the house so I thought today was as good as any day to share my famous (in my own head) slow cooker bolognese recipe with you all! Slow cooker bolognese2 garlic cloves, crushed or very finely chopped 1 onion, diced finely 500g minced beef 200ml red wine (or the same amount of chicken or beef stock) 2 tins of chopped tomato 4 tbsp tomato puree … [Read more...]

I feel like I haven't been in total control of our finances as much as usual for the last nine months or so with me not being very well but March seemed like a great time to put that right as I've been feeling so much better lately and both our home and car insurance were up for renewal as well as my phone contract finally coming to an end.I took a day off work last week so I could fully focus on all things budget related, gather together our bank statements and any of our insurance renewal letters and sat myself down with a copy of my free budget planner and got to work, with the help of … [Read more...]

I learned last year when Miss Frugal and I went to Cyprus that if I don't write a meal plan for Mr and Master Frugal to follow while we're away without the, then they'll eat either basic meals like beans on toast or they'll simply get a takeaway - neither of which are ideal when we're away for 5 days.That's why I've spent this morning writing an easy meal plan for them for when we're away in New York next week and seeing as I've finished it, I thought I'd share it with you and tell you a little bit about why I've chosen the meals that I have....Before I started, I took into account … [Read more...]

Our local car boot sale has started back up again after the Winter break so this morning we decided to pop along and see what bargains we could find.I'm being really strict with myself and trying very hard not to buy something just because it's a good price unless I think we can sell it on to make a bit of a profit!  We're trying to de-clutter the house and if I wasn't careful it would be so easy to undo all of the work we've done so far to get rid of things we don't need.The first thing I bought was a heavy rusty metal candle stand for 50p which was a bargain for what I had in mind … [Read more...]