I love the theme for this week’s Gallery – One day in August. 

The day is Sunday 29th August, which is the day that three bloggers set out on their journey to Bangledesh to see the work that Save the Children are doing out there and to raise awareness of the Press . . . → Read More: One day in August….]]>

I love the theme for this week’s Gallery – One day in August. 

The day is Sunday 29th August, which is the day that three bloggers set out on their journey to Bangledesh to see the work that Save the Children are doing out there and to raise awareness of the Press For Change campaign.

I’ve just been over to the Save the children website to get some facts and figures to include in my post as I wanted to do my but to raise awareness and I am shocked by the figures that are being quoted.  Apparently in the time it takes to read this, a mother-to-be will needlessly die. By the time you are finishing work or picking the kids up from school, 24,000 babies won’t have survived their first day of life and by the end of next year, 9 million children won’t have made it to their fifth birthday. They are shocking statistics, they make me want to pick the kids up and never let them go. 

If you have 30 seconds to spare, join in the Press For Change campaign.  Seriously, all you have to do is enter your details and you’ve done something positive to help to change things.

So what did we do on Sunday? 

I bet you can’t guess  

Yep, we went to the park and played Hide and Seek (we also had a big bedroom tidy but that’s a whole other story).  Master Frugal hasn’t quite mastered the skill of hide and seek yet, he usually just hides in the same place each time and you can hear him giggling from 10 miles away!  Miss Frugal however, takes it very seriously and is so good at hiding that I’m a nervous wreck when we’re playing as I hate not being able to see her.  She also won’t let me get away with the old ‘One, two, miss a few, ninety nine, a hundred’ trick.

Miss Frugal is the eldest, she’s 8 in a couple of weeks although you may well mistake her for . . . → Read More: Do you have a favourite child….]]> I just read an interesting article on Parentdish about having a favourite child and it made me ask myself if I have a favourite.  My two are so completely different that sometimes I wonder that they’re actually related!

Miss Frugal is the eldest, she’s 8 in a couple of weeks although you may well mistake her for a teenager on occasion (check out the attitude on that photo)!  She’s pretty well behaved most of the time and likes to think that she’s in charge of everything and everyone.  She’s never been shy or had a problem making friends or learning new things and wherever she is, she tends to be the centre of attention.  Her school reports tend to go along the lines of excellent work but talks too much. 

Master Frugal is 5 and is the complete opposite, he’s shy and takes time to get to know people before he makes friends.  He’s the cuddliest child I ‘ve ever known and he tells me at least once an hour that he loves me to the moon and back 62 hundred times.  He’s well behaved on the whole but when he does something naughty, he gets genuinely upset if he gets told off with big tears rolling down his little cheeks, he looks so cute that he’s hard to tell off when he gets like that lol – maybe that’s his plan!

He struggled a lot with his confidence when he went from Nursery to Reception last year and although he has improved a lot he is a bit behind in his work now.  His school reports are mostly about what a lovely little boy he is and they always say that  he looks after any children in his class who are upset for any reason and looks out for lonely children.  His teacher describes him as a sensitive soul which I think fits him really well.

Depite their differences and the different challenges that each of their characters bring, I wouldn’t change anything about them.  Their characters are what makes them the children that I love and I love them both more than I would have ever thought possible – most importantly, I love them equally.

They turned out yummy, although I was playing Lego . . . → Read More: Easy Homemade Shortbread Recipe….]]>

We love a nice easy recipe here in the Frugal house so when I came across a super easy looking recipe for home made shortbread that uses just 3 ingredients I knew it sounded like one for us….

They turned out yummy, although I was playing Lego Guitar Hero on the Xbox so I missed the oven beeping so a few of them are a little bit, erm crispy

All you need is 125g butter, 50g sugar and 175g plain flour.

Cream the butter and the sugar together and then add in the flour, I used my electric whisker thing because I was lazy but you can just mix it normally.

Squish it together in a ball and then roll out on to a floured surface to a thickness of about half a cm and either cut into rectangles or use cookie cutters to cut out your shapes.

Miss Frugal: Mam, I can do something super special.

Me: Can you Darling, that’s nice *turns back to watching the lovely Dermot O Leary on the X Factor*

Miss Frugal: Maaaaam, Shall I show you?

Me: If you must *waits to witness this amazing new talent*

Miss Frugal: I can lick my armpit!

A Geography Lesson….

Master . . . → Read More: Interesting Conversations….]]> Amazing Talents….

Miss Frugal: Mam, I can do something super special.

Me: Can you Darling, that’s nice *turns back to watching the lovely Dermot O Leary on the X Factor*

Miss Frugal: Maaaaam, Shall I show you?

Me: If you must *waits to witness this amazing new talent*

Miss Frugal: I can lick my armpit!

A Geography Lesson….

Master Frugal: Mammy, why would anyone want to live in Wales when it’s so disgusting?

Me: I’m sure it’s a very nice place to live.  Anyway, you’ve never been to Wales so how would you know it’s disgusting?

Master Frugal: Because it’s wet and slimy.

Me: Well it’s usually wet here but not sure about it being slimy.  Why would it be slimy.

Master Frugal: Because everyone’s stomach is slimy!

Me: WHAT! Where exactly do you think Wales is.

Master Frugal: Wales is them big sharks that live in the sea – who would want to love in one of them.

Me:  Mr Frugal, I need wine – lots of wine!

A Pink and Fluffy Chat

Miss Frugal (whilst getting in to bed with me at 6am): Mammy, Mammy…. Wake up.

Me: Ughgtyterhjgfjkdgbsjkgf

Miss Frugal:  I’ve been thinking.

Me: Go think some more then

Miss Frugal: I know we haven’t always got lots of money but I think we’re the luckiest family in the world.

Materialistic – Not My Children

Me:  If I go part time at work, we’ll have less money.  Would you rather have more mummy and less money or more money and less mummy?

Kids: Money!

When the very kind people at Tescos contacted me along with a number of other Mummy Bloggers and offered to send me a school uniform each for the children to review I quite . . . → Read More: Tesco School Uniform Review….]]> School Uniforms, new shoes, new packed lunch boxes and anything else that Miss Frugal deems as essential – it all adds up doesn’t it?

When the very kind people at Tescos contacted me along with a number of other Mummy Bloggers and offered to send me a school uniform each for the children to review I quite naturally jumped at the chance because I dread the cost of getting the kids ready to go back to school. 

I arrived home from work this afternoon to a find a huge black box tied with ribbon had been delivered, apparently the postman wasn’t overly thrilled at having to carry it along with his regular stuff (just when he had finally forgiven me for the Innocent Smoothie strawberry plant breaking free from it’s box and covering his letters in mud lol). 

Anyway,we opened it up and found this:

I’ll be honest the kids were less than excited to see a box full of school uniform but they quickly claimed the notepads and pencils as their own and squirrelled them away in their bedrooms before I steal them away (even they know I’m a stationary-a-holic).  I’ve been through the box and each of them has a pack of polo shirts and a pack of long sleeved shirts.  Miss Frugal has a pair of trousers and a skirt along with an excellent quality cardigan and Master Frugal got two pairs of trousers and a jumper.  I even found a voucher for moi for money off on their website  

It all looks fantastic but the only thing is, when Miss Frugal tried on hers earlier on it makes her look so grown up that I almost cried.  I can’t describe what I mean, she just suddenly looked like she wasn’t my baby anymore and I realised how quick she was growing up.  Next stop – the teen years (yes, I know she’s only 8 )

Tescos have asked me to spread the love a bit more and nominate a fellow mummy blogger to recieve a box of uniform so I would like to nominate Amy from And 1 more means four…. and 1 more - just because I love reading her blog and she has a new baby so I imagine she is so not in the mood for uniform shopping.

Thank you Tescos for sending me the uniforms and voucher

  As some of you may know, I decided to join in with the big momma challenge over at notSupermum’s blog.  I started on Monday which means that my weigh in day should be tomorrow officially but I’ve decided to make Sunday weigh day which means this morning I rather nervously stepped on the . . . → Read More: Big Momma Challenge – Week 1]]>

 

I’m following the Slimming World diet and the fantastic Not so single mum sent me some brilliant Slimming World recipe books and e mailed me a recipe for homemade ferrero rochers using Nutella – I bet you never thought you would hear Nutella and Slimming world in the same sentence lol.  

I made my own Slimming World version of Chicken fried rice (I’ll post the recipe later) and Jambalaya (adapted from here) and even tried my own version some potato skins with garlic and chilli dip so I’m quite pleased with my experimenting this week.    

I’ll post all of my recipes this week and if anyone has any favourite Slimming World recipes they would like to share, please let me know….  

I’ve got a bit to lose so I’ve decided to break it down into smaller chucks…. My first target is to lose 2 stone, I don’t have a specific date in mind but tomorrow would be good lol! 

Good luck to everyone else taking part, I’ll be round everyone’s blogs tonight to see how everyone is doing!

We’ve just seen the most beautiful horse and carriage go past our window, all done up with white and pink flowers and looking as though it was on its way to collecting a blushing bride and take her to one of the most special days in her life.

It made me think about my wedding day (not . . . → Read More: My Wedding Day (on a budget)….]]>

We’ve just seen the most beautiful horse and carriage go past our window, all done up with white and pink flowers and looking as though it was on its way to collecting a blushing bride and take her to one of the most special days in her life.

It made me think about my wedding day (not that we had a horse and carriage) and I decided to hunt out some of my wedding photos to show you….

Our wedding was a bit of a last minute thing, we’d been together for almost five years and were trying to decide what to do for our fifth anniversary – we were thinking of a night away or a nice meal out….  Somehow we went from that to deciding it would be good to get married on our fifth anniversary!  

So we had less than three weeks to arrange a wedding on an almost non-existent budget.  We’d only just moved into our first house together and because we’d got lots of help from our family, there was no money left over to pay for a big wedding.   Even though we knew we didn’t have the time or money to arrange a big wedding, we still wanted to do something a bit different so I looked into the possibility of us getting married at Gretna Green.  I rang them and they’d actually had a cancellation for the Saturday we needed so we booked it there and then and were all set to get married in front of the anvil at Gretna Blacksmiths Shop in the original wedding room.  I’ve just had a look at the website and even though the prices have gone up since we got  married you can still do this for around £230.00.

We invited about 15 of our closest family and friends and booked a really small reception at the hotel over the road which, with a few bottles of cava (no budget for champagne lol) and a small buffet was all we wanted.

I bought my dress, a nice little burgandy velvet and chiffon number, from Principles for £50 and Mr Frugal bought a suit from Littlewoods for about £30.00 (he even got staff discount) and with my mum’s help, we organised cream and burgandy flowers for me and buttonholes for everyone else.  My dad ended up giving us £250.00 and luckily that covered the whole wedding….  Bargain or what!

The week before the wedding was a nightmare – it was the week when half of the UK was completely flooded and I worried about everyone managing to get there safe and sound but on the morning of the wedding we looked outside and the sun was shining (hmm cliche anyone).  I was so excited and I don’t remember feeling nervous at all, I had complete confidence that I was doing the right thing and I couldn’t wait….

I walked down the stone corridor (there’s no aisle) to Westlife’s ‘ Flying Without Wings’ and took my place at the Anvil next to my rather nervous looking other half to be, I think his nerves were more from the fact that since I had last seen him, he decided to have a haircut and had it all shaved off so I was marrying a skinhead!  Why, why would you do that the day before your wedding.

I can’t remember much else about the wedding other than when the minister said ‘Do you, Mrs Frugal…’, I said I do at that point rather than waiting for the rest of his spiel which everyone thought was hilarious and Mr Frugal loves to remind me even now of how eager I was to marry him!

We were given a minature version of the Anvil we got married at by the minister and I have treasured it since – It’s kept in my favourite things cabinet.

After the wedding, we moved to our mini reception where we had our Cava and little buffet.  I hate fruit cake but my mum had said you had to have a wedding fruit cake so I ended up with two cakes, one fruit and one chocolate.  When it came to cutting the cake, Mr Frugal and I took up the official holding the knife together pose and cut it.  I turned round for a second to wipe the knife before resuming the pose whilst cutting the chocolate cake and when I turned back he was gone!  I had a pretty good idea where he was and you’ll be relieved to know it had nothing to do with the worlds shortest wedding – he’d just popped in to the bar to check on the Boro score as they were playing Man Utd that afternoon and there was some particularly exciting activity going on so he thought he would stay and watch it for a minute…. 

We had a lovely day and I’ve just seen on the website that you can renew your vows there for £120.  Seeing as its our tenth wedding aniversary this year, might just try and talk him into it

We’ve not had the easiest ten years since we got married but we’re still very happy and in love and we have two beautiful children to show for it so I wish the bride getting married today as much happiness as we’ve had….

We enjoyed a lovely visit to Thomas Land and Drayton Manor while we were on our staycation (I love that word).  We’ve been before when Master Frugal was three and going through his OBSESSED with Thomas the Tank Engine stage but now that everything is Ben 10 this and Superheroes that, we weren’t sure if . . . → Read More: Drayton Manor and Thomas Land Reviewed….]]>

We enjoyed a lovely visit to Thomas Land and Drayton Manor while we were on our staycation (I love that word).  We’ve been before when Master Frugal was three and going through his OBSESSED with Thomas the Tank Engine stage but now that everything is Ben 10 this and Superheroes that, we weren’t sure if we would have as much fun.  We knew as soon as we walked through the main gates from the look on the kids faces that we were going to have a brilliant day and we weren’t disppointed.

I could tell you about all the cute rides in Thomas Land or the more grown up rides in Drayton Manor, or I could tell you about the zoo or the Dino trail but I always think it’s hard to do that without sounding like a holiday brochure so I’ll just let you look at my smiley pictures.

The Frugal Family’s Top Tips for a good day at Drayton Manor

• Try not to leave your carefully prepared picnic on the kitchen counter at home.  There are plenty of fast food places to eat in the park but they can work out expensive. 
• Do not believe that a ride can’t be scary just because you don’t need to be belted in!  I fell for that one and ended up on some sort of water slide in the dark, which the kids thought was hilarious!!!
• Buy the re-usable drink cups so you can re-fill them around the park cheaply rather than keep buying drinks.  Why is it that the more expensive the drinks are, the more thirst the kids are.
• On a sunny day don’t stand somewhere where the floor is wet – it’s a pretty good indication that you’re going to get soaked from the nearby waterslide.
• Pre warn your child that the 4D cinema film is quite loud and can be a bit scary.  Master Frugal was quite scared at one point and we were on the verge of having to ask if we could leave.

We had a great day and I’d really recommend a visit, especially if your kids love Thomas the Tank Engine.

Thank you to the lovely people at Drayton Manor for offering us tickets so we could visit

I’ve just been told about something called the ‘I respect the road‘ campaign that’s been launched by AXA Car Insurance.  Respect on the road is an issue that most of us genuinely care about, and why not, it affects us all doesn’t it?  With our help AXA want to highlight the state of disrespectful and often dangerous driving . . . → Read More: AXA Respect the Road….]]>

I’ve just been told about something called the ‘I respect the road‘ campaign that’s been launched by AXA Car Insurance.  Respect on the road is an issue that most of us genuinely care about, and why not, it affects us all doesn’t it?  With our help AXA want to highlight the state of disrespectful and often dangerous driving practices in the UK.

I’m a very cautious driver, in fact to be honest, Mr Frugal does most of the driving in our house.  I think it’s because I like to be in control and when you’re in a car, as much as you can control your own driving, you can’t control the actions of the drivers around you.  

I can’t stand aggressive drivers, they’re a danger to themselves and the rest of us and on the rare occasions when I am driving, I make sure I get out of their way as soon as is safely possible.  I will not be pushed to drive too fast – no matter how many times they might flash their lights at me!

The first time I saw the video below I thought it was hilarious.  It’s a group of five year olds interpretation on how grown ups act when they get behind the wheel.  Then I started to think about it a bit more and now I just think that it’s such a shame that children are subjected to that sort of behaviour.  What sort of an example does that teach them?

Another interesting video is of a cab driver discussing the need for more respect for each other on the roads.

Find out more and add your support to the campaign by visiting the AXA Respect On The Road website by follow the campaign on Facebook.
Sponsored Post

Share hosted by Wikio