Five frugal things I've done this week: 1.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but Miss Frugal has a junior gym membership to our local gym which allows her to use all the facilities of the five leisure centres in the area.  I initially dismissed the idea of a gym membership as too expensive but when I looked into it, it's actually really good value for money.  She used to go swimming at least once a week at £2.25 a time so swimming alone cost £9 a month whereas now, for just £6 more she goes to a gym session a couple of times a week and fits in extra swimming whenever she fancies it. … [Read more...]

OK, I know that leftover wine is a rare occurrence but it does happen (or so I've been told).So if you ever find yourself with leftover wine, there here's a handy list of what you can do with it to save it going to waste.1.  Drink it! ;-)2.  You can freeze it in ice cube trays to add to the same type of wine next time you drink it.  It keeps it cool without diluting it like an ice cube would.3.  As above, you can freeze it into ice cubes ready to add to your favourite recipes.  White wine goes lovely in risottos and reds are great in beef casseroles and stews.4.  It … [Read more...]

I thought I'd struggle to write a Five Frugal Things post this week because it feels like it's been an expensive week but actually, on reflection it hasn't been as expensive as it could have been.... Five frugal things I've done this week: 1.  I went out for a meal and on to the pictures with the girls this week.  Not very frugal, I know but it was a lot of fun and not as expensive as it could have been as we timed it for happy hour at the restaurant we were going to (2 courses for £8.95), went to the local cinema rather than one of the big chain cinemas (£4 a ticket instead of £9 ish) and … [Read more...]

I've been a but absent this week as we've all had a cold (again!) which has led to a tired and slightly grumpy family.  We've not done too bad though.... Five frugal things I've done this week: 1.  If you're a regular here then you might have seen the seasonal bucket lists that I write every few months - a regular entry on there has been to clean out my garage but as it was so full of junk, we knew it was going to be a nightmare to clear it out.  We found out that the council will collect junk quite cheaply - 6 items for a £18 but when we looked at what we had we realised that the cost was … [Read more...]

Half term is not usually one of the frugal-est (is that a word) weeks of the year but I don't think we've done too badly this week. Five frugal things I've done this week: 1.  Miss Frugal isn't growing that much so she hasn't grown out of many clothes but her taste has changed so much since she started secondary school so we had a sort through of her wardrobe this week.  Because she's quite small, she's still got clothes that we bought for her in Year 5 so you can imagine that her taste has changed massively now that she's as a much more sophisticated (;-)) Year 7 girl.  We photographed what … [Read more...]