No Spend Days How many days a week are there where you can honestly say that you haven't spent a single penny?I bet there's not too many because, most of the time, it's actually quite a hard thing to do unless you really focus on it.  But if you could manage just a couple of days each week where you make a conscious effort not to spend any money at all then imagine what you could do with the money you save.I've written before about how we make no spend days work for us as a family so I won't go into too much detail today but basically, on a day I want to be a no spend day, I'll try … [Read more...]

Last week we were lucky enough to have a lovely family break in Milan which I was going to tell you all about in another post but I decided to work it into this week's five frugal things post because it was such a frugal break yet such an enjoyable one.First of all, I'm going to tell you how much I paid for it because it was an unbelievable price for what we got!We traveled with Easyjet and paid £435 in TOTAL for four of us to fly to Milan from Edinburgh and stay for four nights in a four star hotel with breakfast.  The price included everything but transfers and insurance (which we … [Read more...]

1) We renewed our family railcard earlier in the week when we decided at the last minute to travel to Edinburgh airport by train rather than drive.  The family railcard took the price of the rail travel down from £220 to  £120 so it was definitely a worthwhile purchase, especially considering we need to travel by rail to Gatwick in October.We love travelling by train as it's so much more relaxing than driving and we have much more space - and we don't have to stop every half an hour when one of us needs a wee!2) I had a lovely wander around the charity shops last weekend and I … [Read more...]

1) We're away on holiday to Milan next week (biggest bargain break ever) and I've been saving for our holiday spends.  This week I've cashed in my loose change vases that I keep on the kitchen window sill (£18), my holiday savings jar where I save notes and try really really hard not to raid it on a regular basis (£125) and emptied my holiday savings bank account for the rest of my spending money.  I've said lots of times that I want to travel as much as possible this year and the trips we've booked have been great value but its the spends that can break the budget so I'm trying really hard to … [Read more...]

1) Last weekend we had a family day out at Flamingo Land!Anyone who's been to Flamingo Land will probably know that it's far from a frugal day out with the entrance fee being £38.50 per person but we found some buy one get one free vouchers on HotDealsUK so we got in for half price.  Still not a great price for just one day but it was one of those perfect days with friends where you don't want the day to end so I think it was worth it in the end.I'll write up our thoughts about the day over the weekend if you're interested.2)Not only have I managed a week's worth of Slimming … [Read more...]