Miss Frugal is almost 13 now and I think we have a great mother and daughter relationship.We're also friends.Now, I know some of you will be shaking your head at me saying that we're friends because I see lots of people saying that they're a parent and not a friend to their children and although I understand why people say that, I don't agree at all.Don't get me wrong though, I am a parent first and I always make decisions with my parent hat on but I do believe that there's a way to be both a parent and a friend to my daughter by sticking to a few simple guidelines. I respect … [Read more...]

Master Frugal left last Monday morning for a three night trip to Edinburgh with his classmates.The trip cost around £150 and we were told that £40 would be a good amount of spending money to send them.  It seemed like a lot of money when we first signed the permission slip last year but he was so desperate to go with his friends that saying no was never an option!Fast forward to last Monday morning and as I dropped him off at school at the ridiculously early hour of 6am, I knew that I wasn't ready for him to go away for that long without me and to be honest, I didn't think he was ready … [Read more...]

This morning I dropped Master Frugal off at school (at the ridiculous time of 6am might I add) for his first school residential.He's going away for three nights which is by far the longest I've been away from him before and if I'm honest, as he rushed on to the coach with all of his friends laughing and chatting at the tops of their voices about how much fun they were going to have, a teeny tiny tear may have escaped.I just don't think I'm ready for him to grow up yet.I'm worrying now about what he'll eat, whether he'll miss me, who'll hug him if he hurts himself and most … [Read more...]

Hands up if you want to stop receiving those annoying game app requests on Facebook.Yep, me too!Here's how you do it on your mobile / tablet....>> Go to your account settings.>> Select Apps>> Find where it says Platform and click on it.>> Select No to Game RequestsYou're welcome!If you use the desktop version of Facebook then you can also stop them by following this process.....>> Go to your account settings.>> Select Apps>> Below Apps, Websites and Plug ins, click edit and then disable … [Read more...]

As a child, one of my favourite things to do was to count the money in my Dad's copper jar.  I had a little system going on and I vividly remember putting all the copper into equal piles and then adding them up before transferring them into money bags ready to be paid in to the bank (there was no supermarket machines for this back then).I also remember the smell on my hands afterwards and my Dad telling me to go wash my hands - sometimes I did, sometimes I went upstairs and just ran the tap pretending to wash them (which took just as long as actually washing them if I recall).I can … [Read more...]