Dear Miss Frugal,I gave birth to you and have spent the last 12 and a half years living with you so please understand that I know you.  I know when you're up to something and I know that you don't spend almost two hours tidying and cleaning your bedroom without some sort of ulterior motive.Yours suspiciously, Mam. ************************* Dear Purse,Please help me.If for any reason I give in to whatever Miss Frugal is after, I need you to stop me from parting with our money.  Just pretend your zip is jammed or hide the money among the three million recipients that are … [Read more...]

Miss Frugal is almost 13 and is getting more independent by the day.I'm trying hard to let her go and to give her the freedom that she craves but as a parent, it's really hard to know where is should stop.  If you have children yourself, regardless of how old they are, then I'm sure you know exactly what I mean - it's a fine line between keeping them safe and being too over-protective.If I look at her now compared to a year ago, I can see a huge change in here and it's all as a result of her going up to secondary school.  You might remember how much I struggled with the decision to … [Read more...]

I'm the first to hold my hands up and admit that I HATE having my photo taken but a couple of years ago I decided to try and be on the other side of the camera a bit more to make sure that when the kids look back at photos of their childhood they see me alongside them.  I do try and make an effort with them and there are now a lot more photos of me with them than there used to be!If you're like me and you hate having your photo taken then it's likely that you're rarely going to LOVE a photo of yourself especially if someone else is taking it.  I much prefer to take a selfie because I have … [Read more...]

We all know how important it is to make sure that children are active on a regular basis, don't we?Some children are naturally active whereas others (like my two) need a little more encouragement so when it comes to making sure that my two get as much exercise as they need, I have a few tricks up my sleeve.  I try to make things fun for them and most of the time, they exercise without even knowing that they're doing it.See for yourself....Scooter Fun - they have so much fun at the local skate park but just as much fun scooting around the park or in the street. Trampolining - we … [Read more...]

Master Frugal is 10 years old today!I have no idea where the time's gone but it feels like only yesterday that I first held him in my arms and I can't believe that he's so grown up.I'm so proud of the boy he's grown into but despite starting this post about nine million times (me, exaggerate?), I just can't seem to find the right words to express how I feel.  So I thought I'd share some of my favourite photos of us together instead. ;-)I love you millions and billions Master Frugal.Happy Birthday!Don’t miss out on future posts like this - receive updates … [Read more...]

I've said before a couple of times that I don't necessarily agree with limiting screen time for children - it certainly doesn't work for us as a family and even if it did, I'm more an advocate of giving them other options to encourage them away from electronics.One thing I make sure we do together is play - we play cards, board games and even have family xbox tournaments together.  No matter what the kids are doing or planning to do, if I suggest a family game night they will always say yes.  And some of our happiest family moments have been sat around our dining room table playing … [Read more...]