The six weeks holiday are here again and for those people with kids, you'll understand my dilemma with how to keep them occupied for the next month or so.My first idea is home made play dough, which should keep them quiet for a couple of hours. I always find it keeps them quieter if we have a theme when we are playing with play dough, like a shop and all the things we make go in the shop. Then when they're bored with making things they can play shops with the things that they have made. Homemade Play Dough Recipe 2 cups water 1 cup salt food colouring 4 tsp. cream of tartar (you can … [Read more...]
Homemade ice lolly recipes (for kids and for grown ups)….
Its so hot outside isn’t it?Normally in this weather we spend a fortune on ice creams and ice lollies for the kids but I've decided that this summer we'll make our own ice lollies. This should not only save a fortune but our own lollies will be much healthier (in theory ;-)).Homemade Ice Lolly Ideas for the kids Not an ice lolly as such but you could freeze bananas, either in or out of their skins. Try freezing some Angel delight in lolly moulds, as we've done in the rocket lolly moulds above. You can freeze those little fromage frais pots, pop a lolly stick in the pot before you … [Read more...]
Half price Family railcard….
There is a special offer running between 24 July and 21 August for a half price family and friends railcard. This means that for just £13.00 you get a full years worth of discounted rail travel.All you need to do is go to http://www.familyandfriends-railcard.co.uk/ and enter the promotional code DAILYM09, then you get a year’s worth of discounted travel for £13.The website says:Where ever you’re going, take your Family & Friends Railcard with you to save on rail fares. As long as you have at least one child travelling with you, you’ll qualify for Family & Friends Railcard discounts.A Family & … [Read more...]
Recipe of the week – Magic Mince
I love magic mince, you can make a huge batch and then bung it in the freezer until you are ready to use it. It is so versatile you can make it into bolognaise, chilli, lasagne, cottage pie and probably loads of other things.The basic recipie is:1kg Lean minced beef2 rashers of back bacon2 onions (I prefer the frozen ready chopped stuff)2 Garlic cloves600 ml beef stockA large glug of red wine (optional)A teaspoon of thyme (fresh or dried)Fry together the chopped up bacon, onions and garlic until the bacon is cooked and the onions are soft. Then remove them from the pan and brown the mince for … [Read more...]
Transforming our back garden….
We moved into a new build house a few months ago and were a bit annoyed to find out that the builders, Persimmon, didn’t include turf in the back garden. (It also didn’t include an oven but thats a whole other story!)Honestly though we didn’t think it would be that expensive to get someone in to do it after we had moved in so we decided not to pay the £450 that they were charging to do it for us.After we moved in, we asked a few local landscape gardeners to come and give us a few quotes, the cheapest of the three was £850. So…….. We decided to bite the bullet and do it ourselves, despite the … [Read more...]
Welcome to the Frugal Family blog
Let me introduce us all…. I am 31 years old and I work in the complaints department of a large bank so you can imagine how much fun my job is! Mr Frugal is 35 and works for a large supermarket chain. We have had our ups and downs (who hasn’t) but on the whole we are happily married.Mr Frugal and I have two children, Miss Frugal is 6 and Master Frugal is 4. From September they will both be at school full time and I cant wait…. Not because I want my babies to grow up but because it will save me a fortune on child care!The frugal kids cost a fortune each week, football coaching - £3.00 … [Read more...]
