Look to the future

I was reading an article this morning about the original lyrics to Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - featured in the film Meet Me in St Louis which was released in 1944, the film studios thought the original lyrics of "Have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last, next year we …

Reflections on a world gone mad

I don't need to tell you what happened in America this week. And if you're a follower of my blog then I hope I don't need to talk you through why what happened was a massive error of judgement on the voters' parts. What with the election of Trump and the likely exit of the …

A Shopping Ban

I'm back from my holiday with renewed optimism that I can get out of debt for good in the near future so I can enjoy family holidays more often. We had a great time at Butlins and immediately booked again for next Halloween, so it's now even more important to reduce our outgoings to take …

168 hours

I write this whilst watching my son at his swimming lesson - he's not progressing at the rate I had hoped and I know a lot of the reason for it is that this half an hour is the only time during the 168 hours each week that he spends in the water (not including …

Five Frugal Things

I’m linking up with Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Five Fabulously Frugal things I’ve done this week’ linky. 1. Three Mystery Dines for lunch so no spend there. 2. Used Royal Mail survey stamps to post my Ebay sales (things I found whilst decluttering the house) so made more than I would have done …

English Heritage

We've noticed since Master FM started school that our lives have become over-scheduled and, as a result, we're all feeling stressed and like there just aren't enough hours in the day. We've been trying to carve out some free time for us all where we can just be together as a family and get back to nature; …

Paris and a stalemate

This often happens to me. I have a very inspired month and then the following month it all starts to feel like a hard slog. It was the main reason I started blogging again after a long break; I hoped it would inspire the frugality to continue. Sometimes I feel like I haven't yet reached that …

October Aims

Yes I know it's the 4th already, time really does fly when you're busy saving money doesn't it? In a new series on A Frugal Month, I'm going to be sharing my aims for the months ahead and reflecting on the month past. Where did I go wrong? What can I do to improve this …

Five Frugal Things

I’m linking up with Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Five Fabulously Frugal things I’ve done this week’ linky. 1. A couple of Mystery Dines which allowed Mr FM and I to have a date night and gave me a free lunch. 2. Joined Shopmium and got a free bar of Green and Blacks and a free tube of Pringles. You …

September wins

Credit Card debt: Total paid off £336.39 Holiday savings: £115.00 Mortgage Overpayment: £120.00 Other savings (train pass, emergency account etc): £295.00 Mystery Dines: Four, at a value of £70.18 Mystery Shops: Two, at a value of £26.00 (including getting to keep one of the products) Quidco: £29.32, from paying for our summer holidays Clicksnap: £10.79 Checkout Smart: …