The Mr

Well I thought it was about time I revealed the mystery man that has been keeping me so busy and away from my writting. His name is Lee we have been together for 2 and a half months now and things seem to be going really well. Before Lee met me he knew nothing about frugalism and just assumed it was about being a cheapskate. Im pleased to say Lee is slowly coming round to my way of thinking and is getting more and more frugal by the day. Lee used to get a taxi to visit me spending around £25 every time he visited untill I informed him he could get a return bus ticket for £4.10 saving him over £20 every time he came to stay. He would quiet happily spend upto £20 on a shirt but now frequents the charity shops after I showed him he could get so much more for his money (we got 2 very nice shirts from a charity shop for just £8). Before me he would have quiet happily given things away or thrown them away when he no longer needed them where as now he will attempt to sell them first to make a few pennies. He now does research to find the best deal on an item and we are addressing his outgoings to see if he can make some savings in that area. He will also use vouchers now something he never did before. I am so pleased that he has realised its a different path in life and not some sort of fad or being a cheapskate. Well enough about the Mr time to move on to more serious matters FRUGALISM lol. Over the last month I have made numerous frugal decisions that I wish to share with you.

Photography: I am very lucky that I have a friend who is an extremely talented photographer. I have asked her to do an on location photo shoot with me and the Mr so that we can get some nice pictures together. She will take the photos and upload them and play around with them and then email them to me to get printed up. I will be paying Kelly £30 to do the shoot and any costs from our day out such as transport and lunch which I would imagine would be no more than around £10 as we will take a picnic with us. When I get the photos printed I will be using a company called trueprint when you open an account with them you get 50 6x4 free prints to start you off you just have to pay p&p which is £1.95. You can get larger prints upto 10x8 for just 99p so im thinking of getting 50 free 6x4 shots and maybe pick out 3 of my favourites to have enlarged costing £2.97 the 6x4 shots will be put into photo album for me and the Mr. The entire cost for this on location photo shoot, 2x 25 page photo albums, and 3 large 10x8 framed photos will be £53.92. When pricing up the exact same shoot and products with a company the cost was £465 a saving of over £400 now thats quiet a saving im sure you would agree :)

Bicycle repair: I have 3 mountain bikes that are in need of repairs all 3 need brake cables reattached, 2 need new handle bar grips, 1 needs a chain put back on, 1 needs a link removed from the chain and the chain put back on, 1 needs a new crank pedal arms and pedals put on, all 3 need a good derusting and general service. This is mostly labour but I do need a few parts a crank, pedal arms, pedals, handle bar grips. I have managed to find a lovely man from my frugal skill sharing site JFTLOI who is kindly going to do all the labour for free he also has a spare crank, pedal arms, and pedals I can have for free so all I need to buy are 2 sets of handle bar grips. Ive looked around for the best deal and have managed to find a set for just £2.89 with free p&p so for the 2 it will be £5.78. So the total to fix all 3 bikes is going to be £5.78. When priced up with a company the cost would be as follows:
Full bicycle service x3 £239.97
Parts- handle bar grips x2 £19.98
Parts- pedals £8.99 (part of the servicing would be to rethread the pedal arms removing the need for a new crank and pedal arm set)
Total cost £268.94 a saving of over £263 again an amazing saving.

Short Break away: In the summer holidays the boys are going to stay with their nanny for a week so Lee and I have been looking at going away for a few days. I have always wanted to go and see Paris so decided to see if I could get us a good deal on a short break to Paris. I have managed to find us a 4 night break to Paris for just £90 per person this includes travel and accomodation. This is how I did it a company called megabus operates a ridiculously low cost coach service from Bristol to Porte Maillot in Paris the cost is £51 per person return. A short shuttle bus ride from the drop off point is a campsite called Camping de Paris - Bois de Boulogne the cost for a tent pitch is 19 euros a night plus a 20 euro booking fee so for 4 nights the total cost is 96 euros (£78).
2x return seats from Bristol to Paris £102
4 nights at the campsite £78
Total cost £180 divided by 2 (myself and Lee) £90 each
I have put a post up on freecycle to see if I can get a 2 man tent, 2 sleeping bags, 2 roll mats, and 2 inflatable pillows if I am unsuccessfull then I will just borrow these items from someone on JFTLOI. Im sure you will agree this is an amazingly low price at any time of year but we will be traveling in August peak session which makes it even more unbelieveably low in cost.

My Birthday BBQ: I never usualy celebrate my bday but decided this year that I was going to have a bbq. I invited all my closest friends and family if every body had come there would have been approx 35 people so this is the number of people I catered for. I bought 40 burgers and burger buns with 45 slices of chesse, 40 sausages with 40 sausage buns, 2 very large bags of chicken pieces, 2 large bags of pork chops, breadsticks and dips, quiche, vegetarian sausages and burgers, 2 chessecakes, an apple pie, 12 cans of lager, 2 bottles of wine, orange juice, apple juice, and lemonade. I had paper plates, cups, and napkins left over from a previous occassion. The total cost for a bbq for 35 people including food, alcohol, soft drinks, and neccessities was £46. Here are some photos taken by Kelly on the day this will give you an idea of how talented she is with the camera.

And this one I am very proud to say I took myself of Kelly and Brandon I was suprised at how well it came out :)

Well thats it from me for today but I will try to get back again soon and stop being so distracted by the Mr lol.

Much Love
Claire xxx

Links

50 Free 6x4 prints
http://photos.truprint.co.uk/lp-searchprints/index.html?campaign=tp_google_prints50

Cheap photo albums and frames
http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/search?q=photo+albums

Skill sharing site where you can also borrow equipment
http://www.justfortheloveofit.org/

Cheap handle bar grips
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140723417429?var=440062786613&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Cheap travel with Megabus
http://uk.megabus.com/

Cheap campsite in Paris
http://www.campingparis.fr/

Freecycle
http://my.freecycle.org/home/info

Im Back

I have been away for a while working on something a little closer to home ...... My love life lol.
A friend of mine was telling me how she met her future husband on an online dating site and another friend of mine actually married the man she met from a dating site and has been happily married for several years now. I have always said that I was not intrested in meeting someone else but I think secretly I was lying to myself. Anyway in true frugal style I looked for a site that was 100% free and stumbled across this site www.oasis.com I think it is an international site but curves its results based on the area you live in. The second night I was on the site I started talking to a lovely guy we spoke for 11 hours which I know sounds crazy but we didnt even realise it had been so long. There was no awkward silences or a struggle to find some thing to say the conversation just flowed. The more we talked the more strange coincedences showed themselves. It turned out we have a mutal friend he went to school with her and I went to college with her. We also found out that a friend of mine is friends with a friend of his. And the cherry on the cake my next door neighbour is friends with his brother lol. Im a big believer in signs and fate and thats what ive choosen to see these as. Over the last few weeks we have spent a lot of time together and have both developed strong feelings for each other. Its still very early days for us but I have to say I am happier now than I have been for a very long time. Of course there are things that we differ on for example im a christian he is not religious but he respects my views and is intrested in what I have to say about it. He had also never heard of frugalism before so I have been telling him all about that and explaining that its not about being a cheap skate there are some good strong morals behind my choice to live this way and again he respects my views on the subject and is genuinely intrested in what I have to say which is awsome. I dont know what the future holds for us but right now I am just living in the moment and taking each day as it comes. I guess what im trying to say is dont give up on love because one day it will come knocking on your door and it will be when you least expect it just like it has for me.
Much Love
Claire
xxx

Our Week

Well this has been a pretty busy week for my household. Monday evening I went to see a friend for a few hours I have not seen Kel for a few weeks so decided to go round and have a bit of a catch up. I went armed with snacks and we just sat talked and snacked it was great fun. Kel introduced me to wasabi popcorn now im a bit boring when it comes to food im a very bland eater and if you put anything even slightly hot or spicy in front of me I will run a mile lol. Im ashamed to say I did not even try the wasabi popcorn but thought it would be nice to share a picture as I found the concept of mixing something sweet with something spicy some what unusual so here it is wasabi popcorn:

On Tuesday my health visitor came to see me about Brandon. He is due to start school in September and I still have not recieved an appointment for his diagnostic interview. The diagnostic interview will tell us how far up the autistic spectrum Brandon is and the best way we can help him both emotionaly and educationaly. I was told we would have to wait 8 weeks for an appointment that was 4 months ago now so my health visitor chased up the appointment for me and I was not very happy with what I was told. Apparently the specialist made a mistake it was not an 8 week waiting list but an 8 month waiting list. Needless to say I am very annoyed by this do these people not realise that this is our life they are guessing at and untill Brandon has had this interview I am unable to get him the proper help that he needs. So for the time being we are just sitting tight and hopeing an appointment becomes avaliable sooner rather than later.

On Wednesday I was lucky enough to recieve a nice lot of clothing for Ben and Brandon from a friend of mine. She has 2 boys one is a year older than Ben and one is a year older than Brandon so whenever they outgrow something or the season changes she gives it to me for my boys. I got some swimming shorts for Ben and a few tops and for Brandon I got quite a few pairs of jogging bottoms and lots of tshirts which are a real help with the warmer weather coming in. The cost for all these items was nothing she gives them to me for free I usualy just buy her 2 little boys some sweets to say thank you.

On Thursday Brandon and I went to the launderette and the library. Now I know the launderette is not a very frugal idea but with Mr Tumble dying on me, the backlog of washing I had, and the weather not being good enough to get it out on the line I felt I had no other choice. I got 3 loads of washing done and divided them between 2 black bags so approx 1 and 1/2 loads of washing per bag. I used 2 tumble dryers in the launderette and it cost £2 per machine to get it all dry so £4 in total. I am now back on top of the washing and providing I keep on top of it I see no need to replace Mr Tumble or use the launderette again instead relying on my outdoor line and indoor airers. Not only will this save me a small fortune in electric but it will also be a small contribution into reducing our carbon footprint and helping the environment. While the washing was in the dryer we popped into the library to return our dvd's and books we also took out 4 new dvd's which we will have fun watching this week.

Hope everyone else has had as productive a week as we have
Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

Last Weekend

Last weekend was filled with fun and excitement for me and the boys. On saturday we went to an easter egg hunt at our local childrens centre. They had easter crafts, an egg hunt, a nice light lunch, and the children were allowed to make use of the nursery facilities. We made an easter basket each and went hunting for eggs. The boys managed to find around 7 little choclate eggs each and a cute little toy chick to go in their easter baskets. We also planted a sunflower each and they are now growing on our kitchen window sill. We also did some painting and the boys made use of the outdoor adventure playground. For lunch the children recieved breadsticks, strawberries, banana, apple, and milk to wash it all down. The parents recieved a bacon buttie each. The cost of this activitie was a 75p donation for the bacon buttie not bad for 2 hours entertainment for 2 children im sure you will agree. Here are some pictures:

In the afternoon I recieved a call from one of my oldest friends Maz. Maz and I have been friends for 10 years we were army wives together and have been through a lot of hard times together always supporting each other. Maz wanted to know if it was ok to come down for the night well I didnt need asking twice. Maz lives in hertfordshire so we dont get to see each other as much as we would like so I jumped at the chance of her coming down. Saturday night was spent talking and giggling mostly something I have really missed doing with her. On sunday we packed up a few snacks and took all the children over the park. Here are some pictures:

After lunch Maz had to head back home but it was so lovely to see her and George and hopefully now she is driving we will be able to see more of each other.

Hope everyone else had a good weekend
Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

MD strikes again

For the last week my MD has been in full flow again. I can barely hear and im having attacks almost daily. Thankfully they have only been mild dizziness and I have only had one fall where I hit the back of my head on the floor and had a headache for the rest of the day. Despite the dizziness and exhaustion I have been feeling we have managed to get out here and there but not as much as I would have liked and afterwards I have felt so very tired that I just have not got round to doing a post on our day. Tomorrow fingers crossed I will be able to do a post on whats been happening here as I have been taking the odd picture here and there. I also hope to make a batch of washing gloop this week if my MD allows and do a bit of baking. But for now I really must get to bed the dizziness is present as I write this and it makes it so difficult to focus on the words.
Hope everyones having a better time of it than me at the moment.
Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx

Farewell Mr Tumble

As you can see my house looks somewhat like a launderette at the moment. My tumble dryer affectionatly called Mr Tumble passed away yesterday. He was making an awfull noise and had lost all movement before finaly giving up the ghost but true to form he was still blowing hot air till the end lol. I made the decision a while back that when Mr Tumble finaly popped his clogs I was not going to replace him. I loved him dearly but boy was he expensive. I just wish he could have hung on a little longer untill I had caught up with the backlog of washing I have but hey ho. So my easter Monday has been spent catching up on washing and hanging it anywhere I can find space and watching the odd film on the t.v.

Hope everyone is having a nice peacefull easter Monday
Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx

Lunch Out

Well we had a very enjoyable meal out on Saturday it was a treat from me and the boys to my best friend Karen and her daughter Leia. Who is also my beutiful god daughter. In total it cost me £49 thats transport, drinks, food, and desserts for 3 adults and 4 children here is what we got for that price:
2x large cokes
2x glasses of rose wine
8x fruit shoots
2x all day breakfast's
1x crispy chicken kunsi
2x kids double chesse burgers with chips and beans
1x kids sausage chips and beans
1x kids curry and rice
2x kids mini vienetta's
2x kids choc chip brownie with ice cream
3x adult chocolate fudge sundaes
1x adults choc chip brownie with ice cream


This is how I did it so cheaply. I had several vouchers for a free childs meal per adults meal purchased I used these to cover 3 of the 4 childrens meals a saving of £8.97. When ordering a childs meal if you order a dessert and a drink at the same time its an extra £2 where as it costs more to buy them in a seperate transaction. So I did this for all 4 of the kids meals a saving of approx £6. They also had a saturday promotion 4 adult desserts for £8.99 which worked out a saving of £5.01. Karen did the transport by doing 2 trips in her car as we live pretty close to the resturant we went to a saving of £4.10. So in total I managed to save myself £24.08 pretty good going im sure you will agree. Here are some pictures of our meal out.

 Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx