...eaten in restaurants...
...eaten in restaurants...
We have has a lovely Easter Sunday here in Frugal HQ. The children have all eaten far to much chocolate than is good for them 🤣 as is the tradition!
We attended a lovely Easter church service in the afternoon at a church we hadn't attended before. It was advertised as an open invitation at our parents and toddlers group so I thought why not. There were some lovely modern hymns and everyone was very welcoming and kind. We managed a few odd looks and eye rolls as the seven of us walked in but the children behaved beautifully. Though Baby C does like to shout Eggs! At random moments today which raised a few giggles.
The children all went on a little egg hunt together with Daddy so I could enjoy the sermon in peace.
At the end there were lots of hot cross buns to enjoy.
I'm looking forward to going back next week.
Happy Easter everyone
X x x
Our first zoo visit of the year! Our season tickets ran out just before Christmas but with half the zoo being closed due to the local avian flu scare we put off our visits for a little while.
Thanks to all the lockdowns we now have enough in our zoo savings for 2 years of annual passes as we put a little towards it each month. It means that we are not only able to support a wonderful conservation charity but we always have somewhere to take the children for entertainment. Sometimes when the 4 eldest are all in school, Hubby and I will visit for an hour or so with Baby C and just enjoy some fresh air.
Hubby also suggested today that if we can't afford heating we can also just go sit in the hot house each afternoon 🤣
We took a little picnic of sausage rolls, bananas and Crisps along with our own drinks from home costing about £4. Obviously our season tickets cost a fair amount for a family of 7 but a single visit would set us back £120 a time so we only need to make 3 visits in order to make a saving. We usually average between 6 and 10 visits so we soon cover that.
Everyone should sleep nicely tonight after all that lovely fresh air and walking around. I certainly know I will! 🤣
X x X
Hello everyone.
Sorry for the radio silence again. Life just insists on being busy but mostly in good ways. We are all well and happy (most days) which in the grand scheme of things happening across the world is something we're very grateful for.
So let's start with a little update on everyone. As always in our house we'll go smallest to biggest.
Baby C is almost 2 already. She is small but fiesty and will happily stand her ground against any sibling that dares to cross her path 🤣. She is currently obsessed with all things doll related and learning new words constantly.
Miss W- DD3 is almost 4! She is always a happy joyful soul to be around. We're working on getting ready for starting big school in September so lots of encouragement to be independent with dressing etc. She is going through a very creative period at the moment and produces lots of artwork each day.
Gman- DS - rapidly approaching his 7th birthday. School have identified a few concerns with his learning and started some interventions to help him catch up but he takes it all in his stride. He is currently obsessed with all things mechanical be they toy cars, robots or lego creations he's made.
Diddy - DD2 - almost in double figures at aged 9 and desperate to grow up. She always does her best to overcome any obstacle be they physical or mental though NEVER in the way I'd expect. I've long given up trying to figure her out and just try to sit back and watch the show. Currently obsessed with all things gaming related mostly Minecraft and Fortnight.
Miss A - DD1 - Newly 12 and not letting me forget she's "practically a teenager now" 🤣. She is learning how to navigate the modern world as a young lady which isn't always an easy thing to do. She has a very sensible head though and we often make time to have a mug of tea together and go over any worries. I'm very proud of the person she is becoming. Currently obsessed with Tom Hollander, books and YouTube.
DH and I are doing okay. There's been some difficulties with a neighbour which have taken a lot of time and emotional energy to deal with but we always have each others backs when one of us needs propping up. We are both concerned about what this month may bring to us and our nearest and dearest but we have confidence we will weather the storm okay with a fair few years of frugal living experience to fall back on.
Times are tough but our family will be tougher 💪
X x x
A quiet day for us. I took a little walk over to B&Q with DD1 but found no bargains and we left empty handed. Home Bargains however had some pretty bedding plants so I treated myself to a packet of 6.
The weather forecast is still pretty poor for the next few days so I focused on a small corner of the garden rather than waste time doing things that would need doing again. Storm Eunice gifted me a very shabby chic looking wicker garden so I filled it with random sized pots. I used the six plants from Home Bargains and a few random daffodils that had popped up from nowhere by the compost bin.
I think they look quite cheerful all together. Sadly we're now under another weather warning for Storm Franklin so I've brought them indoors for night. Soon though I will be able to sit in my little garden with mugs of tea and good books enjoying spring sunshine.
I can't wait.
X x X
Tomorrow I'm hoping for a nicer day so I can begin to tackle what's left of our garden. I lay the washing pole, furniture and slide down to try and keep it safe but it's still all slid around the garden a fair bit. The bit chunks of plastic was a Wendy house, I'm not sure if it's salvageable 😔 but I'm grateful this is the worst we suffered. I've seen some terrible scenes on social media that people now need to sort out.
I'm hoping to take a little walk to B&Q and see if I can get some compost and cheap plants. Once the rubbish is cleared away and few colourful flowers are potted up it'll soon look much better 😀
X x X
This Valentine's Day we are celebrating in our usual frugal style.
I picked up some cheese pizzas from Iceland for £1 each and added some pepperoni (£1 @ iceland). With a few scissor snips and some artful arranging you can make a cheerful Valentine's meal for pennies. Over all I spent £4 (3x pizza, 1x pepperoni) but remember I am feeding 7 people 🤣
I also popped into the Food pantry for my usual Monday food shop. I've found going a little later at 10am rather than when they open at 9.30am seems to yield better results as fresh stock has time to go out.
Miss C was also gifted a book and a cuddly toy which seems to be a regular thing now. You can never have to many children's book so I am quite pleased about that 😊.
I hope you all have a lovely Valentine's Day 💕
DD2 woke up early this morning and was unable to get back to sleep. I suggested she try reading in bed for a while to stay warm and to keep her quiet whilst the rest of the household slept.
She asked if she could borrow one of my books and I agreed. In hindsight I should've stayed awake long enough to see what she was actually reading because when I woke up at my usual time about an hour later she was a few chapters deep into It by Stephen King 🙈
I had assumed she would go for the stash of David Walliams books 🤣
In the afternoon I visited a few favourite charity shops on my usual midweek trip into town. After last week's beautiful patchwork blanket I didn't think I'd find anything else quite so soon.
Apparently charity bargains may be like buses as I found 2 beautiful Hand-knitted cardigans for Baby C.
It was a very frosty school run this morning. It was also beautiful.
We amused ourselves by taking some arty photographs whilst waiting for the school gates to open.
Nature really is breath taking when you remember to stop and look.
DD2 and DS went back to school this morning. The weather has gotten really cold again so I send DS to school with his thermals on under his uniform. Due to the Covid rules all the classrooms have to have their windows open during the school day.
After the morning school run I popped to the local shop for milk, then spent an hour sorting the house while DD1 entertained the smallest two.
Midmorning we had to pop to DD1's school for her preterm Covid test. She refused it as expected but as she has no symptoms she's still fine to attend tomorrow as usual.
Then we popped DD3 to preschool for her usual afternoon session.
Then DD1, DD5 and I met up with my parents for a cup of tea and a little look around the charity shops. I found the most beautiful patchwork quilt for just £1. I couldn't leave it for that price and told my mum that I was rescuing it 🤣
Someone has put many hours of love and effort into that quilt only for it to end up in a charity shop on a rail of linens.
DS had claimed it as his sofa blanket and it's already following him around the house 🥰
The afternoon was spent doing the usual routine of school run, dinners and Bath times.
I think I'll sleep very well tonight 😴
X x X
My poor legs are aching today after yesterday's adventures. It was definitely worth it though. I didn't enjoy hobbling around the house at 4.30am though when both of the smallest humans woke up. Baby C needed a nappy change and DD3 had tummy ache. Neither were happy to settle again so we all ended up under the warmest blankets under the sofa until everyone else woke up around a much more civilised 8am.
DH took charge of the children and I returned to bed for an hour to top me up for the day.
At midday we headed over to my parents to a nice buffet lunch and to wish them both a Happy new year. We had a lovely catch up.
Once home I finished off the little cross stitch kit I've been working on for a few days. I'm quite pleased with how it came out but the brown outline on the bird doesn't feel quite right somehow. I feel like it should be black like the flowerpot. What do you think, readers?
Just before Christmas my MIL very kindly asked if DD1 and I would like to join on a trip to London. MIL wanted to see the exhibition currently displaying Lady Diana's wedding dress at Kensington Palace.
We drove to Richmond and park there for the day before taking the train into London.
Kensington Palace was small but packed to the rafters with interesting things and bits of history. We got to stand on the stairs where Victoria saw Albert and fell in love with him, which felt very special. Seeing the room she was born in and her childhood toys was sweet. I love the idea of a young Victoria sewing little doll outfits and giving her dolls elaborate names and backstories.
We of course enjoyed the dress exhibition. Not only seeing THE wedding dress but also others like the toile of The Queen Mother's coronation dress.
The Diana memorial was a little underwhelming as you can only approach it from the rear of the statue. I would have liked a chance to look closer at the details of it from the front but that was just the way it is.
I tried the go through the gift shop with my blinkers on but there was a splendid sale on. We purchased 3 writing pens and 2 postcards for £3.95. The pens were originally priced at £3.99 each so I feel we did well. I now have a lovely pen and souvenir for my current journal. It was our only spend of the days outside of tickets as we bought a picnic lunch with us which we ate in the gardens.
I'm really hoping that we can do a lot more trips to interesting places this year. After 2 years of not particularly going very far it would be such a treat to go exploring again.
X x X
We started 2022 with a little walk in nature together. All the recent damp yet mild weather has caused an explosion of fungi to appear. If you walk slowly and look carefully you can find all sorts of shapes, colours and textures sometimes in the most unlikely places.
Our walk led us to our first Olio collection of the year. The quiche will be coming on a special trip out with me and DD1 tomorrow. The apples are enourmous! I think a single one cut into slices would feed at least 3 of the children quite happily 🤣
My resolutions this year are to live a more mindful simple life. To take more time noticing the little things around us and minimising the day to day things that cause stress.
Happy new year to all my wonderful readers.
X x X