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

Friday

My lovely little sister Leanne has come down for a few days to spend some time with me and the boys. Today I had to go into the next town to us to get birthday presents for my best friend and my god daughter. I figured while we was there we may as well make a day of it. They have a very nice park in Trowbridge which has a crazy golf course, tennis courts, a large childrens play area, some medows at the back of the park, and to top it off they had a fun fair there today also. We went to catch the bus but when we got there we realised the buses were on sunday hours and only every 2 hours. I said we would have to cancel and do it another day when Brad mentioned going by train. Good old Brad I had not even thought of taking the train instead. So we took a walk down to the train station I was gob smacked when it cost just £6.60 for 2 adults and 3 children returns on the bus it would have cost £15.50. The ticket attendant informed me that if there is a group of 4 or more then children travel free and adults are half price. I asked if this was some sort of easter promotion but he assures me this is an every day offer. I dont know if it just covers local travel or if it covers national travel also I was not about to grill him on the issue incase he changed his mind lol. When we got to Trowbridge we had a look in the shops and got the presents I needed to get. We then went and got our picnic items. The price of our picnic was as follows: Sausage rolls 73p, Juice 90p, crisps 58p, chocolate 60p, cakes 80p a total cost of £3.61 not bad for the 5 of us im sure you will agree. We also had a lot left over which we brought home and put in the cupboards for another time. Then we went to the park the boys were extremely excited and wanted to do the fair first. We had heard there was going to be a fair last week so the boys decided to save some of their pocket money to go on some of the rides. They had £3 each which was enough for 2 rides each and aunty Leanne paid for them to go on an extra ride each. So in total they got 3 rides each none of which I paid for. After the fair I treated us all to a 18 hole round of crazy golf this cost just £7 for all 5 of us and it took us a good 45mins to get round the course. The boys absolutely loved it. We then went and played in the playground before returning home from our day of fun. We were all pretty tired when we got home as there was a lot of walking involved in our day so the boys all had a fairly early night great fun was had by all. In total our day cost me a total of £17.21 not bad for the 5 of us and as a special treat because aunty Leanne was down. Tomorrow we are going out for lunch to the hungry horse as a special birthday treat from me and the boys to my best friend and her daughter. I have a couple of vouchers to keep costs down and most of us will be travelling in her car again keeping travel costs down. Here are some pictures from today

  

As you can see from all the pictures we have had a pretty awsome day.
Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx