Category Archives: money saving

Flipping out!

money saving

Hello Dear Reader,
Here’s a question for you. Do you find it difficult to spend money?
Here’s a thing.
We’ve a major chunk of money to spend: kitchen, van hire, furniture, curtain fabric…….blah, blah, blah.
It provoked a massive emotional reaction. I’ve actually felt really distressed and have genuinely panicked. I’ve got the best price, I’ve hustled and haggled but still that massive amount of money out has left my current account almost empty. That’s a first for years. Maybe it’s reminded me of what life used to be like? I’m not coping well at all!
I’ve also been totally distracted with planning and scrap booking.
By wall ideas……..DB will have to build dividing walls. We hope to use plyboard…..it’s cheap and easy.
Also, by stairs as DB will need to build them too.
We are being thrifty but I’m being a numpty!
Feel free to offer amateur psychoanalysis as to why I’m an emotional wreck!
Love Froogs xxxx

Roll on spring

money saving
Froogs 2013 at a Spring Flower Show, 4th April at Boconnoc. Really cold but full of lovely displays of colour.

Hello Dear Reader,

Apologies for my absence, I can only explain as feeling flat as a pancake. Can’t explain it really. It’s that feeling of being really tired, having no inspiration and just wanting to sleep off this endless winter! I mean, I’m sure it’s rained since October, we’ve had floods, the ground is totally boggy and everyone’s homes are fusty from not being able to open the windows.

Well, according to the Met Office website, spring starts on March 20th and I for one am counting the days! Roll on is all I can say.

This enforced hibernation is good for saving money as I just don’t feel like getting out at all! I met a friend today at the supermarket cafe for a coffee and catch up and that’s the first time I’ve gone out in months. It’s grey and fuggy outside and I just want to hunker down by my sewing machine or by the fire and read.

I’ve down loaded some books and magazines from the local library website and used their free Zinio service. Another friend has kindly given me some clothes to recycle and I’ve cut them up for quilting and crafting. I’ve gone through my sewing room and pulled out unfinished projects and I’m ashamed to say I have three on the go!!! I’ve a sewing day planned in half term to share with someone and I want to get up to speed with some cutting and sewing practice until then. It’s been a while and I’m rusty.

So, it’s been the usual thrifty week. I’ve got lots to look forward to in half term with meet ups, social events, sewing day and working on some unfinished projects.

But most of all, I’m looking forward to spring!

Over to you, who else is fed up with the endless gloomy wet skies?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxx


Why a weekly menu plan?

http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, money saving, Saving money

Hello Dear Reader,

Not my wood pile but it’ll make sense as I go on.

Here’s my thought for tonight. None of us should wait until we’re skint to be thrifty. In the future, as a pensioner, I’m going to be skint. I’ll have a limited income, no immediate or easy possibility to earn money and I’ll have to watch every penny. If you are facing retirement in ten years or more, you’ll be in the same position. You won’t be able to get your old age pension, which is currently available at 68 as by then, the goal posts will move and we’ll all be in our 70’s before we’ll be able to have it. So, we will have less money and we’ll have to get on with it. We have workplace pensions and don’t intend working until 68 and hopefully, fingers crossed will retire early at 60 and take reduced pensions if that’s still an option. Who knows where the goal posts will be by then? That might not be an option and we’ll have to reconsider our plans.

Now, whilst we are earning is the time to be thrifty, watch the pennies, save everything we can and live on less. We’re young and fit so can do with less heating, I can find bargains and we can make our own entertainment. Who knows what my health will be, if I need the heating on more or if the cold drives me to the Costa del cheap for a month each winter to stave off the cold. Who knows? Now is the time for me to be a cheapo, skint flint tightwad whilst I have the choice.

We’ve just paid out the last lot of money for the house in France!!! We’ve paid for the: rewiring, new back doors, furniture, tree surgery, electrical goods, hired a trailer to go over, paid for the ferry and gite as the house isn’t fit to live in yet and of course paid for the house, the estate agent fee and all legal fees. No more money going to France until we have to pay for utilities and council tax. After Christmas, when we sign for the house, we won’t go back until Easter. So, thrifty it is until then. The plan is to rein in any spending for the next four months. Please, will nothing break, need fixing or replacing!

Family members are being bought passports as Christmas gifts, we won’t be here for Christmas and will have a sandwich whilst working on the house! Christmas sorted and budgeted for.

It means, I can keep my purse shut, build up savings and hunker down for the winter.

I don’t have to buy much food this week as I’ve already cooked. Here’s my menu plan for the week.

Today - Chicken casserole, potatoes and steamed kale - this will also make two lunches for me this week.

Monday - Vegetable chilli and brown rice - this will also make two lunches for me.
Tuesday. - Fidgit pie - bacon, leeks, onions, potatoes baked with a cheese and mustard sauce on top.
Wednesday - Baked potato with cheese and beans - standard, we always have something either on toast or in a baked spud.
Thursday - Fish cakes, beans (from the freezer) and carrots.
Friday - Pasta with bacon, veggies and chilli (I bought a pack of cooking bacon from Aldi and I need to use it up)

Breakfast, yogurt, muesli, cereals, toast or variants there of.
Lunch, leftovers and sandwiches, apples for snacks.


My shopping list for the week.

Fresh veg
12 pink lady apples
Yogurt
Sliced cold meat for sandwiches
Pickle
Bread/GF bread
plastic bags and foil.
SF orange squash
Butter
Teabags
Loo rolls

Now, back to the wood pile. I’m fascinated by wood piles in France. Some properties have ten metre long piles, ranged down one side of their homes. Neatly stacked a metre high, kept water proof and there for the future. We all need a bit of that French mindset. I’m sure they didn’t buy all the wood in one go. They will have bought another cubic metre when they can afford it and stored it away. They didn’t wait until they were skint and then start worrying about where the money is coming from to heat the house! As the saying goes, the time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining, not to think, it’s not raining so I won’t spend money on roof tiles. We’ll all have to face being skint one day whether through retirement or the insecurity of modern work where nothing is certain. Whilst we’ve got jobs and can work, in ‘these times’ we all need to thrift up! Not spending is the new spending, not staying in is the new going out and cliche after cliche but it’s the world we live in.

You might think, what’s the point of veggie meals and saving money on food and keeping the heating off? We rarely eat out or go out, we keep our spending low on utilities and over heads and keep to a budget. The little savings all add up, no nipping to the supermarket in the week, not unplanned spending and keep an eye on our increasing not depleting saving accounts. So, I’m pulling on the jumpers, eating plenty of veggie meals, amusing ourselves and as I said before, hunkering down for the winter.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx

Moving money without losing any

money saving

Hello Dear Reader,

We’ve started to watch the currency markets with the nervous apprehension of an expectant father outside the labour ward! Sterling is up and down like the proverbial pair of knickers in a you know where! It’s ‘rallied’! But who knows, by morning it can drop again and we’ll wait throughout the day.

You know that bit on the Radio 4 news where they talk about the Yen, the Chinese markets, what the dollar is doing and by then, I’ve totally glazed over. For just this once in our lives, it has a significant effect on us. Here’s what I’ve learnt throughout my tiny bit of research and it goes like this. We holiday in the France and never go any where else. You might holiday in Spain or Italy and never go any where else. You like what you like and feel happy there and don’t feel the need to change that. We feel like that. If that’s the case then having a bank account in that country can be useful. We then booked our holidays this year through French sites and paid in euros costing us less than half the cost of booking through the UK and paying in pounds. We then bought currency when we travelled. With a bank account in that country we can watch the currency markets and when sterling has a moment of seeing off every other currency, which it sometimes can, then we transfer money to a French bank account and then use that account when we are there.

All very simple so far. But, there is an element of shopping around for currency exchange. Our bank is offering a measly exchange rate in comparison to the FX companies. It’s simple to register with such companies, even if you are just going on holiday and want to buy currency. Most make 1% on the exchange rate whilst the banks try to make 3% on currency exchange. For us, in a major purchase this made almost a thousand pounds of difference! A huge amount of money to have lost if we hadn’t researched, hadn’t shopped around and hadn’t waiting until the markets were in our favour.

Even though we are solvent and have savings, we would never spend what we don’t have to, never waste it and would never give a major UK bank any more than I have to. My bank, who should be called http://www.werobyoublind.com not only wanted to take 2% more but wanted to charge me on top as well! I make a point of avoiding paying anything I don’t have to and I’m certainly not going to give them a whole pile of money when they do nothing to earn it!

So, where’s the ‘rub’ in this little rant. Don’t exchange currency through a bank. They expect people to be lazy and take the easiest route and go to the bank or post office and buy currency. If you are in America as some of you lovely readers are, you’ll find my rant strange but we Brits are often off somewhere and changing currency when we do. We usually take some cash and then a pre-paid money card preloaded with currency to spend in our destination. Don’t use your regular bank account abroad as they will charge for every transaction, every cash withdrawal and each time with incur a currency exchange fee and they will make a profit each time of 3% more at least than the exchange rate.

Take a look at Money saving expert and all the price comparison websites who can lead you to FX companies who will offer you a better rate. If you are going on holiday, this can save you hundreds.

Do not let that bunch of bankers take money they don’t deserve.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxx


How to save time and money in the kitchen

money saving
Hello Dear Reader,
I’m off to France tomorrow. No beach and lazing this time but a bit of a French bucket list trip to visit places I’ve always wanted to see. We’re staying in a friend’s accommodation and we’ve got a bit of work to do there to pay for our stay. Then, after that….we are off out. We’ve put stickers on the map and intend getting out and about every day.
I’ve cooked to put ‘ready meals’ in my freezer and we’ll take some frozen with us and we’ll pick up easy food when we get such as sliced meat and bags of salad.
I don’t just do this for trips but whenever I have to stretch time and money. There’s a lot of chicken here as I bought a kilo of frozen chicken breasts and I’ve defrosted the lot and cooked them all into meals. I also defrosted a kilo of minced beef and cooked it all into a variety of recipes in one go. It took me all morning and yes, there was a whole tonne of washing up and I’m shattered but it saves me time and money. The freezer dishes were 10 for 99p (99p store) and I recycle them a couple of times before they go in the recycle bin.
I made 16 meals in total and they’ve filled one drawer in the fridge freezer. Often, people get tired, have busy lives and just don’t feel like cooking. I know I need a night off cooking here and there and a ready meal in the freezer saves me time and money. For most households, food is the biggest expense next to rent or mortgage and if any of us can save money on that massive bill then it makes a genuine difference to a family’s budget.
You won’t hear from me tomorrow and I don’t know how good 3G wherever we go but you can keep up to date with me on Instagram where I’ll be snapping away at all the lovely sights that I see.
Until I get a signal again,
Love Froogs xxxxx

Back in the game!

money saving



Hello Dear Reader,

I popped into the co op and picked up their £5 deal. Chips, battered cod, peas, ice cream and apple pie, would have been more than double if I’d paid full price. Their offers sell out quickly and I was lucky to get my hands on this.



I then got a basket full of reductions. Blueberries for 50p a punnet, iceberg for 19p, salad leaves for 79p and wholemeal loaf for 39p .


Salad Nicoise.

Hand full of frozen green beans,
Two new potatoes per person,
One egg per person.

Boil together in one pan and then leave until completely cold. I cooked them for ten minutes after reaching boiling point.

Finely dice one red onion
Three tomatoes per person, sliced in half.
Mixed salad leaves.
One small tin of tuna in brine per person.

Dressing, equal parts of oil to vinegar, I used red wine vinegar and olive oil, season well with salt, pepper, garlic powder and lemon juice. I always have bottled lemon juice in the fridge.

Arrange all the ingredients on a plate and drizzle with the dressing.


I’ve nearly caught up with the laundry and it’s drying in the back porch.


The dogs are glad to be home, Dolly Knockers has welded herself to DB and it doesn’t look like she’ll let him out of her sight for a while.

Last week sunning ourselves and this week back to a thrifty simple life.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx

How to get free magazines to a tablet or ipad - guest Blog by DB.

money saving

Hello Dear Reader,

It’s not Frugal Queen today, It’s DB. I’ve been let loose to explain how I’ve been able to get free magazines through local library membership. I’ll guide you through step by step.

Our local library service uses an App called Zinio to read the magazines. This is available for both Apple tablets and Android tablets. Simply download the app as you would any other App.

Step One: Go to your local authority or council website to search for your library services:

Step Two: When you have found the relevant page, simply enter your details to join up. They’ll normally email you back with your membership details or may ask you to go to your local library to collect your card. NB If you already have a card you may not need to do this step at all!

Step three: Armed with your library card and its number you go to the page to sign up for the magazines and follow the relevant link to choose some titles.




Step Four: Now you are confronted by an eclectic mix of magazines about homes, cars, computers and food etc. Simply choose which magazine takes your fancy.

Step Five:You get a choice of the current issue or a back issue. This is an excellent option because if you do not normally buy magazines there are suddenly half a dozen back issues available for you to peruse and they don’t take up any space in the house. Simply click ‘checkout’ for the copy you fancy today. you can choose multiple editions later on if you want.


Step Six: Now you just click on the copy of the magazine which will be on the main Zinio menu and peruse at your leisure. You can zoom in on the pages by unpinching your fingers just as you would zoom in on pictures.

I like to look at music and photography magazines whereas my darling wife likes to get ideas from house magazines

They may not have your favorite magazine available but they have magazines that cover a variety of interests and they are totally free. I regularly read 3 or 4 magazines this way and so does my darling wife. These magazines are normally £5 each so we save £20 per month. Each!

Back to FQ.

Thanks so much to DB for explaining this. I haven’t bought any magazines for quite a while and I missed them. This means I can get my inspiration fix without having to spend any money at all.

Over to you Dear Reader. Who downloads books or magazines from their library? Or, who downloads free books to read on a tablet device saving money on buying books?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs and Dearly Beloved xxxxxx

Froogs in The Mirror.

Earning extra money, money saving, Saving money



Hello Dear Reader,

Today’s post can be found HERE. If you like what you read when you get there, can you ‘share’ the page by linking it to Facebook, or by Tweeting or Google +. You do this by hitting the respective button at the top of the article.

I’m amazed and incredibly grateful to everyone who reads. I started this blog when we were in financial difficulty and had to dig our way out of debt. I used the blog to record the days and weeks where we went without, made extra money and paid off every penny and then paid down our mortgage sufficiently that we’d accrued enough capital that we could move, downsize and live comfortably.

Now we live that life, I want to share money saving ideas and especially my love of frugal food. I really believe that we can eat well, healthily, menu plan and shop carefully and not live on lentils. I’ve had the opportunity to take Frugal Queen out on the road and hold workshops, to the radio and take part in phone in and now to the Money section of the Daily Mirror online to share thrifty tips. My tips today have been about eating really luxuriously on Valentine’s day for less than the cost of a fish and chip take away for one!

I’m still here, I’m still careful with money, I still save more than I spend, I’m still menu planning, buying second hand and I’m not going to give up. I lose and gain readers along the way as some don’t like the new successful me who’s using every opportunity to increase my income and further pay down my mortgage and further increase our pensions. I gain new ones, especially via Twitter and other social platforms. However you got here, or why ever you read thanks. You encourage me to put finger tips to the keyboard and as ever, the saving money, earning extra money and thrifty living continues.

I hope you like the article in The Mirror, share it if you do and it’s always great to get your comments.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx

Making the most of Black Friday deals

money saving





Hello Dear Reader,

………………the best way to do that is to stay home and make do with what you already have! Alternatively, you could look out for what you need from Freeads, the local charity shops of Freecycle!

Remember this, nothing is a good deal if you can’t afford it and if you didn’t need it. Sorry to state the bleedin’ obvious, but there will be a whole lot of spending tomorrow with people buying because ‘it’s a bargain’ when they might not need it at all!

However, if you do really need something, then tomorrow is the best time to shop for it. Do some research tonight and you might just find what you’re looking for at much reduced prices, especially for electrical items.

I will have a wander in my lunch break as I’m after some new shoes and some outerwear but if I don’t find what I like, I won’t be too worried……………there’s always somewhere have a sale! If I have to buy something new, then I try as best as possible to never pay full price. I will, if I have time, also have a nose around my favourite charity shops on Cornwall st in Plymouth. I especially like the two £1 charity shops.

Any one else got any advice on Black Friday? Dear American readers will be able to tell sorry tales of shopping frenzy and how best to avoid it. Does any one know of some genuine reductions that people might find useful?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx

How long would you last financially if…..

money saving, Saving money


Hello Dear Reader,

I read some sobering statistics yesterday that ‘Millions of Britons are less than a month away from living on benefits if they lost their job.’ I’m not just anti-consumerism at Christmas, I’m anti-consumerism all the time! Now many people may wonder why I live a life of ‘frugality’ when I don’t need to. I would argue that I do.

Let me explain why.

None of us can guarantee against financial insecurity. If the rest of the world’s finances go down the plug hole then we all suffer. Those with the least suffer first and always suffer most. Then the rest of us follow. Hopefully, we won’t get that far. Many people just can’t work their ways out of this as they either don’t have the skills or qualifications to earn any more than minimum wage. There are also the young people, including graduates who can’t find any work at all. I absolutely get the fact that times are hard and they only seem to get harder.

I live with that reality as I well remember DB being made redundant from one job, securing another only to have his salary slashed by 10% due to austerity cuts. We know from bitter experience that even public sector jobs are not as secure as they once were.

I also know that we are in the fortunate position to have downsized our home, paid off all our debts, insulated our home and installed a wood stove so we can heat it cheaply. However, none of that was a gift and we worked for every penny of that. I worked a year at night school to get into college, three years as a mature student who worked her way through uni and then went to work and trained on the job as a teacher. DB trained in his job and worked his way up, studying nights, taking courses and both of us did so when education was no longer free and I took out student loans so I could get to where I am today. We were frugal and thrifty then and we are frugal and thrifty now. We also did extra work and did everything from cleaning caravans, marking exams, tutoring students in the evenings and weekends

Here’s the thing. The cost of living has gone up 28% in the last few years and average earnings have gone up by 9%. Public sector wages have risen by 1%. So, we are all affected by the cost of living. The news might say that the economy is getting better but in truth, every one in the UK has got poorer over the last five years.

This year, I could have taken the money we have saved for a wood stove and new windows and spent it on a trip to somewhere hot, all inclusive and ‘let my hair down’. We could have eaten out each week, gone to the theatre and cinema, bought new clothes every month and bought expensive gifts. Instead, we took the sensible option to make our house draught proof and keep it warm for a lot less. This will pay us back over the coming years. We also chose to make an extra £350 a month over payment off the capital of our mortgage so we will have reduced our total capital by one sixth in one year.

Is my frugality a life style choice or a necessity? I would say it’s a necessary lifestyle choice. You don’t have to be on the breadline to decide to save money, live sensibly and make shrewd financial decisions. If I had done this before I would have a bigger personal pension and no mortgage by now.

We are doing all we can to keep our living costs low and our life style as comfortable as we possibly can. I menu plan and make sure we eat really well by cooking all our meals from scratch. I still get the very best deals on all the food I buy. We live carefully and make sure we get the very best deals on everything we ever buy and make sure we only buy what we need. If we buy what we want then we make sure we have carefully saved for that, our windows and wood burner being a case in point, is carefully saved for. A trip away for two days meant that we kept money aside for the diesel to get there, the lunches we ate when we were there and some spending money. If we hadn’t been offered the hotel stay for free then we wouldn’t have gone away at all. Frugality is the wisest choice we can make and continue to practise the best we can.

I’m going to continue to live on as little as possible for the foreseeable future and I advise everyone else to do the same. Why? My advice to everyone, who can do this, is to save what ever you can. If you are debt free and can, then try and make mortgage over payments. If you can make regular payments into savings plans, even if you think the interest rate isn’t worth the bother, then please try and build a saving habit. If you can cut back on spending then please try and do so.

Being careful with money is the reality that we all have to live by.

That means you and me will have to keep watching the pennies together.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx