Rod, faggots and bulking up.

Early into work today, up at 0515 and out by 0615. Still very dark along the lanes and seemed to rain all day. Still no flooding here unlike lots of the UK.
Did a big shop at Asda on the way home, £78 but should last us a while and that included a top for me. Big man is training at the moment to get bigger (although he is fabulous already) he likes to do weights, so bought lots of chicken, jacket potatoes, pasta and tuna. I have tried to tell him that you can bulk up much more easily with a giant fruit and nut bar, glass of wine and just sit in front of the fire, works for me!
Had made Frugal Queens faggots which I had frozen in a thick onion gravy, put these in the oven when I came home and had these with greens, carrots, mash and a couple of roasties for big man.
Was very organised and smug as I had also prepared tomorrows dinner to go in the slow cooker, sausage casserole and did the packed lunches before dinner.
Have just finished Rod Stewarts autobiography which I really enjoyed. He certainly lived the rock n roll life!

Days two of blogging and days out

Yesterday I joined the National Trust. Joint membership for the two of us for £66.80.
We went to Hughendon Manor yesterday which would have cost £17 for us both to get in. We had a great day. It's a lovely old house which was the home of Benjamin Disraeli and he entertained Queen Victoria there. During the war it was used for mapping and had hundreds of people living there. We especially loved the cellars and the old ice house.
Today we ventured further afield to Waddesdon Manor near Aylesbury. This reminded me of a French Chateux and was built for the Rothschild family. Normal entry was £17 each for the house and gardens but again was included in our membership. This means we have had £51 worth of our £66 in only 2 days. Fabulous house and grounds which had been beautifully decorated for Christmas with a Narnia room that you have to enter through old fur coats. There were quite a lot of small children there but no hassles although it was busy and I did get tempted by the milled wine and hot chocolate £6.80 and a gorgeous tree decoration in the shop, £9.95. We hardly ever treat ourselves and this was a little something for the first Christmas we will have in our new home.
Back home we lit the log burner, we are using coal at the moment as the stash of logs we had delivered are too damp despite the man telling us they were good to use straight away.
I cooked a quick roast dinner of pork chops, roast potatoes and veg. A load of washing is drying nicely in front of the fire as we retire to bed.

First post and about us

Hi,

After having read loads of blogs, some about frugal living and living simply I decided to start my own. This is mainly to create a record of our lives here in Buckinghamshire, trying to pay off our debt and live a frugal but enjoyable life and to also link up with some of the excellent bloggers I feel I already know.  There are just the two of us, me and the big man, (he is very tall)
We live in a small village in Buckinghamshire about 25 miles outside of London. We moved here in March 2012 after a year of mega, mega saving to scrape together the 10% minimum deposit to buy our own place.
We eventually found a lovely house that felt friendly as soon as we walked in. However it was set in the 1960's with pink bathroom and layer upon layer of patterned and painted wallpaper.
After a lot of steaming and scraping (mostly him, I supervised!) we have turned it into a nice looking home.
Sadly for us this meant a large monthly payment for our mortgage and then I found her.......SFT.
Saving for travel and her mortgage plan which spurred me on to try to be frugal. Helped along by life after money and Frugal Queens blogs. Thanks ladies!

I haven't worked out yet how to add pictures or make my blog look as good as the others but I will.