Sometimes it's hard to be a womaaaannn.

Dear reader,

Thank you Tammy Wynette for my title today.
I have had many comments about weight loss, it appears its something many of us want to do.
One of my lovely followers, a man, kindly advised not to worry about size and enjoy a little of what we fancy. I explained that I had been enjoying a lot of what I fancied.
I started thinking about being a woman though and wondered why there is a lot more need for us to worry about our looks than men.
I know there are metrosexual males out there who have a few treatments and get their brows threaded but I started to compile a list, from head to toe.

Women

Hair-usually some sort of colour and cut. Regular styling, wash, condition, some product, blow dry, straighteners.

Face- make up on, make up off, moisturise, cleanser, eye make up remover.  Eye brows styled in some way. Any other facial hairy bits dealt with.

Torso- usually some sort of hair removal of the pits and legs. Moisturiser. Tanned skin- probably faked by bed or lotion, spray or mitt.

Hands and feet- manicure, pedicure, hard skin removal.

Not to mention all the other bits and pieces you can have waxed, plucked or threaded. Oh I've been to Brazil and let me tell you it's not somewhere I want to go regularly!

Then, there's the body pressure. The pictures and let me tell you they are heavily airbrushed, of skinny girls, all fake tan, teeth and tits. You cannot pick up a magazine without feeling inadequate.

Men

Haircut

Shave

Deodorant

Maybe a bit of moisturiser?

Ooh, it's enough to make me want to burn one of my new bras! That would not be very frugal would it?

Anyway today is day three of the diet. So far it's been good. I had:

Porridge made with water and splash of milk plus sweetener.

Salad with lemon juice and a pinch of salt with some left over chicken on top.
Fresh raspberries and fat free yogurt

Homemade fagotts with potato and butternut squash mash, cabbage and carrots with a little gravy
made from granules.

I'm hoping for at least 4 pounds loss this week. I will be making salads mostly for work and really cutting down on the bread. I'm not going to deprive myself and will be having a few treats (like the homemade Yorkshire puddings last night)

Have I gone all women's lib? Do you feel under pressure to look good?

FIB. X

New challenge new knickers

Dear reader,

I hope you all had a lovely break and enjoyed the bank holidays if you are here in the UK.

I have been walking around looking like a bit of a scarecrow in old clothes, worn jeans, bobbly jumpers, some of my knickers have four holes in them!

I was wearing the same clothes to work as I was to go walking as they were all scruffy. My boots have holes in the sole and my bras are so old and worn the metal underwired bits were stabbing me in the side. 

I HAD to go clothes shopping. Nothing major but a few nice bits in the sales. 

I saw some heavily discounted underwear in Marks and picked out a couple of bras to try on. The nice lady came in with her tape measure when I squeezed into the first one. 

Imagine my shock, I was two sizes bigger. It was the same with the jeans I tried on and the tops were just as unforgiving. It seems, dear reader that Frugal in Bucks has not been quite so frugal with food!

Not so much a muffin top as a whole bloody cake. It was not good.

I bought the new bras in the correct size and got a couple of tops. I then went home and had a serious and honest talk to myself.  I used to be slim but my weight goes up and down depending on happiness. It usually looks something like this:

Terrible relationship=nice and slim.

Happy relationship=bit of a porker

I had noticed myself starting to make jokes about my weight (before anyone else could) telling people how fat I was (before they could say it) and being the funny girl in the office. Oh ha ha ha, she may be a bit chubby but she is funny. Yeah that's me. 

So that is my new life changing challenge, sorry it's not that exciting but it is to me. I have been slim before, I know it will be difficult and sometimes I won't feel like dieting. (You can call it healthy eating if you like but to me its dieting!) 

So I have rejoined a slimming club that I have had success with before but this time I have joined online as I can't guarantee getting to the class.

You may have noticed a new progress bar. Hopefully they will all start moving soon. 

I will be weighing myself once a week and hope to lose three stones that's 42 of these!

Wish me luck. You spurred me on with my stopping smoking and I hope blogging about this will give me the same motivation.

PS. Two tips for round the shops. Marks and Spencer still have a lot of bras with mega savings. I got several for £4.50 reduced from £20. Also, if you eat tinned tuna, Lidl are doing John West packs of 4 for £2.99.

Have a good week.

FIB. X

Happy Easter

Dear reader,

Happy Easter everyone.
Posting will resume tomorrow. I will be having another giveaway soon so make sure you are a follower.
News of another life changing challenge I have started today. Will update you tomorrow.

In the meantime I hope you are enjoying yourselves with family and loved ones.

FIB. X

Are holidays on your frugal menu?

Dear reader,

Hi to new follower Thrift Deluxe. Thank you for joining me.
I have two rules for myself on this blog. If you take the time and effort to write me a comment, I always reply. I love to hear about you and your lives. Second I will follow you back as I like to know about my readers and I think it builds a nice rapport.

Yesterday I read Frugal Queens post about heating or holidays. As you may know by my moaning, I do not like my gas provider, in fact I think they are thieving buggers. It is that dislike that keeps me from turning on our central heating although we could afford to.

Last night when I got home from work the house was a fresh (read bloody cold) 13.5 which dropped to 13 at about midnight. I couldn't be bothered to light the fire as I would be off to bedroom anyway.
Big man also worked late and we snuggled into bed, fleece pj's, duvet and fleece throw. I was boiling a few hours later.

Anyhow, I digress, holidays, holiday, holidays. My favourite thing. I have been lucky enough and stupid with money enough to have been to some great places. I travelled extensively as a child although when your parents say, "Thats the Taj Mahal."when you are 8 years old, you don't really appreciate it. I used to go away, without fail at least twice a year.  Dubai, Caribbean, Vegas, cruising as well at Europe. Club class for me on long haul darlings!
The credit card was well and truly bashed. I loved the spending, it was the blasted paying it back I hated.

Becoming frugal has been a major change for me. I am determined not to enter my retirement and have to worry about day to day living. That is one of the reasons I am cutting back now. As well as some debts which have paid for home improvements we have a large mortgage to feed.

We haven't had a holiday since 2011 when we had a good one for 2 weeks. We will have a holiday next year though as I don't want to feel like I'm not living or doing anything at all. We have giving up smoking and are feeling all the benefits, both financial and health. So we will bash our debts this year and see what we can save for next year. I feel another progress bar coming on,

So for me the answer is yes, I will go without central heating for holidays. I have the log burner but we have sourced about £500 of free wood.

Reader, have a happy Easter if you celebrate it, if not enjoy the long weekend here in the
Remember the clocks go forward one hour on Sunday. I am off to see if I can scratch together a breakfast in the frugal kitchen.

FIB. X

They all want my money!

Dear reader,

Hello to my new follower No More Spending. I enjoy your blog and hope you will come over to mine sometimes too.

I got up this morning and started my little ritual. I have a cup of tea and retire with my I pad to the lounge. Once parked, I like to firstly, read my emails and see who has commented on my blog. I always smile when I see my blogging friends have been visiting me. I then try to muddle through the rest. After I have done the emails I check my bank account online to make sure no money has slipped away that I didn't know about. (As was the case last week of £158 taken in error)

Big man is instructed to make more tea as I finish the first. He then lights the log burner.

I noticed, this morning that most of the emails I get are all based around me spending money.
There are the usual stack of PPI ones-in the junk mailbox. The rest are from
Groupon, wowcher and other such companies. Now don't get me wrong, we have used some of these in the past and had some great deals from them so I don't mind them contacting me.
There were a load of adverts for sales, this store, that store, £3 bras and 50p knickers from M&S.
None left in the "good sizes" for me though.
There were offers of test drives, greetings cards, injury claims, films, cheap glasses (I don't wear them) and holidays.
I just felt this morning that everyone wanted my money.  I checked the bank account, even they want me to pay them£15 a month for an upgraded account.
The post came, flyers for discounted furniture. The tv came on, buy this, buy that. Aaaaaggggghhhhh.

I was so relieved to catch up with you all and had a read of your blogs which kept me sane.
Do you feel like everyone is after you for your money?

Frugal Queen has written a good post about emergency savings HERE and it has made me really think. Big man and I just don't seem to have anything left at the end of the month. After the mortgage and the home improvement loans plus the daily bills and living costs we have nil.
I have added two progress bars to my blog. These are the 2 smallest ones so not to scare you! ( me really)
We will be paying these off and hopefully the bars will move quickly.

Thank you all for your kind messages via me to Thrifty Living. She has responded and is ok. She has blogged today as well to us all. I am constantly surprised and delighted to be part of this online community. The warmth and kindness that is here is a warming reminder in a sometimes horrible world.
I do genuinely feel that I know some of you and could pop round for tea and likewise.
Best wishes sent to Karen at Chelmarsh Chunterings who was not feeling too great.

To the rest, thank you for reading, commenting and for being there to help each other in this journey through life, however you do it.

FIB. X

Lost blog please read.

Dear reader,

I have just come home from work after 12 hours. I am worn out and not in writing mode I'm afraid.

I would like to put out a call though for Thrifty Living.
Thrifty Living had just started blogging and we were njoting her post but she had A tragedy at home and now We can't find her.. A few of you have asked where she has gone and I can't find her either.

So Thrifty Living, if you read this please know we are missing you and want to make sure you are ok.

Do drop a comment so we know you are alright and please know that although we are new friends we are here for you.

Much love to you all.

Frugal in Bucks.
X

Better bread and frugal shopping

Dear reader,

I am back to work so back to writing in the evening. Don't much feel like it at 5am.
Two new followers to my blog are Simply Vintage and Andrea.Rey. Thank you for reading about my new life, it's always nice for any blogger to have new followers.
For those who follow me, I have joined everyone of your blogs and love reading about you. I have learnt so much in the short time I have found blog land and it has given me a huge boost of motivation to change some of the negative things in my life. For that, I am so very grateful.

I really am into the meal planning this week which also saw us start the enveloping system of shopping within a budget. We took out our £50 and into the envelope it went, with the shopping list written on it. Big man was not at work today and was duly sent off to Lidl to hunt and gather.

He forgot the list and I had to direct him via my mobile. He only forgot eggs, washing up liquid and shower gel. I've told him we will have to be dirty this week but I think he's got it all wrong!
He spent £16 on fruit and veg, he also had to dip into it to get the chainsaw sharpened. We have managed to get a load of free wood and needs to cut it into smaller pieces. Another £15.
We have £19 left to last us this week.

I tried three loaves yesterday and managed to get two that were edible. The first one went to the birds and some I froze for breadcrumbs for my faggots.

I have stuck to our menu plan so far and last night we had the gammon, which I did for 5 hours in the slow cooker with frozen veg and Mark Spensive mash that I got for 50p. I had some homemade parsley sauce in the freezer that I loosened up with some milk. I like this on ham as it counteracts any saltiness. I often use frozen veg as because of work I find it difficult to have time to get fresh in and use it. I find the frozen quicker but we also have fresh when we can. Is there still that snobbery with frozen veg?

Anyway reader, as my menu plan says, we are having fish, veg and have done tiny roast potatoes.

Have cooked some chicken breasts for big mans lunch tomorrow, I will have some too with a salad.

How is your menu planning this week?