But, erm, none of those things are true – even though these are the things that I would have liked to spend time on over the past couple of months.

Instead, we have a baby on the way! Exciting times, although I must admit that they have become a lot more exciting since I magically regained the ability to eat food other than soup, and stopped spending every spare hour asleep. I’ve been fine at work, but I tend to blog from home, in the evenings and at weekends. And walking through the front door has been triggering some sort of internal “off” switch. Then one day I woke up and ZING! I was fine again. And I’m back. Jeez, I can’t tell you how nice it is to have emerged from that sleep coma.

Confession 2
My due date is Christmas week: extremely convenient for quietly disappearing on maternity leave (the office is closed that week anyway); bad for the poor kiddo’s haul of birthday swag in future years, apparently, which makes me feel angelically thrifty but also a bit guilty.

Someone else with a child born at Christmas told me that it’s the best time of year to have a baby, because all the other families are busy or away then, so you don’t have to go through the HELL of hosting kids’ birthday parties. (Are children’s parties really that bad? I wouldn’t know: the last time I went to one I was nine.)

Confession 3
I have a craving for Waitrose Mango Fingers (above). It started a couple of months ago: I used to pop out and get a little box at lunchtime, as it was the only food that stopped me feeling queasy. I’ve tried chopping up mango and storing it in the work fridge, but it isn’t the same, damn it. There’s something about the Waitrose ones: the ripeness? The chiller cabinet temperature? I don’t know. Sadly, Waitrose Mango Fingers cost an eyewatering £1.75 a pop… My food budget is well and truly trashed!

Confession 4
I haven’t bought anything for the baby yet. During one particularly intrepid lunch hour I did a reccy in the local branch of Mothercare, for the first time since I accompanied a friend in there a few years ago. (Actually, my one memory of that shopping trip is holding up a premature-sized babygro and gasping, “WHAT? THEY COME OUT THAT BIG?” But let’s not dwell on that right now.)

I left Mothercare in a daze. I had no idea that a Juicy Couture fur-lined pushchair even existed – let alone that people are expected to fork out £300 for it. “Baby furniture”? I think not. And what is all that random plastic tat in the feeding and bathing sections? Is this stuff really necessary?

Right now I’m Clueless McClueless, so if any readers possess more wisdom than I do about what is needed, what definitely isn’t and where to find the baby bargains, then please share it. I am all ears!

Image credits: Karen Sheets, simplyla.

Debtris: UK version.In the words of its creator:

“Budget cuts. Austerity measures. Spending reviews. A bleak start to the year. But maybe there’s a cheerful, colourful way to brighten the financial forecast?”

There is also a U.S. version.

As a friend notes: “I love it when someone uses something really simple to make a really big point”.

We landed in Colorado and hired a car. Then we drove up through Wyoming (my favourite state) into Yellowstone National Park, then down through Utah and Arizona to the Mexico border, before flying out of Phoenix. We gorged on Mexican food and beautiful scenery, stayed at lots of deliciously cheap chain motels along the way and had some… interesting experiences. It was amazing.

(These are my favourite holidays: here are my 11 steps to a great thrifty roadtrip, if you missed them first time around.)

Did you miss me? Hopefully you didn’t even notice I was gone: I scheduled some posts to cover my absence.  Then not long after we arrived back in Yorkshire last week, I went down with a lurgy. As they say in Utah: darn it.

As if the sight that greeted us when we landed back at Heathrow wasn’t depressing enough!

This is one (well, six) of the nice things about moving out of the city. At my husband’s workshop, one of his regular customers is a local farmer, who tips in eggs:

The eggs always appear mysteriously, as the day dawns: my husband turns up for work in the morning, and there they are outside the door, waiting to be cracked and gobbled. I like it when the eggs appear: they are good, tasty free range eggs. And they keep our supermarket bills down.

The nice farmer isn’t the only one who tips in food. Another customer brings root vegetables. Now we have three large turnips in the fridge and I don’t know what to do with them! I’m tempted to try turnip french fries, if only to see if they taste better than they sound.

We are also the proud owners of one ginormous marrow. I have been eyeing the marrow with suspicion, as I haven’t yet eaten a marrow dish that hasn’t been on the… well, soggy side. I’m thinking about turning it into marrow rum. Who knows how this will taste, but the recipe sounds like fun: you begin by scooping out the pith and seeds, and filling the hollow with demerara sugar and a little yeast, before taping the marrow shut again. You have to leave it in the airing cupboard for a year though. Hmm, decisions!

Cosmopolitan has launched its first ever Cosmopolitan Blog Awards and is asking ordinary joes like you and me to nominate their favourite blogs via this quick and easy form. The only other UK blog award shenanigans that I can think of are targeted at parent bloggers, so I am pleased that we now have UK awards that recognise a number of different blog categories.

I am not very good at asking for favours, but if you think that Miss Thrifty is worthy of a shout-out in the Lifestyle category, I would be tremendously grateful if you clicked through and nominated me. The nomination round closes at the beginning of August 2010, after which five blogs are going to be shortlisted in each category and put out to public vote.

As it happens, I was reading the latest issue of UK Cosmopolitan in the hairdresser’s earlier this week, and it had some sort of Bucket List feature. You know: “Things to do before you die” – something along those lines. Number two on the list was “spend at least £500 on one item of designer clothing“. This made me do a LOL – which made the scissor-wielding stylist jump, and could have ended badly – but does make me wonder if Miss Thrifty isn’t going to make the judging bods weep Diptyque-scented tears of sorrow onto their Mac Pros. Still, only one way to find out…

UPDATE: Miss Thrifty hasn’t been shortlisted – I can’t help but think that scoffing at the magazine’s dictum that we should each spend at least £500 on designer clothing didn’t help – but I would like to say a great big thank you to everyone who nominated this blog. The comments that you left here & elsewhere were so lovely! There are some interesting blogs on the shortlist, although many of them are dedicated to ogling/salivating over/buying stuff (zzzzzzz)… BUT I am pleased to say that on that shortlist, one money saving site stands out like a rare and splendid beacon. Vote for FruGal!