A frugal life is an easy life!

Already two weekends gone of the school holidays... where do the days go?

Driving back home after food shopping on Saturday morning, in the rain yet again, I was already grumpy from lack of sleep, I thought about a holiday.
With money being tight and the arrival of sprog2 (wouldn't change her for the world of course) it's been years since we last had a holiday.
A nice long slow drive down through Germany, to the Austrian border. From there we can easily visit Switzerland, more of Austria and even northern Italy.

I landed back home and carried the seven carrier bags of fresh meat, fruit and veg inside.
As I unpacked them all and stocked up the cupboards for yet another week, this has been the routine for what seems a lifetime.
I am tired, I have way too many jobs to do and always find myself waiting for other people or things before I can do them, in the end, I get very few finished.
Luckily, the wife was on a rare day off, (she's another one who grafts too hard) so I had cover for sprog2 for when I went shopping.

As is the "norm" in our house, once I've got the sprog all sorted, the wife comes along and the sprog falls asleep.
Everywhere I go shopping, there are tales of holidays, so I was getting into holiday mode.
The wife informs me that a parent can no longer put their sprog on their passport!

I checked it out, not only must sprogs have their own passport (a five year one) but applications take anything up to three weeks to get processed, longer if at busy times, ie, when I need one!
There is also a charge of £49 for it!
Fast tracking is available, if you make an appointment and drive down to Liverpool to get it, this increases the price to £96.
Why, when we have people coming into Britain from everywhere, does it cost so much and is so complicated, for us British to get out of the country for a holiday?
We all know how much a baby changes looks, eye colour, etc. So surely any passport picture would show little resemblance after a year or two?

So with the holiday idea shot down, I slumped in the chair and chilled out.
The wife made us her own burgers, made from fresh braising steak, with fat cut off and some silverskin pickled onions, a perfect way to end yet another day.