Well this is a busy week!

Good evening.

It has been so lovely to catch up with some of my fellow bloggers, who I have missed a lot of the last few months, it certainly makes it worth doing again and makes me feel excited when I get a message come through.

Weekly News Update

It has been a very busy week. On Monday evening I found out what I will be doing at work next year, I had been quite worried about this, but my concerns were unnecessary. I am working in year six in the mornings (which I thoroughly enjoy) and working with a very special six year old in the afternoons.

Tuesday evening my daughter had An Alice In Wonderland show at her new school from September. Which was lovely to watch.

Today all the children found out what classes they are in for next year (including my two boys who will be going into year five and six) they were both happy with their new teachers although my youngest son is a little worried about what friend will be with him next year. Also my darling Liam has injured his leg quite badly and had physio tonight. She advised him she thought he had torn his AFL, he has a scan on Monday to confirm exactly what is wrong with it and if he will need an operation.

Tomorrow and Friday is transition day at school, where we all have one day in out new classes. And my daughter has two transition days at her new school. (scary stuff!) and then tomorrow night I have a meeting at her new school.

Diet Update

I weighed myself at the start of the week and after two and a half weeks of eating healthier I have lost 8lb. I am so pleased but I must admit the last two days I have felt quite hungry. I think for a couple of days I need to increase my intake.

Competition Update

As you know I didn't win anything last month, well I am happy to say this week I have won a necklace that I am going to put away for my daughter for Christmas and a pair of flip flops - perfect for knocking around the house in the holidays.

Well that's my update for today,

Talk soon x

Long time no see...

Good Morning, Its been a while. We are down to the last three weeks of school, its been an incredibly stressful year and it looks as if its going to continue along that path until the end. Hopefully, next year will be better!

So what's changed, not much:-

• I am still dieting and weigh maybe half a stone lighter than I did last year
• My dad is still with us (Huge yay and celebrations go with this) albeit poorly
• The kids are older but the same (love them so much)
• I am still trying to save money (things seem to be getting harder and harder here)
• I have started to do competitions and up to this month have done ok
• I am still fighting the losing battle of trying to have a clean, organised home (yeah I can hear the laughter)

I have missed you all and missed blogging, so I'm going to start again but on a more low key basis a once or twice update a week.

Ok so as far as the competitions go I started a couple of months ago and I have won walking boots, a topiary ball for the garden, drinks, Manuka Honey, a Superdry bag for my daughter for senior school, a £35 stationary set, cycling shorts.  But sadly in June I have won nada! Not a thing. But its still a nice hobby to have and it saves me from watching mindless tele in the evenings.

Money saving - I have found sites like checkoutsmart and Shopimum that offer deals and then give you fastback on your purchases by uploading your receipts. I currently have £35.00 on one account and £18.00 on the other account. I am going to continue to save this for our Christmas food shop. Its worth it people, give it a go.

I am trying to eat healthier more natural foods rather than diet so I tend to eat Natural bars for breakfast if I'm on the run or Kallo puffed Rice and Rice milk if its a chilled morning. I eat salads and a sugar free jelly for lunch and then a dinner but I add salad to fill me up. I also snack on fruit.
Eating this way has made me feel fitter and healthier.

As far as the house is concerned I have started to try and get up earlier in the morning, roughly about 5am, to get the house tidied and the lunches done before I leave. Its tiring but does make life easier in the evenings. My plan for the summer holidays is to treat it as if I'm moving and box up everything fully clean and scrub and then put back the things we want or sell/tip the things we don't want. Wish me luck!

Well that's about it for my 'Hello' post, lets talk soon xx

Queen of cookies

Hello, How has your day been? Ours has been very nice, guess why that is, yes you got it we are on holiday!

Things achieved :-

• Washing done
• Vacuumed whole house
• Shopping
• Cookies made (by my gorgeous baby girl)
• Lots of minced and onion in gravy prepared
• Beds made

It has been another nice day of pottering, a friend was going to pop over this afternoon but as Ben was sent home from work poorly she decided against being subjected to germs.

I popped to the shops this morning and bought three packs of minced beef for £10.00 which this evening I put two packs into the slow cooker with two chopped onions and gravy and tomorrow I am going to make a mixture of shepherds pie, minced beef and onion pies in puff pastry and a portion I am going to freeze as it is to have inside a large Yorkshire pudding with veg and potatoes. So that will be another three meals in the freezer.

The other pack of minced beef will be added to a pack of minced pork (in the fridge) to make a couple of chilli's.

This afternoon my lovely daughter was a little bored, one brother was on the Xbox, another on the PlayStation and the third watching Netflix, so we decided to do a bit of baking an hour later she had made 52 cookies, half chocolate chip and half shortbread. Half of each of these have been put in the freezer to go in the lunches for next week and half are in the cupboard for this week.

We read stories to each other after bath time this evening, my nine year old was a little mortified because he didn't know what to read because he is on the last few scenes of the new Harry Potter book but he knows that I want to read this after him so after lots of tears he accepted that we could read this together and it wouldn't ruin it for me.

I had to pick my son up from cadets tonight so I took the opportunity to go into Aldo on my own and bought a butternut squash for 55p to make butternut squash soup, a joint of beef to make a meal and some sliced beef for sandwiches for £6.50, an extra large chicken for £4.10 which should make a couple of meals, a gammon joint for a meal and the rest to be sliced for sandwiches for 4.50. I might also make some chicken and ham pies using both the chicken and the gammon. I got some pretzel snacks  for £1.00 to be put away for Christmas, a couple of speciality bags of crisps for 89p each and a large pumpkin for 99p. I felt that this was a good shop because it should cover quite a few meals.

I haven't fully worked out how much I have spent on food so far this month but I do feel that I am filling the freezer and making my life easier for when I am back at work and hopefully saving money at the end of the month.

I also bought my son air of trousers in the charity shop that originally came from Next and still had the label on them their original price was  £12.50 I got them for £1.49 and he was thrilled with my purchase and gave me a £1.00 from his pocket money to go and buy myself something tomorrow, so I have secretly put it back in his money box.

Have a nice evening and take care xx

Still loving the holidays

Hello dear friends,

I hope you have had a lovely day. We have.

We spent this morning at the cheap cinema showing of Finding Dory, and I have to admit to having a tear in my eye at one point (emotional wreck that I am) but it was very good and the children thoroughly enjoyed it.

We then came home and had a very brief tidy up and then we headed off to a friend Halloween party which was good fun, the children had pizza and we had a yummy chilli and rice. Being quite a mild October the children played in the garden on the trampoline and cuddled the rabbits while we chatted about our friends forthcoming wedding on Friday. All our friends are heading off to get their nails done together but as we are being quite frugal my daughter and I might do each others nails tomorrow.

Well I hope you have a nice evening.

Take care xx

I just love days with my darlings!

 

 

Things we achieved today:-

• Twenty minutes ironing (I am trying to cut down on what I iron to save time and money - electric)
• Washing put on
• Washing hung on airer
• Apples taken off the tree (by the children), washed and currently in the bowl (see above)
• Beds made
• Sausage rolls made
• Apple sauce made
• Roast pork cooked for dinner (yum)
• Hovered downstairs and staircase

We had a day of pottering and doing bits and bobs. Its been very pleasant. This morning the children did some painting.

Its been a few years since I have let them paint after an incident whereby we were decorating upstairs and they decided to surprise us by painting the lounge for us. (including the ceiling, uh oh!). But today worked out much better, I guess age had something to do with it.

The children then helped me to get some of the apples off our tree, my fourteen year old lifted my nine year and daughter onto his shoulders in turn and they passed the apples they got to their younger brother. We had plenty for eating and some for making apple sauce which we are going to have with tonight dinner and freeze the rest.

We also made sausage rolls. I have put half in the fridge and half have gone into the freezer for another day.

We had half a pork loin left over which is sliced and three bags of apple sauce which have gone into the freezer for another nights dinner. Yay! This turned out to be a bargain as the meat only cost £5.50 in the first place. Bargain!

I have just started a price book with everything we buy, how long it lasts and the amount it costs per item/unit and I will continue this for a month and then high light what we are spending the most on and high lighting in another colour things that are treats to see exactly how many treat items we are having.

We spent this evening playing games together. What fun!

Have a lovely evening and take care
Xx

Nearly... Half Term! Yay!

Hello dear friends,

Its Thursday and my beautiful children have broken up from school today. Sadly, I have one day left. I dislike working on days when the children are off, mainly because I'm a bit of a control freak and like to look after my children myself and don't really feel comfortable with anyone else looking after them.

The children have advised me that I need to go off to work tomorrow and get my course on autism (which I admit will be interesting) done and they will clean the house while I'm gone and when I come home we can play board games together. Bless them, I have the best children ever!

Today, I have spent £10.00 on food mainly on stuff for tomorrows lunch, this is another control freak moment, as I'm not here to make the lunch I want to make sure that anything they may want for lunch is in the cupboards otherwise I know I will panic.

I'm starting to feel very excited about our week off together, maybe more so than normal. We have a few plans we are going to have a baking day where the children are going to make various goodies.

We are also going go to the cinemas one morning to see Finding Dory at the cheap holiday club showing. Yay Exciting.

On the Friday my daughter and I are going to one of her best friends evening wedding receptions, the boys don't really want to come but I know we will have fun together.

Well have a lovely Friday,

Take care xx

Forgetfulness causes spending fail

Hello, I hope you are having a nice day.

I have to admit to having a bit of a ditzy day today. I forget to get the soup out of the freezer for dinner and then heading off to school checked that all the children had their lunch only to find when I got to the school fridge that I had forgotten mine! Doh!

As I had no change with me I couldn't book a school dinner which would have been cheaper than going to the shop, so sadly I went to the shop and spent £4.00 at lunch time. I then went to the shop again after work to buy some food for dinner argh disaster, I spent £20.00 but I did buy other items to go with dinner for the rest of the week and more packed lunch items.

On a positive note, we did get my daughters drama club for free this week amounting to a saving of £3.50, and then at Guides the lovely lady that runs it gave us a guides fleece jacket that was given to them from a little girl who recently gave up.

So pluses and minuses to our day.

Take care xx