Bargains for the baby girls birthday!

 

 

Hello,

 

I thought I would do a small post on how I am trying to save money on my children's birthday presents.

 

 

A few years ago I would have spent roughly about £150 on each child without even thinking about it, but times have changed and everything is much more difficult now. This year the limit is set at £50.

 

 

I have three of my children's birthdays within a week of each other, two of them on the same day!

 

 

This means getting the best possible bargains so that they get the things that they would like.

 

 

My daughter's list consisted of :-

 

1. Dresses
2. Nice stationary
3. Cathy Cassidy books
4. Beanie boo teddy bears

 

She really doesn't expect a lot, for which I am very grateful.

 

 I went into Boots to get a prescription and they had Beanie boo teddy bears on a three for two offer, I also have a Boots advantage card, which if you don't have one is worth getting, I had received a five pounds off coupon through my card.  I bought one large Beanie Boo priced at £10.00 and two small Beanie Boo's worth £5.00 each so with my voucher and the 3 for 2 offer I got all three for £10.00.

 

 

A couple of days later I popped into my local charity shop and in the children books section they had lots of Cathy Cassidy books that looked brand new. I bought all of them for 50p each. I am going to save about half of them for her Christmas stocking. That's another £2.00 for her birthday and £2.00 to be noted down for the Christmas list.

 

  

Just after Christmas a good friend of mine gave me a stationary set that had been given to them for Christmas but was not actually suitable for what they wanted it for. I was a little bit torn whether to give this to my daughter or youngest son but I think I will give it to my daughter.

 

 A couple of days later I popped back into the local charity shop and I found this little fella for £1.99

 

 

I also found this photo frame for £1.99, my daughter is always saying she wants photos of her family and friends in her room so I am going to find some of her favourite photos to put in it.

 

 

My daughter loves River Island so I have been keeping an eye on their sale, and I found two dresses that were half price that I know my daughter will love, so I ordered them to be delivered to our local store so that it is free delivery.

 

This one was £10.00

This one was £8.00

 

 

Well that's £34.00 spent so far, what do you think? £16.00 left so I'm going to have a look for some further bargains to make her day as special as can be. I need to get her a new glasses case because her incredibly clumsy mummy broke hers! But I think this will be a little addition, I can't count something I broke.

 

We will make her a birthday cake and invite all of her best friends round for tea, the boys will love that ha ha.

 

But then it will be their turn!

 

Have a great day and take care xx

 



How Frugal is this?

Good afternoon, I'm a bit later posting today because my lovely mum came over. Yay! She had a nice chat with Liam too, which made her feel better and she can report back to my dad to let him know that he is fine and happy.

I am now going to update you on the food bargains that we eat yesterday.
Breakfast - was a mixture of Porridge, Crunchy Nut and Krave - I cannot quite work out the cost of this at the moment because they were bought a while ago and I'm not sure what they cost, the Crunchy Nut was on offer and cost £2.00 for a box.

Lunch -

 

Mine was the Ham and cucumber sandwich with crisps a mini blueberry muffin and raspberries.

Youngest son has the cheese and cucumber roll, the rest was the same as mine.

The other three children had burgers (leftover from the barbeque) and the rest the same as mine.

The bread for my sandwich was on offer for 10p.

The rolls were on offer for 69p.

The raspberries were on offer for 20p.

 

The muffins were on offer for 10p

 

 

The cheese and the ham were on a joint offer two for £4.00 and the crisps were six packs for £1.00 (I bought these because they are a lower calorie option).

 

Dinner last night was :-

 

Mince in gravy inside a large Yorkshire pudding with roast potatoes and green beans.

The mince was £4.00 for two packs (both were used)

The Yorkshire puddings were three for £1.00 and I bough six so £2.00.

The green beans are frozen ones that I had in the freezer.

The potatoes were 43p a bag and I used five potatoes out of a bag of eight.

Sorry I have no photo of the full meal as we were all hungry.

Desert was a chocolate cake

 

The cake was reduced to 61p and has done two days deserts for the children and there is enough left for one more day.

Money spent on Wednesday

Prescription for eardrops £8.40
ASDA offers £4.48

That is all I spent yesterday, unfortunately I had to go to the doctors and I have an ear infection and a perforated ear drum so I had to get some ear drops. Aren't prescriptions dear now?

I went to ASDA after getting my prescription and bought some offers.

This little haul consisted of:-

Baked Beans on offer £2.00 (tonight's dinner)
Flavoured water 3 bottles £1.00
Bread reduced 5p
Leek and potatoes soup veg pack reduced to 10p (Fridays lunch)
Green beans reduced to 10p (Fridays tea)
Cherries reduced to 20p (todays lunch)
Grapes reduced to 30p (todays lunch)
Asparagus reduced to 10p (Fridays tea)
Broccoli reduced to 10p (Sundays dinner)

Are you impressed?

 Now as you know my mum came round today and she always comes bearing gifts so this is what she brought.

The cakes look bought but they were actually made she just reuses the cake case because its ideal.

She made decorated cup cakes, blueberry muffins and there are some fruit cakes under the blueberry muffins. I am going to freeze some of these for packed lunches next week.

The Mixup crisps I am going to save for movie evening at the weekend.

Things I have done in the house today

• Hovered downstairs
• Put the washing on
• Hung the washing on the line
• Cleaned the downstairs toilet
• Load the dishwasher
• Make breakfast
• Make lunch
• Make the beds

Apart from that I just sat and enjoyed my mums company.

Well have a lovely day.

Take care xx

 

 

Wake up Wednesday

Good Morning, I hope you are having a good day. 

If you are a regular reader of my blog you will probably notice that I have gone away from the real reasons I started this blog in the first place...

It all began because life around here was getting difficult, the purse strings were getting tighter and life was becoming a lot more difficult, we had no home organisation and I was bearing the brunt of it by feeling tired, unhappy and worn out.

So, what has changed?

Nothing, our morning routine is a little more organised. Our house is still full of rubbish that I don't enjoy seeing or tidying up. We are certainly no better off in fact things are getting worse with the bills increasing dramatically, a pay rise halt in place for both of us, school trip bills for the thirteen year old and almost ten year old that we are unable to afford and go into the mid hundreds quickly becoming due. No fun days out or holidays in sight. And five of my most favourite people in the worlds birthday descending on us in the next three months.

And the answer to this is?

I honestly don't know. We both have jobs, one of average pay, mine admittedly is low paid but I do get to be there for my beautiful ones in the holidays. I have asked for more hours from September. So we will see.

But the whole point of this post is Full of daily delights needs to get back to basics and the whole point of this blog saving money and organising!

Yes I will still let you know what is going on around here because that's me, I love talking about my children and moaning about my weight (talking about that do you love the picture at the top? I do).

I know I haven't done a menu plan recently and at the moment I have no intention of doing one.
This is because we just didn't stick to it and I ended up spending more money. As a certain house member never fancies what's on the menu!

So I am going to trial a new daily piece on my blog. I am going to shop in the evenings as we all know that's when the yellow stickers come out and I cannot print coupons from my computer (don't get me into that... its a RT so considered to be a tablet and therefore has to use apps to print but the apps aren't available to Microsoft argh... I did say don't get me into that. Your mistake!)
Anyhow, I am going to list what we have eaten each day and what it has cost me and hopefully we will together be able to find A. Some cheap meals and B. A pattern of what is costing the most money and a way to lower it.

This was yesterdays lunch and I haven't kept a record of what it cost, the idea only just came to me, but the pitta were reduced, so were the new potatoes and the strawberries. Hopefully that will give you an idea of where I am intending to go with this.

Let me know what you think?

What's happening around here?

Now normal post stuff, its raining again, yes I wish I could send it to you Nathalie, so you don't have to water your garden. I have washed my bedding but its certainly not going to go out on the line. I guess the house will look like a Chinese laundry again with the Airers everywhere.

My youngest son is laying on the stairs crying that I starve him, yes he is a drama queen!, he had his breakfast about two and a half hours ago and desperately wants a blueberry muffin but has been told he has to wait for lunch which is as soon as I finish this post. Evil mummy!

Liam went to visit someone from another New York University yesterday but I think he has decided that New York is not somewhere he would want to live. He also saw the statue of liberty and he didn't eat bacon!

Today, he is back in Connecticut. He liked it there on his last visit.

Well now this evil mum had better go feed her kids.

Take care xx

Bank holiday fun and more!

Hello Friends, I hope you had a lovely bank holiday.

Although the weather was overcast and cold we decided to take the children to our local national park, they always enjoy our visits and love to look at the birds and insects.
We normally take a picnic with us but decided to eat at home first rather than sit in the cold.

The national park has a wind in the willows theme and we have great fun finding all the different characters.

My thirteen year old probably won't want to come out with us all the time soon, so I intend to make the most of having him with us whilst it lasts. Lol!

I got home and had a chat with Liam. There seems to be a theme to what my darling eldest is nourishing himself with whilst he is away and that is:-

Yep, you've guessed it, Bacon sandwiches. Every time I speak to him I ask "What are you going to have for dinner tonight? His reply " I think it'll have a bacon sandwich".
I really hope he has something a little different today.

Our tea was made up of leftovers, so no cooking for me. What a treat!

That's yesterdays round up done and dusted.

Take care xx

Sundays Update

 

Hello, I thought I would pop in early this morning with an update of what we did yesterday.

We had Bens brother and mum come over for a barbecue, the first one of the year, when we woke up the sky was grey and threatened rain but as the day went on thankfully the clouds disappeared leaving a warm sunny afternoon.

The barbecue required quite a lot of cleaning as it had been left outside all winter, ah how hard would it have been to put it in the garage or put the cover over it!

We had a mixture of hot dogs, burgers, chicken and vegetable kebabs in warm pitta breads, new potatoes salad, salad and we also cooked a spatchcock chicken, it was delicious and we have a mountain of food left over (we didn't touch the chicken) so absolutely no cooking required at all  today. Yippee!

I spoke to Liam a few times yesterday, last night he went to the Yankee Stadium to watch a football (soccer) match. Which he seemed to really enjoy! He messaged me to let me know when he got back so I wouldn't worry (he is so thoughtful) and to tell me he was going to have frozen pizza for tea because he wasn't prepared to pay $27 on chicken strips and chips at the stadium. He also messaged me at 6.00am this morning to tell me they were having a terrible storm, so I guess he couldn't sleep.

After Bens family left yesterday and I had cleaned up, I sat talking to my youngest two boys, I looked at the eight year old and his eyes seemed strange, its difficult to explain but they seemed to be moving inadvertently, I said to him I thought he was over tired and he needed to have a lie in the following morning, his reply was if I do can I have scrambled egg, bacon and toast in bed. Yeah right!.
About ten minutes later he said to me that he had a terrible headache that was making him feel sick, we had run out of children's medicine so I ran to the shop to get him some calpol, neurofen and lemonade to settle his stomach, but I obviously didn't catch it in time as he was sick several times and his headache got worse, I spent the rest of the evening laying upstairs cuddling him until he finally went to sleep.

He seems ok this morning although he has said that he has a dull headache so today I have caught it early and given him some medicine before it amounts to anything.

We was planning today to take the children to a country park but the weather is not looking too good. Hopefully it will brighten up as the day goes on like yesterday.

Well I am off to make the children's breakfast.

As most people seem to have a bank holiday today, have a lovely day off whatever you are doing and take care xx

Its been a long day!

Hello lovely people. Its been a very busy week but finally half term is here. We walked home from school today singing at the top of our voices and then stopped at the park because if the house wasn't cleaned tonight it didn't matter, we have all next week.  The final term of the school year is seven weeks and is action packed with fun activities like swimming, sports day and final performances from the soon to be leavers, it'll soon be here.

Next year my beautiful baby girl will be going into year six, the final year at primary school.  This seems impossible to believe.  It seems like no time at all since I realised that I had the little girl I really wanted and I spent the first night staring at her (whilst being told by the nurses to put her down for a sleep). I couldn't bring myself to put her down and I spent the whole night cuddling her.

I don't like the thought of her growing up but I am so proud of the young lady that she is turning into and I wouldn't change anything about her at all. She works hard, has good values and is always kind and thoughtful.

I stayed at school all day today, partly because I am still being careful with my leg and secondly I had a lot to do. So I only walked to and from school once today walking roughly four to five miles.

Whilst at work, I was talking to a lovely lady who after I commented on how she always seems to look so well dressed these days, explained that she has lost three and a half stone in the last nine months. She has done this fully on her own and by cutting down. I asked her what she ate now and she explained for breakfast she has an oat so simple porridge, for lunch she has a sandwich like ham and pickle a bag of French fries and a banana and then for tea something like a jacket potato with Tuna and salad. She told me how amazing she feels now and she truly looks amazing too. I intend to use her as inspiration to try to lose weight.

Well I am waiting to her from my darling Liam, he travelled to Connecticut for the first time today, I had a brief phone call from him whilst we were in the park telling me he had arrived safely and not to worry (Yes, I know he is a thoughtful boy). But now I am waiting to hear how it actually went. My friends went out for a drink together tonight but I couldn't bring myself to go in case I missed Liam's Skype.

I am going to sign off now, have a lovely evening
Take care xx

argh kids arguments!

Hello friends! I hope you have had a fun Wednesday, mine has felt like a mountain of highs and lows.

I woke up really early this morning as I couldn't sleep so I got up and ironed clean school clothes, got the lunches ready. Spent a while doing my daughters hair she had her class assembly today.

We walked to school at our usual time (my leg is starting to feel a bit better). I had a very busy day at work, the last two weeks of each half term is always really busy and now we are down to two days left so its super busy.

At lunchtime today I heard that my daughter had a row with her two best friends and that she was completely at fault, it sounded as if it had got out of hand and she was going to get in trouble for it. Her best friends are lovely and always there for her no matter what. She was mortified this evening and sorted through her pocket money so that she could get her friends a sorry present. We dropped them over to them and her friends were so lovely because they hugged her and told her that they had spread forgiven her. It was quite an emotional evening as they all cried and I love her friends, they truly are the sweetest girls.


I also watched my daughters class assembly this afternoon and she was amazing, she had one of the main parts. My daughter is well known for being very quiet and shy but her teacher brings out the best in her. A lot of people stopped me afterwards and said how surprised they were that she could project her voice so much.
I then spoke to Liam for quite a while, he is still not overstruck on New York, he is enjoying his time there but is not sure he would want to live there.
Well after an emotionally draining day today I am off to bed.
Take care xx