peek a boo

Not forgotten about blogging, not dead. Just busy!

This time of year always seems to stress me out slightly.  I think its just the sheer onslaught of things to do and places to be, especially with Soph and JJ now at school (well, school nursery for JJ). There are craft sessions, nativity plays, parties, and various other events to sign forms for and send money to. There was the car MOT which stressed me out way more than it should have, but it's passed for another year, thank you God! Christmas shopping, which is actually mostly done, and just generally darker earlier evenings and later in the mornings which are just somewhat depressing.
Although we did go on a wonderful adventure to the post box the other day at 5.30pm with the kids dressed in high vis jackets and JJ had his hard hat on too. You never know what you might meet between home and the post box in the dark!
So I'm treasuring the empty moments when they do occur, to be some precious me time, and that means blogging hasn't been a priority.
If i ever work out how to make my technology agree with bloggers, I have some lovely photos to share. Maybe if i can remember how to hack myself into my flickr account I might manage to do it that way. Pondering....
Ok, bye for now, short and sweet, typing in the local library, who are wonderful and friendly, but I really ought to get on with my day now.

31 days - day twenty two

Hurrah, school is out, half term holiday is here, we made it through the first half term of this year.

I'm wiped out.  Need some time to rest and have fun and enjoy life and not have to get up for the school run.

I'm also getting a bit burnt out on blogging, and I'm going away this weekend, so I will attempt to be back on Monday with something exciting to say.
I kow that breaks my streak,  but I think it's better to have something to say than to blog for the sake of it!

31 days - day 21

Today is back to the future day - it's the day in the future Marty travels to in the second film.
Fun random fact for you, which you probably know already if youve been anywhere on the Internet today!

I'm not even going to try to come up with anything else in this post because I have writers block

31 days - day twenty

It's half term next week for us, so the kids are off school for a week. Looking forward to having some fun as Menard is off work too. I will be looking for fun things that we an do, but we don't plan to spend lots of money.
Autumn is the perfect time for layering up and getting out, especially if you've got welly boots for squelching in the mud! Im hoping we can explore some of the parks and adventure places in our local and area and slightly further afield. If we can get some geo caches too then I'll be a happy mummy!

31 days of money saving and stuff - day 19

Oops. Almost got to the end of today without posting.  Better write something quick.

Actually, when I was in Aldi this morning I stocked up on some of their super six offer veg since they'll be changing on Thursday, I believe, and since it's potatoes, onions and swede, they ought to last for a while, so it was worth stocking up.

It made me think abut writing - make use of sales and special offers. But don't buy things that you won't actually be using, because that's not really saving money at the end of the day.

Today's hint/tip - make use of special offers and buy fruit and veg in season because they'll be cheaper.

31 days of money saving and stuff - day 18

In a week where money is tight, or you need to pay some unexpected bills, try living out of pantry rather than going food shopping.  By that, I mean work on running down cupboards and fridge/freezer rather than buying fresh.

This serves two purposes, using up stock before it expires - this is good, if like me, you're not always good at rotating stock in the cupboard, making sure you use the old packets up before you use the most recent ones.

Secondly, it's an adventure! You're limited by what you have, so it's like an episode of ready steady cook. Think outside the box, think of ingredient substitutions you can make to switch up an ingredient in a recipe for something you have.  For example, it would be fairly easy to inter change fresh tomatoes/passata/chopped tomatoes/tomatoe purée.  It might change the consistsncy slightly, but overall the taste would be similar.
If you have a go, let me know what interesting concoctions you come up with!

31 days of money saving and stuff - day seventeen

Happy Saturday!
I've been enjoying reading bits of The Complete Tightwad Gazette these last few days, and it's been reminding me that we all have different amounts of time and money, and it's about finding the money saving methods that work for you.

For me, I shop for reduced meat, veg and bread products. I compare prices and use coupons.
Don't feel bad if you can't do the same, but work on finding out what you do enjoy.  Do what you can do, without getting stressed and upset that you can't do it exactly the same way as I do. (although I hope I'm not reducing any of you to tears by my posts, but instead inspiring and challenging!)

31 days of money saving and stuff - day sixteen

Day sixteen! More than halfway through the month (just about!)

Hm, what to write about today?

A summary, perhaps?

I have a budget for my weekly shopping expenses. I make the most of supermarket price wars, supermarket offers, supermarket rewards and free stuff!

I think outside the box when it comes to things like present giving.

I like numbers.  I know in my head the cost of a lot of different items, but if you don't like numbers you can make a simple price comparison book (I say book, chances are a lot of you would want to use your phone, but I like paper and pencil lists!).  This can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be, but at its simplest, you'd write the name of the product and then what price it's being sold at in different shops, and add the date so when you look back, you can see how up to date that information is. I know I thought about blogging about price comparison books, but I can't remember if I ever did. Please ask questions if you want more info or help setting one up.
An alternative is to use a comparison site like My Supermarket, but Ive never had that much success getting it to work quickly when I wanted it to!

That's about enough for this post, right? What else would you like me to write about for the rest of the month?

31 days of money saving and stuff - day 15

Swagbucks

I can't talk about money saving without mentioning swagbucks.  Pretty much all my purchases on amazon are paid for with gift cards I bought from swagbucks using points I earned from doing simple tasks like answering the daily poll,and using swagbucks as my go to search engine rather than google.  You don't earn points every time you search, but they do add up. There are other things you can do like taking surveys, making purchases on other shop sites, but going through their site referral links.

If you follow my referral link below I will potentially earn some extra swagbucks for you doing so, but you won't lose out on anything :)
Http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/elephantdebs

31 days of money saving and stuff - day 14

Make the supermarkets work for you

Obviously you have to give supermarkets money if you want to buy things from them, that's a given (of course, there are other places you can buy stuff too, and I'm all for shopping local and supporting local businesses,etc, but today im talking about supermarkets)

If you shop somewhere, and are likely to return, sign up for the loyalty card. Sainsburys nectar, Tesco clubcard, etc
- this means you get to earn points as you shop
- you'll also get sent vouchers/coupons either in the post, or printed out with your receipts at the end of a shop

Work the system.  I don't shop in sainsburys that often, I find them more expensive for the things I buy.  But I have a nectar card and pop in every so often, then that means I often get print out vouchers enticing me back. Like spend £15 and get 400 bonus points.  I combine those print outs with offers on sainsburys my coupons and I'm quids in. (more on that below)

https://mycoupons.sainsburys.co.uk/ Can't get links to embed nicely.  You need to sign up for an account and link your nectar card, but once you have, you get a virtual wallet which you can fill with up to five coupons.  Next time you go, spend the money or buy the items that qualify you for those offers, wait a few days - make sure you leave the coupons in the wallet until you're credited with your bonus points.  If can be offers like 40 points if you buy a certain product, or say 450 bonus points if you spend twenty quid. If you ever shop at sainsburys, it might be worth a look.

Tesco orchard.  You'll need to google that, but it should come up easily.  Putting links in this post isn't happening today I'm afraid.  This is a site which runs campaigns.  Basically, you answer some surveys and then they'll match you up on campaigns that might interest you.  Currently I'm on one where they've sent me some vouchers to buy exotic fruit and then tell people about it! There's slightly more to it than that, but they talk you through it all in a friendly way.

Know your prices.  I know that sweet potatoes are cheaper at Aldi, so I generally buy them there. There are other things I can't get in Aldi, or prefer from Tesco that I buy there.  If you can, know prices and shop around.

If you shop in asda, always go online at least three hours after your shop and check the asda price guarantee. You may be entitled to a voucher if your compatible shop was cheaper elsewhere. There are a few terms and conditions, but super easy to do. You need to have bought at lest eight different items

31 days - day thirteen

Hm. Mid October writers block!

Happy birthday to my big sister, Bekki.

I'm attempting to get my eating back on track with whole30 program of eating.  This is my third round (although I only did twenty days on the last time, but that's better than none!)

Life seems to be getting crazy busy. Suppose I needs start Christmas shopping soon.

31 days - day twelve

The tale of Anna and Gill's apples.

Anna, a friend from school, who I'd reconnected with on Facebook, posted on facebook she had apples from her tree if anyone would like them - she wanted to spread some love and kindness and such like.

I'm a sucker for free stuff, and I thought it would be interesting to see Anna again after all this time (about 17 years on!) so I asked, may I have some?

Anna said, sure, come over, so we did.  JJ loved playing with Anna's son's train set. Anna and I had a lovely time chatting and I definitely plan to see her again.  One person loved and blessed.

I gave some apples to my mummy. Two people loved and blessed.

My neighbour brought round some pears they grew in her garden, I gave her some of Anna's apples.
Three people.

Gill popped round with bags of apples.  I was blessed again.

I asked on facebook if any friends wanted to come eat leftover party food and help me process apples from Anna (and lots from Gill). Good times working and talking together. Three more adults plus three babies/children loved and blessed. And I was blessed again by their help.

In my freezer there are several bags of peeled and chopped apples. I will use them to make jam, cake, and crumbles.  Many more people the apples will be shared with, loved and blessed.

A tale of a bag of apples. Friendships rekindled, friendships strengthened, people fed, people loved, people blessed.

31 days - day 11

More STUFF

Autumn is apple extravaganza time.

Lately I have made

Apple crumble - I don't have a recipe, but something useful I did try and it worked; I froze the butter and then grated it into the flour. Instead of having to rub it in with my fingers and get messy at just the moment my kids needed me, I could just use a fork to sort of mush/mix the grated butter into the flour.

Stewed apple in the slow cooker - just cut up a bunch of apples, after you peeled and cored them (and cut out buggy bits, if you're a realist and don't mind using apples with those in, so long as you cut them out).  I was using eating apples so I didn't add sugar. I just cut and cut and cut some more until the slow cooker was almost full and then cooked on high for a few hours or a bit longer on low, until it was yummy and mushy.  You can add a splash of water to stop it sticking and get it going, but remember the apple will probably release a lot of moisture when it gets going.  I've done it with cooking apples and added extra sugar.  I've also use the cooked apples from this to make apple crumble.  Means you're really warming through, browning top, rather than waiting for the apple to cook from scratch.

Apple pie jam -This will look horrid and messy, but I can't make blogger embed my links today, ad I'm running out of battery life and time to do it. 
http://www.mommyskitchen.net/2009/10/apple-pie-jam-i-fall.html

This may or may not be what I burnt my mouth n the other day, but it gates and smell yummy. Mine turned out a lot darker than the photos on there.

31 days of money saving and stuff - day ten

Present giving - give from what's 'in your hand'

This is about thinking outside the box, not wanting to give a present and immediately running to the shops (or the present box featured yesterday)

There are times that you want to show someone your appreciation, but your budget is already over stretched and sometimes that means you have to let the moment go.  But take stock for a minute what you have.  I don't mean give the shirt off your back, or out of your wardrobe, but that can be appropriate on occasion! I mean think outside the box and use your skills.
One of my favourites is giving jars of jam that we've made (sorry, if I've just spoilt the surprise for anyone expecting a gift from me soon!)
This year we have made jam from plums and apples that grew wild in our area. I've also been given rhubarb, gooseberries and apples from friends, blessing me out of their excess. (if you're my friend and you want to gift me with something like that, then honestly yes, it really does bless me. I don't think, oh they're a cheapskate for giving me that, I think, wow, I'm so lucky that they wanted to share their bounty with me!)

Other ideas
Look in your cupboards, do you have ingredients to bake a cake, cook a meal, share your homemade goodies (like jam/jelly/chutney, biscuits, cookies, cakes)

Share your skills.  Offer to cut a lawn, prune a bush, teach someone an instrument, offer to babysit, give your time.  Time is money.  You don't have to physically spend cold hard dosh to give someone a gift of value.

Give a gift of memories - homemade calendars or photos or pictures, handprints are always good from children cos they (the children) don't stay small forever.  Sew a cross stitch.  Knit a scarf.  Make a mix tape - I guess nowadays that might be an iplayer or YouTube playlist!

Let me know if you've given or are planning to think outside the box with your giving this year.

What else could you do?

31 days of money saving and stuff - day nine

A present box

This is a specified place to put things away to be given as gifts.
Generally people use it in one of two ways (or both)

For specific people presents - it's the January sales and I see something that would be perfect for my sister at a reduced price (sales!) or it's a one off that I'm unlikely to see again.  I buy the present, put it in the box. When it comes to the birthday, I pull out the present and deliver it. Job done.

Just in case presents - A box of potential presents, for a money saver these may be bought reduced or on a bulk offer. I use our present box like this. If I see age appropriate items at reduced prices or on a good offer, I stock up, then when Sophia is given a birthday party invite from someone at school, say, our first port of call is the present box, to see if there's anything suitable to give to the birthday child.  This allows me to take advantage of good deals (we recently gave a friend a whole collection of joke-present bits and pieces which I'd bought when it was on end of range prices. Sophie and JJ could give him a whole collection of fun joke things (like stick on moustaches, fake sick, pretend bugs..) and it didn't cost more than our budget could afford. Of course, you don't have to nly buy reduced things, but I'm mentioning those because that's one of our ways to save money on unexpected expenses - you can't always plan when the next party invite will arrive!

31 days of money saving and stuff - day eight

This is a 'stuff' interlude

Life lessons learned/reminded of today*

Laundry detergent has a much better chance of working if you add it to the machine.

Slow cookers will start to cook if you actually turn them on.

It's a good start to unlock the hob (safety feature), it's even better if you turn on a burner so your chicken can start to cook in the frying pan.

Jam scrapings are hot and probably shouldn't be put into your mouth without a little cooling.

What have you 'learnt' lately?

*today, the day I wrote this, which may or may not be the day it's published

31 days of money saving and stuff - day seven

Get to know your local area.

You may have lived there a few weeks or months, you may have lived there all your life, but I bet you don't even notice half the things around you (again, talking to myself!)

This summer I signed up to start geocaching.  Yes, ideally you need some sort of smart phone of device, and it was the not having one of those which stopped me signing up earlier. But all you have to do is go to the website, set up an account, which takes minutes, download an app (apple and android versions available) and stick in your postcode and start hunting.

The website explains it better than I, so go have a look. You get coordinates that help you find the rough area, then additional hints or clues in the description to find some sort of small box. It can be teeny tiny, or perhaps a film canister size, or a lunch box. There's always a log inside - a piece of paper you sign with your name, whatever username you used to sign up online. Then you additionally log your find on the app or website. That way the ower of the cache can check those who say they've found it on the website, have found it when they look at their paper blog.

Useful tools to help you with geocaching - a pen, a smart phone, tweezers (some of the caches are tiny and you need tweezers to pull out the log).

Let me know what you find/if you get addicted.
As at the 14th September I had logged  21 so far.

31 days of money saving and stuff - day six

Walk instead of taking the car.

You get exercise. You don't spend money on petrol. The world is a better place. Nuff said.

(this is totally a directed reminder to myself as much as anything else)

31 days of money saving and stuff - day five

Steal ideas from other people

Some, ok, most of my money saving tips have come from other people. Most of the posts I've written so far on this subject haven't been original in the slightest.  Other people have said it before, and probably said it better, but hopefully you're still here reading anyway, and not just cos you're related to me (hi mum!)

My family will tell you I've always loved reading household hints and tips books, and absorbing random facts. One I learnt recently (from my sister Bekki's googling, in answer to a question from Hannah) is for those who want to know how much gas is left in their gas canister (say for a gas BBQ or camping stove)
Pour boiling water over it, the area filled with gas will cool immediately as the gas will absorb the best, whereas the empty area will stay hot

But anyway, I've wandered from the point, if I had one?

Feel free to take any of my ideas and implement, but equally feel free to laugh at me and say "really? She does that? What a waste of time!"

Join Facebook groups, read budget blogs, read books from the library or the charity shop (you can even buy them new, but consider collecting points on swagbucks and exchanging them for amazon gift cards and then using those to buy books (referral link included) (bonus tip for today)

Ask me questions. Is there anything you'd like my opinion on, with regards to money saving or anything really, since I threw the word 'stuff' in the title of this series!

I'll try to add some more links to useful resources in the next few posts. But blogger isn't fond of my having more than one link in this post, so I can't currently add them here without something crashing.

31 days of money saving and stuff - day four

Today (well, it was actually during the August bank holiday weekend) we saw an ice cream van.

Classic quote from Sophia "I'm not going to be an ice cream lady (driving an ice cream van). I'm going to be a normal grown up like you, mummy"
A. No offence intended to those who do drive ice cream vans
B. No idea where she got the idea that I'm a normal grown up.

Anyway, we looked at the ice cream van, we admired the picture on the back and the tune it played, and we all agreed (Soph, JJ and I) that we didn't want to buy an ice cream cos we had lollies in our freezer at home. And that was that, no arguments, no complaints (and actually, by the time we got inside, they'd forgotten all about ice cream and didn't even remember to ask for lollies. I also forgot, so it wasn't an intention omission!)
I threw in the comment "we've got lollies in our freezer and they cost less than buying them at the ice cream van" and they both nodded agreement.

I guess I have two points/tips here.
First,  you don't have to do the big spend big treat every time. Don't get me wrong, sure, we've bought from an ice cream van, but as a general rule we don't. I buy cheap lollies or ice pops and we eat those and spend significantly less money

Second, it's ok to tell the kids "no, because that costs a lot of money" or "no, a different option is better value". I could rant about this for ages, and I'm not saying I'm totally right, but I'm so aware of living in an age of entitlement, where kids get everything they want, at the expense of other things. I think it's ok to say no, and explain its for financial reasons. It doesn't have to be all doom and gloom, but it can be in a way that teaches value of money,  (not, woe is me, we can't afford that. But look, if we go for this option, it's cheaper/we save money, and we still feel satisfied)