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Tuesday 31 May 2011

Feed my Family for well quite a lot less than a fiver

Just saw sainsburys latest hook for you to buy a weeks meals for £50 and it reminded me of Jamies whole feed your family for a fiver deal.
Iv never understood this as we eat nice tasty healthy food and in sure it almost never even costs a fiver!
Take tonights dinner Chicken and Bacon pasta
Half packet of chicken mini fillet: £1.50 (whole pack is £3 when you buy on the tesco 4 for £12 meat offer)
1/4 pack of value cooking bacon: 17p
3/4 pack of Napolina pasta:75p
1 tin of Napolina tomatoes: 49p
2 red peppers: 60p (tesco mixed pepper pack)

£3.51 total

Just diced this all up and browner the meat and chucked the rest in 20 min simmer then over the cooked pasta.
We all loved this so tasty the kids had seconds and we've still got a whole portion left for lunches!

Half term girls day

Well today Id planned for me and my little girl to have a 'Girls' Day out without Thomas or Daddy!
We went swimming at the local pool in the morning where it only costs £4 for us both to go and spent the morning whizzing down the flume together and practicing her swimming.
Had a really great time and I think we were both worn out by the end of it all. We're really lucky that our council pool has such nice facilities too as they have slides and floats for the little ones and a flume and all good value + free parking as its the council pool.
I thought we might have the inevitable tantrums begin when it was time to leave so I made sure to give Alice her 10 minute, 5 minute and 2 minute warnings and to explain that we would go down the flume for the last time before getting out. I never used to do this till I saw it on Super Nanny where Jo Frost says if you were out for the night with your husband and he just suddenly told you you were leaving no time to say goodbye or drink up you'd be pretty annoyed at best so same goes for kids however small, and while it doesn't always prevent a tantrum it certainly seems to help!!

After swimming we were going for a special girls lunch, which made Alice very exited. What she didn't realise was that the truly special part was that we were going to cafe rouge to use up some clubcard vouchers there so apart from my small wine we each had a 3 course lunch entirely free.
I dont think many people realise how much more they could get for their clubcard points if you swap them for vouchers, my Cafe Rouge ones were worth 4 times the points, so our £20 lunch cost £5 in points, brilliant!!
Was really lovely to spend sometime just the two of us as Alice goes to play school most morning now and although its great to only have one of them on my hands I often feel like I'm missing out on time with my little girl.
I was so pleased with the service they knew we would be paying with vouchers but still treated us wonderfully, Alice had a lovely meal and a giant ice-cream sundae (using the kids menu which was allowed with the vouchers which was great) and was given a wonderful activity pack to keep her happy between courses with lots of French pictures/puzzles/counting etc and even some nice stickers. I attempted to remember some of my old school French to encourage her and we had a really great time filling this in(then showing off our success to Daddy when we got home!)
Alice was also bought a helium balloon which she proudly clung on to all afternoon till it finally popped!

Really really lovely day :-)
Hope your all enjoying half term too and finding ways to keep your little ones busy.

Make the most of Prescriptions

My Son Thomas has had eczema since he was about 6 months old and I used to spend a fortune on products like Oilatum etc to go in his bath as as moisturizers.
About 6 months ago my health visitor (not my doctor!) asked why I didn't get it on prescription, the doctor had never said it was possible and had only ever prescribed Diprobase and steroid creams for him. I booked him an appointment asap and guess what now alongside the normal creams we also get the Oilatum for the bath, Aveeno moisturizer and special vests made out of supersensitive material which have cuffs you can turn over at night to stop him scratching.
This has all made a world of difference for Thomas whose eczema is now although ever present manageable, and also to my bank balance as I was previously spending between £10 and £30 a month of the creams etc.
Because he is a child his prescriptions are free but with certain creams the prescription charge is still less than the retail so be brave book that appointment and tell the doctor whats wrong and go in prepared to suggest what you think you need!

Monday 30 May 2011

Budget bath bliss!

I've been really feeling rundown and tired lately and realised my skin had probably suffered the worst!
Nobody likes spots and blackheads sneaking up on them but then I can't justify the small fortune I used to spend on toiletrys either!!
I was rummaging my bathroom to no avail this morning and eventually thought there must be a simpler way, I googled homemade face scrubs and after a look around settled on this one:
4 teaspoons runny honey
2 teaspoons sugar (could be any really)
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Mixed this together in a bowl then get in the bath/shower! Stay in a few minutes as the more steamy it gets the more your pores will open then rub all over face (if you use exfoliating gloves as well this will boost your scrub potential!) then rinse!

So easy and must've only cost pence although it's all stuff we had anyway.
All say my skins felt really bright and fresh so will definatly use this recipe again (and try some more).

Well it's late and in up early for the kids as it's half term week so goodnight oh and happy homemade beauty-ing!

New To Blogging

Well I've never been a blogger before but Im putting this out there to try and help people how you can raise kids and have a great family life without it costing a fortune!
We allknow money is tight right now for the best of us so this will be my tips to you learned from living my life.
I am currently 24 engaged and have 2 beautiful children.
People often wonder how we get by on our joint income (below 15k) but we do!and we enjoy ourselves too.
So here goes and thanks!!!