It's beginning to cost a lot, this Christmas...

Mr C and Master S.

This is my first year with a child who is old enough to understand that Christmas equals presents. S is almost 3 and, while he isn't asking for anything in particular, I am so looking forward to seeing his little face light up when he is presented with a roomful of Monsters University merchandise.

However, this constant present buying takes it's toll on the purse, and there are still other things that I need to buy. We currently have no festive food, the tree has only just been decked (where were all the clear fairy lights this year?!) and the Secret Santa is yet to be purchased (more on that later).

So, when passing Poundland, I thought, hey, I wonder what I can get from my ever expanding list in here? And I have to say - a lot! Here is a list of the items I purchased, all for £20.

1. A melamine serving plate. This will come in handy for the Christmas day snack buffet - and just this weekend I also saw that our local cafe are using them for children's cooked breakfasts, which is a great idea if you have a child who is phobic about bean juice touching toast...

2. Christmas doggy treats. A gift for my colleague's dog!

3. Happy Birthday loot bags. S turns 3 in January so the expense is all going to begin again as soon as Christmas is over!

4. Fruit gummies. Perfect sweet treats for S on days when I'd rather he didn't have chocolate.

5 and 6. Pergale chocolates - for mum and dad on Christmas day.

7. Russian doll trinket box - perfect to put aside in case of last minute gift emergencies!

8. Mickey Mouse push light. S has recently started getting up for a wander at night, this will help him see his books.

9. Cheese! For our buffet at work tomorrow (yum).

10. 6 children's toothbrushes. He's going to need them after his Christmas chocs....

Subtotal: £10.00

11 and 12. 3 selection boxes for £2. We are not doing a Secret Santa at work this year but instead using the money to buy food to donate to the foodbank. We've also decided to add a small chocolate gift. What a lovely treat for such a small outlay.

13.  The Very Hungry Caterpillar sticker book. Lovely little stocking filler.

14-17. Melamine bowls, plates and salad serving bowl. Will be used to great effect on Christmas day.

18. Cookie Crisp cereal. Another potential sugar saver - I plan to dole out small bowls of this whenever S asks for chocolate or biscuits over Christmas.

19. 6 pack of Butterkist toffee popcorn - perfect for my girls' trip to the cinema (Hunger Games, since you asked).

20. Another melamine serving plate - because a friend was coveting the one in the cafe!

Grand total: £20.00


It feels great to have those few things ticked off my list - and at such a cheap price!

Have a wonderful festive season xx

Disclaimer - Poundland sent me £20 as part of their Christmas challenge. The choice of what to spend it on was mine.

Frugal Food

For those of you who have not yet heard of A Girl Called Jack, I recommend you get straight over to her blog as soon as you finish reading this. After finding herself in financial dire straits, she started the blog as a way of sharing recipes that she was able to make for a few pence in order to feed herself and her young son on the small amount of money she had available.

She has recently started the campaign #22mealsforacoffee to highlight the difference the cost of your daily coffee could make to a family struggling to make ends meet, encouraging us to spend that money donating to the very worthwhile charity The Trussell Trust, who provide foodbanks around the country, rather than popping into Starbucks every morning.

Easy Peasy Soda bread - 32p

I decided to take on the challenge of cooking the recipes from her blog, and seeing how easily I could get my food bill down. Over the past weekend I have knocked up her Mexican Bean, Chilli and Chocolate soup, her Easy Peasy soda bread and her Kidney Bean, Carrot and Cumin falafels. I didn't want to have to buy anything new so I substituted some items for those we already had in the cupboards, and everything turned out wonderfully. According to her prices, these two meals (we had the bread with the soup) cost me 85p. Healthy, nutritious and frugal - that's the kind of meal I like!

To buy or not to buy....

...that is today's question.

My dilemma. I have to renew my train pass in December, at a cost of £870 for the year. This will go up in January 2014 (price TBC) so I definitely want to take advantage of the 2013 price while I can, but it depresses me to: A) spend that much money at once and; B) to think I will still be commuting in a year's time!

When I bought the pass last year I had been paying monthly, the saving worked out as £23 a month when I converted to annual. A massive saving, I think you'll agree. I started a regular savings account and put £25 a month away (I figured I wouldn't miss it as I had been paying it out anyway) so by December I will have £325 squirreled away towards the new cost, leaving just £545 to find. I had hoped to find an interest free purchases card to put this on but have only managed to get accepted for a 6.9% on purchases for life card.

So. I guess I just buy the pass and put it on the card? I can probably throw £75 a month at the card whilst still saving this £25 a month towards next year's ticket (please God don't let me need one next year!), and I think it will only cost about £10 in interest payments.

Don't really know what the alternative is but I'd love to hear suggestions!

A Fiscal Fast

I have been reading about Jeff Yeager and his 'Fiscal Fast' concept recently and it's something that really touched a nerve with me. Our freezer is constantly full to bursting and our food cupboard is overflowing into the loft crawl space, yet I shop in Tesco most days because I fancy something particular for tea. Since going back to work after maternity leave we have less money each month than we used to and with energy prices constantly rising we need to start cutting some corners somewhere.

So. I have decided that this week I am going to do a 3 day fiscal fast and see how we get on. I have meal planned as follows:

Tonight - Youngs Fish and Chips - these were reduced to £1.19 each in Tesco which is a bargain as the fish is light and delicious - such a treat.
Wednesday - Green vegetable risotto to use up all those odds and ends of vegetables we have in the salad drawer
Thursday - Andrea's Pasta e Fagioli (or Pasta Fazool if you're Dean Martin...)
Friday - Vegetable curry from the freezer (will be taking S to Zoom Playcentre in Stockport on Friday so will need to spend some money but not on dinner if the meal plan goes to, ahem, plan).

Hopefully along with the bread in the bread bin, the boxes upon boxes of cereal we have in the storage space, the 5 pints of milk and the endless stocks of pasta and tinned tomatoes, this should see us through without spending anything else!

I have also downloaded myself a free app called Food Planner and Groceries from Google Play that allows me to add recipes from the web then add ingredients from those recipes onto a shopping list so I will be trying that over the next few weeks to see if it helps reduce all those little top up shops that are killing my budget. Wish me luck!