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!

Meal plans: 30th September - 6th October

So, both to keep me on track and to hopefully inspire some of you to try some new recipes, I will try to post up my meal plan on a weekly basis. I tend to take advantage of the yellow stickers (reduced items) in Tesco, the best bargains can be found around 3pm on a Sunday afternoon and after 8pm on a weekday. We currently only have a tiny fridge while we wait for our kitchen to be replaced so we're currently reliant on foods (root veg, tins etc) that can be stored at room temperature, barring milk, cheese, yoghurts and meats which we make space for!

Here follows my meal plan for this week. It's a day late so apologies for that, but I can tell you that the curry was yummy. I also don't tend to plan lunches as there's usually something leftover by the weekend, and I just take to work anything I haven't managed to use up the previous week. However, I'll often take salad, soup or pasta with me.

Monday: HFW's lentil dahl with brown rice and a tomato and red onion salad.

Tuesday: Quiche (from the reduced section) with lazy lady's skillet potatoes and broccoli

Wednesday: A Girl Called Jack's Carrot, Kidney Bean and Cumin falafel, with some potato wedges and spicy tomato sauce.

Thursday: Oven baked spinach risotto (spinach was purchased reduced to clear so I cooked it down in butter and garlic on Sunday before it slimed. Took up much less space in the fridge too!)

Friday: Oyster and Pearl's Tarka Dal with brown rice and a tomato and red onion salad

Saturday: Home made pizza (topped with whatever we have!)

Sunday: Leftover curry from Friday.


What are you having this week?

I'm back

I apologise for the long hiatus on this blog - I'd started to run out of new things to write about so have decided to slightly change the skew of the blog and make it more about moneysaving for familes. My moneysaving journey began when I decided I had had enough of constantly having no money left at the end of the month. While I consider myself to be a fairly frugal person, I also knew there was more I could do, as I always saw friends who seemed to be much better off than me - a coffee and a cake on a Saturday morning seeming to use up half of my weekly food shopping budget.


So, welcome to my world. I'll share budget recipes that could pass for Nigella, great discounts that I find for those special must-have-don't-need items and cheap ways to spend a day out with kids. If you have any suggestions, please do leave me a comment, I'd love to hear your tips.

Love, Siobhan