Getting new clothes for next to nothing

I have just brought quite a few new summer clothes for the boys the total cost including delivery was £3.50 all these clothes are brand new from tesco I will show you what I got and at the bottom I will explain how I done this.

Bradley

                 

            

Ben 

                                                   

Brandon

                        

The total book price for these items was £57.45. Tesco offer free delivery on purchases over £50 so £3.95 was taken off leaving a total of £53.50. I also had a promotional code for £10 off when you spend over £40 which left a total of £43.50. I had been saving up my clubcard vouchers and had £20 worth so I traded these in for a £40 clothing voucher some time ago and had not yet used the voucher (Tesco double the amount of your clubcard vouchers when you trade them in for specific items) leaving a total of £3.50 to pay. So I was able to purchase 15 brand new items of clothing for the bargain price of £3.50 this is definately a way I will be buying clothes again.

The code for £10 off when you spend £40 or more is ENJOY12 this is valid untill 15th april 2012

The place to visit to trade in your clubcard vouchers can be found here (please note that tesco only run the double vouchers at certain times throughout the year im sure if you were to contact tesco they would be able to give you an idea of when this promotion will next be running)http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/clubcard/

Much Love

Claire

xx xx xx

Friday

Spring is definatly here I took some lovely pictures of spring today.

                                                        Ladybird Ladybird fly away home

You cant quite make them out but they are a little patch of forget me knots and the green plant next to it emerges into the most beutiful orange flower not sure what its called though I think it may be a lilly or an orchid of some kind.

Some pictures of the allotments that back onto my garden

This is my tiny little patch as you can see it needs a little TLC lol. In the past I have tried growing a few veggies here but have never had much success so this year I think im just going to plant a few flowers

Ben had a competition at school today of who could find the largest and who could find the smallest potatoe. This was the smallest we could find but it was not small enough as someone else won.

My beutiful apron arrived from Love Loo Loo dont forget if you like what you see you can view more of Laura's items here http://www.etsy.com/shop/LoveLooLooxox

I had lots of eggs in the fridge that needed using up and a few potatoes on the verge of turning so can you guess what we had for dinner ..............

Egg and homemade chips of course nom nom nom lol

A few pictures of Brandon at our lunch time picnic in the park

Some goodies from the charity shop they had a sale on childrens clothing any 4 items for £1 I managed to get a next jacket for Brandon, a winter coat for Ben, a tshirt for Brandon, a pair of jeans for Brad, 3 long sleeved tshirts for Brad, and a long sleeved tshirt for Ben total cost £2

  

Our dvd and book rentals for the week. Because of my menieres disease I have a special account at the library that allows me to rent dvd's free of charge and we dont have to worry about return dates on any of the items we borrow either.

Hope everyone else had a good Friday.
Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx

Money Saving Tip

Did you know that Tesco operate a free bus service once a week to and from your local area to the nearest large Tesco store all over the UK. I found this out from a friend just last week so decided to try it out today. I have mentioned before that my nearest large Tesco is quite a way approx 15 mile round trip. I dont drive so have to rely on buses and the bus that drops me the closest still leaves me with a good 15 minute walk to the store (not easy when you are loaded up with shoping). Tesco online delivery fee ranges from £3-£6 compared to Asda which charges £2.50-£5. I usualy always do my shoping online at Tesco and end up paying an average of £4 delivery charge. This week armed with the knowledge of the free bus I decided to try and cut down on my shoping bill again. I made my shoping list in the usual way, I then opened Tesco online shoping in one tab and Asda online shoping in another. I went through my list one item at a time checking whether each item was cheaper at Tesco or Asda if the item was cheaper at Asda it went into my online basket, If it was cheaper at Tesco it went onto a new shoping list. I did this for each item untill I had completed my original shoping list. When I had finished I had a basket of shoping at Asda online and a new shoping list for Tesco to purchase in person using the free bus service. I paid £2.50 for my shoping with Asda to be delivered and made approx £10 in savings than what I would have paid if I had brought these items in Tesco. Today I got the free bus to Tesco to pick up the items that were cheaper in Tesco than Asda which saved me having to pay the usual £4 delivery charge. In total I saved around £11.50 this week doing my shoping in this way, sure it took me slightly longer than usual but it was worth it for the savings I made. I also got given a £5 off my next shop voucher from Asda as I spent over £40 with them so will make an additional saving of £5 next time :)
Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx

Sunday

Today has been strangely quiet at my house. My best friend took my youngest son Brandon to the seaside for the day to give me and my eldest 2 a little break. Because of Brandons autism combined with his age (4) he is extremely hard work often argueing with his brothers and generaly just being very demanding on all of us so it was lovely to have a nice peacefull day. Here is a lovely picture of Brandon on the beach on his day out with aunty Karen.

Bradley has been asking if his friend J could come round and play for a few days now and by a strange coincidence J called Bradley this morning asking if he could come and play for the day. J is a lovely young man who Bradley has been friends with for many years. J is only 13 but incredibly tall for his age below are 2 pictures of Ben stood next to J you will see in the second picture Ben actualy has to look up at J to speak to him which I thought was very cute and just had to get a picture of. J's face has been blotted out to protect his identity.

As it was so peacefull I decided to get a little baking done I made 3 different types of cup cake, a ham and egg pie, a loaf of bread, and some lemon tarts. Unfourtunately I only managed to get a picture of one set of cup cakes as I got so into my baking I forgot to take pictures of the rest ooopppsss lol.

Ben had great fun licking the bowl when I had finished with it lol.

I am always looking for ways to cut my electricity bill we are a completely electric household no gas at all. During the warmer months we spend around £20 a week on electric and during the colder months around £40 a week (this used to be £70 a week untill I looked at ways of saving electric on heating bills such as extra layer of clothes, extra insulation, draught excluders etc etc) When I went into town on thursday I found a lovely pair of wind lanterns at a cost of just £2.50 each I decided to buy them and use them in the evenings instead of electric lighting. I had a big bag of 100 tea light candles at home which will keep me going for a while and I can get a set of 20 tea lights from the cheap shop for just £1. As soon as the boys go to bed of an evening all the lights go off and I use candle light only. The boys go to bed around 8pm and I am usualy up till around 1am I use one tea light candle in each lantern which lasts the whole night. So working out the figures it will cost me 10p to light the house for 5 hours awsome and I have to say how relaxing to curl up with a good book or do the washing up by candle light.

With easter fast approaching Ben and I have been discussing how our faith effects us in our daily lives I dont know if I have mentioned it before but we are a christian family and we take our faith seriously. Ben also attends a christian school and on thursday Ben will be playing the part of caiaphas in the school's easter play. I am extremely proud of the way my son follows his faith he seems to have a natural pull towards the christian faith even expressing a desire in becoming a vicar. Ben is also very intrested in writting. At the age of 5 he was a published poet and is extremely advanced for his age. We have even been told by several different teachers that he could quiet easily get a fully paid scholarship at private school. However Ben is happy where he is and I have never been the sort of parent to force my wants upon my children so he will be staying at his current school untill he becomes a senior. We will then look at this option again. All this said Ben has been working on his own version of the easter story and I have promised him that if I feel it is upto scratch I will publish it on my blog so keep your eyes peeled and I would love to hear your comments on his writting skills.

Anyway I am now going to watch the danceing on ice final and go to bed ready to face another day.
Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx

Saturday

Today has been a pretty relaxed day for me and the boys we all had a nice lay in and then went and did a bit of shoping stoping for lunch whilst we were out. Here is our day in pictures:

                                            Brad giving Kindy his breakfast of fresh carrot

On our way into town on the bus

They say sarcasim is the lowest form of wit and this next picture proves it lol. I asked for a decent sized bowl of ketchup to go with our lunch instead of the tiddly little bowls you usualy get given this is what we recieved

When we got home Brandon took a little nap I think he was a little tired after the excitment of a giant bowl of ketchup lol

I unpacked my shoping whilst Brandon was taking a nap and Ben and Brandon went out to play on their bikes. After sorting out the shoping I cleaned out kindy our house rabbit. Yesterday I was lucky enough to purchase a beutiful handmade apron from my friends etsy store she has put it to one side for me and I will be paying for it on monday. Below is a picture of the style of apron I have purchased it is not the exact one mine is a different colour but I will post a picture of this once it is delivered. If you would like to browse some of Loo Loo's other beutiful handmade items you can view them here http://www.etsy.com/shop/LoveLooLooxox

For dinner I did chicken and mushroom noodles I brought some value brand pot noodles at just 21p per pot I made up 3 of these pots. In a frying pan with a little olive oil and some dried herbs I cooked 2 chicken breasts and lots of mushrroms once every thing was cooked I mixed it all up in a large bowl and served with some homemade bread. Im afraid I did not get a picture this time but will be sure to get one nesxt time I do this dish. The cost of the whole meal was £3.10 and gave all four of us a big hearty serving there is even a little left over in the fridge.

After dinner Brandon had a bath and fell asleep on the sofa while Brad pretended to be a rap star in the living room mirror. All the boys are now in bed and after tidying up and having a shower that is where I will be heading myself.

My children bring me so much joy and I am so thankfull to have them in my life

Much Love

Claire

xx xx xx

Feeling much better

I am starting to feel much better although I am having MD attacks almost daily my stress levels have come down and im feeling much more relaxed. I decided not to join the volunteer agency in the end as my health has been bad and there was no way I could be commited to anything not knowing when an MD attack would strick. I have been lucky enough to have made an awsome friend in Kel the lady I was helping and we will continue to be friends despite me no longer doing the volunteer side of things. Kel has been very supportive of me over the last few weeks when I have been ill and had family problems always there to listen and give good sound advice and I am truely thankfull she came into my life. This week things have pretty much returned to normal my house duties are all up to date and on top of. Ive even managed to get a little baking and mending done I had to re hem and put new buttons on several pairs of school trousers and also sew up a few holes. On thursday I met with Kel for lunch and to go to the library its becoming a regular thing for us now and its so nice to get out the house for a bit and do the whole ladies at lunch thing its also gives us the oppourtunity to catch up and put the world to right. I had some good news in the library as I have MD which makes it difficult to get items back on time they have changed my account so that I will no longer incure fines if items are late back I am also able to rent dvd's free of charge which is awsome. Tomorow will be spent spending time with the boys baking and on sunday providing im upto it we will be going to the little park across the road for a picnic lunch will try and remember to take some pictures.
Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx

When things go from bad to worse

Just recently I have noticed a change in the boys behaviour it started slowly untill I woke up one day to what can only be described as pandemonium. The house had been trashed and all I could hear was fighting and crying this is what I have woken upto every morning for the last few weeks now. It has really taken its toll on my health and my depression has begun to rear its ugly head again. I dont know if I have spoken about my depression before so I will give you a quick over view. I have suffered from clinical depression for almost 14 years now it started after the birth of my first son and has never really gone away since. A lot of the time it is managable with the help of anti depressants but some times when my stress levels are increased it starts to kick in again. I become increasingly tired, have a major lack of energy, become tearfull at the slightest little thing, and just want to run away and hide from everyone and everything. This is how ive been feeling over the last few weeks untill last night I hit a major melt down which culminated in a major panic attack. Panic attacks can be extremely frightening and can even make you feel like you are dying. In a desperate bid to end this feeling of hopelessness I searched the internet trying to find an online programe that may help me regain control again. I found a programe run by someone called Alexandra Massey unlike most programmes designed to beat depression this one has been designed by someone who suffered from depression herself and was able to beat it. It cost me £9.99 to join the programme but the way I see it is if it works and helps me regain control then its a small price to pay. I worked my way through the first 2 chapters of the programme last night and have woken this morning feeling much more positive and like I can beat this and find myself again. I called a house meeting with the boys and explained how their behaviour towards me, the house, and each other has been making me feel and that it needs to stop NOW. I set out a set of house rules and consequences if these rules are broken although they got very upset initialy they agreed that their behaviour had become unacceptable and that the new rules and consequences were fair. So we have spent the last 2 hours tidying up all the mess they have made and I have to say they did a great job I just hope that they continue to realise the importance of respecting their home and each other as it will surely make things easier for me and make my recovery that much easier. Today will be spent working as a team to get back on top of everything in the house and hopefully there will be a little time left over so we can do something together to help us reconnect as a family and remind us why we love each other as much as we do.
Much Love
Claire xx xx xx