The Frugal Queen

I just had to share this blog with you it's called frugal queen and I have been reading for hours since stumbling upon it last week. Jane is a true inspiration she managed to clear 45K in 2 years by living a frugal life and has continued living a frugal life in order to over pay her mortgage at a rapid rate knocking years off her mortgage. She shares helpful tips and advice on cooking and shopping and a whole host of other frugal topics. This blog is well worth a read but I warn you it is addictive and like me you will end up spending hours reading her past posts.

www.frugalincornwall.blogspot.co.uk

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

Not Much To Report

I am feeling very unwell at the moment with a horrible cold and cough I am just hoping and praying it does not start my MD off as I have gone nearly 2 weeks now without an attack and it has been so nice to have a break from the spins. As a result I gave myself an easy day today. Lee and I got the basics done and then I spent the rest of the day curled up on the sofa with a box of tissues and some of my favorite blogs. When the boys got in from school I threw some thing quick and easy in the oven for tea. I got Brandon bathed and introduced Brad and Ben to a new game called how quick can you have a shower. My boys will quite happily dilly dally in the shower for up to half an hour costing me a pound each in electric well no more. They found it more fun than I expected actually and made a competition out of it to see who could do it the quickest which did make me giggle. They both managed to get in washed and out in 4 minutes. I think Brad was aiming for 3 minutes so he could beat Ben's time but he came in at 4 minutes the same as his brother. If they can keep their showers at 4 or 5 mins each I will save a hell of a lot on electricity meaning more money to throw at my debt challenge. After every one was washed and ready for bed we settled down to a game of Ben's Dr Who board game which we all enjoyed and then it was time for the boys to go to bed. Once they were all in bed I tidied up, put some washing on, and did an hours knitting on the baby blanket I am making as a gift for my next door neighbor. So as I said not much to report. I'm hoping to get mum's birthday present finished tomorrow I am making her a handmade toiletry set. I have made the headband and washcloth and now just need to decant the lotions and potions and decorate it all. I also need to make her a couple of cards one for mothers day and one for her birthday so all being well I will get it all finished tomorrow ready to post off to her on Wednesday. Anyway I am off for some much needed sleep now.

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

Making day

Today has been a very busy day for me. After getting the boys ready and off to school the Mr and I went and caught the free Tesco bus. We do this almost every Wednesday. I needed to get some pants and trousers for Brandon, some socks for Brad, and some all purpose cleaner and was not about to waste £4.10 on the paid bus for a return ticket. I also had to pop a cheque into the bank (a little unexpected windfall which will be used as another overpayment on my debts). The aim is to spend the next 10 months being as frugal as possible in order to clear 9 and a 1/2 k of debt by xmas. It will certainly be a challenge but its doable if we work together as a family. Anyway where was I oh yes we went to Tesco. I managed to get Brandon 7 pairs of pants for £2.50, a pair of jeans for £3, and 5 pairs of socks for Brad for £1.50. We also had our weekly treat of a cooked breakfast 8 items of food and a bottle of orange juice for £4.25. I pay one week and the Mr pays the following week so we take it in turns to pay.

It was as yummy as it looks

I always take a few extra ketchup satchets home with me its not a big saving tip but every penny counts. After breakfast we took a nice stroll along the river and through the park into town.

I always like to stop for a few minutes and watch the ducks

I put my cheque in the bank and we got the bus home. When we got home I set about making some homemade laundry detergent it is really very easy to make, costs pennies, and lasts me months.

This little lot will keep us going for a while

I also had some manky bananas in the fruit bowl that I wanted to use up (I hate throwing food away if it can be used in some other way) so decided to make a banana and chocolate cake.

Very yummy but next time I think I will leave the chocolate icing off as it was extremly sweet

And the boys favourite and again very cheap and easy to make chocolate cornflake cakes

I also wanted to share with you my breakfast cereal shelf. I am very fortunate that I have not had to buy cereal for months now. The Mr is a security officer at a very well known cereal factory and every so often gets given boxes and boxes of cereal for free which he then brings over for me and the boys.

Yummy and free cant beat that combination

Anyway I am coming down with a cold and feel really unwell. My throat is extremely sore, my nose is running a marathon, and my entire body aches so im off to suck on some honey and lemon and get some much needed sleep.

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

A very frugal valentines day

I wanted to share my very frugal valentines day with you but at the time had no internet now I have a new dongle so here it is. Me and the Mr decided we would not go mad but we wanted to do some thing to celebrate our love. We decided to set a limit of £10 for gifts, card, and wrap and looked around for a good deal on a meal out. We found a deal where we would get a main, a pud, and a bottle of wine for £20 a couple so decided to go for this. We arrived at the restraunt on time and were seated promtly we ordered our main which was served in good time and tasted yummy this is when things started to go wrong. We ordered our pud I ordered a simple ice cream sundae and the Mr ordered a sticky toffee pudding. We waited patiently but after half an hour and the place being very quiet inquired where our desserts were we was told "we will get to you eventualy". At this point I began to get annoyed note to food establishments:- this is not the way to speak to paying customers. We waited for another half an hour still no sign at this point we decided to ask for the puds to be refunded and leave just as we decided this our puds arrived so we began eating them about half way into my icecream sundae which didnt taste so good (proberly all the waiting we did) I found a hair in it. As you can imagine steam was now coming out of my ears we had been spoken to rudely, waited an hour for dessert, and when it finaly came there was a hair in it. We demanded a full refund and left agreeing that we would not be going back there again. So our meal and drinks came to the grand sum of £0.

Me and the Mr trying to see the funny side of this debacle

We decided to pop into Tesco on our way to catch the train home and boy am I glad we did we got some great end of day bargains.

This little lot cost me just £1.61

We got 4 loaves of bread, 8 white sub rolls, 2 chocolate choux buns, 4 lemon cupcakes, 2 packs of rice noodles, a big bowl of salad, 10 mini pittas, 2 soreen fruit loaves, and 40 soft bread rolls all for £1.61 bargain. We then walked to the train station to get the train home the ticket office was closed and there is no ticket machine on this particular station so decided we would get our tickets on the train as most people do here in the evenings. Well we was not asked for a ticket and there was no conductor in sight to purchase one so we got a free ride home another bargain.

The costing for our entire evening is as follows
Bus into town £5.40 for both of us
Meal and drinks out £0
Tesco trip £1.61
Train home £0

Total cost £7.01 not bad, if all nights out were this cheap I would be inclined to have more of them but as they are not we will settle with a dvd at home cuddled up on the sofa with some homemade popping corn just as nice and no cost. Hope everyone else had a good valentines day.

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

Ahhhhh Thats Better

Ok so I finaly gave in and bought a new dongle today. I had decided I was going to continue to blog using my phone but after trying to add photos to a post (very unsucessfully) realised the only way I would be able to continue writting would be to give into the expense and buy a new dongle. I was fortunate enough to be able to get the same deal as I did before 3 months internet for £29.99 which works out about £10 a month.Considering my mobile phone, landline, t.v package and internet was costing me £85 a month a few months ago and I am now paying £17 a month I think im doing quite well. So im back up and running now and will be recomensing my blogging and I have to say it feels oh so good "Ah thats better"

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

To Blog Or Not To Blog

Well I've been gone far to long my dongle broke and I just could not justify spending another 30pounds on a new one so we have just done without. We all have phones with internet access so we have not missed out but I was unaware that I could blog via my phone. I now know differntly and have been asking myself whether I should pick up my blogging or just call it a day. I have no followers and only double figures of readers so I doubt I would be missed. I've thought about this a lot over the last few days and realised that I would miss it something terrible I love writting, I love reading my own past posts and remembering days i've shared with my family, I love being part of an online community who refuse to conform to the "norm." So in answer to my own question I shall continue to blog and shall do so via my phone (no new dongle for me). She's backkkkkkk lol.

Slowly getting back to normal just in time for xmas

Catch up

Well things are slowly getting back to normal here Brads behaviour seems to be calming down a little and I have been fortunate enough to have only suffered one MD attack in the last 2 months. Brandon is receiving disabilty now that we have a formal diagnosis of his Autism. So I now officialy have 2 autistic children. Although we have known this for years its nice to have it recognised professionaly and hopefully he will now start recieving the help he so badly needs. A while ago I wrote a post on the cut backs I would be making in my household with our media and telephone packages. Im pleased to say the changes have now taken place and we should start seeing savings on next months bill. I was paying £55 a month for our internet, landline, and t.v package. I have now got that down to £10 a month by getting rid of the landline as we never used it anyway, purchasing a mobile broadband dongle where you pay in advance £30 for 3 months internet usuage, and we have got rid of the tv package and are having freeview installed in 2 weeks time. I am lucky enough to have a very talented step father who can turn his hand to anything he will be installing it for me free of charge and the freeview box itself I had in the shed from several years ago so all I will need to buy is an ariel. In the meantime we are making do with videos and dvds and watching the odd bit of tele online. With my mobile phone I was going to cancel my contract with them and go onto pay as you go. However when I called to cancel my contract with them they offered me an awsome deal that will match what I would have payed on pay as you go. I was given a brand new touch screen phone with lots of apps and internet access and I now recieve 100 mins talktime, 350 texts, unlimited internet usage for just £7 a month. Of course with vat added it will work out to about £8.50 a month providing I dont go over my allowances. I was paying £25 - £30 a month for my mobile service so this is a saving of £21.50 a month. In total I am saving myself £66.50 a month which works out a whopping £798 a year an awsome saving.

Xmas preperations

I have been preparing for xmas the last few weeks and am hoping to make this one the best yet for the children, myself, and Lee. It is our first xmas all together so its going to be a special one. I have almost finished buying all the presents I still have a few more to get and will take care of that this week. I have been doing an hours present wrapping every night and will continue with this so that it will all be done in time avoiding a mad present wrapping session xmas eve as I have ended up doing the last few years. I seem to be a lot more organised this xmas than I have been in the past I think its because I have Lee in my life now and he helps out with chores whenever he is here decreasing my workload by half. The xmas decorations were put up on the 1st of December a combination of old and new. I had to buy a few new ones as some of the old ones were broken. We did put up our tree but have had to take it down again as baby kept climbing up it and pulling it down. Lee and I will put it back up xmas eve and keep baby out of the front room little monkey she is. As far as the xmas shopping is concerned we dont go overboard like a lot of families do. I will do my normal weekly shop but include the ingrediants needed for xmas dinner with a choice of christmas cake, mince pies and cream, or chocolate cake for pudding. On boxing day we usualy just have a buffet laid out for the day and a box or 2 of sweets so I will be buying this in addition to my normal weekly shop again I will take care of that this week. It does make me laugh the way people food shop for xmas the amount they buy is crazy. I know my mum is the same she spends a small fortune and ends up eating a lot of the treats she buys well into January or throwing a lot of it away which is a terrible waste and as good as throwing money directly into the bin.
I have also been working on my xmas house clean I always give the house a good decluttering and clean in time for xmas. The boys have a total of 5 toy boxes and a very big book basket which has hundreads of books in. I went through all the toy boxes and threw away any toys that were broken. I also sorted out the toys that they no longer play with and sent them to the charity shop. So there is now plenty of space for all the lovely new prezzies they will get for xmas this year. I also did a general decluttering of the whole house throwing away things that were broken and sending anything we no longer use but is in good condition to the charity shop. The house is looking a lot more tidy and spaceous now which is lovely. I have also taken down and washed all my nets and curtains and will be stripping and washing my sofas this week also. Which will just leave washing down the walls, doors and paintwork again I will take care of that this week as a friend is going to give me a hand doing this for an hour sometime this week. Providing all goes to plan I should be on top of xmas by Friday this week which will then leave me free to enjoy the festivities with my beutiful family.

Hope everyone elses preparations for xmas are going as well as mine and if I dont get to post again before xmas
From me and my family we wish you all a very merry xmas.

Much Love
Claire xxx