A New Year A New Start

So its 2014 Happy New Year everyone. Hope you all had a wonderful xmas and New Year with your loved ones. I know I did and my MD stayed at bay which made it even better. New years resolutions well I don't have any I'm afraid. I don't believe in them never have it's like setting yourself up for a failure and then you just end up beating yourself up and feeling rotten. I do have a couple of areas I wish to improve upon these include my blog writing. I want to write more posts and try and post more regularly. I now have my new specs which will help with the headaches and blurred vision I suffer as a result of my MD. I have also bought a kindle Fire for Ben for xmas which is what I am using now to write this post so I can post from the comfort of my bed even when I'm not feeling to good. We got a very good deal on the kindle it cost £100 instead of £169 and its a 16GB instead of an 8GB. Ben is delighted with it and I can see mummy will be getting plenty of use out of it also lol. I also want to work on another area my finances I have reduced them a lot this year and now have just £6475 left to pay off until I am completely debt free. I intend to put every spare penny towards debt repayment and hope to have this paid off by June when Lee and I will then start saving for our wedding in 2016. Although I have always been very honest with you all that I am in debt and how much in debt I am I have never shared specific numbers with you. I guess embarrassment has prevented me from doing so however I have decided to share with you a specific breakdown of what I owe and to whom and will update these figures monthly. Hopefully by making it public it will encourage me to keep on track with the repayment schedule I have devised for myself. So here we go

Wonga short term loan £1441
Marisota catalogue £671
Very catalogue £814
Argos scorecard £535
Jewellery in pawn shop £300
Provident doorstep loan £714
Overdraft £2000

I sincerely hope you will not judge me based on my debts and who they are to it has been very hard but I have got these figures down a lot over the last year and hope to get rid of them completely over the next 6 months ready for a whole new start. A New Year a new start as the title states.

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

Xmas Preparations

Well I have been a very busy bee with all my Xmas prep. The house has been completely decluttered, I am half way through my Xmas clean, all my lists have been made, Xmas prezzies have and still are being made, any prezzies I already have are wrapped and tagged and hidden away, Xmas card list is ready to go, decs have been taken out and cleaned ready for the 1st Dec, the Xmas eve hamper is done, and the stockings have all been done. I still have a lot to make and am awaiting a delivery of lampwork beads for the bracelets I am making as gifts. I seem to be knitting ALL the time at the moment but with 4 weeks till Xmas its action stations on the homemade prezzies. I also have a few custom orders for snoods which I am also trying to get done.

I managed to get Brad a bargain of a Xmas present and something he really wants from one of the local selling pages on FB. I got him a TV/DVD combi for 15 pounds the lady even threw in a free digibox so next time my dad is down he can plumb freeview into Brads room which will cost me nothing. I have also managed to get Brandon quite a few prezzies off of the selling pages. I bought some very nice gift bags for the second hand prezzies as they are obviously not packaged so are often hard to wrap. I got 4 for 1 pound from the card factory and they are really pretty and of a good strong quality.

I have decided we are going to have chicken with all the trimmings for our Xmas dinner this year as it tastes the same as turkey but is not as dry and a turkey for the 5 of us would cost in the region of 10-15 pounds when I can get 4 chicken leg quarters for 2.60.

A few tips for you Asda currently have the tins of roses and quality street for a fiver and pringles are only 1 pound a tube so I got my tin of crimbo sweets today and 2 tubes of pringles. We love pringles but at almost 2.50 a tube they are out of our price range so these will be a lovely treat come Xmas. Asda also have their smartprice mild curry sauce jars at 20p so I bought 3 but will be going back with my trolley to stock up on them before they go up again. Also if like us you enjoy a sweet treat after your dinner they have a 4 pack of smartprice chocolate moose for 18p at the moment. I promise you this is not an ad for Asda lol I just happened to be in there today and spotted all the bargains and thought I would share them with you.

Dinner tonight was incredibly cheap I went yellow sticker shopping on Sunday and got lots of bargains tonight we had some of those bargains. We each had an egg salad sub roll 15p and a bag of melon and grapes for afters 5p so 20p a head 80p in total.

Anyway off to do yet more knitting lol

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

Spooky Goings On

Happy Halloween everyone hope you have all had a good day. My day has been spent working my way through the mountain of washing that seems to have accumulated from no where lol. I did find time to make another 4 bracelets as xmas gifts and also to get a little more knitting done. I will try and take some pictures of them tomorrow but the lighting has not been great here its quite dull all day and my Eco light bulbs seem to turn all my pictures a slight orangey colour. We have had a fun Halloween here at Tilly Towers and it has cost me the princely sum of 60p.

Pumpkin cost nothing as Brad made it at respite and bought it home with him

The mountain of sweets the kids got trick or treating. This should last them a while and save me a few pennies in the process :)

I forgot to take a picture of them this evening but they were exactly the same as last year using the same costumes from the dressing up box which meant I did not have to buy anything for them to wear trick or treating this year. This picture was taken last Halloween.

We had a Halloween bowl (which I have had for years) full of Morrisons savers toffees for the trick or treaters that came knocking 3 bags at 20p a bag and we have a few toffees left over so that's where the 60p comes in. I cant afford to buy posh expensive sweets to give to half the children in my town but I also don't like to turn anyone away empty handed. This suits both myself and the trick or treaters as they get a sweet when they knock on the door and I don't spend a fortune so everyone's happy.

Anyway that's how we did Halloween on a budget 60p not bad hey :)

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

I'm Back

Recently I have found myself thinking more and more about the blog and how much I miss writing it. My reasons for taking a break have calmed down some what since making the decision and I have felt the desire to write again. I said I would mention my reasons for taking a break when I returned I wont go into to much detail but I was having a lot of trouble with my eldest son's behaviour. His Autism causes behavioural problems but these were way out of control and he was self harming and speaking of ending it all. I knew something had to give and I had to put all my time and efforts into him and giving him the support he so needed these last few weeks. I am pleased to say Brad is a lot better he has calmed down drastically he still has the odd wobble but find me a teenager who doesn't. My blogging may be a little sporadic over the next few months as I continue to support him but I hope you will forgive me this under the circumstances. I have him on the waiting list for counselling and a buddy mentor scheme all of which I hope will aide his recovery from what has been a pretty dark time for all of us.

In amongst all the darkness there has been an element of light. The Mr asked me to marry him and I said yes so I am now an engaged woman. We choose the ring together and in true frugal fashion I choose a ring that was second hand and not that expensive whilst still being incredibly pretty and I love it.

I have been doing a fair bit of reduced price food shopping (yellow sticker) and have done really well with my buys. We are currently eating down the stock piles and just doing the occasional top up shop for things like bread, milk, fruit, veggies. I am also walking a lot more. I will still only go out if I have some one with me in case of an attack but I have lost 1 stone and 5 pounds in just over a month by walking a lot more and not eating so many sweet treats so I hope to keep going with this. I have kept up my over payments and have cleared just under another 1000 pounds of debt which is great we are headed in the right direction. I have also completely de-cluttered the entire house and have a few things to sell (any money made will go into over payments) and a few things to take to the charity shop. I have also been busy making Xmas prezzies I am making the snood type scarfs for people this year along with an item of jewelry for the ladies and some form of chocolate from poundland for the men. Lee and I have also agreed to cap our presents to each other to no more than 30 pounds and the boys have a limit of 75 pounds each this year. I have been buying a few bits here and there over the year and have received a few free items which I have also put away for Xmas so in spite of the limit they should do quite nicely and be quite happy with what they get. I have also started a sealed jar every night I empty my purse and put all the 50/20/10p's into it and the first thing I do on a Monday when I get paid is put a 5 pound note in there once it is full I will empty it and use it towards over payments. I also have a penny jar where I save all my 5/2/1p's which will be emptied when full and used towards a family treat be it a day out or a takeaway (rare in this house).

Here is my To Do List (I'm hoping to get it all done before Xmas)

1= Get rubbish removed from the shed
2= Measure up windows and find a good deal on new nets
3= Wash all windows and frames down
4= Wash sofas
5= Wash curtains
6= Continue with prezzie making

I will keep you updated with how I'm getting on. Anyway bit tired now so going to head to bed hope to be back soon with some more updates.

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

Tough Times

Well its been weeks since I posted but I do have very good reasons for my lack of presence. As a family we are experiencing some rather tough times at the moment largely in relation to Brads autism. I wont go into details right now as its some pretty personal stuff and I don't wish to be all doom and gloom today. I have decided to take a bit of a break from blogging so that I can concentrate on helping my son overcome the problems he is facing right now and be there to help and guide the youngest 2 boys as it is also affecting them. I may write about what we are going through when I return as it could help another family struggling with autism to know they are not alone but that will be something I will need to discuss with Brad first. It is after all his life I would be talking about. I don't know how long I will be gone but I do know I will return at some point. In the meantime I wish you all love and luck in everything you do.

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

Our Free Day Of Fun

Hello all hope everyone is keeping well. We had a smashing day yesterday and the cost of the day was zero it was all completely free. Once a year the local churches get together to arrange a free fun day for the children in the area and it takes place on the big green just outside my house. This year they had giant noughts and crosses, glass staining candle holders, making a spiders web from wool, giant garden pick up sticks, giant snakes and ladders, learn to play the bongos, general drawing and colouring, sandpit, face painting, bouncy castle, and free tea/squash and cakes. We had a lovely time we found a nice spot on the green where we could keep tabs on Brandon and enjoyed our free drink and cake whilst Brandon made full use of the facilities on offer.

Such a wonderful idea and it helps bring the community together. Personally I would be happy to pay a small amount in order to have something like this more regularly in the community. It was a wonderful day and Brandon thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

Flowers For Pennies

Hello all I'm back and feeling so much better. I had a couple of rough weeks following my operation but the last week or so I have felt very well and almost back to my old self again. Yesterday Lee had a day off of work so we went into Salisbury for the day. We took Ben and Brandon for something to eat and then went to visit my friend in Salisbury hospital. She has broken her leg very badly and has had to have an operation on it and is awaiting a second operation to put a metal plate in her leg. After spending a few hours with the bestie we decided to treat the boys to a cinema trip (Lee's treat) and we watched Smurfs 2. The kids loved it and it was nice to be able to watch a film in the cinema without the worry of having an attack. On the way home we stopped at Tesco and got some really good end of day bargains I got the following
6 white hovis rolls 12p x3
6 large bananas 6p
4 organic gala apples 25p
6 everyday value apples 20p
Large bag of grapes 20p x2
Bag of lettuce 10p
2kg of potatoes 14p
6 tomatoes 12p
Large bag of mushrooms 9p
Bag of sliced apples 5p x3
Bunch of pink freesias 30p
Bunch of pink roses 30p

That's right I have treated myself to this beautiful bunch of flowers which cost me the grand sum of 60p (the orange flowers which I think are some type of Lilly have been cut from my back garden).

They are lovely and for 60p I cant complain about the cost and they really brighten up the kitchen. Tomorrow I will be catching up on housework during the day and then in the evening we will be going over to Lee's for the night. I also hope to do my school uniform check and order what they will need new for September. I will let you all know how I get on with that and how much it ends up costing me. I have looked around for the best prices so I am armed and ready to go.

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx