Snoodes, Beds, And Cheese Part One

Hello all Hope everyone is keeping well in frugal blogland. Here at Tilly towers we have had a fab week.On Monday my lovely friend S gave me a nice lot of free cheese. Her dad works in a cheese factory and gets to take some home with him for free. Occasionally when he brings way to much home S kindly sends some my way.

Mmmmmm free cheese yummy

I have been working on this snoode style scarf on and off for a few weeks now and finally got it finished this week. It is lovely and chunky and I'm tempted to keep it for myself lol. It will either be sold or put away as a Christmas present for next year I'm not quite sure which yet.

Lovely chunky wool it took 200g of wool which cost me £2 in total from poundland

Brad and myself have been in desperate need of beds. For some time now we have both been making do with a mattress on the floor each. After realising there was no spare money nor was there going to be to buy new beds I put an ad on the free to collector fb page. It took a few weeks but we now have new beds. Brad has a solid pine single bed and I have a double divan bed. Both are in fab condition and we have kept our own mattress each. Total cost for both beds was £20 to hire a local man with a van to collect them as I don't drive.

Brad and Brandon modelling the new bed lol 

Anyway this concludes part one of this blog post I will be back shortly with part two and an explanation as to why I have had to do it in two parts.

Much Love

Claire xx xx xx 

Birthday Celebrations And Poorly Boys

Well Ben's birthday went very well he was very happy with what he got (money which he is spending very wisely) and he had a fab time at the cinema and loved the new hobbit film. He has bought himself a second hand laptop off of eBay which was advertised for 70 pounds but I made an offer of 60 which was accepted saving him 10 pounds. He has some money left but is saving it till he see's something he really wants or needs (I have taught him well lol).

 

I got some good yellow sticker reductions again the other day I got the following
1 tray of 12 chocolate doughnuts 45p
2 x 2 corned beef slices 49p a bag
3 x 4 chicken thighs cooked in stout 79p a bag
2 egg salad rolls 19p each
2 tuna baguettes 19p each
2 ham and cheese sandwiches 19p each
1 cheese and ham pretzel 19p
2x 3 cinnamon swirls 15p a box
3 apple crowns 15p
5 bread rolls 15p

I also bought a bag of new to us clothes from a friend for 10 pounds and got some lovely items lots of them designer names including several onesies ideal for this cold weather. I was also informed that as we have 3 disabled people living in the house we may be eligible for the governments warm home discount scheme where they credit your electric bill with 135 pounds. I called earlier today and was told it sounds like we are eligible for it but had to be passed through to the assessment team which had a 20 minute wait so decided to call back when its less busy. I will let you know how we get on with the process and if anyone who has a disabled person living in the home or you are on a low income would like the link to applies themselves please let me know.

I had a bit of a clear out of the boys clothes that no longer fit them and have put them on the fb selling pages and have 2 people picking up items today Brandon's clothes bundle and the purse. The money I make will pay for the clothes I bought from my friend and a little profit on top which is always nice.

 

Brandon's clothes bundle sold for 10 pounds and being collected today

 

Ben's clothes bundle still up for sale for 10 pounds

 

Purse sold for 2 pounds and being collected today

 

I also have a very nice clock and a stair gate that I need to photograph and put up so hopefully that will bring in a few extra pennies.

I thought I would share some pictures with you of when the family came down to visit over xmas it was a really nice day and almost everyone was in their onesie's all day lol.

 

 

At the moment I have 2 poorly boys upstairs in bed. Ben has been being sick since this morning and Brandon is complaining of a tummy ache so they are both tucked up in bed. There is a norovirus doing the rounds so no doubt thats what it is. Anyway better go tend to my poorly little guys.

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

Blogging From Bed

I come to you this evening from the comfort of my bed. I am nicely tucked up with my electric blanket on and a big fluffy nightgown and fluffy bedsocks. The boys are dressed much the same but do you know what it's early January and we have only had to put the heating on a hand full of times so far this winter. I am in love with Ben's kindle it is allowing me to get things done even when I'm feeling unwell and not at my best. I've had a headache everyday for about a week now and it's driving me nuts painkillers and sleep are my best friends right now. I have managed to get out and do a few things this week with the help of my lovely man Lee. On Sunday we went reduced price shopping (yellow sticker) I spent the grand sum of £3.50 and for that I got the following items
12 pieces of chicken cooked in stout
1 southern fried chicken fillet
1 gammon shank
4 spaghetti Bolognese ready meals
6 tubes of sausage meat
10 all butter croissants
4 Apple and cinnamon scones
1 cranberry and white chocolate bouble
8 egg custard tarts
4 loaves of bread
2 Apple strudels
12 gooey ginger muffins
and possibly a few other items that I have forgotten.

On Monday we went into town to buy a new Hoover as mine decided to blow up on me last week. I did some research and found a nice vax reduced from £129.99 to £49.99 and comes with a two year guarantee. So I guess if your Hoover is going to blow up then January is the best month for it to do so as you can get a better one in the January sales for less money.

On Tuesday we went to bath to pick up my new hearing aids. We was seen on time and was in and out very quickly. I can't even begin to tell you what a difference they have made I am hearing sounds and voices I have not heard for years. The other day I heard the rain for the first time in years, I have heard my children's voices clearly, I have heard my darling Lee's voice clearly for the first time, and I am slowly rediscovering my love of music. It is an emotional journey for me and there have been a lot of tears over the last few days happy tears though not sad.

On Wednesday I  had a rest day although why I call it a rest day I don't quite know as I usually spend my rest days catching up on jobs in the house lol. To me a rest day is a day when I don't go out as going out is pretty hard work with the MD and really takes it out of me.

On Thursday I had another rest day although I did pop to my local one stop where I was surprised to see a LOT of yellow sticker reductions so I got the following
5 large pepperoni pizzas 50p each
2 packs of 4 chicken breasts £3 each
2 250g butter 77p each
2 packs of 9 crumpets 50p each
8 hovis bread rolls 25p

Today we popped to the optitons to pick up Ben's new glasses. He looks so cute in them and very intelligent although he is very intelligent anyway. We then went to return our dvds to the library and choose some new ones. On the way home I had to pop into Morrison's and was lucky  enough to pick up some more yellow sticker reductions. Today I got the following

6 packs of 4 pork pies 9p a pack
10 packs of 10 slices of roast beef 9p a pack
2 quiche lorraines 9p each
1 tub of cheese and bacon pasta 9p
1 tub of tuna mayo and sweetcorn 5p
4 packs of 2 creme caramels 5p a pack

Tomorrow is Ben's 10th birthday so as his birthday treat he is allowed one of his friends to sleepover and I will be cooking his favourite meal of mild chicken curry. I will use a pack of the yellow sticker chicken I bought for £3 and 2 jars of the curry sauce I stocked up on when they were just 20p. This will serve 3 people twice as half will be frozen for another day. So 57p a portion minus the cost of rice which I have lots of in the store cupboard at just 30p a kilo. He has a chocolate gateau cake for pudding again yellow sticker at £1.30.

On Sunday Lee will be taking Ben and his friend to see the new hobbit movie at the cinema done in frugal fashion of course. Trains there and back as its cheaper than the bus plus we have a rail card so get a further 60% off child's fairs and 1/3 off of adult fairs. We have a free adult guest ticket to use so Lee will get in for free and then it will be £6.45 for each of the 2 boys. Normally I would sneak treats and drinks in in my handbag but as I'm not going and Lee does not use a handbag lol we will be getting the family deal for £10 which consists of 2 small drinks, 2 small popcorns, 2 small sweets, 2 medium drinks, 1 medium popcorn. I'm not sure yet but we may have enough points on our Odeon loyalty card to pay for the drinks and treats I will have to get Lee to check.

Anyway off to watch one of my free library dvds whilst eating a yummy 2.5p warm slice of quiche hmmmm it's a hard life lol.

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

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