Feeling Guilty

Hello readers I come to you tonight from my bed and a little sad. Tonight is Ben's showing of the play he has been working hard on with his drama group. Unfortunately I am to wobbly to attend. I have been off kilter all day but since this afternoon I can feel an attack brewing and did not want to risk the embarrassment it would cause to Ben should I go into full on attack mode in the middle of his play. He is not alone as Lee and Brad have gone over to support him. The Mr is under strict instructions to take lots of pictures and make videos of all the parts where Ben has lines. I am so disappointed that I can't be there with him. This is the aspect of my MD I hate the most when it effects my ability to be the mum I want to be. I do my best not to let the MD win and still take the boys out whenever I can and attend all of their events when I'm able but inevitably sometimes the MD wins and I have to concede defeat and just rest.

At the moment I am click clacking away with my knitting trying not to think about what I am missing. I believe there will be a thunder storm tonight as I often get like this when one is brewing. The weather is a major trigger for MD patients :(

Have you ever missed one of your children's events ? Did you feel as guilty as I do right now ?


Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

Jam Making

Hello readers a quick update on Brandons school situation yesterday. I went and spoke to his head teacher today and it turns out that the child in question had been teasing him for some time and yesterday he just snapped. The mother of the other child has also been spoken to and she is happy that it was six of one and half a dozen of the other. The other child has been spoken to about teasing Brandon so this should hopefully stop now. Both his head teacher and myself have told him that if he has problems in the future to come and talk to us instead of taking matters into his own hands. We discussed a suitable punishment and she was pleased with how I handled the situation at home. We both agreed one more day of no computer privileges would surfice and the matter has now been dropped.

The Mr took me for a spot of lunch today and it was so nice to get out of the house for a bit. I'm very wobbly at the moment due to this cold causing my MD to play up so I had to go in the wheelchair. We called into the local green grocers on the way home and I managed to get a large punnet of strawberries, lots and I mean lots of plums, some carrots and broccoli, and a bag of Apple's for £2.40. I have decided to turn the strawberries and plums into jam. This will be my first time making jam and as I don't have a canner I will be using the hot water bath method of canning.

Do you make homemade jam ? Do you have any tips or recipes you care to share ?


Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

Parenting Advice Needed

Hello readers as far as frugal living goes this is kind of off the beaten track but I would really welcome the view of other parents out there. As a lot of you will know my 6 year old son Brandon is autistic which can often cause behavioural problems. Today I was too poorly to pick him up from school so my friend S picked him up for me. When she dropped him off she told me that there had been a problem in school today and the teacher would like me to go in when I am able for a word. It transpires that Brandon had strangled another child in the dinner line and had to be removed and taken to the head teachers office. Although Brandon does have behavioural problems he has NEVER put his hands on another child (other than his brothers when they fight amongst themselves). My heart dropped when I heard all of this as this is not the way I have brought my son up to behave. I asked him why he did what he did and he told me that this boy had been mean to him on a number of occasions. I told Brandon that it was unacceptable for him to put his hands on another child and that if he had a problem with this boy he should have spoken to me or a teacher and NOT taken matters into his own hands. Just because he is autistic does not justify his behaviour and I know that if I was the mother of this other little boy I would be furious. He was sent to his room immediately for half an hour and has had his computer privilege taken away from him until I have spoken to his teacher tomorrow and come up with a suitable lengthier punishment. When I see the teacher tomorrow I will be telling her that I want Brandon made to apologise to this boy (I was kind of shocked that this had not been done anyway) but also that this young man needs to be spoken to about tormenting Brandon and discuss a suitable punishment for Brandon to try and teach him that this kind of behaviour is completely unacceptable. As I say I do not condone violence in any way shape or form and will not tolerate that kind of behaviour from one of my children regardless of his autism or the fact the boy had been tormenting him. If he had a problem he should have come to me or his teacher so that we could have dealt with it for him. Please do not think that Brandon is a bad child because he is not he is a wonderful, kind, compassionate little boy and this is completely out of character for him. I have had another chat with him this evening and asked him "do you understand why mummy is so disappointed with what you have done" and he has told me he does and that he should have spoken to myself or another teacher instead. His exact words to me were "I will say sorry to him tomorrow even though he is mean to me" this is a decision he has made on his own without my telling him. I am hoping that this means he understands the severity of his actions and will learn from them and that this will be a one off incident.

Have you ever had similar problems ? Do you think I am being to hard on him or not hard enough ? I would welcome any parenting advice on this one readers.

Many Thanks
And
Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

Yellow Sticker Sunday

Hello readers anyone who reads here regularly will know Sunday is one of my yellow sticker shopping days. Well I went last night and this afternoon and between the two trips I managed to get £77.62 worth of food for £8 :)

Last night's finds

Today's finds

Here is a run down of what I got its original price and the price I paid.....

Fresh coley fish fillet was £2.62 paid 55p
2kg Sliced roast leg of pork (from the deli counter) was £24.16 paid £2.36
0.490kg Pressed ox tongue was £6.57 paid 65p
3x Apple snack packs was £1.50 paid 27p
6 Pettit filous fromage frais was £1.50 paid 15p
4 Triple chocolate muffins was £1.49 paid 9p
4 Cadburys chocolate doughnuts was £2 paid 18p
8 Sugar ring doughnuts was £1.30 paid 18p
6 Pannini rolls was £2.40 paid 27p
Family sized Apple and strawberry pie was £1.39 paid 29p
12 Strawberry iced doughnuts was £2.95 paid 19p
2 Strawberry cheesecake crowns was £1.09 paid 9p
6 Mini croissants was 80p paid 9p
A sausage and egg sandwich was £1.49 paid 15p
A ham and egg sandwich was £2 paid 19p
A ham, cheese, and pickle sandwich was £2 paid 19p
4x Tuna and sweet corn sandwiches was £5.96 paid 60p
4x Melon and grape snack packs was £2 paid 36p
A honeydew melon quarter was 35p paid 9p
0.215kg Corned beef was £2.02 paid 20p
2 Fresh cream scones was £1 paid 9p
2 Lemon swirls was£1.09 paid 9p
4 Pints of skimmed milk was £1.39 paid 15p
2x Cheese and chilli flatbreads was £3.20 paid 18p
5 Crusty bread rolls was 75p paid 9p
A loaf of white hovis bread was £1 paid 9p
2 Cooked bacon ribs was £3.60 paid 35p

A saving of £69.62 :)
A lot of it has gone in the freezer, some of the cakes were given to 2 of my friends, and the rest will be eaten over the next few days.
If you will excuse me readers I have come down with a rotten cough and cold so I'm off to make a mug of hot honey and lemon, take some paracetamol, and head to bed.


Anyone else out there as mad about yellow sticker reductions as I am ?


Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

A Fun Frugal Day

Hello readers Ben and I had the best day yesterday. Brad and Brandon are at respite this weekend giving Ben and myself a much needed rest and Lee is at his place as he is working. I wanted to do something fun and out of the house with Ben instead of him being stuck on the computer or kindle all the time but also wanted it to be a cheap outing. We were spoilt for choice yesterday as there were several things going on in our area. There was a street fair with lots of free acts to watch, there was a summer fete at one of the local pre schools, and in the next town (a bus ride away) there was a free cooking demonstration going on by famous tv chef Gino Dicampo (hope I've spelt that correctly). We decided on the street fair as there was lots of free acts they had on. They had.....
Clog dancing
Belly dancing
Majorettes
Karate demonstration
Musicians
Puppet show
The little zoo
Pony rides
Pig show
Dog show
An open air evening concert with various tribute bands

All of this was free and great fun there were a few other things there but you had to pay for them. The only things we paid for was £2 for Ben to go on an inflatable obstacle course for half an hour, and I spent £2 on The British Legion tombola where I won a red leather hand bag, some tupaware, and a pair of ornaments all of which were brand new and a girl can never have to many handbags or pieces of tupaware lol. I took a picnic lunch and a bottle of pop so we didn't have to pay to eat or drink when we was there. Here are some pictures of our day out.....

This is Dave Hickory the ballon man. He is amazingly talented and can make anything out of balloons. It was fascinating watching him.

This is the minion Dave made for Ben 

The majorettes keeping us entertained

A tortoise from the little zoo

"Hey stop taking my picture or I will take your phone" lol

Rocky the raccoon he was adorable and I fell completely in love with him

Ben didn't want to leave Rocky and if I'm honest neither did I :(

A cute little pony and her goat friend

Ben enjoying his ham and cheese sandwich I made for him

A nice mother and son shot

This little chap scared the life out of us as he rode up to us and started talking to us. We didn't see the man controlling him at first (if you look over Ben's shoulder you will see the chap in control of the puppet).

All in all we had a fab time but decided it was time to come home as we were both very tired and mummy was quite wobbly (I nearly fell over 3 times lol).
Once home we spent the evening watching films and Ben taught me how to make loom band bracelets. I think I may have caught the bug that is taking over the UK at the moment as I have made 4 loom bracelets since last night lol.

What about you have you had a fun but frugal weekend ?

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

No Spend Day

Hello readers not much to report from Tilly Towers this evening. My day has been spent at home doing the housework and little else. On the plus side the fact I have not been out at all today means I have not spent any money not a penny and that can only be a good thing. I am aiming for another stay at home no spend day tomorrow. For tea tonight we had fish, chips, and baked beans sorry no picture we were so hungry I forgot to take one. Fish was 85p for 4 pieces Morrison's value, 2 tins of value beans 50p, 1/3rd of a bag of value chips 30p so total cost £1.65 and served 4 so 42p a plate. Anyway I'm off to do a little knitting and I think I'm going to have an early night.


Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

Cheap Cheat Cupcakes

Hello readers today I have felt much better than the last 2 days :) This morning we got the free bus to Trowbridge to pick up a few bits and pieces. I got 2 bags of frozen value sausages and 2 bags of value chicken nuggets. I also got a few baking items but more on that shortly. Ben and I are not very keen on the Morrison's value sausages we find them slightly spicy and really not to our taste. The Tesco value sausages are much more to our taste and have no spicy after taste so I got 2 bags which should last us some time. At £1.50 for 20 sausages they are not as cheap as they used to be and have risen in price by 50% since I last bought them. They were £1 a bag back then and that was only about 3 months ago. That said it works out at 7.5p per sausage and they can be used for many a frugal recipe such as sausage casserole, sausage with potatoes and vegetables, also you can defrost them and squeeze the sausage meat out of them to make homemade sausage rolls. Brandon is a little fussy about what he eats at the moment and whilst he enjoys a lot of my dinners there are a few his not to keen on so its handy to have a few bags of nuggets in for when we are having a meal he does not like so that he can have some nuggets instead. As Morrison's do not do a value brand of chicken nugget in my local supermarket I picked up a couple of bags while I was in Tesco today which should last quite a while.


Now readers are you like me and look longingly at the gorgeous looking cupcakes winking at you from the bakers window ? Then you spot the price tag of £1 or more for that gorgeous looking cupcake and decide its to expensive and walk away feeling deflated. I had a look in Tesco today and saw a platter of 12 cupcakes for £6 half the price of the bakers at 50p each but still out of my price range. Well take a look at these little beauties.....

12 Yummy scrummy cup cakes which took me 5 minutes to knock out and cost me just £2.69 so approx. 22p each 1/4 of the price of the bakers. Here's how I made my cheap cheat cupcakes.....
I got a pack of 12 Tesco value fairy cakes and topped each one with cupcake icing from a can. It was super easy to apply the icing and the can comes with different nozzles for different patterns and clear instructions on use. The cupcake icing was £3.49 a can and it says it will do 10 cupcakes if like me you don't smother the cupcake in icing but instead give a generous centre blob you could easily get 20 cupcakes per can. To make it even cheaper Tesco often have their bakery items on a 3 for 2 sale stock up on the cans of cupcake icing when they are on offer and this will bring the cost down even more. I bought 1 can of chocolate icing and 1 can of vanilla icing. Finish off by sprinkling with some decorations and you have some fancy pantsie cupcakes that were quick and cheap to make.


You remember the 2  dresses I got in the charity shop sale for £1 each well I wore one today and the Mr took a picture that I thought I would share with you to show you what I got for my £1.....

I am not the most photogenic person in the world lol but as you can see the dress is very nice and at just £1 a complete bargain.

For tea tonight we had 3 slices of pizza each it was just me and the boys as Lee was called into work unexpecitedly to cover for someone. It served 4 and cost 68p so 17p per person. The 2 pizza bases were actually cheese and tomatoe flat breads and cost me 9p each I added about half a bag of yellow sticker cheese as we like our pizza cheesey 50p. I also added a few slices of chopped ham to my half. Popped it in the oven and within 10 minutes it was done quick, easy, and cheap tea that we all enjoyed. In fact Ben told me it tasted even better than the ones you get from Dominos or Pizza Hut :)

 

 

What's the best bargain you have ever found it can be anything from food to clothes or holidays to furniture ?

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx