Thursday

Today I had a lovely very cheap day out with my youngest son Brandon. I was looking for activities to do with the children over the easter holidays that were free or very cheap. I did not have a clue where to look so started at my local library and local information centre. I found a whole host of activities most of which are free some of them require a small token payment but are very cheap. Here is a list of all the activities I have in my diary:
Monday 2nd april = Easter card making at Trowbridge museum (FREE)
Tuesday 3rd april = Easter basket making at Trowbridge museum (FREE)
Thursday 5th april = Easter crafts at our local library (FREE)
Wednesday 11th april = Jumble sale at a local church with free face painting for the kids (FREE)
Thursday 12th april = Tshirt making at Trowbridge museum with magic and balloon making in the shoping centre afterwards (£1.50)
Saturday 14th april = Easter egg hunt at our local childrens centre (75p)

We will be having picnics and going for long country walks on the days that we dont have an activity the cost for this will be bus/train fares plus the small cost of a picnic.

Today we went to the library to do some easter crafts which was great fun a photographer from the local paper was also there and asked if they could take Brandons picture to go in the paper. Im looking forward to seeing how it turned out as he had a big smile holding up the easter basket he had made. After our crafts we got some new books and dvd's from the library and set off for our picnic in the park the total cost of our picnic was as follows: Sausage rolls 30p, Juice 45p, Cakes 40p, Crisps 20p a total of £1.35. Whilst Brandon was playing I did a little work on the knitted blanket I am making for my bed for this winter when I have finished mine I intend to do one for each of the boys also. After we finished playing we took a nice walk home and snuggled up on the sofa to watch our free dvd's from the library. Here are some pictures from our day out.

Hope everyone is enjoying the easter holidays as much as us
Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx
 

Saturdays post

My we have been busy and with all the busyness I did not get a chance to write about what we did on saturday so here it is.

We went into Trowbridge for a picnic in the park we also had a look in the shops and Ben and I had our hair cut. I have been debating getting my hair cut for quite a few months it was a toss up between having it all chopped off or having dreads put in. After speaking to my friend Kel who has had dreads in the past I decided against it as they take a lot of maintaining and would look very messy for quite some time before they formed properly. Having made the decision to go for the chop I had been looking round for a good price on a wash and cut the prices I got ranged between £25-£35 and I just could not justifiy spending that sort of money on a haircut so I made the decision to go to my local college and act as a model for a hairdressing student this would have cost me £12. However when we was in town I saw a sign in a barbers window offering ladies wash and cuts for £13 so decided to go for it and this is what my hair looks like now.

I will now spend the next 2 years growing it again before paying for another haircut lol. The boys had some easter money to spend they had a total of £22 each however they do not get to spend all of this. I have a policy with the children that I feel teaches them the importance of saving and giving any money the boys get they have to put 20% in one jar to donate to a charity of their choice once a year, 30% in another jar to save up, and the remaining 50% they are allowed to spend on anything they choose. Ben spent his money on a wii game that he wanted and Brandon brought an electronis light up thomas book and a small thomas easter egg. Bradley was not with us as he was at respite care so he will get to spend his money another day. We got some drinks from poundland and some warm sausage rolls and doughnuts from greggs a total of £4.92 for our picnic and off we went to the park for some fun.

Hope everyone else had as good a weekend as we did.
Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx

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