C word list so far

Christmas bargains so far.... for Weeny

Hungry Hippos type game £4
Barbie £6  Very Basic
10 Julia Donaldson Books £12 including delivery ( The author of The Gruffalo)
Felt picture thing ( £2.50)
Alien that climbs walls ( £2.00)
Early learning centre paint art thing £4
Heroes chocs £1.49

Total  so far £31.99 I think

Biggles bargains

Some stuff ha ha not saying as he drops by from time to time!

Going to get her a trampoline for the garden,  £ 100 max
New scooter ( inline one to help with the bike balance) ( Biggles has offered)
Pyjamas/clothes for next year etc etc
New Storio Cartridge to listen to or maybe two as she has her birthday in January. Some of this stuff will do for her birthday as well. Prob keep the scooter and make Biggles re think lol.  Storio cartridges are not cheap. Leap frog pad thing to read maybe...??? She has mentioned an ice cream maker but they have not so great reviews... the ones for kids that is.

Some make up stuff, jewellery bits and sweets for her stocking and thats it!

I have gone through the Argos catalogue with her and we will write a letter to Santa. If she has a strong desire for a particular thing and its not too expensive I may indulge her. Last year it was Doggie Doo - the game where you collect up the dogs doo... £18 but she was very chuffed with it. And was her fav present over all I think.


Will limit her to £200 max including birthday.

I love approved food.....

Product	Cost Each	Quantity	Cost
Pride Pure Creamed Coconut 198g	£0.33	12	£3.96
Weightwatchers 6 Tortillas	£0.17	6	£1.02
Aunt Bessies Vegetable Gravy Granules 170g	£0.33	3	£0.99
Community Ground Cumin 50g	£0.50	2	£1.00
Maysan Concentrated Curry Sauce Paste Mild 448g	£1.49	1	£1.49
McVities Digestives The Original 250g	£0.33	3	£0.99
Toffee Dodgers 140g	£0.25	4	£1.00
CASE PRICE Sharwoods Thai Red Curry Paste 12 x	£0.01	1	£0.01
CASE PRICE Sharwoods 4 Plain Mini Naans x 10	£1.00	1	£1.00
Owen Potts Italian Dressing 240g	£0.50	2	£1.00
Gourmet Kitchen Worcestershire Inspired Sauce 270ml	£0.50	2	£1.00
Hellmanns Lighter Than Light Mayonnaise 430ml	£0.33	3	£0.99
Old El Paso Original Mild Fajita Cooking Sauce 395g	£0.75	2	£1.50
Cadbury Heroes 200g	£1.49	2	£2.98
CREME EGG CLEARANCE Cadbury Creme Egg	£0.10	10	£1.00
Nestle After Eight Chocolate Mints 300g	£1.49	1	£1.49
Swizzels Matlow Loadsa Lollies 189g	£0.89	3	£2.67
Swizzels Matlow Loadsa Chews 189g	£0.89	3	£2.67
Fruit Hit Fairtrade Orange Juice 500ml	£0.25	8	£2.00
Time Liquid Bio 735ml	£0.75	2	£1.50
		Sub Total	£30.23
		Discount	£2.63
		Shipping	£5.25
The only thing that was a bit of a rip was the fajita sauce can get two for a pound from poundland. oops my bad! Have purchased sweets in advance of Halloween. get em while they are cheap and will be hidden as will the chocs for christmas stocking fillers. Great for condiments and sauces.Can you tell we like fajitas and thai curry!		TOTAL	£32.85   

Being original with a meal plan for 1.5 people

I really enjoyed last weeks meal planning for the week-  making and eating it. Shopping for it and planning it less so lol

This week I have had to adapt again as I only have myself and Weeny to feed.

Monday  - pizza and left over salad I get left over slices for lunch on Tuesday lol
Tuesday - Chicken curry with left over veg's - I get a lunch out of this one as well stored for the freezer.
Wednesday - Quorn Sausages and mash and broccoli & carrots and gravy ( veg of course)
Thursday -  Frozen fish and chips ( real ones) and pea

We stick to Ice Cream for dessert mostly unless I make crumble or apple pie or pavlova which is rare.

I can see this becoming a bit repetitive however.  I tend to stick to the same things quite often.
Weeny needs a proper meal at night now as she has a packed lunch during the day and does not get tea at holiday club. This will also be the case with School Lunch only then a long wait till tea.

I need ideas for easy, quick, cheap cook meals. For curry I use maysan mild curry paste that comes in a box.  Stir fry veg/meat then add curry paste and water.
She eats and enjoys Gammon so that's one substitute. Not keen on burgers or fish fingers or kiddie food.

Hmm thinking
Weekends we do fine as I cook larger style dishes for me and Biggles and she tucks in just fine.


Have worked out that not including shoes/underwear most of my outfits come in at under a fiver lol  I feel smug about this when I go to work.
Trousers - £1
Top - £1.50
vest - £1.00
Shoes were old ones form tescos - pumps that cost a tenner.  Still going strong.

A quick squizz down town...C word used!

We got some fresh air and used Biggles loyalty points in Costa for free coffee. One of the Charity shops is now open on a Sunday. And right at the back is the reduced rail or rather rails. I bagged two new tops for work for 3.50.  Both reduced from silly prices so common in the chazz shop today.

Also for Christmas were some early learning art thing sets at £4 each - brand new. One is for a wee boys birthday and the other to squirrel for Christmas for Weeny.

Bargain! I put a £10 limit on all birthday pressies including card/wrapping etc. I have wrapping in the house suitable for a boy and will purchase a card cheaply for under a £1. Prob get two for 1 as I for see another birthday in December for a girl. I have pressies for her already. Weeny got the same gift twice which will be recycled with a felt puzzle thing. So Boys birthday £4.50 and Girls Birthday 3.50.

I don't go to all of them as I just couldn't afford it. Weenys birthday this year will be a small affair with choice friends and not the all encompassing class birthday which seems so popular.

Ooops just remembered another one - Boy in December. Well may just give him the other early learning pressie if we get an invite.


Have £36 in survey vouchers saved up.

We are well on the way for Weeny's Christmas. Just need to sort out the trampoline big pressie.
I am limiting everyone else ( approx 10) to £10 each. Biggles and I are just doing small as well one off £20 max.

I have Ebay to do and maybe a booty so that's some more of the expense covered.

Bluddy Bugger and poo I 'ates christmas I doo. The grub is cool though but we never spend much over our normal budget so tis very much dooable.

A day for Goodbyes.

The teenager went home today. Biggles leaves later. All I want to do is curl up. Poo. Back to reality.

Weeny is away at the other family which has also annoyed me. He wanted her this week so he could have bank hols to himself. Buggered up all future plans but sod him he will have to deal with it.
better for me if I have her over bank hols we can do stuff rather than have it punctuated by his access time.  We will go away to Scotland most prob.

The teenager was a good distraction from no Biggles and going back to weekends andd routine. I will acclimatise again I am sure especially when the new academic year starts.

Also have shitty PMT and haven't been taking the anti D's at the same time everyday. Will get better, This too shall come to pass... In the words of the wise.

It has annoyed me. He wanted to change weekends. Fair dos can he collect given that its short notice??? No So weeny only gets Sunday 10-4pm
Selfish Selfish. he claims he does not have a car. He only apparently has hi work van. He has a car. Weeny has said she is not to tell me. He thinks he is getting one over on me. FGS he doesn't see that its Weeny that suffers and loses out but if he doesn't have a car then he can blame me for being tight. I might just get rid of my car and see what he does then. Hmmm

Appraisal at work....

Went swimmingly ! Am happy mostly that I stayed a bit of doubt as I would live to be a podiatrist and study again but overall happy. The house situation will always be a nagging point. The area OK but not the same as my last one, house is small, I don't own it etc etc no investment but I can't change that at all.

A teenager to add to the familyfor a week!

Yes have the teenage wanna be vet staying with me and working at the mini zoo at the Land based industries campus of the college I work at. It has taken the off the sharp edge  of Biggles returning to work in London for both Weeny and Myself and the big gaping hole of no olympics!!! We are very much enjoying her company.

We have meal planned for teas and lunches - All three of us require a lunch and tea now that Weeny has moved to a big girls holiday club not day care anymore. It is going really well  for Weeny too. I was worried abou the transition but so far so good!

Our meal plan has been:

Monday - Pizza and Salad - leftovers for lunch for me on Tuesday
Weeny likes to create her own pizza using the 60p margarita savers pizza. We add sweetcorn, cheese, onion, pepper, mushroom
Tuesday - Mild Curry with chicken and veg- leftovers for lunch for me on Wednesday
Wednesday - Quorn sausages, left over salad, beans and chips.
Thursday - Mini turkey roll roast with spuds and broccoli/carrots and gravy (only 2.50 for a turkey roll thing)
Friday - Spaghetti Bol for the four of us Bol always has added veg - chopped carrots and peppers
Saturday - Hmm undecided yet - something with chips or maybe fajitas as it will be a shopping day.
Sunday - late big breakfast - eggy bread and bacon

They  have survived with Ham and Tuna Sandwiches for lunch with fruit and snacks. Weeny takes a full round of sandwiches, mini yogurt, apple, satsuma thing, grapes, carrot sticks, small packet of savers crisps or snack and a choc biccie each day and eats it all.  Well may be 1/2 - 3/4 of the apple.

I buy alot of fresh veg and fruit so try to use it up in any way I can - lunches are heavily laden with fruit. ice cream is always served with fruit ( fresh chopped)

We had a treat and went to the cinema last night to see Brave. its cheap night and there are big saving to be had. Also I have found out that if you apply for a members club online you can save a further 25% on all tickets regardless of the day. Next time eh!!!

A friend advised me. She had gone with her son to see the Bourne film and only paid 3.50 or so each. Also when you collect enough points you can get in for free. We don't go a lot but the savings even on the odd visit make it work it.  Ooops costs 90p to join.


Brave was very good but a bit dark inplaces for Weeny who got upset about the bear being hurt. We took our own food to eat. Cheap crisps and choc. I made curry the night before as I knew we would have a late night.

Friday I am off work but doing a visit to a stables for which I will get toil and take weeny then we will go to the Zoo. I do not intend on paying put it that way lol. Staff freebie???? I shall be on work business!

Open to the public at weekends from March to october and in the school holidays.

The manor house - Kirkley Hall Available for weddings and conferances  too!

Just some of the many critters at the Zoo and its much cheaper than its rivals!

Visit in the morning is in the lovely town of Hexham. Northumberland is a huge county and as I live in the North, work in the central south east and the rural bit of Ponteland I don't get there very often and have some travel paid to go there.

Hexham is a lovely market town!

The only bit is that it is more expensive to get to work each day and one day I had to do an extra 30 miles on top of the excess due to having to go to the other campus which is 15 miles away. As I am choosing to base myself at not my normal  place of work I can't claim the difference or extra journey. But tomorrow anything over and above is claimed ( Ponteland to Hexham and back) as is the two/three  hours toil it will take to travel and do the job.

Good things about the Olympics

• Inclusion of women athletes from strict Muslim countries - all of them brave and winners!

• So many new female role models surpassing all those useless famous for the sake of it TOWIE WAG types! From Boxing to Heptathlon

• A damn fine mix of British Athletes winning GOLD, Silver, Bronze - Mo, Jessica, Greg, Chris Hoy.. I could go on and on!

• Mitt Romney having to eat his words. The games have been fine! Silly silly Mitt the Twit! Take your magical underwear and eat it! And your tax returns are proving as elusive as those golden tablets!
• Watching The Bolt! entertaining as ever! And he is generous with his show boating Doing the Mobot!!!

• The all Jamaican 200m winners podium!  We love doing The Beast and The Bolt! - and the super speedy 100m relay WOW WOW WOW
• The opening ceremony - great mix of all things good about the UK including the NHS!!!

• Most of the Closing  Ceremony - but why the stupid models! Who cares if they are famous for wearing clothes having junkie boyf's Doh!
• Hopefully it will inspire more people to activity, sport and has made these things cool again rather than boob jobs and fame for fame's sake!#

Edited to include:

I nearly forgot - Oscar Pistorius Blade Runner - Excellent competion and loking forward to seeing more of him in the Paralympics.

And Joanna Rowsell!!!!  brave girl! great Role Model! Its not all about appearance and she has a lovely lovely attractive face regardless of her hair!

Poor girl.

Found at long last. RIP Tia.

Awful that such evil can lurk in your own home.

Value!

An Argos cheapest of the cheap kettle for under £4 lasting all of four years.  Fantastic value if yu ask me. Have had more expensivethat last alot less. So I have bought another cheapie kettle!

Clarkes boots - re soled and heeled and still polish up grand enough for me to wear!

Poundland hair dye - lasts just as long and covers grey in dark brown shade same as expensive but for £1!!!

Staycation!

We are staying at home this week. Biggles bike is not right so has to go back to the mender peoples.  We have so far spent a day in Newcastle - Discovery Museum and done some shopping at TESCO ( Monday). Tuesday - cheap day at the cinema for Weeny and me.  She has only been once before and this time it was 3d. We don't often get the chance. We took our own sweets. Baked fairy cakes. Baked biscuits. Recycled clothes with enviroclothes and made £23 which we three spent on Lunch at a pub with soft play and a walk around a nature reserve lake. ( Wednesday) Today we took in the music festival in Alnwick - ice cream and a slide ride thing.  Tomorrow we are thinking of the beach depending on the wind.

Good stuff!

• I managed to snaffle three nearly new bras from La senza  via The Sally Army in my normally odd hard to find size for cheap for 1.50 each.
• Making £23 from enviroclothes and having a no spend lunch out! I feel a bit  bad about not donating to charity but when I go into most charity shops and see the prices I don't feel bad at all. Apparently Enviroclothes ( paying 40p per k) trades clothes at low cost  direct to communities in less wealthy countries. Rags apparently recycled.
• Weeny's reaction to 3d film!

Bad stuff

• Not getting the bike back til Tuesday then working out it has to go away again as its not right!
 
• Having a facebook debate with a 'friend' about a racist comment to the tune of Only Junkie Foreigners get benefits help these days - those deserving white folks are looked over. I could have picked the statement apart forever but chose to make a point that the local dole offices in the towns in all of Northumberland are dominated by  white coloured British people and maybe more than a  few of them are likley to be drunks heading off to the local cheapie bar Shameless Stylee as soon as they ge their money.   Did nt go down too well ( snigger) but point was made. I have no time for prejudiced people.  Person was  even more thick than I realised when we got into the 'debate'.  My God the same shite arguments are being used twenty years later! Some escheleons of society especially in the provinces will never learn. They think they are multi cultural if there is an Indian takeaway or Chinese within 15 miles.  FFS!
• Holidays going too quickly
• Local kids asking if my 4 yr old is allowed out to play at 8pm at night. NO! They are allowed too my freedom IMO around here.  She is not getting into that habit.

We have not managed a no spend day in ages. Well apart from Wednesday where we ran at a profit!

I have loads still to try and do  before work starts again but hey only four days woo hoo!

Monday ...Morrissey and a resplendant Team GB!!!

Today we trotted off to Newcastle - I had an appointment but afterwards we took in the free Discovery Museum. It started to rain so after a mooch at the motorbikes on Westgate Road we stocked up at Tescos. I managed to snaffle a black lace top for £1 in the chazz shop.

We plan to go to the cinema tomorrow - its cheap day Tuesday.  Biggles takes deliery of his fixed bike to morrow so once he has checked it out we can decide if we are off for a night or two with the tent via Clackmannanshire.

We are loving the Olympics. Fantastic - I loved the Ennis, Farrah and Ginger Greg wins on Saturday night.  What a celebration of modern Britain - A Ginger chap, a black man called Mohamed and a mixed race woman all winning Gold -  celebrating the best of all that is Britain! One in the eye for the racists of the world including the EDL, Nick Griffin, The whinging Daily Mail and that MP Adrian  Burley and all the other prejudiced whiners out there!

Oh and that Mr Morrisey can STFU. How dare he whinge on about people feeling the pinch.. I don't think he is in any position to feel the pinch of the austerity measures and I for one who has been royally f*cked by austerity measures and hit by the double snake of redundancy and a pitiful house price market and negative equity, am loving it!

Morrisey go boil your maudlin  whinging head!

Weekend in Republic of South Yorkshire!

Back home now.  We managed to get our hair cut, start the nasty C shopping - it was cheap and also bag some free tea towels.

Arrived late Thursday - managed to do all the shopping stuff on Friday durng the day. Watched Jessica Ennis on Friday night before heading to the local for a few beers.

Weeny and I went swimming then to Hillsborough Park for ice cream on Saturday while Biggles got to watch his beloved Wednesday ( Sheffield) in  a pre season friendly.

We spent the evening watching the track andd field events.

What a fab count at the area!  I also loved the fact that our three gold medals at the track that night were won by a ginger chap, a black man called mohammed and a mixed race woman.  How perfectly modern British!!!  Excellent  Team GB!!! And as Billy Bragg said thats one in the eye for Nick Griffin, The EDL, The Daily Mail and other idiots I am unable to recall!

 I am very proud to be British and Go Team GB!!!!   Jessica Ennis is a terrier! and a tiny one at that! Full of spirit!  Olympic Gold forged from Sheffield Steel!!!





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