Monday 29 April 2013

Cheap family day out and some Freebies!!!

Good morning everyone.

First off weekends are very busy here as it is our only proper family time hence no post.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend we did :)

On saturday we went to a good life festivial which i'm sure lots of you would have enjoyed as it was all about making do a mending, upcycling, gardening and cooking....and it was completely free.

There was no parking at the event but they had a park and ride, we drive our big kids have only been on a bus once and they loved it.

Then we got a few freebies on the way in.


Then it went abit downhill when we decided we'd try the yummy smelling pizza it was £3 for 1/4 of a pizza!! it was very nice but very expensive and it was enough to make me put my purse away for the rest of the day.

They had trapeze shows and people in costumes, the kids seen a wormery and kept saying it was gross so i guess thats a no from us.

Finally we got a horse and cart back to the start, we walked coming in but little 3 year old legs had gotten very tired, again this was all free and they loved it and only £3 spent i took drinks and a bag of crisps with me for the kids and an apple and orange for me and hubby.


Then me and hubby went to see iron man, i'm a very cheap date :) £8 for chinese £10.80 for tickets and £6.50 for popcorn and 2 drinks so not too expensive as a one off, i like most superhero films and hubbys quite good about taking me.

Sunday was spent having dinner at the inlaws so again free.

Friday 26 April 2013

Looking after the pennies and the lbs!!!

Hello all, me and hubby are currently doing a low carb, calorie controlled diet however that does not mean i will be spending a fortune on food, we are still very much aiming for £50 a week. I buy most of my meat from the butchers, our asda have a brilliant butchers counter and yesterday i went and got..

1lb of lean 97% mince beef
6 burgers made with above meat
3 chinese pork chops (we will eat 2 with some veg and one chopped in a salad between the 2 of us)
1lb of beef sausages

All this cost £9.99 you are suppose to get chicken breasts in this deal but we get ours from a local abattoir shop which gives u 22-24 massive breasts 2 of which do the 5 of us or 3 as a roast for just £19!! so i swapped them out for double burgers.

Lidl is great for fruit and veg aswell and i get most of mine there unless i pick up some reduced veg.

Here is what i'm eating today with the costings and the calories will be in brackets.

Breakfast-i'm not a morning person anything massive makes me feel ill

Tea -value tea bags 0.3p!! skimmed milk 1p (12cal)
weight watchers yogurt 25p (61cal)

Lunch-fri is treat day mainly because i'm busy running about after kids

lettuce- lidl 1/8 11p (10cal)
tom- tesco 1/2 6p (11cal)
red onion- lidl few slices 3p (16cal)
spring onions- lidl 6p (7cal)
cucumber- reduced to 16p in asda 2p (12cal)
mayo-lidl lighter than light 10p (10cal) i need more of this but asda extra light mayo had twice the calories so i'm waiting until i'm near a lidl
1/3 rack of ribs- lidl £1.09 (288cal) seriously yummy everyone should try these)

Dinner

Brocolli- asda 1/4 13p (9cal)
cod-makro we got this at the start of our diet it was £61 for 15kg this fish frozen weight is 940g it will do all 5 of us, i will have 1/6 so just 50p for my portion) (200cal prob less i'll weigh it once its defrosted)
breadcrumbs-wholmeal asda baked instore bread 50p a loaf, we will share 2 slices for breadcrumbs so my portion costs less than 1p (38cal)
egg for breadcrumbs- asda 9p (78cal)

I will throw an apple in my bag aswell for when i'm out 20p (82cal)

Total cost £2.66
Total calories 821- i will be pushing this up to 1200 with a couple of glasses of milk and if need be i'll eat some more fruit, this is why i keep track now as when i started my diet i was under eating.

As you can see this is just for me today, hubby will have the same but more ribs and more fish. Just because your on a budget doesn't mean you have to eat fishfingers. I will have spent less today than post people do on lunchtime meal deals yet i'll have had lots of salad and veg and even have meat twice.

I have lost 1stone and 3lbs in 2 months yet as we feel sick i havent being going to the gym. On the subject of the gym yes it is expensive but it gives me the motivation to exercise for a set amount of time as we are doing classes, really we don't drink, smoke or really go out this is the only money we spend on ourselves.

So is anyone here on a tight budget while watching they're weight?

Does anyone have some nice low carb, low fat. low calorie recipes?

*btw i do know ribs aren't all that low in carbs but it is friday :)

Wednesday 24 April 2013

It's the 30th birthday of the £1 coin...it's older than me! to celebrate moneysupermarket are giving away £30 to bloggers who post 30 tips to save £1 so if you have a blog it's worth a go, heres my try

1-Meal plan before you go shopping instead of just throwing anything in your basket.
2- Go shopping late at night and look for reduced items, it's not uncommon to get items for 10p most things freeze well.
3-Get good, lined curtains they will keep the heat in.
4-Look on ebay for local bargains you can pick up local bargains for 99p.
5-Leave your purse at home.
6-Work out a budget and send any excess to your savings or debts at the start of the month, you can't spend what you don't have.
7-Downshift your brands, if you use branded try supermarket own brands, if you use own brands try value and see if you notice any difference.
8-Dry washing on the line or on a clothes horse/airer.
9-Check if your washing machine quick wash uses less electric, some do, some don't but it will be fine for freshening items.
10-Use half the amount of washing liquid or powder per wash.
11-Bulk buy items such as dishwasher tablets and washing powder when on offer (we get ours at half price or bogof before xmas in makro every year)
12-If you use a good washing liquid it will scent your clothes so you won't need fabric softener.
13-If you do use fabric softener don't use it on towels as although it makes them soft it makes them less absorbant (we havent used any in over 2 years)
14-Plant your own fruit and veg, lidl and poundland are very good for seeds, you can grow most things in pots if your short of space.
15-Take a pack lunch to work with you, even the cheapest lunch deal is £3 but anything you make at home will cost atleast 50% less.
16-Cook meals from scratch, don't use jars or packets there full of sugar and salt and goodness knows what else and making your own is cheaper.
17-Borrow books from your libary.
18-Cancel sky ect and see if you even notice....we didn't it was all backround noise.
19-If you don't watch live tv you can also cancel your tv license, but remember you can only do this if your not watching tv as it's being aired, this alone saves £145!
20-Don't bother with lots of cleaning products fairy, bleach and antibacterial does most things, some people even just use vinegar and stardrops.
21-Sell anything you don't need on ebay, list on free listing days to save fee's even if you don't think it will sell it's worth a try if it won't cost you anything.
22-Fill your oven when cooking.
23-Fill your freezer even if it's just with old milk bottles.
24-Fill soap dispensers with anything from value foam bath to shampoo or anything you have lying around.
25-Cut up old towels to use as cloths.
26-Switch everything but the fridge and clocks off when you go out or to bed.
27-Buy gifts in sales...just don't over do it i havent bought any this year as i had enough left from last year to do me.
28-Make friends with people, it could be the butcher who does you a good deal, the neighbour who shares stuff from there veg patch or the furniture sales man who gaves you a cost price sofa.
29- Ask yourself if you really need to buy something, if not but you really want it wait a few days and see if you still want it, if you do can you get it cheaper elsewhere, if not can you get cashback on it or something free with it, every little helps.
30-Always check cashback websites before you buy anything it soon add's up, one well known site gives you 5% extra on amazon vouchers and love2shop vouchers which i use for gifts and frozen veg.

Well thats it for me, fingers crossed i get £30 but if not then still maybe i've helped someone.

Heres a link to tmoneysupermarket if anyone would like to give it ago or read other peoples posts.

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/30-ways-to-save-1-pound/

I'll be back soon with some more posts.

Hello everyone, pretty new to blog land (i do read plenty tho) so bare with me while i get used to it and ignore my spelling mistakes and typo's :) .

Bit about me I'm married with 3 kids(6 year old twins and a nearly 4 year old), as a family our goal is to try and build our own home...without a loan or mortgage! hence the title of my blog, we will hopefully be showing you how we get there with meal plans, saving ideas and eventually building work. At the moment we are renting from family and saving as much as we can.

So thats it for now, for a start i'm hoping to so the moneysupermarket £30 ways to save £1 i think it may be too late to get the free £30 however it will be a good place to start and give you all a few ideas of what we do to save money.

Over and out for now Siandy.