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Money Saving 2014 Part 1 – The stock take

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It’s not a resolution as such but every year I make the effort to save money. This year I need to be even thriftier than usual as for a good chunk of it I will be on maternity leave and earning a lot less.

As always I will be sharing my tips with you.

The first thing I recommend that you all do is take stock. Literally. I did this last year and it really worked so well for us. I emptied my food cupboards, gave them a good clean and repacked them but whilst doing so I kept a tally in my notebook of exactly what was in there. You could keep your results in your notebook or stick in sheets inside your cupboard doors. This year I have my new pantry so I MUST be more organised. I have no more excuses,

For example:

3 X cartons of passata
2 X tins of chickpeas
3 X pasta twists

Etc etc

You can them amend whenever you use something so you know when to replenish.

I then did the same with both my fridge and freezer. When I had finished I sat down and meal planned for the following month. I was pretty amazed at the time to realise I had enough food in my house to feed us for 20 days with just a minimal fresh food spend of £20 per week for the remainder of the month. Crazy huh?

From then I did a big shop (approx £90-100) at the beginning of each month followed by weekly fresh food only shops of £20. I saved lots of money and I found that by meal planning we were all eating better meals and wasting less. I hate waste. When I got pregnant and had really bad morning sickness it all went a bit wrong and I stopped most of my frugal ways but I am determined to do better this year.

I am going to use my slow cooker more to free up my afternoons and evenings but also so I can use cheaper cuts of meat along with the mountains of chickpeas and butter beans I seem to have accumulated.

Tomorrow I will write up the results of this years stock take and the meals I plan from it as well as my new weekly shopping budget.

I will continue to share my money saving ideas and any tips you have are gratefully received.

Join me. Save some pennies.

The year that was..

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I can hardly believe its New Years Eve. It has been the longest year of my life. I have to say I’m quite glad it’s over. I am however looking forward to 2014 with a positive frame of mind.

This year began with me in work full time, living with my boyfriend and 1yr old daughter hoping and wanting baby two.

We got our wish. At the beginning of March I found out I was pregnant – we were ecstatic, however only 2 weeks later the worries began and unfortunately continued throughout the entire pregnancy. It was stressful, depressing and a very low time for all of us.

Izzy has been wonderful and kept us smiling (even laughing) with her brilliantly funny ways. I cannot tell you how much happiness she brings to our lives.

And on November 19th at 8.30pm an absolutely incredible event happened. Our second daughter arrived safely and healthy. She is beautiful and a true joy. It was worth the stress and worry as I guess I always knew it would be.

It hasn’t been an easy year but its done. I won’t be pregnant again. I won’t have to face that particular worry and stress again. And look what we achieved.

The year ends with me on maternity leave spending all of my day with my wonderful girls.

As 2013 draws to a close all I feel is thankful. Thankful for my baby born healthy without any problems. Thankful for Izzy who makes me smile a million times a day. Thankful for the two of them together as sisters. Thankful to my other half who soppy as it sounds makes my world a better place. Thankful to my family for being so supportive all the time. Thankful for this blog for giving me an outlet and thankful to you for reading it.

Happy New Year. May it bring you happiness and love.

Xxx

What to expect…

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What to expect from my blog in 2014…

* Two new regular features:

– We can cook – this will be a recipe that you can cook with your children with pictures/videos of myself and my daughter showing you how we do it.

– We go together like… – this will be a monthly recipe showing you how two flavours can work well together inspired by my new Flavour Thesaurus.

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* Family Festival Fun – I will be telling you all about the best festivals of the summer to visit with your little ones as well as the most drool worthy food festivals.

*Travelling with two – all about our travels ( we hope to do a lot) and the laughter, fun, tears and tantrums which go with it.

All this as well as thrifty posts.. starting very soon.. weight loss, recipes, general ramblings and parenting stories.

I hope you continue to read and enjoy in 2014 and please comment if you like as I love to read them!

A letter to you ..

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Dear You,

My lovely blog readers.. Just a very quick note to wish you a very Merry Christmas. I know my blog has been a little down in the dumps at times this year but so many of you have been so supportive and I appreciate it very much.

Next year expect lots more foodie content, travel post and stories about how we are coping with parenting two small children!

Hope you all have a great time with your families and friends and get everything you want from Father Christmas 🙂

I already have everything I want this Christmas.

You won’t hear much from me this Festive period as I plan on enjoying every minute of it with my family but I will be back soon enough…

Lots of love to you all

Xxxx

Unearthed Chorizo Review

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Unearthed was started in 2008 by a team of three ( Simon, Carrie and Susie) to share their favourite food discoveries found on their travels around Europe.

I was sent some of their Chorizo cooking sausages to try – aren’t I the lucky one?

I used half of them to make an adapted version of this Chicken and Chorizo Casserole recipe

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and then the other half I used to make this Spicy Sausage slow cooker stew – YUM.

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We really enjoyed this product – I especially liked the Paprika flavour coming through as it added a smokiness to the dishes.

Hope they start selling it in my local supermarkets soon!

It’s currently available via Ocado and Waitrose.

Apple Puff Parcels

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Last week I bought some really cheap apples thinking how bad could they be hey? It turns out pretty bad. I became a bit of an apple snob during pregnancy as I craved a particular crunch and taste .. I’m not so bad now but these just didn’t taste good. However I hate waste so yesterday I tried to think of an easy way I could use them up and ended up with these totally amazingly scrumptious apple parcels or mini puff pastry pies. So easy to make but the flavour is fantastic and a really quick and easy dessert option for people who don’t usually bake.

You will need:

A sheet of ready rolled puff pastry
2-3 apples chopped fairly small but any shape
1 tablespoon of lemon juice ( I used Jif lemon )
50grams of light brown sugar ( I used Whitworths)
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1teaspoon of nutmeg
*Optional – zest of an orange or clementine and a handful of raisins/sultanas
1 beaten egg

Preheat your oven to gas mark 4. Mix your apple in a bowl with lemon, sugar,cinnamon and nutmeg.

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Cut your pastry into an equal amount of squares. On half of the squares place a spoonful of the apple mixture in the middle then brush some egg around the rim of the square and place another square on top, press to seal with a fork around the edge and pierce the top of the parcel. Repeat until all squares are used up then brush each parcel with the egg and bake on a tray until golden brown (approx 20 mins). Dust with icing sugar.

Serve while warm (although be careful contents will be incredibly hot initially) with a dollop of thick cream. Totally delicious. You could use a cookie cutter to make different shared parcels. I did a second batch which were circular.

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A Stylish Christmas table in under 10 minutes with Homesense

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Have you ever been into a Homesense store? It’s like a toy shop for adults. I have spent many hours oohing and ahhing and just generally drooling in there since my local store opened and I’ve found some real treasures. You can find everything from baking goods to home furnishings to toys and of course at the moment the most beautiful festive finds.

I generally spend most of my time in the candle, food or book aisles but we recent updated our bathroom with some gorgeous new bits and bobs too! I was even in the store on the day I was admitted to hospital with labour pains:

Me posing in one of the Homesense mirrors for a final bump shot..

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I heart candles!

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Me and Chloe on her first shopping trip at 2weeks old:

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The lovely people at Homesense have put together a really simple 10 tip guide to the perfect Christmas table in under 10 minutes. I’m definitely using some of these tip especially number 6!

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If you haven’t finished your shopping yet or just want to pretty up your dining table for the big day I recommend you head there ASAP – with 28 stores across the UK hopefully there will be one local to you but be prepared you may become hooked like me.

*This post was written in collaboration with Homesense

Where does the time go?

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After what seemed like the longest pregnancy on earth I cannot believe how quickly this past month has gone. Chloe is one month old already. Kind of scary.

On the day she was born:

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She feels like such a a huge part of our family that its strange to think of a time when she wasn’t here.

So what can I tell you about her first month?

She looks …still a lot like her sister but you can see her own little character starting to show through.

She weighs ..a whopping 9lb4oz. She started at 7lb8oz so she is doing pretty well.

She feeds.. A lot! Some days it feels like she barely leaves my breast but she has started to go for longer stretches during the night which is helpful. She cluster feeds mostly during the evenings and it can be very tiring but she will then sleep for 4 (once even 5) hours when she goes to bed which is a relief. I know this may not continue so enjoying it while it lasts.

She sleeps..still a fair portion of the day. She will have about 2 hours in the morning after waking at 8ish then she will have some awake time before a really long nap from 2.30-5ish and then she will feed and have very short naps up until 10/11pm before staying to settle ready for a longer sleep.

She wears..still some newborn and some 0-3 depending on the brand. She has some really cute outfits:

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She loves..being held up high on your shoulder or tucked down a tight top. Even when not feeding she likes to spend hours close to my chest just staring at her food source. Cuddles with Iz in the morning.

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She loves her bouncer and being snuggled in blankets. She absolutely loves her baths with me and Izzy. She likes her sling and her wrap and cosied up on her Daddy’s lap.

She hates..when she first goes in her car seat. Having to wait more than once minute for food and being stripped to be weighed. Being rudely awoken by her big sis wanting to play. Being winded late at night when she’s tired and grouchy.

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I love when she is so very full after a feed with milk on her cheeks and a dazed look in her eyes:

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We are all utterly besotted with her. We are so very lucky.