Having a laugh...

Eee you have to laugh haven't you? When we were down on Isle Of Wight for Christmas my niece was taking some photos of us all and squishing them up, like those funny mirrors that you can look in, ive just came across them on my phone lol can't stop chuckling ...  Te he im the first picture oh dearie me haha

Charity Shop Bargains

What a busy morning, I have a day off today to ive been into town to drop some clothes off at Age Concern, I bought two pairs of smart work trousers in there and a suit jacket for OH for the grand sum of £3.30, £1.10 an item fantastic value. I usually buy the xxl men's shirts in there when im making a quilt as the shirting material goes really far and they are so cheap, before xmas every thing was £1 an item.

Popped into the Hospice shop for a looksee as all there clothes were half price for today, I picked up a really nice and thick jumper for OH for £1.50 and a sleeping dog pillowcase for 50p its printed on both sides so I will cut it round and stitch a backing on each piece and make two new dog blankets for our Diesel Dog as he needs some new ones.

I was hoping for a no spend day today, well I blew that didn't I, the original reason for this was I needed some more olive oil for my bread making and its only 99p a bottle in one of the cheapo shops, then realised my Son has food tech tomorrow and I didn't have a few of the ingredients needed so I had to go to Tesco, then ended up in town too...on the bright side I found a £10 note in the side pocket of my jacket when I got home, goodness knows how long that's been in there as its a pocket I don't use, don't know why I even checked it, oh well a very happy me  :)

The Granose was actually quiet nice, I cooked it for the recommended time, I think it could have done with a little longer, it had the consistency of half cooked stuffing-you get the idea.. Son didn't like it, ive bought 8 packets of the stuff so with the 3rd that was left from last night I thought I may try and mush it up with some grated cheese, bit of onion etc and lightly fry them and make a sort of burger type thing, so that's in the fridge for another day.. not sure what to make for tea today, its either bolognaise or cauliflower cheese with couscous??hmm don't know I hate it when you cant decide what to have.

Right I need to take the dog for a walk, wash up and have a tidy round.

::::::::EDITED::::::::

I decided to have Cauliflower Cheese for tea, it was really great.. I used up a yellow stickered cauli, a  cheap packet cheese sauce, AF dried parmesan and some Christmas cheese that was left over for the top.. we had it with homemade wedges, I use 1 potato per person and cut into 8 pieces, zap in the microwave for 8 mins, drain and put on a baking tray with a sprinkle of oil, salt and pepper, mixed herbs and a little chilli flakes put in oven for half an hour with the cauliflower and they come out perfect, I made some cous cous to have with everything, again it was from AF’s,  I added salt and pepper, 2 garlic cloves, chili powder, a bit of red onion that had been lurking for too long in the fridge, half a red pepper that was also lurking, mixed it up and hey presto, a really lovely cheap tea.

See you later AFM xx

Lazy Sunday

Hi bloggers ... well we had a lazy morning, the weekly lie-in haha our Son stays over every Saturday at the In-Laws, very fortunate I know :) so we get at least one relax a week, I always feel rather bad for staying in bed till at least 9am when I could be doing something in the house, but any who nice all the same.

Grabbed some milk from Farmfoods tonight such a bargain at £1.60 for two lots of milk..i hope it will be an on going thing, they started to have the vege Deli Quorn in at £1 a pack, they don't have it now which is a shame as it can be £2 odd in the supermarkets..then over to Aldi for a Cabbage while they are still on offer for 39p.. im going to see how many no spend days I can do this week, we have quiet a few bits in the cupboards and freezer so fingers crossed, put what change I had into the tin too..

For tea tonight I am trying some Chicken Style Granose from Approved Foods, made it up according to instructions, put some mixed veg on and a few roasties each...fingers crossed it tasted ok as I bought a whole box full lol seemed to much of a bargain to resist when ordering.

 

AFM xx

Gregory Porter &The Metropole Orchestra, Full concert, Paradiso.

Morning bloggy world.. just doing some house chores while the OH and two Sons are out on a walk, has anyone heard of Gregory Porter? if you like a bit of Jazz/Soul check him out on Youtube...ive got it on full volume while cleaning out the bird, baking a loaf and dancing around in my Pj's LOL .. this kind of music literally feeds my soul <3

AFM xx

Hi bloggers .. well I've had a very boring day at work today, but needs must eh? cant wait to retire, ive got about another 30 years or so to go yet lol ... my Approved Food order arrived on my dinner break today two massive boxes full, which in turn was full of more boxes, what a waste of packaging, at least its all recyclable though..

While I was home I got my slow cooker down and chucked in a casserole mix of vegetables that I had prepared in the freezer, some chopped quorn sausages, a packet of sausage casserole mix, switched it on and went back to work..got in at 5.30 and made up a dumplin packet mix I had in the cupboard and put some brown rice on to cook while the OH was upstairs working out to Insanity..has anyone seen Insanity? blooming too extreme for me!!!

 

I dread to think what the neighbours think with all the jumping and banging and odd swearing thats  coming from the upstairs bedroom lol.

 

My son is back at scouts tonight, its raining as usual, dark, and cold, cant be bothered to go out again this evening but I do want to nip in Sainsburys for some butter that's on offer, and they always have lots of bits reduced in there so I will have a rummage.

Tomorrows jobs will be sorting out my cupboards to house all my AF bits, my bread making cupboard needs a tidy too..all fun eh?

We had some bananas that needed eating a good few days ago I was going to make a banana bread or muffins but when I placed my AF order I got some Bakin Boys cupcakes, a full box of 40 odd, I shouldn't have really because I have no will power and have already had a couple ..woopsie.. anyway ive put the 5 bananas in the freezer for another day, never freezed any befor but ive heard other people freeze them so fingers crossed .. I also put one of the Bakin Boys into the freezer to see if it works ok, if so I can preserve some and it also stops me and the Son eating them all.

Ta-ta for now

AFM xx

Offers & Bargains

Well if anyone is reading this post, I have found some great offers:

-I Cant Believe Its Not Butter Spread Original & Light (500g) was £1.80 now 90p at Sainsbury's

-Yorkshire Tea Bags 40 + 40 Free £1.00 at Spar

-Approved Foods Bread Mix 3.5kg Was £9.99 now 99p

Asda currently have a offer on Fairy Green Apple & Lime Blossom, Pomegranate & Honeysuckle or Tangerine & Ginger Flower 630ml washing up liquid for £1.00

Super Savy Me are offering 50p of any Fairy washing up liquid, just sign up and print the coupon off, can be redeemed at any big supermarket. Other money off coupons are available as well.

www.supersavvyme.co.uk/tag/coupon Coupon expires 7th February 2014

You can get the Fairy Platinum Original Washing Up liquid 433ml for 50p

Half price mixes at Tesco all 15p

Chilli Con Carne Mix 41G

Bolognese Recipe Mix 45G

Chicken Casserole Mix 40G

Sausage Casserole Mix 40G

Tuna Pasta Bake Mix 45G

Beef Casserole Mix 40G

Cottage Pie Mix 45G

 

AFM xx

Happy New Year *cough cough*

Happy New Year Cyber Space :) after all i do like to talk to myself haha .. So as usual ive been very busy since i last posted, no i don't really do new year resolutions but i am going to try and be more organised, more timely etc..

I wanted to spend as little as possible in January , all good intentions eh? but i had a look an Approved Foods last night and they has quiet a bit of vegetarian foods stuff that i could stock up on, so i spent £30 including delivery on plenty of cupboardy bit's that will last us a good while, ive also spend another £30 ish pounds on this months UHT Milk and other grocery bits, i want to run the freezer down so am planning to really try and do that without buying much else for a long while, the odd veg from Aldis 39p range and i will look out for yellow sticker reduced fruit and veggies still.

So i started a 50p pot last year, late starter so only had £7.50 in it, but still went towards food.

-Ive started again and decided to do an 'Any Change Tin', already have £3 in that so a good start :)

-My Ebay pot is empty so i need to start selling again and i will do my best to keep that money online and i will transfer it into the end of year savings in December.

-We are into week 2 of the year and i have put aside £10 per week so there is £20 in that saved so far.

Not a bad start to the year..its been cold up North i must say, blooming freezing at work too, silly little wall heater doesn't blast out much heat at all.. ive had two scarves on its been that chilly!!..got to charge my mobile up though so that saved me a penny or two..hehe

Made a chuck it all together and use it up soup in the slow cooker yesterday, bit of double cream, pumpkin, 2 bendy carrots, a sprouting onion, 2 large reduced leeks, 2 potatoes from the sack, pint of vegetable value stock, s+p wizzed it together this morning..OH loves it..im not so keen ..prefer just a plain tomato soup me ..

Anyway easy tea tonight, beans and or egg on toast and home-made pancakes for afters, pot of tea, hot bath and off to bed for me tonight, i need to warm up..and it saves putting the heating on lol

Bye for now AFM xx

A Lovely Surprise

Good morning everyone.. well what a surprise we had last night, got a text from the in-laws saying they had picked up some reduced pumpkins for us, oooh lovely they got four for £1.98 and while they were out had looked on the flea market and found a Breville slow cooker for £10 so picked that up for us too.

What a lovely gift..we were thrilled as i had been looking for one for weeks on the Wednesday markets. Needless to say that evening it was thoroughly cleaned, one Pumpkin prepared, a potato, two carrots that were lurking in the fridge, vegetable stock, a onion and a dash of cumin, ground ginger, and nutmeg salt and pepper, i put it on low when we went to bed at 11pm, got up this morning at 6.45 turned it off and allowed it to cool down, i just whizzed it up in the food processor and voila .. the best tasting pumpkin soup i've ever tasted...yummy just what we need now the weather has changed :) It filled a whole tupperware lunch box..plenty for OH work lunches tea tonight and more no doubt!

I priced up what the Pumpkins should have cost = £8

And the Slow Cooker new is = £29.99

So £37.99 all together wow .. in all my lovely in-laws paid £11.98.. i feel very lucky... and we still have three Pumpkins to use up ... :)

Toodle Pip

AFM xx

Oh saved another £2.50 into the 50p jar :)

Hospitals and Bonfires

Hi again well im still not having much luck so far this month! im starting to wonder if i was born jinxed ...I however am totally thrilled with the cooker :) hooray i managed to do some batch baking :

9 Pumpkin soups from the Halloween pumpkin

3 Vegetarian Chillies

2 Bologneise Sauces

2 Vege Tikka Curry

2 Vege Korma Curry's

2 Quorn Lasagne's

1 Quorn mince Shepherds pie

1 Vege Cottage Pie

I have some shortcrust and puff pastry in the fridge so i will be making some pies and quiches and get them frozen too, be nice to get the freezer stocked up again.

So i have been waiting for a hospital appointment for some time to have a Tonsillectomy, i finally got a date for the 5th November, seeing as my OH was working all day and couldn't get the time off to come with me i decided to get the free shuttle service that runs to our hospitals. I had to get to the the bus station which is a 10 minute walk, then get a bus to the hospital which is less than 5 mins away and cost me blooming £1.70 but i had to pay it so that was that, that got me at our local Burnley Hospital, and i changed here for Blackburn Hospital where i was having my operation. Supposedly the buses from Burnley were running every 15 mins to Blackburn so arriving at ten past ten i had plenty of options available, or so i thought. I checked the internet timetable before i left home but according to the Hospital it had been changed so i then had to wait an hour and fifteen minute before the next shuttle service, my appointment was at 12 noon and the bus got me there at five past twelve.. all was well in the end but what a start to the day... oh yes it gets better my friends.. i got checked in, all the relevant questions asked, weighed, changed into gown, sat around for a couple of hours, the surgeon and anaesthetist came and spoke to me, put the frighteners up me even more than i was expecting, let me tell you i wasn't looking forward to this operation anyway!! a little more time passes then the surgeon came back and said sorry Mrs C-F we need to send you home as your Thyroid is not controlled yet and having surgery will be very dangerous...what?? was my response, and i went home.. i was furious about this, why on earth even give me an appointment if they already knew my Thyroid was still not functioning properly, i had already had two days off for this so now i am down two days pay and im back to work this afternoon..sigh..so im back to the waiting game...fingers crossed im not waiting too long i cant cope with all the Hospital drama needless to say the OH was fuming when i text to say they are sending me home, thankfully she managed to get out of work and pick me up at Blackburn..phew.. came home kettle on and my Son walked through the door from School, extremely pleased to see me, and produced me with a home made food tech shortcake biscuit with choc chips in.. blooming lovely..i must say.. you did good Mst J.

Luckily because i was sent home it meant that i could go to the local bonfire with my little family and the in-laws, it was a fantastic evening, bonfire and fireworks were splendid, it really cheered me up..in the end it was a great day :)

 

 

Speak soon

AFM xx

Pouring Rain

Morning bloggy world .. brr it sure is chilly and wet up North today wind and rain a plenty .. hopefully it will be third time lucky today for our yet again replacement cooker. In the end we put to another £80 and got a better gas stove, Currys was still selling them for £450 so paying £380 as said cooker has a teeny scratch on the back of it that you cant see, plus including free delivery i am very happy as long as it works, and arrives today...fingers crossed..

Halloween was a quiet one here this year, only one trick or treater at the door, we don't get many in our area, shame really, when my son was younger lots of family's used to trick or treat, seems a dying out tradition in these parts. Seeing as we still couldn't use the oven it was a use it up tea of something that was lurking in the freezer, a tub of curry and a tub of chilli came out, defrosted mixed together, added some bits that were in the fridge and cooked some rice, that fed three and could have easily stretched to four, did nicely, and was hot and tasty.. i nipped on Approved Foods last night, nothing much ever takes my fancy, i could have filled my basket with lots of treats and a few baking products but that's about it really! couldn't justify the minimum spend of £15, with a £5 delivery so i left it. Do you ever get any real bargains that you need or want from AF?

Eee cant wait to finish work today, its been a long two weeks, working full time is tiring, i am only used to part time hours so this weeks wages will be a great help and will go straight into our savings.

Catch you all later.

AFM xx

A Need Or A Want?

Heck i think i spoke to soon ..Well that's gone and done it now..our laptop started bleeping and wouldn't turn on! we have a computer repair shop on our street so i bobbed in this morning so see if Ali could tell me what it was all about, yep the processor has gone, he said it would be £70 to repair and wouldn't recommend it being done as usually they only last 3 months before it happens again...the problem i have is there is allot of stuff stored on said laptop and it needs removing?? bobbed back and he said he would transfer all data to a memory stick for me for just £10..so i think i will get that done and worry about another laptop in the near future, as i don't necessarily need it straight away i just want to blog, read, eBay etc....oh what to do?? my son has a laptop so i will be borrowing his if i can prise it away from him for 10 mins here and there lol i do have internet access at work so i can pop on now and then so its not the end of the world..yet .. ha .. remember the lovely replacement cooker  had delivered? yep, still doesn't work right so back to the shop i go again this morning, i really do need to get this problem sorted- its all money this month, lets hope from tomorow being the 1st of November that i can get back to saving and frugling away, no spend on groceries this week, i will need milk and dog food at the weekend but that's it, found a 50p in my purse so that went into the 50p jar i have started..£20 goes into the retirement pot, now i only started these a matter of weeks ago, but already it is adding up £20 a week for a year is £1040 i am 34 so in another 26 years when i am 60 this will be about  £27.000 hopefully with interest a little more- a nice retirement fund.

Anyway friends back soon.

AFM xx

Whatever Next?

Well those two weeks passed very quickly i must say ! Since my first post i have been down to the Isle Of Wight to visit family and friends, some of  who i haven't seen for almost 11 years, it was lovely to catch up and i enjoyed myself thoroughly - being spoiled by my Mum was great, Lemon Meringue Pie i here you say?..ooh yes please :) indeed a long 5 days of family and food was just the tonic i needed. Not very Frugal i hear you say? well my Mum had bought me a show ticket so i was going down primarily for that at first, compaired to over £200 on Mr V Trains National Express coaches came in at £24.00 so ten hours later i arrived in Southampton, £11 boat fare and i was there.

 My parents drove me back to Lancashire on the Sunday and stayed for a weeks break, so no spend there for travel fare, and the boat price was paid for me too..Happy days. Well seeing as my parents were up we really needed to get a new oven, £200 pound my dad says? it will be bloomin tat!! so we went off in search, there are no gas show rooms any more so as previously found it was a hard task indeed...

We found one in Currys was £400 with a hundred off was on sale for £300, it was a bigger sized oven, and so the decision was made to buy it. After a 10 minute discussion with the sales adviser we walked out with nothing! that's right nothing!! Yes that's correct Mr Foster three hundred pounds, delivery will be Twenty Pounds and we will install it for Seventy Pounds...WHATT!!! so in all my £300 pound cooker was going to cost us £390, way over budget, we were originally only wanted to pay about £200, already this had gone up to £300, and couldn't go any higher. Dad was getting irate with the sales adviser and asked if we could collect ourselves from the store? Oh no you cant do that. why? health and safety sir!! well that was it ... Off we went again, finally we found a local store called "Washking" originally i didn't bother to look in as their shop name states they only ever used to sell washing machines, i was wrong and again spotted a very nice silver and black fancy looking larger sized gas oven, again it was marked down from £400 to £300, yes we will take it, same day delivery great many thanks.

 That was last Wednesday, it was delivered in the afternoon, all excited and ready to use it we burnt it off as per the instruction Manuel stated, and proceeded to made two shepherds pies, one meaty and one quorn, prepared the veg to go with it and put it on to cook. Now usually when i make a vegi shepherd pie it bakes  in the oven for about 45 mins, now that blooming oven was on for 1.5 hours and it wasn't even bubbling!! oh deary me, next morning i was straight onto the shop and explained what the oven was doing! basically nothing! no problem they said they earliest we can get a replacement to you is next Tuesday the 29th..well it arrived yesterday and i am happy to say fingers crossed it is working fine...phew i can now plan to get all my batch cooking done this weekend as the freezer is low and i am having surgery on the Tuesday so easy home cooked and nourishing meals will be needed.

Sorry for the long post my friends.

AFM xx

My first ever post .. Hi i'm A Frugal Mrs, welcome to my blog.

So its been a rainy and blustery day in Lancashire today, the weather has really set in now and winter seems to be in full swing. A quick visit to Aldis this morning was needed For some flowers, this is the best place i have found to buy them from, two big bunches comes in at £2 each more than enough for 

the crematorium and my purse strings, similar bunches at Tesco are at least£3.50 each, so a good £3 saving there.

A visit was due as it was the first passing of my Nan in Law's anniversary I must admit i thought the crem was very untidy, the fallen leaves were piled up, wind blowen flowers and the chilly air made the place feel very dark and miserable but few bunches of bright yellow flowers soon cheered up Mary's spot, a quick sweep up and a tidy around soon made everything look better.

It was back to work this afternoon for me and the OH, and as i am writing this at my work desk all i can think about is getting home and getting warm, boy its cold today, we are still trying to cut back by not having our central heating blasting out all hours  of the day, so it will be an hour of the electric heater that hardly uses any electric and plenty of home made blankets to keep us warm and toasty. Our gas oven is still on the blink and after weeks of making do and using the grill and hobs have resorted to thinking about buying a new one. Cheapest we can find brand new with delivery at the moment comes in at £200, money that we really could do without spending as the annual car tax is due, Christmas is round the corner and our Home insurance is ready for renewal.Do you always shop around when it comes to renewing your insurance policies? we saved £70 last year from searching the internet, now that's money well saved! We pay for a whole years car tax as it saves us money in the long run, its just not appreciated at this time of the year.. that's another £170 odd pounds we need to find, i wish we had a money tree lol 

Well thats it from me today folks, see you soon.

AFM xx