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Monday 27 January 2014

Snoodes, Beds, And Cheese Part Two


Oh what a polaver this post has been to get up. My computer is having a meltdown it works fine but won't allow us to connect to the internet. Lee has had a look at it and is convinced we need to reinstall the Windows operating system altogether which is easier said than done when you don't have the disk and they retail at £120. Errrrrrrrr no it will have to wait and I will make do with Ben's kindle for now. This said all my pics are on my phone and for some reason blogger will only let me upload a certain amount of pics from my phone in one post. Never mind I think I have it Sussed now and will be using the kindle to take all future blog pics until my computer either stops her hissy fit or is fixed by the Mr.

As I was saying in part one we have new beds here is a pic of my new to me bed. Gosh It feels strange sleeping in a bed after spending months on the floor. The bed is quite high up  which adds to the strange feeling but it's so nice to have a bed again especially as it cost nothing.


He may only be six but Brandon seems to have a good eye for photography. Here are some pictures he took this weekend.








Brad and Ben went to their dad's this weekend so it was just me and Brandon so we had a marathon movie session and took some self indulgent Saturday selfies.


I love how innocent he looks in this one


And a big cheesy grin in this one

Anyway off to get some beauty sleep in my new bed take care all
Much Love
Claire xx xx xx 

Sunday 26 January 2014

Snoodes, Beds, And Cheese Part One

Hello all Hope everyone is keeping well in frugal blogland. Here at Tilly towers we have had a fab week.On Monday my lovely friend S gave me a nice lot of free cheese. Her dad works in a cheese factory and gets to take some home with him for free. Occasionally when he brings way to much home S kindly sends some my way.


Mmmmmm free cheese yummy


I have been working on this snoode style scarf on and off for a few weeks now and finally got it finished this week. It is lovely and chunky and I'm tempted to keep it for myself lol. It will either be sold or put away as a Christmas present for next year I'm not quite sure which yet.


Lovely chunky wool it took 200g of wool which cost me £2 in total from poundland


Brad and myself have been in desperate need of beds. For some time now we have both been making do with a mattress on the floor each. After realising there was no spare money nor was there going to be to buy new beds I put an ad on the free to collector fb page. It took a few weeks but we now have new beds. Brad has a solid pine single bed and I have a double divan bed. Both are in fab condition and we have kept our own mattress each. Total cost for both beds was £20 to hire a local man with a van to collect them as I don't drive.


Brad and Brandon modelling the new bed lol 

Anyway this concludes part one of this blog post I will be back shortly with part two and an explanation as to why I have had to do it in two parts.

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx 

Wednesday 15 January 2014

Birthday Celebrations And Poorly Boys

Well Ben's birthday went very well he was very happy with what he got (money which he is spending very wisely) and he had a fab time at the cinema and loved the new hobbit film. He has bought himself a second hand laptop off of eBay which was advertised for 70 pounds but I made an offer of 60 which was accepted saving him 10 pounds. He has some money left but is saving it till he see's something he really wants or needs (I have taught him well lol).



 

I got some good yellow sticker reductions again the other day I got the following
1 tray of 12 chocolate doughnuts 45p
2 x 2 corned beef slices 49p a bag
3 x 4 chicken thighs cooked in stout 79p a bag
2 egg salad rolls 19p each
2 tuna baguettes 19p each
2 ham and cheese sandwiches 19p each
1 cheese and ham pretzel 19p
2x 3 cinnamon swirls 15p a box
3 apple crowns 15p
5 bread rolls 15p

I also bought a bag of new to us clothes from a friend for 10 pounds and got some lovely items lots of them designer names including several onesies ideal for this cold weather. I was also informed that as we have 3 disabled people living in the house we may be eligible for the governments warm home discount scheme where they credit your electric bill with 135 pounds. I called earlier today and was told it sounds like we are eligible for it but had to be passed through to the assessment team which had a 20 minute wait so decided to call back when its less busy. I will let you know how we get on with the process and if anyone who has a disabled person living in the home or you are on a low income would like the link to applies themselves please let me know.

I had a bit of a clear out of the boys clothes that no longer fit them and have put them on the fb selling pages and have 2 people picking up items today Brandon's clothes bundle and the purse. The money I make will pay for the clothes I bought from my friend and a little profit on top which is always nice.

 
Brandon's clothes bundle sold for 10 pounds and being collected today

 
Ben's clothes bundle still up for sale for 10 pounds

 
Purse sold for 2 pounds and being collected today
 

I also have a very nice clock and a stair gate that I need to photograph and put up so hopefully that will bring in a few extra pennies.

I thought I would share some pictures with you of when the family came down to visit over xmas it was a really nice day and almost everyone was in their onesie's all day lol.




 
 

At the moment I have 2 poorly boys upstairs in bed. Ben has been being sick since this morning and Brandon is complaining of a tummy ache so they are both tucked up in bed. There is a norovirus doing the rounds so no doubt thats what it is. Anyway better go tend to my poorly little guys.

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

Friday 10 January 2014

Blogging From Bed

I come to you this evening from the comfort of my bed. I am nicely tucked up with my electric blanket on and a big fluffy nightgown and fluffy bedsocks. The boys are dressed much the same but do you know what it's early January and we have only had to put the heating on a hand full of times so far this winter. I am in love with Ben's kindle it is allowing me to get things done even when I'm feeling unwell and not at my best. I've had a headache everyday for about a week now and it's driving me nuts painkillers and sleep are my best friends right now. I have managed to get out and do a few things this week with the help of my lovely man Lee. On Sunday we went reduced price shopping (yellow sticker) I spent the grand sum of £3.50 and for that I got the following items
12 pieces of chicken cooked in stout
1 southern fried chicken fillet
1 gammon shank
4 spaghetti Bolognese ready meals
6 tubes of sausage meat
10 all butter croissants
4 Apple and cinnamon scones
1 cranberry and white chocolate bouble
8 egg custard tarts
4 loaves of bread
2 Apple strudels
12 gooey ginger muffins
and possibly a few other items that I have forgotten.

On Monday we went into town to buy a new Hoover as mine decided to blow up on me last week. I did some research and found a nice vax reduced from £129.99 to £49.99 and comes with a two year guarantee. So I guess if your Hoover is going to blow up then January is the best month for it to do so as you can get a better one in the January sales for less money.

On Tuesday we went to bath to pick up my new hearing aids. We was seen on time and was in and out very quickly. I can't even begin to tell you what a difference they have made I am hearing sounds and voices I have not heard for years. The other day I heard the rain for the first time in years, I have heard my children's voices clearly, I have heard my darling Lee's voice clearly for the first time, and I am slowly rediscovering my love of music. It is an emotional journey for me and there have been a lot of tears over the last few days happy tears though not sad.

On Wednesday I  had a rest day although why I call it a rest day I don't quite know as I usually spend my rest days catching up on jobs in the house lol. To me a rest day is a day when I don't go out as going out is pretty hard work with the MD and really takes it out of me.

On Thursday I had another rest day although I did pop to my local one stop where I was surprised to see a LOT of yellow sticker reductions so I got the following
5 large pepperoni pizzas 50p each
2 packs of 4 chicken breasts £3 each
2 250g butter 77p each
2 packs of 9 crumpets 50p each
8 hovis bread rolls 25p

Today we popped to the optitons to pick up Ben's new glasses. He looks so cute in them and very intelligent although he is very intelligent anyway. We then went to return our dvds to the library and choose some new ones. On the way home I had to pop into Morrison's and was lucky  enough to pick up some more yellow sticker reductions. Today I got the following

6 packs of 4 pork pies 9p a pack
10 packs of 10 slices of roast beef 9p a pack
2 quiche lorraines 9p each
1 tub of cheese and bacon pasta 9p
1 tub of tuna mayo and sweetcorn 5p
4 packs of 2 creme caramels 5p a pack

Tomorrow is Ben's 10th birthday so as his birthday treat he is allowed one of his friends to sleepover and I will be cooking his favourite meal of mild chicken curry. I will use a pack of the yellow sticker chicken I bought for £3 and 2 jars of the curry sauce I stocked up on when they were just 20p. This will serve 3 people twice as half will be frozen for another day. So 57p a portion minus the cost of rice which I have lots of in the store cupboard at just 30p a kilo. He has a chocolate gateau cake for pudding again yellow sticker at £1.30.

On Sunday Lee will be taking Ben and his friend to see the new hobbit movie at the cinema done in frugal fashion of course. Trains there and back as its cheaper than the bus plus we have a rail card so get a further 60% off child's fairs and 1/3 off of adult fairs. We have a free adult guest ticket to use so Lee will get in for free and then it will be £6.45 for each of the 2 boys. Normally I would sneak treats and drinks in in my handbag but as I'm not going and Lee does not use a handbag lol we will be getting the family deal for £10 which consists of 2 small drinks, 2 small popcorns, 2 small sweets, 2 medium drinks, 1 medium popcorn. I'm not sure yet but we may have enough points on our Odeon loyalty card to pay for the drinks and treats I will have to get Lee to check.

Anyway off to watch one of my free library dvds whilst eating a yummy 2.5p warm slice of quiche hmmmm it's a hard life lol.

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx

Sunday 5 January 2014

A New Year A New Start

So its 2014 Happy New Year everyone. Hope you all had a wonderful xmas and New Year with your loved ones. I know I did and my MD stayed at bay which made it even better. New years resolutions well I don't have any I'm afraid. I don't believe in them never have it's like setting yourself up for a failure and then you just end up beating yourself up and feeling rotten. I do have a couple of areas I wish to improve upon these include my blog writing. I want to write more posts and try and post more regularly. I now have my new specs which will help with the headaches and blurred vision I suffer as a result of my MD. I have also bought a kindle Fire for Ben for xmas which is what I am using now to write this post so I can post from the comfort of my bed even when I'm not feeling to good. We got a very good deal on the kindle it cost £100 instead of £169 and its a 16GB instead of an 8GB. Ben is delighted with it and I can see mummy will be getting plenty of use out of it also lol. I also want to work on another area my finances I have reduced them a lot this year and now have just £6475 left to pay off until I am completely debt free. I intend to put every spare penny towards debt repayment and hope to have this paid off by June when Lee and I will then start saving for our wedding in 2016. Although I have always been very honest with you all that I am in debt and how much in debt I am I have never shared specific numbers with you. I guess embarrassment has prevented me from doing so however I have decided to share with you a specific breakdown of what I owe and to whom and will update these figures monthly. Hopefully by making it public it will encourage me to keep on track with the repayment schedule I have devised for myself. So here we go

Wonga short term loan £1441
Marisota catalogue £671
Very catalogue £814
Argos scorecard £535
Jewellery in pawn shop £300
Provident doorstep loan £714
Overdraft £2000

I sincerely hope you will not judge me based on my debts and who they are to it has been very hard but I have got these figures down a lot over the last year and hope to get rid of them completely over the next 6 months ready for a whole new start. A New Year a new start as the title states.

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx