Welcome Friends

 I thought this was an appropriate Cross Stitch project to add to my blog, it translates to

Welcome Friends

Sorry for the reflection on the glass.

I stitched this kit a couple of years ago and doing the back stitching was an absolute pain in the bum!  There were 2 kits in the pack and the other one is started somewhere, but I can't for the life of me find it, not sure I would have the patience to complete it nowadays.  I don't know how many thousands of stitches there are in it, but a good few I should think.

So, to all my lovely followers "this one is for you" xx

It's all adding up!

Hello all, 

How do you do your calculations on a day to day basis, do you use one of these......

Google Image

 or maybe one of these, or an even smarter smart phone or an ipad with the calculator app

Google Image

 or are you like me and just resort to the old fashioned method of paper, pen and your brain?

This is my shopping book from yesterdays shopping, list on one side and adding up as I went along on the other, its a bit of a scribbled mess but it certainly worked.  I could have used either of the above, but, the calculator is a bit bulky and the smart phone is touch screen which I find takes too much concentration. I know for a fact that I would loose the running total several times around the shop and have to start again, not easy when the prices are usually on the edge of the shelf!  I am so much happier doing my adding up on a bit of paper, you can also see at a glance the total mounting up with every item that goes into the trolley, it also stops anything unnecessary landing in there!! As I said yesterday in my post, I did get some strange looks but when I got to the checkout I knew exactly how much it was going to be.  I know its only simple maths but it does keep the old brain ticking over nicely.  Its a good few years since I did this on a regular basis but I think it's something I'm going to start doing again and paying by cash means I don't have the card to fall back on if I over spend.

If you were to try this or if it's something you already do, which method suits you best, calculator, smart phone or paper and pen?

A huge warm welcome to my new follower Carol, nice to meet you Carol I hope you will pop by often and maybe say hello x

Thank you for reading my chunterings today.

Cash Shopping week 1

Today was my first attempt at cash shopping, and sticking to the frugal purse budget of £50 per week.  Did it work? so far so good! I went armed with a list my purse and a coupon for £5 off a £35 shop at Lidl.  Total spends for the weeks shopping was £38.61 (after the £5 deducted) which also included a few stock items that will carry over to next week.

 The amount now left in the frugal purse is £11.39.  The remaining £1.47 from last week has been added to the sealed pot.  I think I had an excellent shop for the money, to make sure I spent enough or didn't go over the £35 limit I added everything up as it went into the trolley lol I did get some strange looks from other shoppers but a lot of thought had gone into my shop and there would be no shocks or suprises  for me when I got to the checkout :-)

 The fruit and vegetables are excellent this week in Lidl and as I wanted to make soup I bought an extra bag of carrots and some leeks, the cucumbers were 2 for a pound so I will probably give one to my mum.

The rest of the shopping is a mixed bag, I have bought another big tin of sweetcorn to make those lovely fritters again to go with more bacon.  We are having a family dinner on Easter Sunday so I have cheated a little and bought some roasting potatoes in goose fat to save on time (I'm a lazy moo).  We are trying the Bran Flakes this week at 59p for 500g not sure what they will be like but will let you know and the hot cross buns 6 for 65p they might be a bread and butter pudding. We didn't buy any meat as we still have a good stock in the freezer, mostly bought from the past months budget.

 We called at Home Bargains on the same shopping complex and picked up some freezer bags and Hot chocolate, then onto the farm gate for a dozen eggs and 5kg potatoes. The basic meal plan is already done for next week, I just have some sweet treats to bake. I am hoping the £11.39 is still in the purse when it gets topped up next Thursday, there should be no need to buy anything else this week.

A bit of make do and mend today.  My ancient lippy holder had a broken mirror this morning when I got it out of my bag, so hubby took the broken bit off and cut it down and stuck it back on... brilliant... a bit smaller but hey ho it will last a bit longer and cost nothing to repair, it will also save me smearing lippy over my face if I miss my mouth LOL :-)

Good as new... almost!

Cleaning day tomorrow and time to clean those dratted venetian blinds in the kitchen :-(

Will you be shopping carefully with a list and voucher this week or will you throw caution to the wind and buy lots of Easter treats?

Take care and thank you for popping by

PS Welcome to my new follower Nim, hope you will drop by and leave a comment now and again, thank you for following my blog and reading my chunterings xx

Animal Antics, DIY and a Pretty box.

Early this morning I looked out of the bedroom window to see Cyril the Squirrel hanging upside down on the bird feeder, he was poking his little snout right into the hole to pinch the sunflower hearts. He is getting to be quite a little fatty!

I love how agile they are, I know a lot of people don't particularly like them in the garden but I do like to see him, I think he is rather cute

 He had a bit of a swing on the washing line before launching himself onto the wall, but it was done so swiftly there was no chance of catching this on camera. The bit of hosepipe stuck on the bracket is usually over the end of the feeder hook to stop it from being swung off and tipped all over the path.

Then onto a bit of DIY , the pull cord light switch in the ensuite dropped to bits and we haven't had a light in there for the past 2 nights, luckily our neighbour has a bright lamp on his drive just outside our bathroom windows which made it light enough to see.

 So, off we trundled to the bright orange DIY store for a replacement, being Wednesday its over 60's discount day so we got 40p off, well every penny helps doesn't it lol  My lovely hubby fixed it in a jiffy for the princely sum of £3.55, it would have been so much more if we had to call someone in.

 Its a tiny bit smaller than the old one but a lick of paint round the edge and it will be perfect.


The last few days I have been feeling a bit under the weather, I have Crohns and every now and again I have a blip which just wipes me out, thank goodness it doesn't happen too often.  Thank you all for your good wishes, you my bloggy friends are just the best xxx

I hate sitting and doing nothing so sat in the warmth of the craft room with my hot water bottle and made this cute little box.  Its made using 2 sheets of A4 card a bit of fancy lace fancy paper and a craft topper.

 I did add a little glitter to her dress, we all like a bit of sparkle don't we :-)

 I filled it with a bit of shredded tissue paper and some rather yummy Ferrero chocolate eggs.

 Then wrapped in a cellophane bag tied up with a pretty yellow ribbon.

The chocolates were £1.59, quite expensive, I could have used a couple of Cream Eggs, they are 8 for £1 at Home Bargains at the moment and 2 or 3 would have fit nicely inside, but for around £2 I have a nice little Easter gift.

Dinner tonight is going to be cheats Chicken Passanda = Chicken breast, onion and a jar of sauce lol  we will have rice and peshwari naan with it, it will make 4 portions so 2 spare for the freezer.
Its shopping day tomorrow so I will be going with my list, £50 cash and see what happens!!

Take Care and Thank you for popping by

Lidl

Nothing much to report today, feelin rubbish :-(   But if you check out Lidl on Facebook and click Like you can download a voucher for £5 off a £35 shop for the 28th-30th March.

I've got mine, have you got yours?

Stay warm and safe

The Frugal Purse & Food Plan

After much deliberation I have decided to try having a frugal food purse, and instead of paying for my shopping by debit card and sticking to within my £50 budget I am drawing the money out of the bank and having cash to pay for things.  I'm not sure how this will work long term but am willing to give it a go for a month, I might succeed, I might fail, we shall see. At the moment the cash in the purse stands at £1.47 this is to last until Thursday which is our usual shopping day. Over the past 3 months we have been spending on average £150 per month and still managing to keep good stocks so in theory there is no reason to fail, only time will tell.

I have also been very good at keeping to a menu plan, I've done this on and off for years, more often than not in my head but again since the new year I have written it down and stuck it on the boiler in the kitchen. Sometimes we will juggle things round within the week, it often depends on what crops up, the thing is there is always a planned for alternative which stops the temptation to ring for a takeaway.  I think I have forgotten what a takeaway is, its so long since we last had one lol

This week we have

Pasta Bolognese
Jacket Potato Homemade Quiche & Baked Beans
Chicken Curry Rice & Naan Bread
Jacket Potato Tuna Mayo & Salad
Homemade Mince & Onion Pie with vegetables
Homemade Pizza. I will be cooking a gammon so any trimmings will go on the pizza
Easter Sunday we have a family meal of Roast Pork Dinner and Gammon Salad for teatime.

While "shopping" from the depths of the garage freezer I came across a bag of Roast Pork cubes from Christmas, it had gone a bit dry on one end so I have fried an onion with some chestnut mushrooms and put in the pork with some gravy and left it to cook very slowly until tea time. We will have it with some  mash, brocolli and cauli.

 We still have plenty of snow laying on the gardens and the paths but today has been quite bright and windy, lets hope the week ahead is much better and we see an end to the wintery weather.

What foody plans do you have for the week?

Thank you for popping by

Frugal Fritters for a Snowy Day

Welcome to my lovely new follower Mable and Maisy thank you so much for popping by, if you have a blog could you leave me a link please and I will visit you for a virtual cuppa :-)

Today we had these wonderful easy peasy tasty Sweetcorn Fritters which have appeared on Frugal Queens fab blog, you can get full instructions and piccies from HERE.

I have been meaning to make these for a while as we love sweetcorn and when I saw that Sarah from Frugal in Bucks had made them to have with bacon and eggs then my taste buds were itching to try them.

Very simple ingredients too

1 tin of Sweetcorn, blitz but leave some lumps
1 tablespoon SR Flour
1 Egg
Seasoning - little salt and black pepper (optional)
1 tablespooon of Oil for frying.

Mix the flour, egg and seasoning into the blitzed corn.  That's it!!
Spoon tablespoons of mixture into hot oil in a frying pan, when golden brown turn over and cook the other side.

It was enough to make 8 fritters.
We had 3 each with bacon egg and hot fresh tomatoes, it was lovely and very filling. The 2 left over will be on our salad for tea.

Definitely one to make again.  Thank you Frugal Queen x

Sweetcorn Fritters with Bacon Egg and Tomatoes.

As the weather forecast predicted we woke up to this little lot this morning these were taken about 8.30am its now 1.30 and still snowing although it has warmed up a bit, so may not last the day out. I think we are due some more tonight...

 It does look pretty across the field, I think the horses have gone into hibernation lol

 My poor wet soggy garden, even the rabbits have given up searching for my bulbs to munch...pesky little blighters, we had 2 in the garden the other day as big as cats!! no wonder when you look at how much they have scoffed of my garden!

 Last week this shrub had lovely new green shoots just starting to appear, I bet when the snow melts they have all shrivelled up.

Surely this wintery weather can't possibly go on for much longer... can it?..  Its Easter next weekend and supposedly the start of British Summertime.... say no more!!

I hope you are keeping nice and warm.

Thank you for popping by and if you have time please visit Frugal Queen and Frugal in Bucks blogs, they both make a good read.

Pretty Bags and Birthday Bargains

Not much doing here at Chelmarsh today, its back to the rain again! I woke at about 7 this morning and we had a good covering of snow with quite big flakes still falling, it had turned to sleet and then rain by mid morning and is still raining now. Friday is also cleaning day we have the "Friday Fettle" hubby does his "Bogs and baths" and I do the rest, we both get stuck in and usually finish by lunch time.  The homemade bread had gone a bit dry so we opted for beans on toast.

We have a couple of birthdays this month where we just buy a token gift so  nothing expensive. I popped into £land for some gift bags and these pretty ones caught my eye, I'm loving the pretty vintage stuff that's fashionable at the moment its so feminine and very Cath Kidston.  However these bags were 2 for a pound, I doubt very much if you would get a CK one for less than a couple of quid each.

I bought these sets just after Christmas in Morrisons, again the are in a pretty package and they were the bargain price of £2!!

So for £2.50 each I have a lovely gift in pretty packaging, I included a handcrafted card in each bag.

Do you pick up after Christmas bargains to use as presents through the year and do you re-gift any unwanted gifts you received yourself?

Thank you for popping by

Fruit, Food and Fishcakes.

Welcome to my lovely new followers, we have Lynne from Textile Treasury, Lynne plays fiddle for a dance team The Ouse Washes Molly hop over to Lynne,s blog and had a good read its very entertaining. Also a big welcome to a new blogger Thrifty Living who today has had rather upsetting news, we are thinking of you Thrifty xx

On to today's chunterings.... Thursday is shopping day for us and it's the only day of the week my fruit bowl looks this full. We love fruit of any kind and each week I try to buy something different as well as the customary Oranges and Apples, or should that be Apples and Oranges!  This week we have lovely Mangoes at 59p each from Lidl, a bargain, and bananas they are a great standby for my breakfast.  I'm not really a breakfast person, naughty I know, but I just can't face it until later in the morning and its easy to just grab a narna to have with my coffee. I'm also a big fan of soft fruits and can make a real pig of myself in the summer, its no problem getting my 5 a day.

We have a brand new Morrisons opened quite close to us so we thought we would investigate, its a lovely store and lots to browse round. I did stick to my list :-) and this is what I bought, the Pork is for next weekend when my parents are coming for Sunday lunch so thats gone into the freezer. Tea bags were on offer so I bought 2 boxes and the treat of luxury Ben and Jerry's Cookie Dough ice cream is for my hubby and grandaughter, half price at £2.25.  Total shop £32.22

Next it was Lidl and this was £16.31.  The bread flour had gone up 20p this week to 79p!!! I bought a large tin of sweetcorn to make Frugal Queens Corn Fritters to have with some Bacon, Eggs and Mushrooms at the weekend.  So my total shop for today came to £48.53... still under my £50 budget :-)

Last night I used my last fish fillet from the freezer to make some fishcakes, it was quite a large piece easy enough for 2 portions but I wanted to stretch it a bit further.

First of all I steamed it in some milk until it was only just cooked

I used 75g dry weight of this instant mash made up to a stiff consistency using a knob of buttery and the milk from the fish with some boiling water, then flaked in the fish and mixed gently, I wanted the fish to stay chunky, I also seasoned it well with salt and ground black pepper.

At 45p a packet is a great standby.

I divided the mixture into 6 and made patties which were floured egged and breadcrumbed (using homemade bread)

Its a bit of a messy job but worth the effort.  These went into the fridge to set until tea time.

I used a little oil to brown them off then popped them into the oven just to warm through, if I'd have had some parsley I would have sprinkled a bit in the mixture, they were tasty enough but looked a bit `pale`.

We had 2 each for tea and the other 2 we had for lunch today as a fishcake sandwich with tartare sauce.  Lovely!!

My menu plan has been roughly done for next week and just needs a bit of a tweek to include the Butternut Squash (£1.15) and the Sweet Potato (78p). I'm thinking roasted, soup and wedges, what do you think?

Thank you for popping by