NHS Dentist!

I'm really pleased, I've finally managed to get Monkey & myself an NHS dentist & even better it's very close to home so we can walk there. I tried a while back but there were none locally with spaces. Because of this challenge I thought I really should try again & all it took was 1 phone call. My old dentist was wonderful but private & VERY expensive. So now we get Monkeys check ups for free & mine on the NHS and we save on fuel as we can walk. Every little helps :o)

Funny the things that make you smile

We live in an area where there are wheelie bins. Last year ours was always full to bursting, often the lid didn't close. Now there is so little in it each week it's hardly worth putting out. There is a real sense of satisfaction in knowing that we are producing a lot less waste, good for the environment & very good for our bank balance :o)

Saving money whilst out & about

I've become a big fan of season tickets. We visit a local country park at least once a week. It's a beautiful place, great for long walks, play grounds, feeding the ducks, steam trains etc. It's too far away to walk so we have to drive. The park itself is free but you do have to pay for parking. It's cheap in the winter, crazy prices in the summer & school holidays are really pricey. We now buy a season ticket for the parking. It saves us at least £200 a year.

We also love a local children's theme park. Again we use season tickets as the savings run in to hundreds as we go every week, sometimes twice. They have a soft play centre so it's good even in the rain but outside there are rides, playground, lots of open space to play & have a picnic.

It's a lot to hand over at once but over the course of the year we make very real savings. I only get tickets to places we visit often, or we know we will go often enough to save money. One year we just broke even on one place we went to but at least we didn't waste anything. For us it's the only way we can afford to do these things often with the children. The parking ticket is £40, the tickets for the theme park are a total of £70, well worth it.

We also make good use of the library (borrowing books & story time), local parks, walks down the river, bike rides, free museums etc.

We always take our own lunch, snacks & drinks. We have flasks for hot drinks, reusable bottles for cold ones. It does mean I have to be organised but again I'm sure the savings over the course of the year must be a few hundred pounds. I'd rather that money was in my bank account than some one else's!

Knowing what it costs

I'm 40 this year, I left home at 17 so have been grocery shopping for a good few years now. This is the first time though I have kept a record of every single penny I've spent. If you asked me last year what a loaf of bread cost etc. I would have guessed. As I'm now recording everything on a spread sheet I'm very aware of prices, I know when they go up & down, offers are on etc. Today this saved me money. I took some things to a charity shop & parked in Lidl's car park, somewhere I have only shopped once or twice before. One the way back to the car I walked through the shop checking prices. Some things were the same but those that were cheaper I bought. I didn't need much, I made sure I just bought what was genuinely needed but it was good to know just what savings I could make. I'm sure many people know the prices of the things they buy but for me this is new & I'm reaping the rewards.

Crafts

I've always really enjoyed crafts. In the past I've made cards although I got out of the habit. I plan on making all our cards this year as I have enough supplies in the house to do this. I have done scrapbooking, I made one for my Mum's 60th birthday. I enjoy cross stitch & tapestry.

My plan is to give as many home made gifts as possible this year. I've started on a cross stitch for a 65th birthday present. I need to think of something for Mothers Day as well.

For Easter we (as in Monkey & myself) are making small boxes & decorating them. I get a papercraft magazine (a years subscription thanks to Tesco rewards vouchers). A month or so back it came with templates for boxes so we'll use that. I'm going to buy some Tesco value chocolate, melt it & put it in some small egg moulds we have. Monkey can 'glue' the 2 half's together to make mini eggs to go inside the home made boxes. A simple & very cheap gift he can give family members for Easter. We made full size Easter eggs last year but it used loads of chocolate, hopefully this will be even cheaper.

I will start posting photos of things we make when they are completed.

I have decided to buy a sewing machine. I've been given the money to pay for it so it's not coming out of our budget. Hopefully this will help save even more money in the long term & expand the type of gifts, toys & possibly even clothes we can make ourselves. The only problem is I've not used one since school & that was over 25 years ago now! I really have no idea where to start so it's going to be an interesting journey. In September I will take a dressmaking course but hope to start using it well before then.

Old Tyres

We are going to be growing more of our own vegetables. We have the rabbit & guinea pig who get through loads of the stuff as well as what we eat ourselves. We have a small garden so are limited on space. We have our name down for an allotment but have been told it will be at least a 5 year wait.

We do have one small raised bed & some containers but could do with more. Trying to keep the costs down we have decided to use old tyres as planters & line them with old compost bags. Perhaps not the most attractive of things but with a car mad 3 year old they will be a big hit! They are also free so very frugal.

I'm still undecided about what to grow but we will at least be doing carrots, tomatoes, french beans, radishes & strawberries although the strawberries will be in hanging baskets. I've got a really good book - Vegetable Growing Month by Month by John Harrison which will be my guide for this year.

Feeling Lazy

One of the things about keeping costs down is when you are feeling lazy, poorly or under the weather you can't just phone for a pizza or get convenience food out of the freezer. Everything is home made as it really reduces the cost. OK so I know that's a good thing & more healthy for the family but how I wish I could just make a phone call! I'm not well at the moment (nothing too bad but enough for me to feel rotten) but needs must, I'd better get cooking. Yes, I could take the easy way out but this is a lifestyle choice we are committed to this year & I don't want to fall at the first hurdle.