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.

One of those days

It's been a long day. Monkey doesn't have pre school on a Tuesday & he got out of bed on the wrong side so has been grumy most of the day. In an attempt to salvage something out of the day we sat down & wrote a list of things to do. This included things he wanted to do like painting, playing with cars, reading books etc as well as things I needed to get done like ironing & cleaning the bathroom. Thankfully he is a willing helper so was there cleaning the floor with me but it went from one drama to the next as we worked our way through the list.

It was a NSD (no spend day) unless you count the petrol used to meet my mum at a coffee shop. I did get some house work down but nothing else. I'd have liked to gone through some more things for eBay etc but Monkey was in too bad a mood so high maintenance today. He's in bed now so I'm relaxing/recovering before I start on dinner for me & DH. I'm also going to hard boil some eggs to put in the fridge so I've some ready for lunch boxes in the morning. So much cheaper to make my own egg sandwiches than to by the egg fillers you can get in supermarkets.

If it's been gathering dust...

We have many things tucked away in cupboards, sitting on shelves or up in the loft that haven't been used for literally years. Many items kept just in case we need them at some point when in reality they just keep gathering dust. I've decided to go through everything & those things that are dust gatherers are being sold, offered on freecycle, sent to a charity shop or binned depending on what they are.

I started doing this in January by going through the kitchen first. I offered items on freecycle, sent some to the charity shop & binned loads. I was amazed at just how many kitchen things we had tucked in those cupboards that never saw the light of day. I've also gone through our books & listed many on Amazon for sale. I've done really well so far & have become a regular at our local post office. As long as I make £1 profit I've been listing them. You do need to weight them all & work out postage costs just to make sure it's worth listing them on Amazon.

I've gone through all the wardrobes & bagged up all the clothes that are no longer worn, don't fit etc & have either sent them to a charity shop or put them in a recycling bin. I will be following the same rules when it comes to clothes shopping, if it's not a necisity I wont buy it.

I'm going to keep working my way through the house as & when I get the chance.

My New Bike

My bike was delivered today. I've bought a Pashley Princess Sovereign. Not a cheap bike so not that frugal but it's ideal for me. I have a disability so can only ride the old style bikes. It has a huge basket on the front & I bought one to go on the back as well. My plan is to use it as much as possible & the car as little as possible. I'd really love it if eventually I could get rid of the car but I'm not at that point yet. Monkey would need to be able to ride his bike well & at 3.5 years old that's going to take some more time. He's too big now to go in a trailer or a seat on my bike as he's very tall for his age,or rather I'm assuming he is. I really should investigate the trailer option although I'm not sure how my legs would feel about having to pull all that weight.

Weather permitting I'll use it for the pre school run, walking there with Monkey whilst pushing my bike & then I'm free to cycle to the shops, home or where ever else I need to go. I really want it to be a form of transport, not just a luxury item. As well as saving money on fuel hopefully by the end of this year I'll be a lot fitter as well :o)