Homemade croutons and tuna potato cakes

I can't believe it's the end of the holidays already! And I just realised it's Matthew's LAST EVER school summer holiday. Oh my!

We wanted a day out with all the family before the kids go back. We went to the park and took our own food and drink. The occasions when I can't be bothered to make a picnic and think I'll just get something there, I always regret it. Food is so expensive when you're out and about. And generally not that good. I'm all for the odd treat, but spending £20 on rubbish overpriced sandwiches does not work for me! So we took sandwiches, crisps, fruit and a bottle of squash.

I've been working on the leftovers again this week. To go with my super cheap, yellow sticker soup, I made croutons from old crusts of bread. The nicer the bread, the nicer your croutons will be. It's a perfect way to use up leftover French stick. But smart price wholemeal does the trick too!

I knew I wanted to make croutons but didn't want to put the oven on just for that. So I waited until I was doing some baking and chucked them in alongside the cake.

I chopped into cubes, added salt, pepper and herbs. Then sprayed with low fat spray.

These took about 45 minutes to be totally crisp, because the oven was on low. They'll be lovely on soup or a salad!

I've also cooked up some tasty tuna potato cakes using some left over mash. This is the recipe I used, but you can chuck other herbs/veg in based on what you have. 

Leftover mash

1 tin tuna

1 small grated carrot

1/2 grated courgette

2 spring onions

1 egg

Few chives

1 tsp mustard

Salt and pepper

Just mix it all together really well and squash into patties. I coat mine in flour before frying but you could cover in breadcrumbs if you prefer. They can be served with salad or peas.

I love finding ways to use those things a lot of people would just discard. If you have some tips or tricks I'm missing, be sure to let me know!

Yellow sticker treasures - what can we freeze?

I went to Tesco this evening and got some awesome yellow sticker bargains! Oh I do LOVE a bargain.

Sometimes I get a bit giddy when things are super reduced, like picking up all 4 packs of raspberries because they were 20p each... that's a saving of £7.20, who could resist?!

This is where my freezer becomes a total godsend. And there's loads of stuff you can freeze that you might not even realise. So I thought we could have a tour of mine, in case there are any ideas in there which might help.

One of my Tesco bargains was chives for 7p. I was already planning to make some potato salad, but I really don't need that much chive. So I froze the rest in ice cube trays, which makes it so easy to add to dishes as needed. Once they're frozen I will pop them out of the tray into a freezer bag so I can reuse the tray. I always used to freeze in water but I recently read that freezing in oil preserves the flavour better. I also picked up a big hunk of ginger for 20p. This freezes well too and is easy to grate straight from frozen.

Loads of fruit and veg freezes well. Beansprouts can be added straight to stirfries. Aldi seem to have them reduced all the time. Raspberries go a bit soggy when they're thawed but I think I might make some smoothies or bake some muffins. With 4 packs I've plenty to experiment with! My freezer also has grated courgette (I think I chopped the soggy ends off a couple and grated to save the rest - I tend to do the same with carrots going a bit yucky), and spinach which I wilted before freezing and just throw a bit into meals if I think it will go. If I'm not sure if something will freeze well I either cook it first, or google it.

Last week's epic yellow sticker bargain was some casserole veg for 8p a pack. So I bought 3. (Obvs!). I cooked it with a couple of stock cubes, salt and herbs, and whizzed it up to make soup. Bucketfuls of soup!

I didn't have anywhere near enough tupperware tubs so instead put them into freezer bags. To try to minimise mess I put the bag into a jug to help keep the shape, rather than try to ladle it straight into the bags. The result was about 10 of these...

Chicken stock also freezes really well. One of Les' sneaky tips is that he reduces the stock down so its really concentrated. Freeze it in an ice cube tray, and you just need to stick a cube in your cooking instead of a dried stock cube. The man is a genius. It also reduces the chance of taking chicken stock to work for lunch thinking it's soup. Yep, done that more than once actually!

I've also got leftover rice which I froze and will make fried rice with, and a few other bits of batch cooking or things that were left over and didn't get eaten within a couple of days; stew and dumpling, curry, bolognaise.

I abhor food waste. Mainly because it costs money, but also because it's bad for the environment, and because I hate the thought of food going in the bin when people around the world go hungry. So if we can waste less by freezing, why not?!

What else could we freeze? Do you have any top tips for dealing with stuff going past it's best?

Back on the budget waggon

It's been a while since I did much blogging. And much saving if I'm honest.

We put an offer on a house which was rejected and left me feeling a bit disheartened. Then it was the summer... and then, well you know how it is. Months roll by, good intentions fall by the wayside. But it's time to give myself a kick up the bottom and regain control!

Looking at my bank statement this morning was a bit of an eye opener. I have fallen into the trap of using my credit card towards the end of the month, then paying it off in full on payday, but then having that little bit less each month to spend. Meaning the credit comes out that little bit earlier, for that little bit more.

So, it's time to get back to more conscious spending, or not spending! It will take more than a month to readjust I think, especially with Christmas around the corner.

To kickstart, here are 5 things I'm doing today.

1. Write it all down. Looking at all regular income and outgoings is important to understanding how much is left over. I've started working more hours, so I have this sense that I've got plenty of disposable income. But in reality, outgoings have gone up too. Comparing this month with, say 2 years ago, I've actually less left over after the bills have been paid.

2. Review all my regular payments. Do I want to continue with that gym membership? Should I adjust the amount going into kids savings? There's probably something I can cancel, or at least reduce.

3. Look for better deals. I know that my energy tariff ran out this month so I'm back on the standard rate. I haven't reviewed my broadband since the cheap introductory offer ran out.

4. Check the fridge. Throwing away food equates to throwing away money. I want to make sure that anything which is nearing its use by date gets cooked in time. If veg is getting a bit ropey, I'll make some soup.

5. Have some free fun! Rather than spend money on half term activities, we'll get out, and get muddy I think.

All other ideas welcome! What are your best ways to avoid spending? What can we all do to help our money go a little further?

Doing Disney a little bit cheaper

So straight off the bat I'll say Eurodisney is NOT a cheap holiday, I'm not going to pretend that it is. But if you decide to spend your hard earned cash on a "once in a lifetime" kind of trip, there might be a few ways to make it a little bit cheaper.

We went to Eurodisney 5 years ago, the kids were 4 and 9, pretty perfect ages for it. And they loved it so much I promised we'd go back. So this year, we did!

Booking the holiday
The first thing I did when we decided to book was spend a good few hours looking at all the different options. Amazingly there can be a difference in price by traveling a day earlier or later, or taking a different train. I entered about a hundred (or at least it felt that many!) different combinations of length of stay, date of travel, hotel type etc and wrote down all the prices. In the end we paid just over £1000 for 4 days/3 nights including hotel, park tickets and train travel for 4 people.

I chose to take the children during school time. That is not going to be everyone's preferred option I know, but I decided that going in late September would give them a chance to settle into new classes without really disrupting any serious pieces of work they might do later in the year. The school, although they couldn't authorise the holiday, were very supportive and wished us a lovely break. It was a great time of year, the weather was mild and the park was relatively quiet.

Looking for deals
If you're not set on booking at a certain time it is worth looking out for deals. There are often "kids go free" or "one night free" offers. When we booked we received free half board food vouchers. That was incredibly useful. The vouchers gave us an all-you-can-eat meal plus an afternoon snack each day. Had we paid for all the food we ate, it would have been an extra £450 on top of our holiday!! And it was lovely not to have to worry about paying for food on top of everything else.

Pack for snacks
As with all resorts the food inside the parks is eyewateringly expensive. Having spent a small fortune on the holiday, you don't want to spend the same again on food and drinks while you're there. The website does say you can't take your own food or drinks into the parks but we never had any issues, and plenty of people were making sandwiches at breakfast to take with them!

We took cereal bars, biscuits, fruit, pot noodles, cupasoups and mug shots. And plenty of drinks. Having used our food vouchers at lunch time, the kids were getting hungry by the time we got back to the hotel so the pot noodles went down really well. Another thing to note is that there is a charge for mugs and tea/coffee in the rooms. We took tea, coffee, sugar with us, and some small milk cartons. But we didn't realise there wouldn't be mugs, so we reused pot noodle pots for hot drinks and snacks!

The journey
I made a packed lunch to take with us on the way down, and bought some cheap sweets as a treat. Again we packed loads of drinks and snacks so that we didn't have to pay service station prices.
To entertain the kids on the journey we have a journey book in which I write car game ideas and challenges, I also drew a map of the route with various towns we would pass marked on it. It helped them to see how far we had to go without asking "are we nearly there yet?!" every 5 minutes! We got some audio books from our local library which are free to loan and definitely help to pass the time.
As our train was at 7am we chose to stay over the night before in Ashford. There is some great accommodation on Air bnb, it's not just rooms in shared houses, there are bnbs or self catering flats too.

For parking we used a site called justpark.com. It allows people to rent out their drives, and we paid £18 for 5 days. The multi-storey at Ashford International is £11 a day so it's worth looking at alternatives.

Extras
Inevitably there are tonnes of ways to spend extra money while you're there. And we don't like to say "no" all the time, especially when we're on holiday. Personally, I think there is plenty to do without paying for any extra activities. We gave the kids some spending money, and any gifts for their friends, treats in the park or souvenirs to bring home came out of that. It's much easier to budget that way than spending €5 here and there which quickly adds up. And it's a good lesson for the children in making decisions and managing their own cash. Of course that depends on the age of the children. It might be easier to give a daily allowance than an overall budget.

One idea I had afterwards. Was that if you want to give the kids a souvenir to remember the trip, buy it before you go and wrap it up so they can open it on holiday. It will be a LOT cheaper than anything you buy in the shops there. Exchange rates make a big difference, but as an example pens were €6 (about £5).

We had a wonderful time, and now we're back the belt tightening will resume!

How else have you managed to reduce costs while you're away? What are your best holiday bargains?

Parkrun - Fun, friendly, free and fabulous :)

Today we attended our first Parkrun!

 

These are weekly, timed runs hosted throughout the country. The main runs are 5km but there are also junior runs which are 2km.

I've been trying to coax Miss P for a while and she finally relented and gave it a go today with the help of some friends to run alongside her.

The sun was shining, which definitely helped the horribly early start (8.30am on a SUNDAY!)

The first thing that happened when we got there was the organisers asked if it was anyone's first time, and everyone gave a round of applause. What a lovely way to welcome new runners!

There were awards for those who had participated in certain numbers of runs, then the kids all went off to warm up. (The photo is from https://www.parkrun.org.uk/news/2015/07/page/2/, I forgot to take any!)

And then they were off! The route was 2 laps of the park, so it wasn't long before the first ones came flying past us. The event was really well marshalled, and all the volunteers and parents clapped and cheered for all the kids who ran by. By the second lap there were a few that were flagging, but you could see that the encouragement they got really helped them to power through to the end.

My nephew bolted round and got a fantastic 11 minutes on his first ever run. Our girls all stuck together, from very-nearly-4 to almost 14, they brought up the rear, but it really didn't matter. The focus is not really on who you beat, but setting your own time, and then through persistence and practise, bettering that. However, you can go on-line and see how others did. Including whether they achieved a new personal best, and how often they've done the runs. The winning time this week was 7 minutes 50 seconds! Amazing!

I'd wholly recommend giving it a go. It's not often you find such well organised regular activities for free. And it felt like such an inclusive activity. I'm sure there is some competition, especially in the top ranks, but it's obviously designed to be something that anyone, regardless of ability, can join in with.

We'll see if we're still there when it's cold and raining though!

Do you have any other sporting activities to recommend? Or have you done the parkrun? How did you find it?

Veggie Stir fry for ALL the family!

This evening I cooked a veggie stir fry for the family. I think it's the first time in 9 months the boys have eaten my meat-free food! It was an exciting time :)

We've not had stir fry for ages, but whenever we do I always use instant noodles. I think they're tasty and moist, and so much cheaper than any of the other supermarket options at about 18p a packet.

For tonight's meal I used 3 packets of Aldi noodles, and it made 7/8 portions.

I did an optional Yellow Bean and Cashew Nut sauce which I got from Quality Save for 29p. That was served separately in case people didn't like it but to be honest it was delicious without.

The other accompaniment was cook-your-own prawn crackers. Bought from the Chinese supermarket for I think 99p (it was an age ago). They're a total bargain compared to ready to eat ones and so much more fun! They take about 10 seconds to fry.

So the stir fry itself included

1 onion
4 carrots
1/3 white cabbage
Pack chicken style pieces
Beansprouts
2 spoons of garlic ginger (amazing stuff. Available in Asian food shops but currently in Lidl for 99p!)
Slosh of soy sauce

I pretty much chucked it all in for about 20 minutes and served on the noodles.

I'd say a total cost of about £3, which works out about 40p a portion!

The boys weren't quite convinced by the "chicken" but ate it without complaint. And enjoyed the rest of the meal. There's enough left for 3 more meals. It would have been 4 but Master P had a big helping of seconds.

What are you favourite quick and easy meals? Do you have any cheap products you'd recommend instead of forking out for the proper ones?

Swishing - Refreshing your wardrobe for free!

I was quite excited about this blogpost. Because swishing is one of my favourite things. It is essentially clothes swapping. I've done it with just a couple of friends, a houseful, and even as a charity fundraiser in church or school halls.

I shared a picture of my wardrobe on a previous post, of the 35 dresses in there, 18 of them were swished!

 

It can be difficult for us to think that the things we have tired of, or bought and never worn, will be of interest to anyone else. But one girl's trash really is another girl's treasure. I, for instance, was more interested in fitted tops and jumpers this time. I have enough dresses, as you can see! So it's not all about bringing the fanciest or most expensive clothes.

 

This weekend I invited a few friends round. We had a glass of wine, some snacks, a natter; generally just a lovely evening together. Plus we all went home with some "new" clothes!

 

I had a serious clear out beforehand, resulting in 2 huge bags of clothes to swish. I find I am more ruthless when gathering clothes for swishing than if I'm just taking to the charity shop. Perhaps it's knowing that they will be replaced with other clothes, but either way it does make me more focussed on getting rid of what I don't need. I've been reading a book about tidying and have realised that half the clothes I wear are my "that'll do" clothes. I own lots of things I love, so the mediocre stuff had to go!

 

I should really have taken some pics last night but to be honest we were all too busy trying on each others clothes and talking. The way we work it is take a bag at a time and sort of show each item, if someone's interested they take it, try it, think about it, and if they don't want it either pass it along or put it in the 'no' pile. There is no shame in having your stuff in the no pile! We all have different styles, are different sizes. I guess you could feel a little exposed sharing your clothes with everyone but surely it's better to give those clothes a change at a new life than festering in the back of your wardrobe?! And if you didn't want to do it that way, you could always throw everything in a pile and just take out things which interested you. I think we just like to make sure we get a good nosy at everything!

This dress, for example, is divine. I need to work on my photography skills! It was my sisters, the pattern is lovely. But it wasn't right for any of us. Inspired by the sewing bee I MIGHT have a go at adjusting it for Little Miss Poppins.

 

I didn't take a whole lot last night, I'm trying really hard to cut down on clothes. But I did get a couple of jumpers, few tops, some shoes, and this totally gorgeous scarf which I just can't decide how to wear!

 

 

If you've never tried swishing, I'd really recommend it. You might be surprised at some of the things people get rid of. One of my favourites is this jacket (photo courtesy of Ebay). My friend had it in her wardrobe for ages, but the length wasn't quite right for her and she thought it was a bit fancy. I wear it on the school run regularly and it just makes me feel fab!

 

If you've tried swishing, I'd love to know how it went. Or if you've other ideas or ways of doing it, please share! What are your best swishes?