5 frugal things post 42
Its week 4 of the summer holidays, I can’t believe how fast they are zooming by. This last week was going to be a child free week as the boys were going to head off to Essex to spend three days with the in-laws. Alas Hubby’s mum who is waiting for a hip operation, was in too much pain so it was postponed until next week. All was okay though as hubby had an unexpected week off and looked after the boys instead.
I had loads of time to write, get in control of things like cash flow and tax returns and got organised with lots of work for the end of 2017. Things are looking so good. I am so excited about what I have coming up over the next few months.
Wednesday in London for work
I now spend one day per week in London normally running from meeting to meeting catching up with clients and PR agencies. If you are a blogger reading this post its so important to meet up with brands and agencies. Dazzle them with your personality and you content and engagement ideas and they will remember you.
Wednesday was a full-on day with an early 9:30 meeting with a client at Joe and the Juice! Coming in early meant I had to get the peak train costing £18 rather than £13. It was worth it for the apple, mint and ginger juice that was bought for me. Set me right up for the day.
I have run out of moisturiser but knew that eventually I would get some from somewhere! I am on a no-spend challenge for the rest of 2017 and Aldi very kindly gave me some day cream, night cream and 3-minute face mask cream. Whilst at the agency, they also lent me a quiet space to record my Informed choice podcast! And supplied me with water and coffee. Thank you!!
If you need a decent face cream do give Lacura day and night cream a try, it smells lovely and costs just £6.99 per tub, which will last for ages, available in store. I use it and my skin looks pretty good. The best thing about the night cream is that it contains an ingredient that makes you fall asleep!
Wednesday in London for lunch
I met my friend Neilboy after the morning meeting were over for lunch at Murano. Neilboy treated me to lunch for just being a good friend. We have spent lots of time together this year since he has returned from his travels and I have treated him to a few blogger events freebies so he paid me back with a beautiful lunch. We then sat in the sun at Regents park and watched the world go by.
On the way home from London I stopped by Fortnum & Mason for a wonder around the food. Honestly the most expensive food you have ever seen, £8 for a tin of biscuits!! We pay £1.99 for an Aldi biscuit barrel for four times as many biscuits!!
But I did discover the mark down section for their cakes that were going out of date. I got hubby and I two chocolate tarts that had golf leaf on top!! They were yummy. The cost £4.75 rather than £9.50!! I know £9.50 for two chocolate tarts!
Rediscovering old toys
With the summer holidays progressing it’s getting harder to find stuff to keep the children amused for period of time. The boys have rediscovered their Nintendo Wii, which is maybe 5 years old. We have a collection of games so the boys have had great fun with Wii sports and Olympics. We have made good use of Netflix which is just about to come to the end of a one-month free trial but I am going to continue it. Jack has been watching Smurfs and Alvin and the chipmunks using his new panda “CozyPhones” earphones. These are super comfortable headphones perfect for your little one. And it means that you don’t have to put up with the volume from those chipmunks!! We went for Panda but there is also frog, monster, fox and many other to choose from. Here is link to them on Amazon.
Good Old-fashioned home cooking
We have been tempted by takeaways a lot this week, I even suggested to hubby to get fish and chips on the way home from football training on Thursday night but he said no, good hubby. This week I have cooked cottage pie, roast chicken and then used the left over stripped chicken to make tortillas the next night.
I love a cottage pie and I like to make up the recipe as I’m going, whatever is in the cupboard will go into the sauce. Yesterday I made a huge batch of cottage pie requested by Josh who was poorly yesterday. I offered to make him anything and he chose cottage pie!
My recipe base meat
2 packets of Aldi mince beef
1 beef stock pot with ½ pint water
2 cloves of garlic
1 large onion
3 carrots
Oregano
Thyme
Basil
Worcester sauce
Salt and pepper
Cook everything for 30 minutes once the mince has browned.
10ish potatoes boiled and mashed with butter for the topping
Then cooked for 30 minutes in 200 oven to brown and crisp up the top.
Back to School shopping
I am doing a bit at a time, every week I buy a few bits. This week we headed to Sports Direct to get the boys some school shoes. We really struggle with school shoes as they wear out so quickly. The constant running, jumping, football at school means they only last one term if lucky. This time round all their shoes have come from Sports Direct. All black trainers or smart lace ups.
I have a post going live tomorrow all about the Sports Direct back to school range as they have so many great products at really great prices, and to make it even cheaper for you I have an exclusive 10% off code. Just use the code Mummypenny10 on their website or app to save an extra 10% off your purchase. Not just for back to school stuff, it will work for whatever you buy.
What have you done this week that has been super frugal?
I am linking up with Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s Five Fabulously Frugal things I have done this week linky.
