Our No Spend Weekend including Football and a Birthday Sleepover

Our No Spend Weekend including Football and a Birthday Sleepover

 Weekends are often the same in our household. Saturdays are a mega busy day normally getting two boys to two different locations for football and then Sundays are travelling normally to Cambridge for Dylan the eldest son’s football game for Cambridge United. This weekend included all this, plus a bit more. It was Josh; my eight year old’s birthday, so he decided to have a no-spend sleepover party.

In the past, we have spent lots of money on birthday parties. Even last year we tried to cut costs by having a joint party with a friend. Hiring a football pitch and making our own cake, but it was still a birthday that cost around £100. This year we are doing things differently.

Saturday Football

 The football this week was a game locally for Dylan only. Hurrah this meant just a 15-minute journey to the game. And it wasn’t cold. This was a cup game where Dylan plays for the local Stevenage district team against a Birmingham team. It was a closely matched game that ended in penalties with us as the winners.

Food was prepared by the parents and we all bought different items each. Our food allocation was ham sandwiches, perfect as we always have a ton of sliced bread in the freezer and always have ham for the packed lunches for the boys. So, no spending on the food to take to the match. I also took snacks and a flask of coffee for the game to ensure my two other boys were fed and happy.

Sleep-Over

 Josh’s sleep over started at 5pm, we had six boys including my children to sleep over! Hubby did the ultimate freebie activity with the boys and took them to the local park for an hour to tire them out. This didn’t work I must point out!

The big activity when they arrived home was to make their own pizzas. Such a great way to use up leftovers in the fridge and create some masterpiece pizzas.

I made the pizza dough myself, inspired by a post from Much More with Less which you can read here. The recipe was made solely from ingredients that I already had in the cupboard. This made enough dough for 8 thin crust smallish pizzas.

420g strong white bread flour

2 teaspoons sugar

Pinch salt

2 7g sachets dried yeast

250ml warm water

2 tablespoons rapeseed oil

I made the pizza dough whilst the boys were out at the park. You mixed the dry ingredients together, then slowly added the wet ingredients to a well in the middle of the dry and mix together to form a dough. I kneaded the dough for 10 minutes and then left to proof in a bowl with a tea towel over the top.

I prepared bowls of sweetcorn, chopped ham, grated cheese, and pineapple as these were all the things that I had in the fridge already. The boys had a great time decorating the pizzas. Some created faces; some went for an abstract design of random topping everywhere!

The pizzas were a success and everyone wolfed them down as soon as they came out of the oven. A hit I would say.

The rest of the evening was spent playing computer games and watching a film in Josh’s room and the boys eventually went to sleep by 10:30pm. Not too bad considered we had four eight-year olds sharing a room.

Sunday Football

 Sunday was an early start with all the boys up at 6am. They packed off home by 9am as eldest son Dylan was off to Tottenham for a football game for his Cambridge United team. Packed lunch in hand of course.

Sunday afternoon for the family was a roast dinner at the in-laws, even more money saving.

It was a great no spend weekend. For lots more money saving ideas and tips head over to Scottish friendly.

This is a collaborative post.