Hi all,

Well we all had a lovely day, i went and bought myself a vase, supposed to be £10 went to the till and it was £4 bargain! Yes i know shouldn't have spent money but a friend bought flowers for me and i didn't have naywhere to put them.

After this we went i.e the whole family went to my mothers for sunday lunch, which i have to shamefully say was far superior than our christmas meal there.It was nice just chilling and relaxing.

After  that home time for us.

I've spent the dya thinking of how were going to do things next month.
Its going to be hard but needs to be done.

I'll be back on tomorrow with hopefully a basic plan of what will happen.

Back tomorrow peeps

kez x

New Year New Start

I've had a turbuent few months this year so i haven't been able to post. I've been on os many painnkillers i feel like a walking pill box :(

Myself and my partner have gone through our first year of being employed, its been hard, tiring but also good. Its amazing what you through in such a small amount of time.
We've got a website up and running, so if need a fully Gas Safe Qualified Plumber / Gas Engineer my partners your man lol. Daft thing is my line was far better and less corny than the one Yellow Pages came up with!

Heres our website if you wish to have a look at it. Any feedback, opinions on what you think of it would be great.
http://www.apexgas.co.uk/

Decided 2013 is going to be the year we will be financially and emotionally better off.
Health wise its been a hard few with my yungers sons needs as well as my own.
My osteoarthritis has brought me literally to my knees, i now have to use a wheelchair if i wish to leave the house. My partner has been pushing me about, so we've been naughty and going out for coffee. Roll on January and i might be walking without crutches once more!

So heres the idea so far:

No Spend Days - These are days where i don't spend money on rubbish.I won't be counting direct debits or credit card payments as they essential. But everything else will be carefully watched.

Doing basic exercise at home -  this includes physio and basic gym work i do on the the bed, floor and stairs.

Shopping - spending less money on food, bills, clothes and everyday things. This will done by using coupons, vouchers and lots of reduce food when available.


I'll more tomorrow when i get my brains around things, i'm still muddled with pain killers and anti-inflammtries so i apologise for spelling mistakes and things.

Bye for now and good luck xx

kez x

arghhh another spend day

 darn shopping!!!!!!!

Well today we spent an absolute fortune on takeaway food. As we couldn't get into the kitchen because of the floor tiles being put down. We ended up having dinner in a hotel, the foods cheap and they sell the most amazing cakes hmmm yummy!

The boys enjoyed it to, so we all enjoyed a meal before my Oh goes to away for a few days.
 So although i spent money when we didnt really want to, the food was really good and filled us all up.
The sky was amazing, all the read looked fabulous.

Thats today, fingers crossed it turn out r1ght.

Inspired by frugal queen!

Well as the title suggests i decided to take part of frugal queens  stopober campaign.
I decided to try and tackle the credit card debt, which embarassingly is quite high.I've never done a balance transfer before so its all quite scary. I also never thought i would be to have any kind of credit rating to apply for another credit card.

So i decided to go on the mse site and see whats deals they are at the moment.
I ended up applying for a tesco credit card, felt so nervous applying for it, i was waiting for the dreaded "rejected" letter to pop up. Instead it said you have been accepted. I was so shocked, just hoping it doesn't get rejected over the next few days.

Still if all goes well i'll have tranferred £1280.58 to the tesco card, with 22 months interest free balance, the balance transfer fee will be £37.10. So hopefully this time next year i will have at least paid  half the balance off.

I also did a daft thing and got tempted by amazon's credit card. I know silly, i would never have applied but i thought why not, it worked with tesco. So i ended up buying a christmas present for my eldest, and if applied and got granted the credit card you £5 off any item.

Its actually turned out quite well, the bill for a new game and a new book for moi was £46.86 in total. I ended up paying a whopping £6.86 instead!

£5 amazon cc voucher
£35 of amazon vouchers
both of the items are free delivery as well yay!

Hopefully its cards cutting up time.

So take the plunge and see what you can do!

take care

kez x

its been a while

Its been a very long time since i last blogged, what with lack of time and energy things just got left behind.

The summer holidays went far to fast for all of us, we seemed to lose weeks of our lives far to quickly.
We enjoyed ourselves though.

Well i decided to start the month with a new resolution, by cutting back on everything again. The few months we've gone beyond our budget due to having lots of building, which is still ongoing as we speak.
It will be good when the bathrooms and kitchen are finished, can't wait. Luckily our landlord is paying for it all.

Today i had a monkey cat spying on me while i worked.

 This is Shadow,  she's a little minx who loves drills, stealing pencils and climbing down stench pipes.
One crazy.

As the title suggest its been blooming cold, my athristis is playing up so its had to go on. Now looking forward to the winter bills at all.
.
Till tomorrow :)

A little lifter :D

Well today i've been gardening, getting rid of bits of rubbish from the front and back yard.
Damn green fly decided to attack my little rose bush and raspberry plants today so squirted them with a mixture of washing up liquid and water. Muhahahaha, some tiny little birds seem to love the green fly so they've feasted well today!


got a shock today and found these in a pot 

I know shockingly we have strawberries yay!!!!!

All my other plants have basically died so i'm really happy with these :)

This is my view from the front door an amazing array of colours, just me feel so happy.

Hardy Oriental Lily

Marigolds

Its the little things that make life so much better, i know its sounds a bit rich. But i know how it is when you've feel rubbish and you've cutback everything you can. But instead of focusing on the negative, try instead to focus on the positive. From something as simple as having a hot cup of tea , or in my case looking as flowers in pots.

Trust it will be easier, maybe not better, but you will find a way of coping.

kez xx

Is it a bird ?Is it a plane no its supersun!!

Had a lovely day out with the boys today.They had a ride on they grandmothers horse which they really enjoyed.

We all sat relaxing in the sunshine with a book in our hands.So the boys amused themelves with a footland.

Just a quick one today as i'm sbsoluely shatterd.

kez x

brrr its cold

Brrrrrrrrr Its freezing outside, decided to treat me and my partner today to a lovely breakfast out, yes not frugal i know but sometimes you need to have to yourselves. So we sat in  garden centre surrounded by torrential rain but it was really nice being together after he was working away. 

Came back as he had got a call for work and made some chicken stock from a leftover carcass from when we had dinner the night before. Also thought it might  warm me up!

Some people add onions, carrot and herbs, but i don't, i just strip the chicken meat from the carcass into a separate bowl.

Place a the remaining chicken carcass, skin, bone etc into a pan

This is the carcass remains

Place about 4 pints of tap water into a pan with the chicken carcass.

BRing to the boil and simmer until half of the liquid has reduced

When this is done get another pan and place a sieve over it and tip the pan and tip the stock into it

This makes it easier to separate the carcass from the liquid stock. Tried removing the bones by hand, it was a complete nightmare

I normally leave the sieve over the pan to allow any extra juices to drip from the carcass.

The result lovely stock!

you can freeze the stock or store in the fridge for a few days.

We love it in risottos and soup.

stretching food

Well today i've been making another batch of what i call mince mix, yes it doesn't sound appetizing but it is really nice.


After much reading on how to bulk out minced meat / vegie mince i read about using red lentils and how they provide added protein and lentils also count towards your a five a day. Great stuff.


So here's my mince mix recipe


500g of minced meat
2 medium sized onions (sliced and chopped)
5 small carrots chopped into small cubes or grated
2 tins of tomatoes
250 grams of red lentils
4 pints of tap water


Fry onions till softened, add the mince and cook till browned.
Then add the carrots, give it a stir, then add the red lentils. 

Stir then add the two tins of tomatoes, put water into the tins to get the last of tomatoes out and bung them 
in the pan.
Add seasoning , i normally use black pepper and garlic powder.

Bring to boil and let it simmer till fully cooked.
Remember to keep checking on it as you may need to add more water as the lentils soak up quite a lot of 

liquid.


Once cooked let it cool down and then separate into tubs ready the next few meals.

As its cooked it last a few months in the freezer. Just defrost on the day you want it and away you go.


I normally make between 4 and 6 meals from this, which is enough for 2 adults and two children.


The mince can then be used to make chilli (just add kidney beans), lasagne, spaghetti bolognese. 
Basically anything tomato based.


Enjoy :)

make do and mend

Today has been one of those days where you just want to relax and spend some quality time either on your own or with your children. This i did with youngest whilst my eldest went to his friends house.
In between playing on Scooby Doo and watching a film, my little one said "Mam, what are you making?" I replied a blanket and my little man said can i help? So we sat together whilst the Zookeeper was on, showing him how to knit. I'm only a beginner but i find it relaxing .
In the near future i'm keen to teach my children the basics such as sewing on a button, well you never know when your going to need it. Through to how to make full meals in the hope that when they older and left home they won't struggle like i did (and still do).


A couple of days ago i was given a dressmakers dummy off a site called freegle. Its great all i need to do make or buy a stand for it and I'm off! My aim is to attempt to make some clothes for myself and take up some skirts . Both of which I've never done before so should be fun. I'm so chuffed.
Have a look on your local freecycle or freegle site you never know what people are given away for free! 

Please ignore the marks on the carpet, tradesman ruined it years ago and no mater how much i clean / wash it the stains won't come off.

I'm a big believer of recycling and regularly give away items for free. We've just refitted the kitchen and had some new worktop leftover so straight on freegle it went. It was snapped up within minutes, luckily my boys are used to me and love trawling through charity shops for clothes, books and toys. I turn it into a mini adventure where i say right you've got £2 to spend and that its, you'll be amazed and what you can find for  such a small amount of money.

Fruit yay!!!

Well i finally got outside, just enough time to clear the front garden before the rain came again.
Its was really just being able to potter about and not think about work.


I decided to check on the raspberries and lo and behold i found some little fruit slowly forming.

Next to the raspberries i have a gooseberry plant in a pot and a conifer which i got given off Freecycle.

  On the same row as the raspberries i have the following:

Potatoes and strawberries

Rhubarb and strawberries

                                                                          Rhubarb



As soon as you step through my gate you literally walk into a lovely green area.

My mini patio rose which my amazing two children bought me for Mothers Day

In the pot as the rose there is a climbing fushia

Beside the gate there is swiss chard, oriental lily,

 hanging baskets with various plants in and 

a container with ivy in.

The plants on the hanging baskets are from a box of wild flower seeds i got from Poundland.

As you can see everything is pretty crammed in there.

Mostly everything i grow is in pots, as i really don't have any space for anything else.
You can easily turn a concrete laden street in a piece of heaven :)
Hope you like the pictures!

rain rain rain!!!

Well its that kind if weather again, i feet haven't been dry for three days arghhh

I could stay in but thought no i'll attend some workshops and see what i can do to assist my children.

So i trudged in the pouring rain to a workshop on Makaton, its like sign language but much more basic.thinking why i am here, i could (should) be sat at home doing paperwork. Apparently there's a program  Cbeebies which actively teaches makaton and the character is called Mr Tumble.

Abit of history i have an eight year old child who is currently being assessed for autism and is on the autistic spectrum. One of his problems is verbally communicating with people. He's a chatter box once he gets started, but starting him off is a nightmare.

So there i am being taught very basic Makaton and i had a little lightbulb moment, i think i've found a way for my son to ask for the toilet without having to verbally ask!
Such a simple little sign which will make a world of difference to him. As he is mainstream school i need to find ways of allowing him to live a normal life with being picked on by his peers.

So fingers crossed this one little thing could save him from being anxious at school.

If you would like to know more here are some links for you.
http://www.makaton.org/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/article/makaton


If your in a similar situation as me where you feel quite isolated or just every things new to you please do not hesitate to contact me and i'll try and help. I literally got to the point after 8 years of struggling with my son that i thought i'm cracking up, i need some support. So i was advised to go a local group and its started from there. Two months on and the support is fab that i've had and the releif of knowing that i'm not the only one is such a great feeling.

back to the real world

Well its a been a long time since my last post, life got in the way and to be honest i got sick of trying to live frugally. After 7 months of running  a business i couldn't take anymore and had to take a break.
Yes i know i should have been strong but some days you just want to run away and scream and shout..


But i've decided to go back to life i had where money isn't important and getting stressed about the littlest things is just too hard and depressing. So we disappeared for eight days to the capital where i mooched about the streets with my children to watch bands and explore the free museums available to us. Its just what we needed, especially me.


Coming back i've started seeing people again who have the same outlooks as myself and who also struggle financially with having a teenage child. But also those whose lives have dramatically changed and are facing the scary future.




So today we went and spent the day exploring, caught up with some friends and it was great just chilling and chatting about anything and everything.
But the Olympic torch came through our little town today and the children loved it, just to the town out together was great. The children were chuffed as they watched the runner going by, along with lots of freebies and toys being given away. Such a little thing can bring such light. So keep an eye out it may come by near you!




Olympic torch in Middlesbrough

Please ignore the few seconds of me handing over the my phone to my son.

Rain rain go away and come again another day!!!

Well i don't know about anyone else but i'm sick of the rain, don't get me wrong. I love listening to it fall against the windows, especially when i'm lying in bed. But recently i've been pining for the sun, think its gardening withdrawel.

Last week i had a kind of revelation, i realised i could ask for help and it felt good. One of my children  has symptoms of autism. He has never been disagnosed, but he is on the autistic spectrum. Las week i attended a infomation conference where i was welcomed with open arms. I never thoguht people could be so nice and lovely to a stranger. Anyway as i was going around at leaflets a lovely lady took me into another and introduced to a group of parents whoalso have children with ASD (autistic spectrum disorders). It felt like such a relief knowing they were other parents going through the same as me.
We were invited along to play event the same day and along to another one next week. My children really enjoyed themslves and were able to let off steam in a friendly environment.

So this a new turn, so take it from me don't suffer and think your own there is always someone who is in the same position as you.There is light at the end of the tunnel :)

Keep you fingers croseed for me i need some sun!

Ahh Fresh Bread!!!!!

Ahh fresh bread you can't beat it.

Fresh bread normally doesn't last very long in my house as we all adore it  :)

Just thought i would share the recipe i use, its very adaptable and scrummy.
I use it to make to loaves, buns, foccacia and pizza's.

Basic Bread Recipe
300g Strong White Bread Flour
300g Plain Flour
300ml of tap water
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
7g dried fast action yeast ( or if using a bread machine about 1 1/2 tsp of fast action yeast)

If making by hand place the flour in first ,then the salt, sugar and yeast.

Mix together till fully combined. Then slowly add the water whilst stirring till it has formed into sticky but not wet consistency.

Now leave to rise dough till its doubled in size. Once it has done this, knock the dough back down again .

You can now shape into loaves, buns etc Place the shaped into a loaf tin, baking tray and leave to rise again. Once it has done this, preheat the oven to gas mark 5. Leave for 5 minutes for the oven heat up and place the bread dough in the oven.

Bake for about 45 minutes or till cooked.

If using a bread machine, I normally place the ingredients in and put it on a dough setting.

Once it has beeped, get the dough out and now you can shape it into loaves, buns etc.

Just follow the instructed given in the hand making recipe.

The great thing about this recipe is that its so adaptable and you can various different things to it such as herbs etc

For a pizza base you can use the same recipe as the bread loaf or what I do is use all plain flour.

If you want to make wholemeal bread, you need add I think about 50ml extra of water.

Enjoy!!!

How time flies!

Well its been a while since i first posted, been rushed off my feet with work and trying to promote our business.
Strange isn't it, when you come back from dropping the children, thinking oh I've got six hours to get this advertising done. Next minute you know it 2.55pm and running round like a headless chicken doing the school run.

Been funny the past few weeks here in the North East, last week we had really warm weather, yes the woolly jumpers came off and thin jackets saw the light. With three days, the rain was pounding and then snow for a couple of days. Who'd have thought it!

Well been looking in the yard and attempting to plan it out ready for starting seedlings, still not sure where to start due to weather being so erratic. So will get myself in gear and get some weeding and general maintenance done this week.

Oh and i finally found a camera! Yay so will hopefully put some pics up, beware they won't be brill but you'll see the disasters i sometimes  have in the yard and the kitchen!

Hello!

Hello one and all!

My first blog and boy is it scary. Didn't think it would be but got to start somewhere.
So where do i start, em?! Well i'm a twenty-nine year old unconventional woman living in the Tees Valley with my partner of twelve years and counting and two wonderful boys and three crazy psychopathic cats!

I decided to start this blog as a kind of personal dairy but also as a kind of support for people who are facing hard times whilst trying to live they lives to the full whilst on a budget.  The younger generation, my self  included, have never known what its like to live through such hard times and the "Credit Crunch" and second recession have hit us quite badly. We've all grown up seeing adverts for the latest thing and being force fed constant slogans of "Buy it Now, Pay Later". So guess what, thats what the majoirty of us did, unfortunately in these lean times it doesn't work. We now have to figure out how to get through life from one day to the next, whilst teaching the next generation to learn form our mistakes.

But its not all doom and gloom, over the years i've taken great pleasure in turning my grey concrete yard into a green haven for my family and the local wildlife.Its hard work but the simple pleasure of walking outisde and picking a tomato stright off is wonderful. Its true what they say home grown veg does take much better than those from the supermarket. My boys think its great when we go for a walk along the river or go mooching round the park.

So over the next weeks i'll be posting recipes, pictures and the  general ramblings of my mind.

Hope you find info useful and even funny at times.