A few bargains from today, courtesy of some intruder ants!

Today I've found a few bargains in Tesco. Not anyway I'm in desperate need of, but will be used and will keep. 

The 'Always' were £1 and I found a coupon online for £1 off so were free!

Hand wash 500ml £1.08 reduced to 24p! 

Talc were both £1.08 reduced to 33p

Baby bath was £1.08 (I think) but reduced to 27p

I got three veg stew packs (carrots, parsnips, onion, turnip/swede) for 10p from £1.50 each 

A Savoy cabbage for 10p, a bit sorry looking but with a few leaves removed with be lovely! Was £1. 

Two packets of figs also 10p from £2. 

And all because I came home to find ants in my kitchen and OH wanted some ant killer/deterrent stuff!! 

Today's meal plans

Breakfast - Cereal
OH and N&N shreddies (14p x 3) 42p
Bubba has weetabix (6.5p) and 1/2 banana (5p)
Kids will have a piece of fruit each (30-40p)
I'll have a banana (15p)

Lunch
OH and N&N will have LO stir fry (82x3) £2.46
Bubba will have finger foods, rice cakes, ham, soft cheese, veg and fruit, a yogurt. Works out about 35p for this
I'll have ryvita x2 and cheese spread (20p)
With a piece of fruit each (60p)

Snacks
Kids will have a yogurt (32p)
A packet of skips (25p)

Dinner
Again this is a little over budget, but we are going to make burgers for the BBQ!
2 packets of mince (£1.12 each 1/2 price)
1 egg (15p)
Onion (10p)
Salad (58p)
Two buns (8p) from a reduced batch
Homemade chips (30p)
Total of 3.45 to serve four people (and a bubba) 86p each

This works out to be £8.65 for the day! Eek! 28.83% of the weekly budget just over twice the daily allowance. Considering we're feeding two extra hungry mouths we'd knew we'd spend a bit extra. Saying that if they were here full time we couldn't be so fun about it.

Last nights tea, a little over budget, but yummy :)

Last night we gave the kids (as in niece and nephew) a few options for tea. We try and let them choose, write the list and shop for ingredients to get them involved and practice their bargain hunting skills!

They choose stir fry so off we went, was late morning so not massive reductions, but we didn't do bad.
Found some turkey breast reduced to half price £2.50
2 packets of vegetables £2.20 (full price)
2 packets of fresh egg noodles £1.20 (reduced from £1 each)
2 sachets of sauce 66p (bought a while ago on offer)
Total of £6.56

This fed three adults and two children, one of which eats adult sized portions!
There's enough for OH's lunch and the two kid's lunches tomorrow.
So 8 portions = 82p each


On the way hone my niece (9) shouted "look there's a coupon!" and sure enough some careless shopper had thrown away a coupon. Yes she's definitely my apprentice!

Picnic lunch for 2 adults, 2 children and a bubba

Off for an impromptu visit to the park with a picnic lunch with my niece and nephew. 

The thought of a picnic on a budget can be daunting and expensive. If I knew we were ok I could have planned better and made cheaper and more nutritious foods. 

However here we are....

6 rolls 25p

Cheese 34p and ham 27p

3 packets of crisps 38p (skips on offer in tesco). Also a fourth packet which was already from another stay.

4 yogurts 67p

1x bubba's yogurt 7p

2 pieces of fruit each well and one for the bubba £1  

So I think £2.98 for the 5 of us :)

Also had a little treat. An Oreo ice cream cone each. These were on offer in Sainsbugs, half price so £1.24 for 4 :) 

Much cheaper than the ice cream can at the park (and don't telling our slimming world friends ;D)

A little treat for the mama

Evening guys!

Living cheaply for us is a challenge, but I like to have a little treat and make myself look half human. I take part in FLYlady's tasks, one is to "get dressed down to lace up shoes and fix your hair and make up" so each day I apply my tinted moisturiser, mascara and eyeliner so. After how I feel and whether I'm going out.

So, I went into Boots with my coupons looking for a little something for me. It's not cheapy cheap, but not too bad.

Mascara £6.29, but had a coupon for it to be £2 :)
I like eyeliners that are like felt tips, not always easy and cheap to find. So...
We're £8 each, buy one get one half price so the second one is £4 = £12. Then I had a £1 coupon so was £11 for the two or £5.50 each :)

Saving £9.29, and the items will last for ages each so won't have to buy them for a while :)

Saturday night dinner - ingredients and costings

Yesterday's dinner was a minced beef bolognese with pasta

I have costed it out at 33p per adult portion. I have divided some into bubba sized portions, I have counted two of these as an adult sized portion as they are half.

So ingredients....
Extra lean minced beef 500g £2.00 (reduced, but found in my freezer)
A large onion 15p
Garlic, half a large bulb 15p
'squirt' of tomato purée 7p
Carrots (around 100g) 1p (from the 1kg bag reduced to 10p)
2 courgettes 10p (again from a reduced bag)
2 x stock cubes 11p
2 tins chopped tomatoes 62p (31x2)
1 carton passata 29p
150g green lentils 10p (got 1.5kg for 99p from approved foods)

So, if I've totalled correctly then it comes to £3.60.

I got 6 portions for the bubba (equivalent to 3 adult portions) and 8 adult portions. Say 11 portions so it makes it 33p a portion.

To go with it we each had 100g of pasta at 10p each. Bubba would have had around 25-30g pasta cooked for him. However he has been given some tiny baby sized pasta shells from the Italian deli by his Nonna so technically they are free. They cost 95p for a 500g bag, I would only pay that begrudgingly and bubba would happily eat the same pasta as us chopped up ;)

I also sprinkle a little cheese on top. I weighed out the 20g (for slimming world measurements) and that was 14p each!

Works out that the whole meal for the three of us cost £1.45

Vegetables galore!

I hit the jackpot mid week, well not in gold coins, but in vegetables! Admittedly it was an impromptu trip to accompany my friend to Sainsbugs so not a planned spend.

I got 25 items for £4.60! Worked out a saving of £28.13

I have given a few bits to family who have visited and used lots in cooking. Mostly I have part steamed and frozen them in portions.

I have carrots coming out of the ears. I even bought some of their 'posh' carrots as they were only 15p! I also got 1kg of their basic carrots reduced to 10p so I got two! There were so many packets of so many things there that I didn't feel guilt. I still have the best part of the 2kg bags left to prepare and freeze!

I used some of the posh carrots in cooking, but I've managed 10 portions of them in my freezer (3p each). I got two packets of leeks £2 reduced to 20p each. As FIL is Welsh I gave him a packet, but I got got 4 portions out of the remaining packet making them 5p a portion! Some lovely green beans were £1 reduced to15p, I got four generous portions out of those so 14p (7p per person). Have to admit I did eat a few whist chopping ;-)

Hopefully will have a fair bit to see us through the bleak months ahead until I return to work :-)

Last night's tea

Just thought I'd share last dinner as it was truly a bargain meal! 

So for 2 packs of stir fry veg and 1 lot of noodles was £1.25 

Added a chicken breast which was reduced a couple of weeks ago so was 45p. 

FIL also came over at the last and bought another chicken breast. 

This mix fed three adults with plenty left for hubby's lunch today. 

So for my £1.70 I've four portions :-) not too bad :-)