Its so cold up North, they keep threatening snow but yet to see any just freezing rain and the odd sleet shower now and then, oh and the winds have been horrendous

Working a swap today so i can finish early and not miss Little Sons first nativity at school..hes a donkey... lol lets hope he gets on ok the teachers have said hes not too keen , so we shall see, he only turned four in June so one of the youngest in his class

First day of school picture .. like butter wouldnt melt haha ..

Ive been trying to get Nipper in at the groomers for two weeks even though he's walked where he's been so poorly his nails could do with a cut ..its been a nightmare trying to get him in, and he hates people touching his feet so im really dreading that ..meh ..

I've still to get the Xmas tree up, i have started with a few window stickers and re arranging everything ready but yet to get all the mounds of boxes out the loft..i must do thou .

Not sure whats for tea tonight, a rummage in the freezer when i get home, there's plenty in there albeit oddments im sure we can cobble something up, i really want to run this freezer down, not been shopping yet this week so need to see what can go with what and just buy the essentials, the cupboards are pretty well stocked so its just a few fresh bits and pet foods so hopefully a not expensive spend week .

Back soon Sammie xxx

cha cha slide

Yesterday i was in a foul mood

no idea why 

nothing special happened

i finished work at 5.30

the OH met me from work and we walked to aldi

i forgot she invited my sister and brother in law for tea last night

oh bugger it i couldn't be bothered at all ..ho hum

i was looking around aldi for some inspiration

i filled and unfilled the basket several times, walked round and round several times

OH got the hump 

words were exchanged

she left for home

i carried on shopping

THEN

some elderly woman grabbed my arm and said

"oh dear is your daughter alright"

Bloody daughter i thought 

(im not that much older than her and look pretty good- so i thought anyway lol)

i said actually its my girlfriend

i said yes im a lesbian rather loudly lol i couldnt help myself i did get some funny looks

at the checkout a rather camp chap said oooh i hope your having that cucumber for tea and winked at me

i went bright red

i then walked home

and slid across the dining room in a very cha cha slide action after stepping in two piles of cat sick

extreme hoovered the downstairs in a mood

then made gammon and pineapple for everyone

turned out nice in the end  :)

sammie xx

Its been a while

Hello everyone

well its been a while

- broken internet

- laptop virus

- illness

blimey its been one thing after another here

but im back

ive missed bloggy world

So nothing major really here, still plodding on, scrimping, saving, being frugal and paying off debts

but we are all happy so no problems here

all the illness has finally decided to bugger off- thank chuffing goodness :)

such a lovely weather change to, that really brightens thing up no end

My son was desperate for some new t shirts and he had some money saved from christmas/birthday/easter  and it was burning a hole in his pocket, so i allowed him to spend it on what he wanted too....shock horror he has taken a liking to R*ver I*land, he came home with 1 pair of jeans and 1 t shirt for £50 chuffing pound...thought id taught him better but i allowed him to go and enjoy his spend

yes it was a lovely t shirt but not worth the £16 price tag, since discussing with him the cost of living and the price of fashion i asked him if he'd like to look on ebay with me to see if we could find any R*ver I*land t shirts that took his fancy, i assured him they would be well washed by me and would be like new one laundered and ironed -ok mum was the answer so we looked

we managed to find 4 lovely t shirts all in the style he loved and we got the lot including postage for £12.50

winner

one happy mum and one happy son

phew

a mighty saving from new of £64.00 we saved £51.50

my kind of shopping

(3x RI 1x N*xt)

Whats on the menu plans this week?

Its farmoods cod in batter tonight with peas and new potatoes, and cheese pie for LS

i always make a meal plan for the week so i know exactly what to buy and exactly what im cooking everyday, starting to run out of different meals weekly, dont get me wrong we sometimes have duplicate meals and that fine but i need some inspiration..so fire away with any meals ideas you use and love.. sons a vegi and myself and OH happily eat vegi, or meat dishes.

Well il sign off for now and catch up on some bloggy reading.

See you all again soon

Sammie x

Happy Wednesday everyone
a massive welcome to two new followers
Frugal Queen and Amanda Green
thank you millions <3

So ive decided to do the penny a day challenge, and working out if we could manage the 52 weeks challenge too, my thinking on this is if we try and follow it week by week, or have more money than other weeks pick and choose what we can afford to pay at that time ..hmm i might give it a go..we shall see as im putting all the extra into paying of  the debts we owe too, but if we can manage it and pay/reduce the debt this year then what we have saved from these pots can be used to finish the final payments or go straight into savings either way i will try try try 

spent nearly all the weekly shopping budget £4.91 to last us  until Friday for the weekly allowance to start again, sheesh had a bit of  a wobbly moment at the beginning of the week, but im plodding on and will get there, its all pay out at the moment, constantly checking the gas and electric meter to make sure we are on track, my DS is the worst for coming home from school and turning the central heating on full whack,even thou ive told him not to he does it anyway,hmm may have to switch the actual heating off on the boiler so it doesn't come on lol, i do put the heating on of course but only when its 'time' certainly wont sit there freezing but it doesn't need to be on all willy nilly .

Ive been watching a bit
of that extreme couponing, wow, i wish we had extreme coupons here, one woman's total grocery bill came too just over $2000 and only spent 1penny i just couldn't get my head around this at all totally gob-smacked
they have masses of stockpiles of food and non food items in their homes, like their own little mini marts most donate to food banks and the forces but hells teeth its crazy its on YouTube if anyone hasn't seen it ..this brings me on to my shopping, and its nothing like theirs!! i was thinking when i do my weekly shop and i have some spare change like this week then use it to buy bits for the 'store' cupboard, long dated items  and keep it for either when times are even tighter or winter or whatever, just to know we have some stores, things like tomato puree, garlic pastes, tin chick peas, tinned veg etc just build bits up, nothing like these extreme couponers lol i couldnt cope
 with all that in the house

and this is nothing to what ive seen on the programme (image borrowed from Google)


il be happy with just one of my little cupboards filled with extra staples

Very cold in Lancs this morning, im at work with gloves on sipping a hot coffee, may have to put the jacket on soon, needs must an all, but its dry and very sunny so not a bad day at all.
Theres leftover pasta bake and plenty of salad in the fridge for tea tonight, im having spaghetti on toast -i fancy that, cheap an easy.

And just one more thing, 
i cant wait for the £5 off Aldi voucher to arrive in the newspapers,worth a few newspaper purchases i reckon, does anyone know when they start?


until next time my friends
sammie x