Month: July 2012

Epic Life-changing News

I recently made a decision which will almost certainly change the course of my life forever. I quit my job. It wasn’t in my long term plan — with 2 kids I’d previously dismissed working for myself as impractical and risky — but thanks to the government arsing about with tax credits I realised that […]

Meal Plan Mondays (30th July)

I went against last week’s meal plan and bought a chicken for yesterday so that I could incorporate chicken into several meals this week (penance for splurging on Domino’s). In case you missed the last entry, the chicken turned out to be a weird, mutant bird with dangly neck bits, but was fairly yummy all […]

WTF, Tesco?!

I decided not to do leftovers today; I bought a higher standards, not-raised-in-a-shed chicken from Tesco so that I could have chicken-themed meals tomorrow & Tuesday. Except I’ve just taken it out of the packing and discovered a piece of blue plastic inside it, a load of feathers and … pieces(?!) attached that should have […]

Stuff I Grew

I couldn’t think of a more imaginative title, sorry. Runner beans, which have gone a bit mental: Om nom nom… Strawberries (I’ve got 3 plants in this pot and 3 out the front, these are cropping better): The mangetout peas are out of control! One of 6 tomato plants: Round courgettes: And the world’s tiniest […]

Meal Plan Mondays (23rd July)

Part of my ongoing meal-plan series… Monday: Meat pie Made from the mince that I was supposed to use for last week’s cottage pie, but we had a last minute splurge on pizza (delivered) instead. I guess that puts the cost at some £20+ … the most expensive meat pie ever! Tuesday: Prawn curry I’ve […]

Lego: the exception to the rule

With Isabel’s birthday approaching in the next few months I’ve been window-shopping for ideas for something cool, something that is going to ‘top’ Boris (last year’s gift). Looking at Tesco’s range of Lego sets it occurred to me that Lego & spin off brands are a brilliant exception to my no-plastic ‘toy snob‘ rules. Lego […]

5 ways I’ve saved money in July

Part of my ongoing mission to save money this year, these things have saved me money this month… 1. Cancelled our lovefilm membership I’ve fallen in and out of love with lovefilm over the years because of billing issues, scratched DVDs etc but having been fine with them for a while it’s come to the […]

The Toy Snob

I was writing a post on wooden toys for another blog I’m trying to get off the ground (got to find something to do with my excess time, ha) and it got me thinking about my ‘policy’ on toys. Since Isabel’s birth I have insisted (quite vocally, surprise surprise) on natural toys. Wooden blocks and […]

Meal Plan Mondays (16th July)

Thank you for the support (comments, retweets etc) on last week’s meal plan: it was cool to see how many of you also meal plan. Definitely reinforces that I’m doing the right thing to help with this budgeting malarkey. Anyway, on with things… Monday: Chicken risotto Chicken (which only cost £4 in the end) from […]