Meal Savings

Over the last couple of weeks I have been rumaging in the freezer and pulling out basically "free" dinners.

These have been made up of the single portions (leftovers) of things that I have previously frozen, and now there are enough to make a family portion when combined; add in some fresh veggies and maybe a carb and dinner for four at very little cost.

My aim over the next few weeks is to continue on this vein and empty the freezer for defrosting so that any excess summer produce I get can be frozen ready for winter use.

Birthday Presents

Tomorrow is Tom's 14 birthday. Where has the time gone!!

Anyways he asked for clothes or the cash to buy said clothes.

So in true savings fashion, we set to looking on Ebay as BNWT labelled clothes can be snapped up at way less than shop prices.

He has worked out how much he wants to spend on each item and has done the bidding etc; so far snapping up 2 t/shirts for less then half the price he would of paid in town and that is including the postage.
Plus I got him to go through www.quidco.com so I get a bit of cashback as well.

Electricity Savings

I have gradually been trying to use more appliances on Economy 7 cheaper electricity over night.

I have so far managed to increase the amount used overnight to 30% on average, compared to only 15% this time last year.

There hasn't been many major changes, just making sure the dishwasher , washing machine and bread machine runs overnight. We don't own a tumble dryer and I line dry as much as is possible or use the indoor airer.

We have already switched all our bulbs which can be to the "eco" variety.

The other main area is to make sure that the boys don't leave their tv's and games consoles on standby when they have finished with them.

Kitchen Appliances

During the last month I have had to purchase a new bread machine, and have a replacement rental washing machine. I have a rental as although costing a monthly fee can be upgraded as and when new models come out and can also be repaired as part of the rental if needed.

For us this has seemed to be the way to go as washing machines don't seem to be built to last more than a couple of years anymore.

The washing machine has a larger size drum and is also an A+ rating on the energy grading, this means that it now will wash more in each load (less loads during the week) but is also good for energy consumption etc.

Just in the 2 weeks since we have had this I have noticed that our electrictiy usage has gone down, and nothing else has changed.

The bread machine was an annoying thing as the old machine worked perfectly well but the pan leaked and it didn't matter how many parts places I contacted a spare one could not be found.
I have kept the old machine in case a pan does become available.

Tacos

Saturday was my birthday and I had requested a tortilla press as my present from Dave and the boys as I hate having to roll the dough out.

I found one online at a store which also sells the Masa Harina flour, which is the best for making soft tortillas.

It duly arrived in time for the big day so yesterday I made tacos for dinner.

I have recipe I got from online a few years back which makes up the seasoning mix and you just add this to browned drained beef mince, then serve in the cooked soft tortillas with salad and cheese and either sour cream or mayo.

A lovely dinner which didn't cost a fortune.

Household Journal

This is following on from an idea I saw on another blog.

You have a folder which contains all the important phone numbers and account information. It can also contain your master grocery list, which contains all the items you would normally buy on a monthly basis.

This folder can be as complex as you like or as simple as you like.

I'm going to have a simple one which will have a sheet with all the names, account numbers and payment dates of all our monthly bills.

Then I will have a sheet with the annual bills

And finally people like the coalman and chimney sweep who are ongoing bills but we still need to contact them.

I find I never put all these numbers in my address book and then have to rumage around to find the phone number and or account number when it is required.

More Snow

We have had more snow, it started yesterday lunchtime and continued into the night.

The boys and their friends had a great time building snowmen and having snowball fights.

But by the time it was bedtime the snow had turned to rain and so this morning it is just a slushy mess on the ground which will get everything wet.

My main problem with weather like this is getting my laundry dry as I do not own a tumble dryer.

I have an indoor airer and put some on there to dry in the warmth of the house it is then finished off over the radiators as it just need airing; the excess wet clothing last night got draped over some plastic chairs and left in the room in front of the coal fire when we went to bed, lovely and dry this morning.

Dave is having a few days off next week as it is half term and the boys are off school and we are hoping we can get some jobs done in the garden weather permitting; we want to get the greenhouse put together so we can grow salad stuff this year.