The changeable weather at this time of year is definitely making meal planning a bit more challenging....The weather makes it difficult to know what to plan for tea at the moment! If I plan ahead for a roast dinner at the weekend, and then the sun comes out then everyone wants something lighter than a full on Sunday dinner because, let's face it, no-one fancies a big roast dinner while the sun's shining (or at least we don't).I've been quite vague with my meal planning lately to combat the changing weather that we're seeing at the moment. By vague I mean that I'll write a main … [Read more...]
Family Holidays in the UK: Suffolk
We've had some amazing holidays this year as a family - New York, Milan, Isle of Wight and in two weeks, we're off to Monaco and Nice for a lovely short break. It sounds like we're total jet-setters but we're really not - this year's breaks are a combination of some VERY good deals which I know I've told you about and the fact that after being unwell last year I made it my New Year's Resolution to put any spare money we had into travelling as a family.This year was the first year we've actually travelled anywhere abroad for a good five years or so though, mainly because, as you probably … [Read more...]
Try this super easy quick tip to help you stop spending money….
I'm sharing this post again after three years because I've had a couple of emails from lovely readers recently asking for tips on how to stop sending money. This little trick is the one thing that helps me the most when I'm considering a purchase so I thought I'd update this old post and reshare rather than write the same thing again. ;-)I'm far from perfect when it comes to spending money (my handbag collection will attest to this fact) but I do have a few tips and tricks that help me to sensibly consider a potential purchase so at least I can say that I've thought carefully before I … [Read more...]
Five Frugal Things I’ve done this week {15th September 2017}….
1) Remember a few weeks ago I mentioned that we'd been blackberry picking and I'd saved some to make some blackberry vinegar. Well, it's taken me until this week to actually get around to making it!You can find out how I made it here if you want to have a look. Because it took me so long to get around to making it, I ended up freezing a batch of the blackberries and it made no difference at all to the flavour so I might go pick some more for next time I want to make it.2) I picked up some great reductions in Tesco this week....They had piles of both and whilst I didn't … [Read more...]
Homemade Jam Tarts and a Perfect Sweet Pastry Recipe….
Today I'm sharing my recipe for homemade sweet pastry and using it to make amazing homemade jam tarts!I'm not a huge fan of mince pies but last year I really wanted to make some so I searched high and low for a baking tray that had either a smooth rounded base for the tarts or a patterned fancy base. I couldn't find what I wanted do I ended up just using my big old Yorkshire pudding tin but it just wasn't the same.When I was shopping in Homesense a couple of weeks ago (I shared my pretty homesense finds here) I found the perfect tin so I grabbed it. Now I can't wait until … [Read more...]
How to turn a tin can from the recycling pile into something pretty….
I love finding new ways to use old things so I'm really pleased with my tin can up-cycling project....A couple of weeks ago I shared with you my super pretty DIY painted vase project and mentioned that I'd spray painted a few other things at the same time - some turned out great, others not so much.The can of spray paint that I used was enough to spray paint a lot of things!I've already told you about the vase so I'll just quickly tell you about the clock and then I'll move on to today's main event! ;-)The copper was a little brighter than I was expecting but I decided … [Read more...]
