Sunday 27 October 2013

My To-Do List 25/10-31/10

this week I will mostly be doing pretty much the same as last week ........

http://chickywiggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/my-to-do-list-1910-2410.html

Silent Sunday 27.10.13



   

Stop the world I want to get off.

arggg what a manic couple of weeks, I'm exhausted, sick and ready for dropping (off to sleep).

About 3 weeks ago the landlady/ letting agency pushed us over the edge of things wrong with the house we are living in by winging about a couple of tiny tiny minuscule things.  Seriously if they want to start I'll happily list the HUGE list I have of work we have asked to have done/ issues we have raised since we moved in 5 years ago but haven't fought for cause it wasn't worth it.

So we started looking at new rentals...... we found a lovely house (well slightly better then the one we've got)  just over a week ago and signed for it a few days later.   Eventually (don't ask!) agreeing on a moving date of 23rd November ....... EEKKK  just under 4 weeks away!!!

Saturday 26 October 2013

The Great Food Challenge the sequel - week 3

another week and again no real meal plan is set in stone but looking at what we have in the house I have drawn a rough one out for me.  daddy and the boys will have an 'whatever daddy can find in the freezer' week.  As we now have a moving date (23rd November) I want to concentrate on not having too much food in the house, plus we will be going from 2 fridge freezers down to 1 (as one was the landlords).... personally I don't think we'll be able to do it and will gave to buy either 1 huge one or a smaller one again but......... (watch this space)

no online shop this week so I am anticipating a larger 
than average 'additional spend'.

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Tidlo The City of London Wooden Train Set

Tidlo Wooden Train Set
The City of London


All opinions expressed are entirely my own (or that of my kids).





Ben was fortunate to get this lovely wooden train set for his birthday and both him and Noah have had hours of fun from it already.

Read why below........



Sunday 20 October 2013

Activity Toys Direct


We are in the process of moving to a new house, with a smaller garden.  Our new garden is all decking so no grass to keep on top of, no plants to kill water,  so what better time to buy new garden toys...
............................ and what's better then spending REAL money on new toys???? Spending FANTASY money on new play things.

Activity Toys Direct are asking people to do just that....go onto their website http://www.activitytoysdirect.com and let people know what they would spend £750 on.

Why not see how I would use my £750 then have a go at creating your own?


Silent Sunday 20.10.13



   

Saturday 19 October 2013

My To-Do List 19/10-24/10

Gosh where is the time going, it's to-do list time again ( a day late due to having been busy and then away last night - blog post to follow).

Friday 18 October 2013

The Great Food Challenge the sequel - week 2

no specific meal plan is written as we are not only out and about most of the weekend but wanted to use up what was in the house and if I tried to write this down it would be depressing lol.

I did an online shop keeping as close to £40 as possible (becuase thats the minimum spend on my delivery saver.



Thursday 17 October 2013

A Pizza Hut party ........ or not as the case may be.

What do you get for a Marvel/ DC obsessed 5 year old who loves pizza for his birthday ....... A superhero Pizza Hut Party of course.

So that's what I booked.  The evening promised:
 - invites and party bags that you could collect (we choose to make our own so didn't ask about these).
- An apron for the birthday child
- a book sampler/ magazine for every child at the party
- special table cloths
- balloons
- fun and games
- birthday card from pizza hut

- add a birthday cake for £8.99 (but we took our own).

Monday 14 October 2013

Jolly Phonics..... an early discovery to literacy learning..........

Ben's school teachers children using the Jolly Phonics way of learning their letters.... and he is flying.




Even as an ex-early years teacher it's new to me.  When I taught in schools the children learnt their letters using the 'Letterland" system.   These were letters that all had a colourful character attached to it and a song/ story for each character to help them pronounce their letter sounds correctly.





"Jolly Phonics" is very similar but instead of covering just the first 26 letters it incorporates all 42 phonemes.







Sunday 13 October 2013

2 adults, 2 children, 4 weeks - £200 - The summary

September


This months big challenge is the 2 children, 2 adults, £200 and 4 weeks challenge.

We spend tooo much on grocery shopping in this house..... we've cut down considerably but the last couple of months I've let things slip and now spend FAR tooooo much.

So with the cupboards and freezer looking a bit like Mother Hubbards House and hubby having just been paid I decided now was as good a time as any to start the food challenge again.

For the purpose of this challenge I am only counting actual FOOD and DRINK costs!  Not household essentials, not toys, games, books just plain  and simple Food and Drink.

2 adults, 2 children, 4 weeks ........ £200 ........ the final week.

Last week...... and I have managed to string the household contents out to last till Saturday (it's a much easier day to start a challenge!)


Silent Sunday 13.10.13




   

Saturday 12 October 2013

Superhero Afghan - a work in progress


Superhero Afghan

My 2 boys love their superheroes so I bought lots of little pixel people from Pixel Power which I am gradually stitching onto an Afghan for them.  If they are lucky it will be finished before they are 16 lol.
The biggest reason I keep putting it down is because it is SOO bulky.  Hubby has bought me a HUGE frame to stitch it in but it's just not comfortable and I don't really like floor frames.

Friday 11 October 2013

The Great Food Challenge - the sequel. Meal Planning and ordering - week 1.

You may have followed my 2 adults, 2 children, 4 weeks.......£200 challenge last month.
Well as I only went £1 over I figured it's GOT to be worth another attempt.

The Ongoing post can be found on the tab at the top........

here's my Week 1 summary.... check back next weekend to see how I did......


My To-Do List 11/10-17/10


This weekends to-do list


Another week.... another to-do list.
You may be wondering why my to-do lists always start on a Friday?  Simples I work Monday to Thursday so for me Fridays are the start of my house week.

Thursday 10 October 2013

Wednesday 9 October 2013

2 adults, 2 children, 4 weeks and £200 for food ...........week 4 update.............

So - tomorrow should have been food day.
However due to our urge to move house (will blog it friday/ weekend when hopefully blogger will be fixed) I have moved it onto Saturday.  Unfortunately this means the fridge is emptier then Mother Hubbard's cupboard so hubby will need to be sent on a top up shop tomorrow :(.


Watch this space...............................

Sunday 6 October 2013

Housework - the Flylady way

I use Flylady as a basis for keeping on top of my weekly tasks.  I found the actual website quite difficult to follow, and the moneysavingexpert thread moved too quickly (click the link and search for "weekly flylady thread" so I created my own lists based on her work.

I keep these pinned to my computer desktop as Sticky notes (if you use windows 7 and have not yet discovered sticky notes now if the time to do so).

2 adults, 2 children, 4 weeks and £200 for food ...........week 3 update.............

This is getting soo much harder then I thought......... not helped by the fact due to spending last Saturday at the Childrens Hospital hubby come on the 'top up' shopping trip!!!  

I think the next challenge will be 2 adults, 2 children, 2 weeks and £100 for food as we seem to be spending more and more on top-ups as the weeks go on.



Silent Sunday 6th October 2013



Saturday 5 October 2013

Have A Spooky Poundland Halloween

Poundland are running another "Pin It To Win It" promotion ....... this time it's a Halloween Theme.  With the winner getting £100 of vouchers ...... that's a LOT of candles, activity items and food!!!

You have to look at their Halloween collection and create a "Poundland Halloween" Pinterest Board showing your favourite 20 (or more) items from the range.

here's my link

Friday 4 October 2013

Why my family love Usborne children's books




To celebrate Usborne Day they are running a competition (until Midnight on 5th October) to win £300 of fabulous Usborne books.

To win you need to e-mail and tell them what it is you like about Usborne Children's Books ....... what you LIKE - it would be easier to say what we DIDN'T like*

But I figured...... why stop at an e-mail when I could tell the WORLD how fantastic their books are.


Usborne have been producing their stunning children's books for 40 years now (that's older then me!) which means not only did I have have them when I was younger but they were an instant hit with my children and will continue to feature in their childhood.

My to-do list 4th-10th October


This weekends to-do list


Another jam-packed weekend on the cards, not with social events sadly ..... so as it inspired me so much last weekend I thought I'd make another list to motivate myself.