Oh my, its been nearly a year since I last posted on my blog.  We have had such a busy year, I cant believe how time has flown by.

We have invested this year in a greenhouse.  The vegetable plot had to go to make way for a shed for storage, so we are now working to a different plan this year.  We have grown a lot of plants to date from seeds this year rather than purchasing plants.  To date it has been really successful, although with alot of the seeds having germinated and grown, we are now working out what to do with a glut of plants......although Luis is loving the idea of planting the 50 or so sunflower plants in the garden........not quite so easy with 50+ broccoli plants or cauliflower plants, and the sprouting 230 chilli plants of 5 different varieties that we planted.

I will post our latest project, the many planting boxes that we are constructing on a budget.......thats one for later in the week, perhaps a new part of the blog called 'Super Saving Sunday Ideas'.  Am playing with my ideas for that one.

Signing off now, as rather late, and have a long day tomorrow...........

Toodles xx

Money Saving Tip of the day

Make your shopping budget go further for the week.  When you purchase a pack of fresh meat in the super market, make that pack last 2 meals if possible.  For example, a pack of 4 chicken breast, use 2 pieces for meal one and two for meal two.  You can make chicken escalopes out of 2 pieces of chicken by flattening them between two pieces of cling film and bashing them with the base of a heavy saucepan, flour egg and breadcrumbing them before cooking.  Spicy chicken rice, country fresh chicken casserole....all of these recipes use two chicken pieces and serve a family of four with vegetables, rice or pasta :o)

Its been a while :o)

Ok, its been a while since I wrote anything on here....have been a little busy finishing my university placement hours....45 hours weeks are taking their toll a little lol.

Anyway, there are many things happening....i have some great little strawberries on my plants, that are turning pink and getting larger by the day, cant wait to try one, thats if the kids dont beat me to it :o).

Everything is growing slowly....now the warmer weather is here, lets hope that things speed up a bit.

Lets see what happens .............
Bye for now.
Suz x

How to make your roast chicken go further

Roast Chicken for lunch yesterday.......leftovers today made into a yummy chicken pie :o) chicken cost £3.33 and covered two meals, should have made chicken and sweetcorn soup out of the carcass if had more time. Feed your family for a fiver...eat your heart out! Although if had made chicken soup, it would have reduced to 1.11 per meal, now you can beat value for money more than that!  Will remember not to throw away the chicken carcass next time and be even more clever saving the pennies.

Temporary measure for the cat.....old doors covering the raised beds! Watched the security light come on last night, and then 1 minute later again as the cat walked back....could have sworn he was walking funny as he went off to find another large litter tray lol.

Off to complete the pie :o)

I Hate Cats

I have found cat poo of all  things in my vegetable raised beds, disgusting!  I know it will be organic manure one day, but smells foul now.  Can't believe it, now I have to clean it out! yuk.  Think netting is called for to keep them out, and pehaps some chilli powder??? perhaps when they lick their paws they will have a bit of a blast lol.  Need to find something to keep them away, which is of course cheap!

Back to more planting and watering, although by the looks of the thunder clouds overhead, I might not need to water the plants tonight :o)

Off to put the little monster to bed.
Have a good night all.

My Frist Baby Tomato

Just spotted my first baby tomato on my plants, hopefully it will be the first of many, as this is my experiment to growing my own and becoming a little more self sufficient, and in the process cutting down the costs on my weekly shopping bill over the summer.

We spend an average of about £75 per week, I only shop every two weeks, as I have found this prevents me buying less 'extras', those ones that you pop in the shopping basket thinking its a great idea.  Supermarkets are great at helping you do this too.  When they have special offers and money off, I always look on the shelves around and compare the costs of everything.  I have found numerous times that the offer is not always the best deal.  There are exceptions to this though, and sometimes 'buy one get one free' are a good deal, but only if you needed the item in the first place.  I always try and stick to what I need, rather than getting carried away, and plan what I am going to buy, and make sure that I make things last.  For example, a pack of chicken can feed two meals for a family of 4, it may sound surprising, but when you are on a forced budget you learn to make things last.  Normally I search for chicken with 4 equal sized peices, and then use two pieces in my 'chicken spicy rice' recipe, and then flatten the other two pieces, cut them in half, and flour egg and crumb them and serve them with potatoe wedges and salad or vegetables.

There are so many things you can do.......what here for more hints and tips, much more coming soon, will be frantically typing over the coming weeks to pack all the information into here :o)

Have a great sunny weekend, we are spending it in the garden, planting and weeding and getting reading for a fruitful summer we hope :o)

Suzanne

My First Post :o)

Welcome to my new blog and my first post :o)

I decided to create this blog, to start adding hints and tips that I have come up with over the last 18 months as a necessity due to a very restricted monthly budget.  I will be adding lots of content, including photos, recipies and ways to cut down the weekly and monthly budget that have worked for me and will hopefully work for you. 

I wanted to write a book, but with limited funds and time, I thought this would be a great way to start, and perhaps one day I will compile it all together.

I will also be blogging my new vegetable garden.  We have just moved into a new house with a garden and space for a good sized veggie spot, so I thought we would give it a go, and hoping the kids will love it!.......this first time I have done anything like this, so I am sure this is going to be interesting. 

Join as a member, and come back soon to see what I am upto.  I am also going to get busy and create a facebook page.......hopefully I will get this right LOL. 

Suz :o)