This is not too far removed from what my cupboard looks like which is kind of scary!

Right, I have taken an itinerary of my fridge / freezer and cupboards. Their contents are as followed.

Fridge

• Mushrooms
• 3 x petite filous yogurts
• I Cant Believe Its Not Butter
• 3 Eggs
• 1 and a half bags of grated mature cheddar
• New Potatoes
• 1kg bag of carrots (reduced to 50p)
• 1/2 bottle of Milk (approx 2 pints)

Freezer

• 2 sausages
• small white tin loaf

Cupboard

• Fusili Pasta 3/4 of a 3kg bag
• 2 small spaghetti portions
• 1.5kg value white rice
• 1 packet of SMASH (instant potato)
• 1 home-pride pasta bake sauce
• 1 home-pride curry sauce
• Bisto Gravy Granules
• 23 Chicken Oxo cubes
• 3 packs of golden rice
• 1 pack of chicken flavored rice
• approx 20 T Bags (and one unopened BOGOF box containing 160)
• 500g sugar
• 1 tin of 8 hotdogs in brine
• 4 tins of Lentil Soup
• 1 tin of value spaghetti in sauce
• 1ltr bottle of strawberry ribena (was reduced down to 81p in work as discontinued line)
• dried apricots
• ice cream sprinkles
• peppermint flavoring
• vanilla flavoring
• icing sugar
• 2 trifle mixes (minus the sponge fingers - dont ask!)
• 1 dream topping mix
• 1 Jelly sachet
• Tub of Cadburys hot chocolate
• 1kg Tesco value oats
• 1.5kg plain flour
• 2kg self raising flour
• golden syrup

Other

• 1 and a half boxes of Ready Brek
• 10 weetabix
• 1/2 box of cornflakes
• 4 mini boxes of coco pops
• 1 mini box of cornflakes
• 2 hot cross buns
• 2 slices of bread
• 5 bananas
• 1/2 bottle of tesco blackcurrant and apple juice
• 4 bags of walkers crisps
• 4 satsumas

and that is what is currently edible in my humble abode!

I have £5 to last me until the 10th and today is currently the 2nd.

My little boy starts school tomorrow so I will have to take out and defrost the small loaf in the freezer to put with cheese for his sandwiches, along with a bag of crisps, some dried apricots, a banana and a yogurt!

Plus I think I will have a day cooking tomorrow and peel some of the new potatoes and some carrots and cook them up and blend them once cooled to make a basis for baby food for Holly. That way then I can either just warm it up and give it to her or add an oxo cube or a little bit of gravy to it for a change and freeze a few portions. Plus I will get making twinks* hobnobs too as an energy bar for my partner when hes training and as a snack for my sons lunch box.

Well looks like I'll be having a productive day tomorrow around the errands, cleaning, washing, looking after Holly and the school run!

x

******************************

*Twinks - in case your wondering are hobnob style biscuits. The recipe was added to the MSE forum by a dear member who's username is 'Twink' therefore they have taken the name 'Twinks Hobnobs'. The recipe for those wanting to try them is

Hobnob Recipe

Ingredients

8oz sr flour

8oz sugar

8oz porridge oats

8oz margarine

1tbsp golden syrup

1tbsp hot water

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Instructions

Mix the flour, oats and sugar, melt marg, syrup and water in a pan. Stir in bic soda and add to dry mix.

Then mix well and make into smallish balls which you then put on a greased tray and flatten slightly with a fork. Put in the oven at 180 degrees C for 15 mins... and cool on the tray. The aim is to get them golden in the oven not brown.

"It pays to plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark."

Unknown

I figured the above quote made a good point. With the climate as it is, none of us can ever be too prepared and I realise lately that I have fallen off the money saving/ Old style/ planning ahead band wagon and I desperately need to get back on it.

The future will hopefully see us getting a house and with that obviously we will have rent increases as I have mentioned in a previous entry and I don't simply mean it will increase by £10 , I mean it will increase by upwards of £60 a month and another £10 a month on our water rates and as me and my partner currently work we are not entitled to extra help with benefits.

Therefore I need to get our food spend under control and back in order. Some readers may remember back in January 2008 I wrote a post on MSE (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=697339&highlight=100) about feeding my family for £100 a month. At that time my family consisted of myself, my partner, our son Benjamin was 3 and we had Bruno our Jack Russell.

Now my family consists of myself, my partner, Benjamin is now an active (almost) 7 year old, Our baby girl Holly is (almost 10 months), Our Jack Russell Bruno is now 8 years old and 2 terrapins called Randy and Toby.

So needless to say I have to look at increasing our food budget somewhat but I'm hoping I will be able to keep to £150 a month.

So I will take stock of fridge/freezer/cupboard contents etc and repost my plan of action.

x

Proud Mummy moment

I was sent a load of photographs the other day which really cheered me up from a local

community worker and fundraisers

I moved to Cwmafan roughly 7 years ago when I was pregnant with my son and despite being an employee in the local main shop ~ I am known by residents here. I was worried however that my son would maybe be treated as a bit of an outsider as we weren't from Cwmafan ourselves despite him being born down the road in Port Talbot Hospital and living in Cwmafan all his life.

However these photos have cheered me up and made me realise just how much he does for his little community so I thought I would share them with you.

He was planting daffodil bulbs with his school mates throughout th

e community to make the village prettier (he is on the far left holding the shovel)

He took part in the local fun run to raise funds for the his rugby team and community. Here he is below with his friends from L - R ~ Jack, Levi, Matthew and Benjamin

Here he is with all the other kids who took part (he's front row bottom left)

He is goalkeeper for the Cwmafan Under 7's football team although plays as Number 11 not number 1.

He also plays as Number 11 on the Cwmafan Under 7's Rugby team in which they play tag rugby and he was given the 'tagger of the match' award.

So all in all Im a very proud mummy. = ) I'm hoping that Holly will be as involved with the community as he is.

x

Bike Riding ~ Day one

Right well the time has come and I decided to teach Benjamin how to ride his bike

He got his bike without stabilizers for his birthday back in May 2010 but I was heavily pregnant and couldn't really manage to teach him with an 8 month old bump incubating in the way!

Needless to say Owen has no patience after the first attempt and several swear words and various threats to sell it/throw it in the river/take it back to the shop it now rests in Mummy's hands to teach him.

Should reiterate that he has had a bike before which was a hand me down from his brother Josh which Josh rode all of about 3 times, and shrieked like a girl every time before falling off it and refusing to ever touch it again. But Ben use to love it and would fly along happily on it until he sadly out grew it.

I have now put stabilizers on Benjamin's bike and he was much more confident with one little wobble so I think I will take them off soon and hopefully he should be attempting some proper riding soon.

I take him over the piggery (or up the line) depending on who you speak to in teh village ~ its basically a little walk which has recently been retarmaced and is a top spot for cyclists, joggers and dog walkers as it is secluded, very pretty, away from lots of roads and in general just a nice quiet

and peaceful walk.

It is also home to the Cwmafan Portrait Bench which has our local heroes Richard Burton, Rob Brydon and Afan Forest Park Ranger,Dick Wagstaff.

He thoroughly enjoyed himself and so did mummy - nice to be active again as last time I tried to teach him I had a bump in the way!

x

Also discovered that I seem to have two very fertile spider plants.

Considering last year I couldn't find a spider plant for love nor money - when I saw Wilkinsons had them I treated myself.

But by the time I got back to the shop there was two poor looking ones glaring at me to be taken home, so jumped at the chance and nabbed them for £1 each due to them being half dead.

Now one is on my kitchen windowsill (Fred as Benjamin has dubbed him) and he has one shoot coming up which is about 6 inches long now and Thomas who sits on my bathroom window has a giant shoot thats about 12 - 15 inches long and another one thats about 5 inches!

Only problem is ~

I've no idea how to go about trimming/repotting or growing them on etc!

But am pretty sure I will soon have an abundance of spider plants if they keep growing at this rate! Pictures to follow shortly

My newest ~ experimental ~ challenge!

As most of you know by now I work for a well known supermarket branch.

But I have become absolutely mortified lately at the stuff my shop has been getting rid of - the piles of waste is just simply ridiculous!

We had 38 multipack bags (6 bags in a bag) of Walkers crisps wasted a few weeks ago because they were a week over their sell by date. So we opened one packet, sampled them and offered customers one to taste - explained that they were slightly out of date and gave 20 of them away rather than bin them so I am setting myself a challenge.

I am going to ATTEMPT until my next pay (bar bread/milk/babys stuff - ie nappies/milk and juice) live off the shops reduced sections and my cupboards - now I havent done a big shop this month so have a few basics in like tins and pasta but my fridge and freezer are almost empty bar a few straddling bits and pieces.

So as far as I'm concerned the reduced section will cover me for meat and vegetables basically with the rest being baked or used up form my cupboards/stock ~ which by the way isn't a great deal and my next pay day isn't until the 19th May.

I mean for obvious reasons I wont scrimp on Holly's things as she's only 9 months old but instead of jars she will be getting things home-made now and Benjamin gets a very upset stomach from the cheaper juice so for that I will stick to Mr T's brand one but everything else will be reduced section items.

I'm hoping in theory this will

a) help me to get back in the kitchen and make meals as I've been severely slacking recently

b) help me with meal experimenting and trying new recipes

c)help me save money

d)help me get back in shape as I have to walk at least half hour to get to Mr T

Also if you fancy a similiar challenge or any help with food waste then please visit this site

http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/

I will make a list of cupboard / freezer / fridge contents and post them and I'll see how I manage for this next month!

Wheres the passion?

This is taking part this weekend in Port Talbot. Mr Michael Sheen OBE has returned to his home town of Port Talbot to take part in an open-air play with a cast of more than 1,000.

It is taking over the streets of Port Talbot for the next three days.

Passion plays developed to tell the story of the trial suffering and death of Jesus Christ.

Sheen, known for his portrayals of public figures including Tony Blair and David Frost, has said he was inspired by the community spirit of the passion plays he watched at Margam Park as a youngster.

This was Day One and it began at dawn,

Below ~ This is Sheens character of a teacher being baptised by a stranger, as the sun rises over Aberavon Sea Front in Port Talbot

Below ~ Thousands made their way to the seafront to see 'the arrival' which was the official start to the play.

Below ~ This is the second day and the first sighting of Mr Sheen hidden in the crowd.

Below ~ This is when Sheens Character is identified in the crowd as a leader of the people.

The play is set to continue tonight with Sheen eating his 'last supper' of beer and sandwiches at a social club where the Manic Street Preachers will perform.

He will then be taken to a police cell before a 'crucifixion' on a roundabout on Easter Sunday.