Five little things - Friday 16th May

I'm getting in to the swing of these posts now. I enjoy taking note of the small things I do on a day to day basis and thinking 'ooh that should be in my Friday Five!' Here are today's snippets...

1. Used free wifi at work to go through emails and contact various people I have been meaning to for a while.

2. Got a 50p tip from a sweet elderly lady who I assisted with her bags! In my job I do not expect tips, they don't happen often these days with people caring more about their pennies. It really touches me when people give kind reviews about my service, that is something that makes me smile. Yet it is also nice to get a bit of free money every now and then.

3. Used my Morrisons £5 off voucher on the way home. I get these every couple of months from the Morrisons petrol reward scheme. This bought us a naughty treat of some Pringles, Wispa chocolate bars and a couple of bags of discounted veg. Every one needs a treat once in a while don't they?!

4. Mended daughter's duvet cover. 3 of the buttons had fallen off the bottom of it so I have sown them back on. Easily done and saves buying a new one.

5. Had an early night with a book. It is nice to sometimes turn the TV off and have an hour snuggled up with a book before going to sleep. This saved on electric downstairs.

Thanks for reading,
xx

Operation 'use up nearly-empty bottles'

Back in my unfrugal days I was a big fan of beauty products, hair care and perfumes. I have a mass of barely used bottles of products sitting in my drawers that really deserve to be used. Because of this, I am aiming not to buy any other beauty item until the end of this year. I have plenty of shower gel to keep us going, as well as enough make up to last me for the next 10 years! My hair care drawer has everything a girl could dream of - shampoos, conditioners, serums, hairspray, hair moose, shine spray, the list goes on...

I emptied this bottle of Moroccan hair oil last night after my hairwash and got a great feeling of satisfaction seeing the last little drops fall out. I haven't particularly liked this product but was determined to use it up before purchasing something new claiming to make my hair glossy and shiny. I have had a think back to when I actually got the bottle and I've remembered Mr MFW got it for me on our first Christmas together 3 years ago so it has lasted me a very long time!

By the way, anyone thinking of purchasing this moroccan hair oil, dont'!! It is ridiculously expensive (around £15 for 25ml) and doesn't drastically improve your hair like it claims. If you want smoother silkier hair which is my goal, the best thing I have found for it is Aussie conditioner. Specifically the miracle moist one, or the 3 minute miracle reconstructor. They are pricey for conditioners at around £3.99 for a 400ml bottle but well worth it. Used sparingly a bottle will last me 10 weeks.

I do hope that this will not only help me money-savingwise but that it will also help me declutter my bedroom and bathroom. Lets just hope that Mr MFW doesn't mind smelling of girly scented shower gel and shampoo for a while!

Thanks for reading,
xx

What I ate Wednesday

I have seen this tag go around on a few blogs. You take pictures of everything you eat on a Wednesday and post them to show everyone. I do like having a nosey at what other people eat on a day to day basis so this is a great tag for someone like me.

 This is what my little girl had. It's a bowl of rice crispies, followed by a banana and a cup of water.

 I had a bowl of cornflakes and a glass of water. I try and drink 5 of these glasses throughout the day but I do sturggle keeping my water intake high. I'm sure I don't drink as much as I'm supposed to.

 We had a midmorning snack of some red grapes. We eat quite a healthy diet and tend to have some fruit around 11am each morning.

This was my dinner today, I had eggy bread! I haven't had this for years and was really craving some. The only problem is it made the house smell of oil.

Baby had a cheese and cucumber sandwich with some cherry tomatoes on the side. She also got through 2 cups of water between breakfast and dinner.

We were a little bit naughty and shared a packet of buttons in the afternoon!

For our tea we had a meat and potato pie. It was served with cauliflower and carrots and lots of gravy on top. We didn't have any pudding this evening.

Thanks for reading,
xx

My top 13 newborn items you don't need!

This is following on from one of my previous posts about my top 5 newborn must haves . These are a few of the items we have found no use for and wouldn't advise anybody to purchase. There are so many gimmicks around baby products and it is easy to feel overwhelmed with what shops are telling you you must buy. Don't be fooled! Take time to think if you really do need to buy it and check to see if you have anything at home already that would do the job. Having a baby doesn't need to be expensive.

1. Baby bath. We had one of these but rarely used it. It was easier so wash our daughter in the bathroom sink or to put her in the bath when I was having a bath at the same time.

2. Wipe warmer. I'm fairly sure it never did a baby any harm having a room temperature bum wipe!

3. Nappy bin. Pointless purchase when you have to empty it in to your main bin anyway. We put them in the kitchen bin straight away and never had any bad smells coming out of it.

4. Baby shoes. Your baby will not walk for months and months! Why would you buy shoes for it??

5. Talc. My midwife and health visitor recommended not using talc as it doesn't do anything good for the baby. If they inhale it it can cause breathing problems too. Moisturiser is best for them.

6. Nappy stacker. A pointless purchase. We either had a bag of nappies under the changing table when we used it, or now we have a box of nappies in our bedroom for when we need them. If you want your nappies stacked somewhere, buy a normal storage box for a third of the price.

7. Changing table. We did have one of these to start with but it is just as easy to change a baby on a bed or on the floor. It's worth bearing in mind that there's quite a risk of baby falling off a table if you have one. If you get given one then great, but don't specifically go out and buy one.

8. Bath thermometer. You can tell if a bath is too hot by sticking your hand in it, you don't need a thermometer to tell you if it is too hot or too cold.

9. Manual breast pump. If you intend to express milk at all, you need to get an electric pump. Manual ones take 4 times as long to get any milk out, plus they hurt your hand a lot! Electric pumps tend to be able to do 2 boobs at once too.

10. Baby food maker. If you intend on making your own baby food then a regular food processor works just as well as these baby food makers on the market. Or you can get one of those 'blitz sticks' which just stick in a bowl and blitz it up.

11. Baby towels. We bought some of these when I was pregnant but in hindsight really didn't need them. A regular towel does the job fine and you must have some of those in your home already.

12. Bottle warmer. Stick a bottle in a jug of hot water for a while! It isn't hard!

13. Expensive baby bedding. We got a bedding bundle as a gift when baby was born and we haven't used a lot out of it. Cot bumpers have had a lot of bad press around them causing infant death so that put us off using one for a while. (We did use it for a while when she went through a wriggly head banging stage). You're told not to use baby blankets for a long time because of the suffocation risk so that only leaves the sheet out of the bedding bundle that you will actually use. I'll admit we just use a single bed sheet tucked right underneath the mattress. Much cheaper.

I hope this has given you an idea of what unnecessary purchases I have made and that it can stop you making the same mistakes I have done!

Thanks for reading,
xx

7 tips to find cheap car insurance

I hate the time of year when its time to renew insurances. It is such a huge chunk of money to spend on something you can't tell you have and hopefully will never need but because it costs so much money it is so important to find the very best deal.

1. Check what you current insurance company is quoting for your 'renewal price'. It is always worth while ringing them and saying you are unhappy with the quote they have given then ask if there is any way it can be cheaper. It worked for me last year! Just for a quick 5 minute phone call I got £50 knocked off.

2. Check price comparison websites. My favourite to use is confused.com . It searches most of the top insurance companies as well as a lot of smaller ones who sometimes come up cheaper.

3. Once you have used the price comparison website and found the cheapest company for you, go on their own website and input your details again to see if it comes up cheaper that way.

4. Try adjusting your job title. For example, changing my partners job from 'forklift operator' to 'yard manager' knocked over £20 off! Both of these job positions are accurate for what he does by the way.

5. Try adding an additional driver on to your policy. When I first started driving I added my Mum on to my policy and it reduced the premium drastically.

6. Be realistic about your annual mileage. Last year we told the insurance company our annual mileage would be up to 12000. I checked and we only went 4500 miles! This year I have been more conservative and set it at 6000 which has reduced our premium again.

7. Go through a cashback website to actually purchase the insurance. My favourite is quidco.com . It is a very simple site to use compared to others I have tried out. This year I got £60 cashback just for clicking through their website to go on to the insurers! 

This year my renewal price came through at £386. Using the tools I have described above I have managed to knock that down to £303 with £60 cashback so effectively it will have cost us £243. A grand saving of £143! I will mention that this new quote was obtained from the exact same company that gave me the original renewal quote... but it seems they value new customers more so than existing customers and give them the best deal. 

Thanks for reading,
xx

Make do and mend.

Being a Mummy, I feel as though I'm not very 'trendy' when it comes to fashion any more. I simply do not have the time to trawl around shops and try on clothes. Have you ever tried to try on clothes in a busy changing room with a 1 year old screaming? It's not fun. Some Mums do manage to pull it off and look perfectly made up each day with their perfect clean clothes, however this is not me. This is why I make do with what I've got and hope that when I'm done having babies, I can go back to nice clothes once more.

Recently, my work jacket got holes in both of the pockets, causing anything that was in my pockets to slip through in to the lining. Instead of going out and buying a new one I mended it by stitching the pockets. It is this mentality of mending and making do that has saved me a lot of money on would be purchases recently. Likewise when Mr MFW's button fell off his trousers, I stitched it back on even though he was all for going to buy a new pair.

I have a basic wardrobe consisting of a couple of pairs of jeans, some shorts, lots of tank tops, a couple of cardigans and some going out dresses. I can't remember the last time I bought anything new for myself. (Actually I can, it was when I was pregnant and couldn't cram my belly in to my jeans any longer!)

I would love to be how I used to be and be able to look nice each day. But with limited time and limited funds I have stuck to my existing wardrobe for the last 2 or 3 years and can't see me needing to buy anything new in the near future.

I do my best to wear clean clothes but with a toddler I always manage to get grubby marks on me where she has grabbed me with sticky hands or a slimy nose. Oh yes, this is the glamorous life of a Mother.

Thanks for reading,

xx

May day out to Gauntlet birds of prey.

I mentioned in one of my previous posts that we set aside a small budget each month so that we can go on a family day out. Last month we went to Monkey Forest and this month we went to a birds of prey centre near Knutsford in Cheshire. 

We went on bank holiday Monday since we were both off work for the afternoon. Luckily it was a nice day since the centre is all outside. There is not really anywhere to shelter should it rain when you are there other than the small tuck shop or gift shop so take a brolly if the forecast is dire.

The centre houses over 120 birds from 46 different species so there are plenty to look at. It is worthwhile staying for the flying displays which are put on for visitors. We arrived just in time for the 12:30 showing where they flew numerous vultures, an eagle and a falcon. They get the bird to swoop between the visitors while you are sat down so you do need to duck occasionally!

For 2 adults and a child under 3 to get in it cost us £11.90 for a days admission. You can come and go as you please which is great if you just want to stick around for the flying displays and go off for a wander in to town inbetween. 

Here are a few pictures of the birds we saw. Unfortunately our camera broke while we were walking around the centre so barely a quarter of the birds are shown! :-(

Thanks for reading,
xx