Guess where I'm going tonight...???

Hi everyone!

Well I'm going to see PAUL WELLER!!!

He's in Northampton and me and lovely hubby have been treated to an evening together by our lovely daughter Charlotte. She is going to babysit Daisy and has even arranged for us to park around the back of her shop (she works in an opticians in Northampton). We only found out about this on Monday when she bought the tickets off her boss who can't make it now. I have seen Paul weller once before at V96 when Alice was still a baby! 'You do something to me' was our wedding song and we have both been fans since his 'The Jam' days. I'm so excited!!!

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Jane - How exciting, a holiday! We went to Yorkshire two years ago and took Alice (Daisy's mummy) with us, we didn't know if she would actually come until the day before we left and she wasn't living at home then. It was a very stressful time in our lives, caused by her behaviour. Last year we couldn't go because she was pregnant, she was ill all the time and we wouldn't have been able to leave her. She suffered in the heat too so we couldn't take her with us, so we went without. That was the first year in ages that we could have booked out of the expensive school holiday season because I wasn't at school anymore. We do plan on returning to Yorkshire in September for a few days to take Daisy on holiday. A cheap caravan, out of season for a short break.

I too am going to make Froogs' 'Shepherdess Pie'! Yesterday we had veggie lasagne and it was tasty.

It's funny, but we often look at our children and try to work out where we failed with one of them. Ashley is respected in his job and has bought his own house at 23 years old. Charlotte has overcome a lot of issues in her life and picked herself up. She is doing well at work, is easy to live with and does a lot to support me. Alice made us extremely proud when she gave us a grandaughter, but has gone straight back to her old ways. She came to visit on Wednesday, which was lovely. We played with Daisy in her paddling pool and she spent good quality time with her. It looks like Daisy is here to stay for a while now because Alice doesn't want to live where she is now. I think she has fallen out with her friends. Who knows what's around the corner for us. Alice can be a good person, but she is really hard to live with and can be exceptionally cruel in her words and actions. We hope that one day she will find happiness (with or without Daisy). Until then, we will continue to keep things going  and she knows there is always a home for her here with her precious daughter.

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I'M GOING OUT TONIGHT!!!!!

Mandy x

They're all grown up now!

Hi everyone,

Yesterday my youngest daughter turned 18!

So now I don't have any 'children' left... they are all adults. That makes me feel old... but the youngest also produced our first grandchild, so I really am old!!!

The birthday girl visited us (and her baby) for about half an hour before heading back to her friends. We quickly passed her cards and presents, lit and blew out birthday cake candles, sang 'Happy Birthday' and ate a slice of chocolate cake. Not a 'normal' kind of birthday, very rushed, but it's what makes her happy... we are far too boring for her :((

Sorry, no frugal recipe today. I've got a huge amount of housework to do (after a busy weekend), so I'll try harder tomorrow.

Hope the weather's better where you are (it's pouring with rain here).

Mandy x

Thrifty shopping and stocking-up the cupboards...Approved food

Approved Food Order

Hi, I have not had any time to blog lately because of our new arrival in the family. Little Daisy-May has turned our lives upside down (in a good way) and left no time for stuff like blogging. She is 6 weeks old now and absolutely perfect! Alice's pre-eclampsia has finally gone and she is feeling much better. I had forgotten just how much time is taken up looking after a new baby, but we are trying to get into a routine now. I did manage to make an Approved Food order last week...

There are all kinds of cupboard fillers here. I particularly stocked up on tins and packets for easy quick meals when I need extra time. I normally spend quite some time in the morning preparing the evening meal ready to be cooked later in the day, as I think it's important to cook from scratch.

Some items are to help me fill my chest freezer. I bought chocolate cake mix (even though I am quite capable of baking a cake) because cocoa is so expensive. This sack retailed at £14.99 and I bought it for £4.99. To me this is a bargain because my children loved the chocolate muffin mix we had before and I can fill the freezer really cheaply with cake for packed lunches and ready for pudding - chocolate pudding and chocolate custard : )

This is a good way of shopping for standby meals and so cheap. I only ever buy items in date which does prevent me from getting some fantastic bargains, bit it's an area I can't be frugal on.

I made 6 chocolate sponges earlier today, so I'll let you know how they taste!

Have you ever bought goods from Approved Food???

Hopefully I'll be back soon,

Mandy x



Happy Easter!

Hi and Happy Easter!

I've had a lovely day with my family, playing board games all afternoon!

Ashley's girlfriend is spending the weekend with us, which is special because she's been in France, teaching children how to ski since the first week in December. 

I've been away from blogging for a while because I haven't been well. After my back problem was getting better, I got a cancellation appointment to have my upper wisdom teeth removed at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford. These teeth prevented me from going to the dentist for 10 years! Silly, I know, but I was petrified of having teeth out. One had developed early decay because I simply couldn't get at them with my toothbrush, so they had to go. It was nearly 3 weeks ago now, but they still haven't healed up completely. I have followed all the rules so haven't had any problems and I am getting there at last. The procedure began with the injections (I'm fine with these) and two of these were into the roof of my mouth. This made my mouth swell up and the roof was touching the back of my tongue. This set off my gag reflex and I was sick 4 times :-(
After that, I had to sit with my head bowed to prevent any further vomiting. The surgeon then removed them with me sat with my head right down and my mouth nearly shut! He was so good and understood my anxiety. The dental nurse and surgeon really looked after me and sat me in a side room to recover (head still bowed until the anaesthetic was wearing off). It was traumatic because I was so scared, but the actual removal of the wisdom teeth was really quick and easy (definitely down to the skill of my surgeon) and I'm so glad they're gone now.

My recovery has been slow because I was living on sloppy mash potato and mousse. I felt so tired, sick, dizzy and weak. I am just beginning to eat more solid food now, but finding chewing some foods difficult.

My lovely daughter Alice has been really ill for some time now. We know part of the reason why she's been so sick, but then she had a water infection that developed into having E-coli in her bladder. Our GP wouldn't admit her to hospital because her immune system is low and the hospital has too many bugs that she would have then caught. We were really worried because she was dehydrated, not even able to keep fluids down. We never worked out if it was the E-coli or the anti-biotics making her sick, but thankfully she has been fine the last couple of days. She eats very little and has lost so much weight. I just hope that her health will improve now, I feel so helpless. I'll say why she's ill another day because it's not for public knowledge at the moment.

Also, my other daughter crashed her car and was very lucky that the car coming the other way was going slow, otherwise it would have hit her and she could of been seriously hurt. She is ok though and bought another car the following day!

Doom and gloom as usual, but hopefully things will start to improve for us soon.

Hope you're having a lovely Easter weekend,

Mandy x

My first attempt at sewing

Hi everyone,

Today I actually mended my son's work jeans! He said it didn't matter what they looked like, he just needed the tears in the knees sewn up. I had a go and I did it!!! Ok, it wasn't beautifully neat, but the holes have gone. Now I'm in the mood for more sewing. If it works, that's brilliant, if it doesn't, then I can always unpick it and try again.

Last week we decided to give Aldi a go and we were pleasantly surprised. We really went for the 'super six' (we bought - celery, sprouts, tomatoes and savoy cabbage), but we ended up buying a few other bits too.

This morning I filled a flask with spare boiled water from the kettle. This is a tip I picked up from Frugal Queen. I read lots of blogs, looking for new frugal ideas. I really need to keep on cutting back. I also read what the 'oldstylers' have to say on moneysavingexpert.com. I have been getting ideas off here for some time now, the posters on there are fantastic at money saving and really inspirational.

I have continued to cook from scratch since my last post. Tonight we had roast duck, roasties, stuffing balls, savoy cabbage, sprouts, carrots and homemade gravy for tea. I have changed to Monday's for a roast, because this is when Alice comes to eat with us. She has had bronchitus and has not been looked after very well by the familly she has chosen to live with. I have persuaded her to have tea with us, stay the night, and then she sees her Social Worker/Counsellor the following morning. Tonight is the first, so hopefully it will continue. At least I can check she is ok and get some veg down her. Alice recently had a bowel infection which landed her in hospital in severe pain. This pain has returned tonight. Poor diet and hygiene was the cause of this before. She is fed rubbish and their shower is broken, hence the pain is back. This is the sort of family that would spend their last fiver on fags, rather than food or electric. This is the family Alice now lives with - she's 16, this is why my headaches are so bad. On the positive side, she has had a roast dinner, tablets for her pain, a warm house and a clean fresh bed to get into. It's a shame that it's only one night a week.

Mandy x