Shopping Budget Challenge

  $50 Grocery Shopping Challenge

I'm Back! 

I know all of you will be just as happy about me jumping back into the bloggers world as I am to be here again  :-)

My little babies are no longer babies, my youngest is turning two in four weeks.  My reaction to this? Well I am torn between strapping a brick to his head so he stops growing up and jumping up and down with a glass of bubbly celebrating his independence and my extra free time.  It is thanks to this extra free time I am getting that is allowing me to bring yours truly back to Simply Beautiful. 

A few weeks back I was killing some time with a little web surfing and I came across an interesting blog.  Unfortunately I forgot to bookmark the blog and it has since taken to wearing Harry Potter's cloak of Invisibility and I can't find it anymore.  The little bit of the blog I did read was about how stretching your budgeting skills once a month and trying to keep your food budget to $50 can not only save you some big bucks but also teach you some good skills.  

I thought it sounded like a great idea and would also make a great first blog.  So if the writer of the mystery blog happens to come by this, please comment on this blog so I can add your blog address in.

                                                                  First Step 

Grab yourself a note pad and a pen and go through your freezer, fridge and pantry.  Make a list of every thing that you find, even that year old can of Baked Beans that is sitting right up the back corner of your pantry.

  After you have everything written down you can start making meal ideas on paper. For example - You find a bag of pasta and some tinned tomatoes, SPAG BOL! 

I quickly realised that I have quite a few staples.  Pastas, rice, baking ingredients ect ect...

Now go make yourself a big cup of coffee and start planning your weeks food around what your already have.  And if you feel like a little bit more of a challenge, try not to buy anything that you can make cheaper yourself.  Have you got butter, flour, an egg and sugar?  Well you have yourself the basic ingredients for biscuits, chuck in some raisins and oats and you have my boys favorite biscuits.

                                                                 Second Step

Hit the Super Market. Make sure you have something to snack on before you go to stop those impulse buys. 

Here is my haul

Total price was $55.56 so $5.56 over budget but still not half bad

      Here is my weekly menu so you can see how I will be using those groceries

Dinners

             - Potato and Leek soup  (enough for two night)

             - Spaghetti using onions, garlic and pasta from my staples.     

             - Spaghetti sauce leftovers will also be made into a Shepard's Pie 

                ( enough for two night) 

             - Mini roast chickens with the Marylands

             - Chicken Stir fry with rice noodles, chicken breast and some veg 

               from what I already had

             - Left over soup with homemade scones   

             - Spinach, chickpea and potato curry

Lunch

             - Ham salad Sandwiches 

             - Pick a plates ( big favorite with the boys ) basically just veggie sticks and fruit  

Breakfast

            - Cherios

            - Toast

            - Porridge from oats I already have

Snacks

            - Fruit

            - Canned peaches and yogurt

            - Biscuits made from staples

            - Pack of muesli bars for my fussy Hubby (haha!) 

So there you go a whole week of planned out meals for only $55.56.  

It can be done! Is that the faint sound of applause I hear? 

I spend roughly $100 a week on food for my family of four, two adults and 2 children.  If I did this once a month and saved the extra $50 in one year I will have saved $600.  

Go give it a shot and surprise yourself too. I know I sure surprised myself.

 Do you have a favorite budget meal? The more cheap meals you know the easier it is to create a budget meal plan.  

Happy shopping.

Tiffany                    

Penny Pinching Sunday

A Mummy and Daddy Tip

Today I have a little tip for all the Mummy and Daddy readers.

Children can be expensive. I find alot of the expenses a little unnecessary and avoidable but there are a few things that are rather handy.

Today’s Penny Pinching post is about one of those handy baby things, handmade baby food storage containers. You know the ones. The tiny little containers that cost around $12 for a set of 12. And if you are feeding your little one only homemade baby food then you will be making purees every couple of days. Or paying a fortune for a tonne of little containers that you have to find somewhere to store when they are not in use. 

I found these mini cupcake silicone trays in K-Mart for only $5 each, Bargin!

I spend an afternoon once a fortnight making up purees then freeze them in these. Once they are frozen they are really easy to get out because they are silicone and then I place the little blocks of frozen purees in labelled zip lock bags. When its meal time I just grab out a few blocks and zap them in the microwave. So easy!
And zip locked bags are much easier to store in your freezer then a tonne of little containers.
I got a small white plastic basket, also from K-Mart, for $2 and I stand them all up in the basket. It’s great to be able to just grab out the basket and also stops the zip lock bags from wandering around the deep freezer and becoming lost forever.

 I hope that this tip saves you money and time as well  :-)

Tiffany

Handmade Pram Liner

 Pram Liner - Tutorial

I am very excited about this post, it is my first tutorial post *YAY*

This sewing project was a first for me and I am very happy with the end product and how easy it was.  The project would not have happened if it wasn’t for a wonderful friend of mine, so I huge shout out to the gorgeous certain someone that lent me her pram for the holiday.

So as I said my friend lent us her lay back stroller for our holiday and I didn’t want to risk it getting dirty. So I thought I would make her a pram liner to say thank you.  Although I had no idea what I was doing so I just gave it a stab and it turned out great. So I will give you a step by step on how to make yourself a pram liner.

                                       
First off get yourself off to your closest fabric store ( I love Spotlight) and grab yourself some fabric. It is going to have to be a hardy material so that it doesn’t fade or weaken quickly, I used upholstery fabric and that works great.  Depending on the width of the fabric you will probably only need 1 metre. You will also need to get yourself some quilting padding to make it a little bit more padded. Instead of buying the padding I used a cot quilt that I had forgotten I had.  With this liner I used bias tape around the edges so you can grab yourself some of that to. Although it was the first time I have used bias tape and found it a little fiddly. When I make another liner for my pram I will just sew it inside out then turn it right side round and sew around the edges.

Take the seat material off of your pram and measure the width and length. Next, use those measurements to draw a pattern on a piece of paper. Get a cup and place it over the corners of the pattern so that you get a nice even curve when you trace around it. This is not necessary but I think it gives it a nice neat finish.  Place the pattern over the seat cover and mark down where the buckle holes will need to be and where the back of the liner will meet the seat of it.
  Then trace around the pattern on your chosen material and padding and cut them out.

How cute is the giraffe material!

 Once they are all cut out place the padding in between the fabric and pin the hell out of them.
Now get your pattern again and cut little slits were you have drawn the buckle placement. Put it on top of your liner and mark the placement down on your liner.
You will need to sew on button holes with your sewing machine over those marks. It sounds scary but it’s not that hard. If this is your first time sewing button holes (like me) then I highly recommended practicing on a scrap piece of material first.   This is my practice piece. Took me over an hour to get it right... HAHA!

Once you have mastered the button hole you need to sew a long line right across your liner where the seat and the back meet. This will help it from sliding when you have it in your pram.
   Then comes the fiddley part. Grab your bias tapes and start pinning it around the edges. Take your time with this if it is your first time. Like I said before I found out that it is not as easy as it looks and next time I’ll just be sewing it inside out then turning it right way round and sewing around the edges. I found the corners the hardest.

Once it’s all pinned on it’s as simple as sewing around the edges. Then the last thing you need to do is use a stitch unpicker thingy (it does have a name but for the life of my I can’t remember it) and use it to slice in between the button holes being very careful not to unpick your stitches.
    And voila! You have yourself a handmade pram liner.

I am very happy with the end product given that it was my first attempt.

Happy sewing.

Tiffany