It's time to begin.....

Mumoffourkids

I agree cushions are definitely a good place to start. An envelope cushion doesn’t even need a zip. My 9 year old made one in a sewing class and now my 5 year old wants me to teach him how to sew as well.

missymoo81

I think I’ll have to start smaller, maybe scrunchies.

Kakiste

Going to have a living off the freezer/cupboard week to stretch our budgets out this month. Making a meal list and figuring it what i need to get at the shop later to bulk it out. So far shopping list has three items on it. 

missymoo81

That’s a great idea. I think I’m going to do that next week. I’m also trying to make my shopping last 10 days so I only go 3 times in the month instead of 4. I’ve just popped over to the old style thread and I’m getting food stretching ideas off of there too. 

Kakiste

I only spent £7 on shopping for this week. So far we had a brinner for tea on Sat and then I made pizza from scratch last night (60/40 ratio plain flour to natural yoghurt and half a teaspoon baking powder for bases- bake for 5 minutes and then take them out, flip them and passata and cheese them up and then add toppings to the new 'up' side and then bake until the cheese melts. 

Traded some strawberries for some rhubarb with a colleague so have made rhubarb crumble for pudding tonight and a Chinese stir fry for main. 

Also cashed out £8 on prolific so will have that in my EF by the end of tomorrow. 

Thinking about it, the big change I've found in the last year or so is that now I have weekly budgets for food/petrol etc I'm not brassic and scraping by during the second half of the month anymore. I am spending really frugally but it's across the board and I never now worry where next week's food money is coming from as it's already budgeted for and in its own pot. Since my daughter was born until she was 4.5 I was willing each month to go quicker as by the 4th all my loans/cc payments would go out and I would be back to the bottom of my overdraft. It's so much nicer now. 

Kakiste

Made another £3 on Prolific today. Every little helps and all. I seem to be averaging about £10 a week which is not to be sniffed at. Going to have an another evening sewing. The latest orders are almost ready for sale- by Friday I reckon i'll have them all fully done and then I can post them out Sat. AM. 
Food group was good this week- I got half a lamb shoulder as the meat portion so with the onions, potatoes, carrots and peas we also go I made a full roast yesterday evening (Not bad for £3!) We also got eggs, cereal, bread, milk, biscuits, fruit, veg and sliced chicken. Less than usual this week but still all the breakfasts and snacks covered. The roast was completely made up of stuff we got from food group- only had to use oil from our cupboards for the roast potatoes. Nom. 

Kids at school were a bit crazy today- Had a couple of medium level strops about silly things from a bunch of hormonal teenagers but managed to get everyone into class without any fights and get some work out of everyone so success on that front. 

Kakiste

Made another £4 on Prolific yesterday so should have over £12 to cash out next Tues. (If not more) 
Was pulled aside by the Head at school (ours should hopefully be back within the next fortnight) on Friday morning to say how impressed her and the head of education for the company have been with my work across the last couple of terms. Nice to hear and fingers crossed for that pay rise.

Kakiste

Also listed the four sewing projects for sale this evening. 2 already sold so that's an extra £40. I'll wait to see whether the other two sell on the immediate group selling page, if not I'll list them on one of the wider UK sewing selling pages. 

Kakiste

NSD day. Husband made a Bolognese sauce 2 days ago to use up frozen mince and a bunch of vegetables that were looking sad. Ate it for tea and it was incredibly good.

The sprog wanted to 'rearrange her room' and on looking at it she needed a bigger bookshelf. We helped our friend to move in round the corner 6 months ago and he wanted us to deconstruct and tip three wardrobes the previous owner had left; my husband salvaged the MDF sides and doors for using in projects. We so far have turned one side into shelving in our spare room and this afternoon we spent 3 hours turning the remaining into a new bookcase. Sprog is thrilled and the total cost was £0 Which worked out given the only ones on fb marketplace round here are going for £20+

Now lying on sofa as I've eaten too much! 

Kakiste

The bookcase! *proud*