Top Ender Giggles - The gift that keeps on giving

As we were walking through the car park of the Airshow on Fathers Day, Top Ender suddenly stopped, bent down and picked up a shiny £1 coin.

We congratulated her as we carried on walking to the air show as we were in a nice long line of people and promptly forgot all about it in a discussion over if we should have chips or ice-cream first.

Later on that day we were digging on the beach, when suddenly Top Ender found another £1 coin!

"Its your lucky day Top Ender!" I told her
"Yes it is, will you look after it?" she asked
"Of course, you get back to your digging!" I prompted hoping she might find some more money

When Daddy came back from the waters edge with Baby Boy I showed him the £1 coin that Top Ender had found and explained she had found it in the sand.

"Top Ender?" called Daddy
"Yes Daddy?" answered Top Ender
"Where is the £1 you found earlier today?" he asked with a grin
"In my pocket... oh!" she answered as she couldn't find the coin
"Top Ender, you found your own money in the hole!" answered a laughing Daddy

New Dinner Ideas for under £1 per person

Some of the most common search terms for my blog is to do with food, new dinner ideas, frugal meals etc. Well instead of people coming here and being disappointed I decided to post some new dinner ideas that come in at under £1 per person. It's also good timing as this coming month I have told Daddy that we are going to be eating cheaply... very cheaply.

First things first if you want to (or need to) cut your food budget there are several things that you can do that will save you a small amount each week depending on what you shopping budget was to start with!

1. Eat meat free one or two nights a week. Even if someone in your family feels that a meal isn't complete with out meat and two veg, if they know that the food budget needs to be cut they should understand. There are some meals that they might not even notice the lack of meat in listed below!
2. Portion control. Think about how much you serve everyone at meal times, it might be too much. Try reducing everything slightly and this should help.
3. Reduced produce. If you can buy the food at a reduced price then it will reflect in the budget!
4. Plan your meals. If you know that Wednesday nights is always really busy then plan something that is quick and easy for dinner, or something that can be cooked in the slow cooker.
5. Stop Eating out. Stop having takeaways or going to restaurants, if you do number 4, then you won't have to anyway.
6. Take lunch to work, don't wait for the Sandwich van to come round. Take some with you and save a fortune!
7. Save your leftovers. Buy some plastic pots (Tupperware!) and either freeze the leftover meal or save it for lunch the next day. If you do freeze the leftovers make sure you label the meal AND list it on a freezer inventory!
   
   
8. Stretch your meals. Rubber chicken for example is a favourite in our house (although it was Rubber duck last week!) and it is so cheap!
9. Make double and freeze it. Sometimes it is cheaper to make more than you need. No really. A good example of this is Curry. I like to buy premixed curry spices from eBay and then make a huge batch of curry which I then freeze in family sized portions.
10. Shift down a brand. If you normally buy named brands then go down to Store brand, if you don't like something then don't buy it again. Just don't buy the cheapest of the cheap or value brands for some items unless you read the ingredients first!

And now for the list of dinner ideas, if you need recipes feel free to ask but most of them are things that should be in any good cookery book or search engine!

Beans on toast (with an egg on top)
Casserole
Cauliflower cheese
Cheesy Bean pie
Cheesy mash and beans
Cheesy pasta (have pasta add cheese)
Chilli
Chilli Pasta
Corned beef hash
Corned Beef Hotpot
Cottage pie
Cowboy Casserole
Egg and Chips
Eggy Bready and beans
Fishfingers in tomato sauce
Fish pie
Fishfinger pie
Home Made fish cakes
Home Made Pizza
Jacket Potato and a whole variety of toppings!
Lamb Stew
Lasagne
Lentil Soup
Liver and onions (although not for pregnant women)
Meatloaf
Omlette (with or without additional items)
Pasta Bake
Pasta in Tomato sauce
Pasta with Bacon
Poor Mans Pasta (pasta with no additions other than butter)
Potato and Bacon Hotpot
Potato and Cheese Bake
Quiche or flans
Risotto
Sausages and mash
Scrambled egg, beans and bacon
Sheppard's pie
Spaghetti Bolognese
Spanish Omlette
Spicy Wedges and coleslaw
Toad in the hole
Toasted Sandwiches
Tuna and Pasta (with a little mayo)
Tuna rice salad
Veggie Stir Fry
Vegetable Rice Salad

I am thinking of doing a post next week about what to do with Leftovers, so let me know if you are interested!

And one last tried and tested idea, try to get invited to other peoples houses for dinner as often as possible!

When you can't afford to give

I stopped watching the news years ago. It seemed that everyday there was something terrible on the news and I would fret on things that were not in my control. I don't like hearing about people being murdred, children being abused or about Terrorists who have blown up innocent people because they think it is the only way for their voice to be heard.

I get my news online, I know that if the title of a piece looks like it is going to make me upset that I don't read it. Of course that doesn't stop me hearing about big disasters. I first hear about the Haiti earthquake on Twitter. I knew from the trending topics that it was something that I was going to fret on.

I knew that I would want to give to the people of Haiti who will of lost family and friends and homes and the ability to carry on with a normal existance.

And Bloggers responded loudly with donations at a specially set up Just Giving page. Currently the donations will allow four (nearly five) Shelter boxes to be given to the people in Haiti.
 

But what about when you can't afford to give?

Without going into personal details we can't afford to give money to charity. We like many others are in a position where our budget is balanced with our outgoings and incomings matching exactly.

So what can I do? Or what can you do if you are in a similar position?

1) Give your time. You might not be cash rich, but you might be time rich. A local organisation might need help for an hour a week or a month. They might need more, but will accept what you can offer them.

2) Give your expertise. Have you got a skill that could help? Look at what you could do that might help someone, even if it is something you feel is silly such as being able to organise a committee!

3) Give what you can. I give all our old clothes, toys, bed linens, books and countless other things to local Charity shops. Just because I can't give money doesn't mean I can't give things.

4) Use Charity gift services. I love Oxfam Unwrapped. For the people on my Christmas list that I want to buy something for, but don't know what to get them or have been told not to get them anything I buy something from there. It makes me feel good and the person I have brought the gift in the name of. You can even use your Tesco clubcard points to buy Charity gifts.

5) Use a Charity credit card or better still as Martin Lewis on MSE says use a Cashback Credit card. Charity credit cards mean that for any money spent on your credit card that the named charity gets a percentage of what you spend. However a Cashback credit card will give you a better return percentage and will give the cash back to you. Which you can then donate to a charity. You could also do this with cashback from other purchases from cashback websites.

6) Buy things that you do buy through a charity portal. There are so many online stores that give commission to web sites that drive traffic to them and if you are making a planned purchase why not see if you can help a charity at the same time?

7) Spread the word, just like I have done in this post. Let other people know about a charity that they might be able to support if they have the funds. Highlight a cause and you will be giving.

I am sure there are other ways that you can give and I hope that you will tell me in the comments of things I may of forgotten or not know about and if you can afford to give please, please, please, please do.