Frugal Christmas Food

Food at Christmas is a huge thing, it is all part of the celebration that we feel we need to have nuts and other snacks as well as the traditional Turkey and trimmings and that is just on Christmas day! On top of Christmas Day and New Years Eve there are the snacks at parties, during special seasonal events, when friends or relatives drop round and if you are like Daddy and me in the run up to Christmas too!

One way that I like to try to keep the cost down is by making most of my treats. Over the last few weeks I have been making biscuit and cookie dough and freezing them uncooked either in sausage shapes or in special cut shapes. All I need to do is to defrost the sausage shaped ones in the fridge over night and cut and cook the next day. The cut shapes I just cook from frozen!

I also like to make my own mince pies, you can keep them in the freezer until needed and either defrost them in the oven or microwave as you are about to eat them or again freeze them uncooked. The added benefit of mince pies is that you get a really lovely smell in you home as they cook or you defrost them too!

You don't need to buy everything fresh, despite what people say. Frozen Vegetables, frozen Turkey, frozen puddings are all acceptable if that is what you want. I have used a mix of frozen and fresh vegetables over the last eight years and I have never had a fresh Turkey, but have always brought a frozen one!



The benefit of frozen food for me is that I can buy food in advance of a big event that I know that we will want or will use when I see it reduced or on special offer. I can then put this item into the freezer and everything is fine when I then get it out for the meal and it cost less than I was budgeting for.



Christmas cakes aren't that expensive anymore, you can easily buy a good quality decorated cake (or if you prefer an undecorated cake that you can then decorate yourself). When you take into consideration the cost of the ingredients of making a cake from scratch it does normally work out a lot cheaper... unfortunatley with Daddy being a celiac and me not touching food with alcohol in it buying a Christmas cake suitable for us both is very expensive even with my thrifty searching the cheapest I have found is £15! This is why I am making a Christmas cake using value ingredients. I will also make a second small sponge cake for Top Ender as she isn't one for fruit cake. If your family is the same a sponge cake works out a lot cheaper than a fruit cake and you can still ice it in the same way!

Of course if you don't like Christmas Cake you can always make a mincemeat cake;

Grease and line an 8in round cake tin. Preheat oven to160 C.

Mix together 8oz self raising flour, 12oz sweet mincemeat, 3oz dried fruit mix, 3 eggs, 5oz soft margarine and 5oz soft brown sugar. Beat until well blended. Spoon into tin and sprinkle some brown sugar on top.

Bake for 1hr 15 minutes until well risen and firm to touch. Cool in tin for 5 minutes and then turn out on to rack.

Then you can ice it as you would a Christmas cake or just leave it. It tastes lovely and as you can use up the last of your mincemeat from the Mince pies it is being frugal too!

A shopping list of everything food wise that you need over the Christmas period, will save you a fortune. If you can make a meal plan of the food that you are going to eat you will know what you need to buy, and won't be worried that the shops are closed for a whole 24 hours and you don't have enough food. It also means that you can buy one or two items a week in the run up to Christmas and spread the cost.

I like to make a menu for Christmas Day with several choices for breakfast, starters and puddings. Then a week before Christmas I start to ask what everyone would like from the choices I have given. I can then add the missed choices into my menu plan for the rest of the Christmas Week. It means that I can make things work in my favour even if everyone does want a different breakfast on Christmas Morning!

The other benefit of a menu plan is you can pre-think what you are going to do with your leftovers. You might have bubble and squeak for tea on Christmas Day (or breakfast the next day!), you might have turkey and stuffing sandwiches for lunch on Boxing day or Turkey Curry on the 27th, but what ever you decide you can make sure you use up all that you have brought!



A lot of people I know have a traditional take away on Christmas Eve, we try to have one on New Years Eve. One thing that hardly anyone ever does is to ask for a discount on this, or at any time of the year to be honest! A lot of places offer a discount if you pick up your own meal or if you order over a certain amount of money... be cheeky and ask you'll never know until you ask!

The last thing I want to mention is not to be afraid to go into so called discount stores, or the Value Brands. Aldi, Lidl, Farmfoods, Netto and Poundland are all stores that I have been into buy food from and Tescos, Morrisons, Asda and Sainsburys all have good quality value ranges! Not one of them has ever failed me and this year Good House Keeping guide has done the hard work for you and have come up with a shopping list using value products for a full Christmas meal.



Well that is all that I can think of at the moment so I wish you a frugal Christmas and if you missed my previous frugal posts go take a look at my Christmas Gifts and the idea of being frugal post and whilst you are at it why not take a look at my Frugal Christmas Entertainment post whilst I wish you a frugal Christmas!

Frugal Christmas Entertainment

I don't know about you but when I was younger I always felt a little out of my friends conversations around Christmas time. It seemed to me that my friends parents spent hundreds of pounds more on my friends Christmas entertainment than my parents did on mine, they went to Pantos, to Lapland and other things that must of cost a fortune.

I often felt that my friends were being short changed however, because even though they had the most desirable places to go to I was always given what I wanted or needed I was given my parents time. I will have to ask my Mum, because looking back everything is slightly rose tinted and I know that it wasn't all Sunshine Lollipops and Rainbows, but it certainly felt that way!

We did a lot of things over the Christmas period that cost next to nothing and to me is part of a frugal Christmas. So if you are time rich and money poor, I hope some of my ideas and traditions for Frugal Christmas Entertainment may become yours!

When I was little we use to go for Christmas Drives, hunting down the Rotary Club Santa. It was always printed in the paper, which area he would be in on which night, but my Sister and I didn't know that. As far as we knew we really were hunting for Santa. Top Ender has done this over the last few years and she adores looking for him, catching a glimpse and having to try to find him again. It is a good way to spend some time together, as long as you don't mind spending some petrol money or as long as you can all walk fast!

Starting in the first week of December we go on Christmas light hunts. We know of three or four areas, where the decorations outside the homes in the area are fantastic and so we love to drive around them and hunt for new ones!

Then of course there is our annual trip to see the Christmas Lights in London. We are lucky that we now have a Picasso with a giant sun roof, so that we can just look up and see the beautiful displays. This also works for us in our local town, as I think every town puts up some form of Holiday lighting these days!


For the last three years, Top Ender and I have gone to see the lights being turned on the Christmas tree in our local town square. It is really lovely and we enjoy the countdown before the lights are turned on. Our town council has made an effort to make it more enjoyable, with a small funfair and a light parade first.

Something we love to do is to turn the main lights off in our living room once our decorations are up, and either to just have the Christmas lights on or to light a few candles. Top Ender, Daddy and I have snuggled on the sofa just watching the twinkling lights for ages, Baby Boy tended to fall asleep, but then he was only seven months old!


Watching films is something that Top Ender and I do every week, we have a huge range to chose from and often watch one that I have recorded in the week on one of the kids TV Channels. Doing this with popcorn or some Christmas snacks (and with the lights off and just the Christmas lights on!) will just add the Christmas excitement!

One of my best memories was when Daddy and I were wrapping Christmas gifts listening to Christmas radio on the Internet and we heard a unique song that neither of us had heard before. I recommend that you don't listen to this if there are children around...

Lets just say that Daddy and I enjoyed that Christmas song and the wrapping of the gifts went a lot quicker that year...

Learning Christmas Carols as a family is great. Top Ender got the giggles a few years back when ever we sang "In the Bleak Mid-Winter". It took us ages to find out that she thought the line "Snow had fallen snow on snow" was the funniest thing she had heard! Even now when we sing it she will give us a knowing look at that line!

Christmas stories are plentiful and they might be classics ("Twas the Night before Christmas" anyone?) or new but they always bring a smile to someones face... especially if you are like Daddy and me and still think that Randy the Reindeer is a life choice rather than a name!

And of course you can always use the Great Robinson's website as reviewed by Top Ender here and put on a Panto!

Those are all that I can think of at the moment so I wish you a frugal Christmas and if you missed my post on Frugal Gift Ideas, go take a look here at my Christmas Gifts and the idea of being frugal post or at my Frugal Christmas Food post!

Wordless Wednesday - Spot the Robin Red Breast

I wish I could take credit for this, but this was taken by Top Ender!

Top Ender Does Panto... "Oh yes she does!"

This is a special post by Top Ender, (Oh No it isn't! Mummy stop adding things and Oh Yes it is!) Mummy has typed what I have told her to say, but she has added pictures and stuff. Mummy also wants to talk at the end.



Last week we finished up our bottle of Blackcurrant that we had been given by Nanny B. On the label it said that I could Put on a Panto. I know all about Panto's as Mummy has told me about them as we are going to go and see Cinderella at the Milton Keynes Theatre as part of the Have A Lovely Time series "The Great British Panto, 2009".



So I got Mummy to take me to the website that is here and followed all the steps to get my own panto of Snow White. I thought that as I was going to see Cinderella that I should do another one, and I like Snow White.



I asked Mummy if she would be the Beautiful Evil Queen as I would be Snow White and I was going to phone up Daddy at work and ask if he would be in my panto too, but Mummy pointed out that even with us all playing a part we still wouldn't have enough people and so I would need to ask some more people.



I thought about this for ages and then decided that I would play all the parts using puppets! Mummy is going to help me make the puppets and a special theatre made out of a box, which she said we would paint red and white stripped like a Punch and Judy tent. I decided that if I used the laptop in my tent, I would be able to use the Autocue 5000T to do all the voices, and that way I wouldn't have to worry about not being able to read the script.



I am really excited and Mummy said she will record our Panto so that we can send it to Nanny B at Christmas as it was her bottle of Juice that gave us the idea! I am off to draw my puppets!

Mummy here (Boo Hiss!), Top Ender is really excited about this Panto and so if I can I will edit a small amount to be shown on here in the run up to Christmas... but you might need to wait until Daddy is around as I have no clue how to do it!

The Robinsons Website is great and Top Ender was easily able to navigate it, and understand what she was supposed to do. I would recommend it to anyone (in fact I already have in the School playground) and if you think outside the box like Top Ender it is easy for those who are younger to be involved in the Panto production too!

Its not only Christmas that is Big Business!

Its not only Christmas that is Big Business in this house, but Birthdays too.

You see, my Birthday is the day after my Mum's and so we celebrated them together. It was great fun as I grew up, especially as my sisters birthday is three days after our Dad's and again we would love celebrating both the birthdays together. In fact the first Birthday that Daddy spent with my family was the joint celebration of my Dad and Sisters Birthday (and he didn't nearly get us thrown out of the Chinese Restaurant we were in with his Chinese accented version of Happy Birthday, that is just a rumour...) of which we even have documented proof!



It wasn't intentional that Top Enders Birthday was exactly two weeks before Daddy's, she was due before Christmas but managed to hold on until early in the New Year... and I was kind of forgotten by the Midwife team; But I will admit to some crafty planning with Baby Boy and he ended up being born 13 days after my birthday! I'm not sure what to do if we do go ahead and expand our family, perhaps I should aim for our Anniversary...

With Top Enders birthday being so close to Christmas and New Year, I have to start planning now so that other parents can schedule the party in and so that we can decide which one of our many ideas from our big folder of Birthday ideas we shall go with.

Last year we went with a Princess theme and we wrote special invites in Modern olde English (which we wrapped as a scroll and hand delivered to the other Princesses who were invited) inviting the girls to come in Princess dress. We spent the week before the party preparing the house...

The Royal Throne Room

The Magic Mirror (complete with recorded voice telling each Girl she was the fairest of them all)

Special wall sconces

A Roaring Fire

And of course a red carpet and Battlement leading to the Royal Front Door

We had Princess themed party games such as Snog the Frog, (which was my version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey) Decorating Princess Crowns, Decorating Cupcakes, Colouring in, Royal Pass the Parcel to name a few!

This year we decided to go with a Bag and Bear party theme and are holding Top Ender's party at The Bear Factory (hence the bear in the theme title) and we are going to make special bags for the party favours to go in (and there is the bag mentioned!), but I can't mention much more in case Top Ender's friends or their Mummies are reading as we don't want to spoil the surprise!

Last years surprise was a DVD that the children were given along with Thank you notes when we went back to school. It was a video of the photos that we had taken during the party, the very video that the children were watching as their parents came to pick them up!

Next year we are thinking of having a cinema party in a local hall... or maybe a make over party... or maybe a ball... or maybe a music party... or maybe a cooking party... or maybe...

Christmas Gifts and the idea of being frugal

Christmas means such a lot to me and always has. I think it in a large part has to do with my Mum and her enthusiasm for Christmas. As a child she and her family didn't have a lot of money and as we grew up she tried to make sure that we never went without.

We never went without.

With this in my background it isn't surprising that every Christmas I try to come up with a new and inventive gift for family members that doesn't cost the earth, and over the last eight years I have come up with a large number of ideas...

When I saw that Liz at Violet Posy was hosting a Frugal Christmas Carnival I had to jump in with my ideas, as it isn't always about the money when buying gifts, but using your imagination and making sure that the gift that you choose fits the person and their needs.

So for your pleasure here are some gift ideas that you might like to use. Before we get to them however I am going to have to trust immediate family members that read my blog not to read this post until after Christmas, because your gift this year is mentioned here!

Home made chocolate shapes

This is as easy as can be, last year Top Ender and I brought several cheap bars of chocolate (It was the value stuff from Tesco!) and we melted it in a glass bowl in the microwave before pouring it into shaped ice cube trays that we had previously brought from Ikea. After they had set we popped them out of the trays and put them into cellophane bags (we had been given them the previous Easter, but not used them) we added two lollies from a multibag from the £1 shop and then tied them up with gold or green ribbon.

Each one of Top Enders friends that got a bag was delighted and so was I as it cost next to nothing!

Home made crayons

Top Ender has hundreds of bits of crayons. Every so often I steal them off her and put them into my tin. Once I have a good amount of bits, I melt them in the microwave (in a glass jug) and pour them into the shaped ice cube trays. Again I let them set, and once they are done I pop them out, voila new multi-coloured crayons!

Top Enders friends are getting these for Christmas this year, along with personalised notepads.

Personalised Notepads

Take a plain notepad, decorate and personalise.... genius!

Cake in a mug

Put into a ziplock bag;

4 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 tablespoon choc chips

Then put it in a mug and wrap in cellophane and on a label add the follow information;

Add 1 egg, 3 tablespoons milk, 3 tablespoons butter or oil and mix well. Once mixed put in the microwave for 3 minutes. Wait for two minutes after cooking before eating!

No sew Fleece Blanket

The amount of fabric you need depends upon the size you want to make. A rough guide is as follows Baby size 1 to 1 1/2 yards, Child 1 3/4 yards, Adult 2 yards. You can choose two different fleece patterns or colours and make them compliment each other or contrast, but both will need to be the same size that you have chosen!

Place them on top of each other with the good sides facing out and I then like to cut round the edges to trim the straight and to get rid of the selvage. I then cut a 4"x4" square out of each corner on both layers and then I cut a fringe round the outside. You need to cut 4" in every 1", you need to keep them uniform in size so I tend to use either my fingers or a piece of the fleece I have already cut as a marker.

Once this is done you need to tie a fringe from each piece in a knot. I like to double knot them and to tie every other one and then to turn the blanket over once I have gone once round to tie the others as it makes it more even and secure.

And that's it!

Knitted items

Can you knit? Then knit a square blanket, or a scarf or anything that your skills will allow. I made Baby Boy a scarf last year when I couldn't find one that was the right size for him, all from following instructions found on the web.

Home Made Costumes

A couple of years back red cotton was on offer in a fabric shop, and so I brought a meter. It cost a couple of pounds and I turned it in to Little Red Riding Hood's cape and hood. Top Ender was thrilled with her costume and it is still in the costume box!



Hand Sewn Items

I wasn't very handy with a needle and thread when I saw this castle material in John Lewis. It was an off cut and therefore didn't cost much! I turned it into an Apron during my lunch hour, sitting at my desk the week before Christmas.

Top Ender has grown out of it now and I am turning it into some clothes for her dolls, but this Christmas both she and Baby Boy are getting new apron's from material that I brought from the Fabric Shop. The cost was £4 for the two pieces!

Secret Hollow Book

This is one of Daddy's gifts this year, and there are hundreds on instructions out there. The best I have found are here and I think it makes a great gift! You can even hide things in it when you give it and wait to see a disappointed face when all they get is an old book, not knowing hidden inside is something great!

Letter writing set

Buy stamps, envelopes, paper, a nice pen and an address book. I also like to include plain postcards and some little notelet cards. Of course I always include a hand written letter from me too!

Photo album

When Big Cousin turned one, we gave Auntie a photo album with all the pictures that had been taken of Big Cousin since she was born. We had a copy of all of the images Auntie had taken as a back up and Daddy thought it would make a great gift. Daddy was right as Auntie loved the gift. We have been asked to do it again by Granny for her as a Christmas gift, but for all four children.

Framed Photo

One of the funniest gifts we have ever given was one that wasn't known about. At Easter Auntie and her family came with us and Granny to the Gardens of Woburn Abbey for a walk round. When Daddy and I left with Top Ender and Baby Boy we had a plan to get a photo that had been taken that day printed, put into a frame and snuck into Grannys house. We did this, all within an hour of the photo having been taken. It took Granny eight hours to spot the new photo....

If you have a photo that is special make a copy and give it in a frame to someone. It always makes me smile to see photos I have taken on display at someone else's home.

The Card Box

This I always think of as a good gift for older people, but it can work for anyone. Simply buy a selection of greeting cards for various occasions, multiple times (I did it for my Gran and I counted out how many Birthday cards she would need for all her Children, her Grandchildren and her Great Grandchildren as well as a few for friends, but I also added Thank you cards, anniversary cards and plain cards). This gift can cost as much as you want as there are shops that sell Greeting cards from 29p these days and a lot of them are really nice, but it does sometimes take a little effort to find the good ones for this price!

Hampers

This is my signature gift. I don't think there is anyone in our extended family that hasn't had a hamper from me at Christmas or on a birthday. I like to theme them.

The Breakfast in Bed Hamper. A bedding set on a tray, along with Jam, Croissants, Coffee, Tea, Hot Chocolate, a variety pack of Cereal, some Bucks Fizz and some Orange Juice. Then of course there are the finishing touches a DVD of either Breakfast at Tiffanys or The Breakfast Club, some napkins etc.

The Art Hamper. Some Paintbrushes, some paint, some sketch pads, a smock, a couple of canvasses and anything else that you find cheap! I found some cheap art pad covers in WHSmiths that did great!

The Italian meal. Sun Dried Tomatos, Pasta, Pesto, mozzarella cheese, Italian wine, cans of Cappuccino, Italian Biscuits... you get the idea! Although my Brother in law does still sometimes mention the year we got him cheese for Christmas...

The bath Hamper. Bubble Bath, a Bath pillow, shower gel, soap, shampoo, candles, a good book and a bottle of something to drink. This can be presented in a bath sheet and given with a hand towel and a flannel.

The Adult Basket. This was a great gift given to a friend and her husband. Novelty under ware, wine, massage oil, chocolate, grapes and strawberries and I think there was also a Karma Sutra book. I know there was a mix CD featuring Barry White!

The Chocolate Hamper. Chocolate, Chocolate and more Chocolate! Oh and Drinking Chocolate!

The luxury Hamper. Think of all the things that your intended person likes but doesn't buy often as they are expensive. Now buy those. I did this for my Gran and gave her biscuits, cans of drink, soup, crisps, chocolate, sweets and magazines.

No Budget

Kids art work

Top Ender and Baby Boy have loads of drawings that we like to give as gifts. It costs nothing, and always means something to the person to get a drawing just for them.



Coupons

Home made coupons, for a dinner at home, a cake, a massage, doing the dishes or what ever you can think of always go down well here!

Preserves

Home made preserves using up your home grown fruit and veg show your talents and cost you nothing!

Cakes

My Gran use to love cake, but a whole cake would go hard before she could eat it. I would make her a cake every month (her choice of flavour) and cut it in to individual slices before wrapping them and putting them in her freezer. Then she could have a slice of cake when ever she wanted!

Mix Tape (well CD these days!)

Create a mix tape of songs that mean something to the person. Daddy has made a few for me in the past and they always bring back special memories when ever I listen to them.

And those are all that I can think of at the moment but why not take a look at my Frugal Christmas entertainment ideas and my Frugal Christmas Food whilst I wish you a frugal Christmas!

Daddy Giggles - I knew it when I married him!

Daddy and I have been encouraging Top Ender to drink water through out the day, as we told her that being hydrated would help her get better. We have been adding very weak squash to the water in order to get her to drink it, at more than a rate of a bottle every 24 hours

Daddy went into the kitchen to fill up Top Enders Bottle and I could hear him pushing the freezer stick into the bottle.

"Daddy? The freezer stick is supposed to stay in the cap" I called
"But then the lid doesn't come off!" he called back
"You have to unscrew the top lid" I called back again
"That hole is too small for pouring things in!" he answered
"Then you unscrew the second lid" I called back

I could hear the top lid being unscrewed, followed by the second lid and a gentle giggle from Daddy:

"I wondered how you were supposed to get the stick out to put it in the freezer!" he giggled

Top Ender has only had the bottle for nine months!