Buying Early for Christmas

This is something I have never done before in my life but I am planning ahead. Last year was such a mess and I didn't get half of the things that I wanted to get because I made the mistake of taking my husband with me who thought after two presents that you had enough! I also have more people to buy for this year. I have to do it all on a budget but so far I have bought:

For my sister in law:

Rachel Allen's Bake from Amazon only £6 saving a huge £14...

This is a book I have myself and I do really like. I was never a big fan of Rachel because when I lived in Ireland people had a love hate relationship with Allen. I suppose I fell into that mode of thinking without thinking myself, very bad of me a know. The other big thing is I then didn't have a family myself so I was cooking for a very different audience. Now I am cooking for a family this book is great. I am also looking for a cake stand for her to go with the book. I think I have seen one in Ikea that would be great and it is only £12, yet another bargain and it is so beautiful, is it not?

Freegle Latest Toy Storage

I have just been out to get my latest freegle present and it is great. It is a toy storage unit for the girls so that I can steal something that I was using for them to out things away in my bedroom and actully display something on. Oh, what a dream!

I will post somemore pictures tomorrow.

Freecycle, now freegle, my biggest bargain secret

Now I am going to admit my biggest and best bargain secret. The biggest bargain of all is, of course not paying for it at all, and that is what Freecycle is all about. You find out where your nearest Freecycle is on their website and join. I would set up a separate email address that you just use for freecycle because the joy of getting a 100 emails a day when you want them is soon lost when you can't find the email you want in them all. I think it is another form of recycling to reuse things that people no longer want. It is the reason why I have managed to furnish my whole whole for just over £2000. I have a 4 bed house so that is not doing badly. I have had breadmakers, cots, coffee table, toys and so much more that I will share with you soon.

Bonus Voucher with Waitrose

The Sun offer with Waitrose has gotten even better. I went along on Sunday with my voucher for not only £5 off with The Sun but a Voucher from Love Film for £1.50 off "Seriously Desserts" to be given another voucher from the Sun for another £5 off next week. This was a bonus I was not expecting but was very pleased about.

Just to let you know about the dessert we had from Waitrose it was a Tart au Chocolat which was lovely but really rich. With the voucher it was only £1.50 because it was on offer already. It is lasting a long time mainly because you can't eat much of it at one time.

Changing Utility Companies

On my quest to save money I today have changed utility companies on the promise that they will save me £260 a year on my gas and electricity bills. I have changed the EDF, I could have saved more but some of the reviews for the companies were so poor that I didn't want to chance it. I first went through http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ which I found very useful because I got an extra £30 cashback by doing it through them, which was another bonus. They then directed me through to http://www.moneysupermarket.com/utilities/cheaper-gas-electricity.aspx but I could have chosen free wine at uswitch. The advise on moneysaver is worth a read and I filled in one form and all I have to so now is wait. The next job is getting the council tax rebanded on the house to save a little bit more but that is going to be a bigger job.

£5 off with The Sun at Waitrose

This is not a partnership that you would expect but I suppose they have come out in support of David Cameron and the Tory's this week so to make themselves very middle class they have a £5 off Waitrose offer on this Saturday:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/fun/competitions/promotions/article2660147.ece?CMP=KNC-PromoSTDgoogle&HBX_OU=50&HBX_PK=bargain+deals

If you can bring yourself to buy the The Sun then you will save this weekend.

Amazon's New Shoe Site Javari

Amazon seem to have launched a new shoe site called Javier. It seems to be shoes only sold by Amazon. The pictures are exactly the same and they offer free returns and one day delivery but the pricing is not the same at all and can be up to 50% more expensive. It is aways worth a look on the main Amazon site to see the difference because their price guarantee does not include price matching against Amazon.





Check it out and see what you think (I wasn't that impressed myself):

Cauliflower Cheese Pasta Bake with Bacon Crumble

I promised recipes on my site from my Aldi buys so here is the first. This is a great cook in advance recipe. The quanities are for my family of four (bearing in mind that we are one large male, me, I do like my food and two toddlers so I would say it would feed 3 adults).

Cauliflower Cheese and Pasta Bake with Bacon Crumble

Ingredients
500g Pasta (I like Waitrose Essentials twists for this recipe they hold there shape and the source well)
Half a head of Cauliflower (I would say from a medium sizes cauliflower)
2 handfuls of frozen peas
100g Chedar Cheese
1 tbsp your favourite mustard
3tbsp plain flour
500ml milk (maybe a little if the sauce thickens too much)
150g bacon miss cuts
Small handful of breadcrumbs
3 tbsps Parmaesam Cheese

How I did it

• Start by putting your water on to boil for the pasta. You need the largest pan you have so that the pasta has room to move. Salt the water well otherwise the pasta won't taste of a thing.
• Cut the cauliflower into bit size florets.
• Cut the bacon into little pieces and put a frying pan onto warm.
• The water for the pasta should be boiling quickly by now so add your pasta. You want your pasta to be just under cooked (just so not still raw) and I cook the cauliflower in with the pasta to save using another pan which will need about 5 minutes cooking so you may have to do the maths from your own pasta, sorry...
• Add the bacon to the frying pan and cook until crisp then set aside.
• Add the milk and flour to a small saucepan and whisk as you put it on the heat. If you are making the white sause this way you have to keep stiring the whole time. Once it starts to thicken (which will take about 5 minutes, it isn't that long really), add the mustard, chedar cheese and taste.
• Drain your pasta and cauliflower, throw in the peas and mix in the cheese sauce. Put the whole lot in an over proof dish then make your crumble by mixing together the bacon, breadcrumbs and cheese. Then sprinkle the crumble over the top of the pasta.
• The oven time will depend on whether you are going to put it in the over straight away, in which case it would need 10 minutes at 200 degrees, from the fridge, 30 minutes at 180, or room temp 20 minutes at 180. You are bascially warming it through and browning the top.

This is a great mid week meal and the cauliflower are only 59p each at Aldi this week and I used less than half here. The cheese was buy one get one free from Tesco. I don't shop at Tesco much but cheese does last in the fridge for a long time. The bacon miss cuts make a very small amount of meat go a long way without looking mean. The addition of cauliflower and peas are because I can't serve a meal without veg, I just can't, I feel some kind of Catholic, Italian guilt about it and feel I have to stand by the fridge eating veg if I don't.

Boden 15% Off on First Order

I got this voucher code with Love Film this week and thought it could be of use to someone:

RQLF

I think you must have to enter the code at the checkout

Shopping at Amazon

The joy of Amazon is that there is so much to choose from. The down side is there is so much to choose from. Also the pricing seems to change all the time. A good tip for getting things at the price that you want is to put anything that you fancy in your basket and save it for later. Check into your basket as regularly as you can because Amazon change prices all the time as frequently as every hour. The big thing is Amazon they tell you each time you check your basket what price changes have occured so you don't have to keep looking through each item remembering what price it was before. So fill your basket up and be patient. The best bargains I have had so far are the shoes that you see with the blue wedding outfit which are leather sole, inner and outer for £9.99 instead of £100. I have lots more bargains so I will add them when I have time.

I LOVE ALDI

An Aldi opened up close to me about a year ago and I have to admit I was a bit (very actually) snobby about it. It had always been sold to me as the poor relation to Lidl but it was now my closest supermarket I was going to give it a go. I fell in love for so many reasons:

1. It is always quiet and with two toddlers in tow this is how I want it. They only have one person on the till but they do try their best if it is really busy to find someone else (not always though). I promise them waffles to get them around and then feed them as we are walking around.
2. There isn't a huge amount of choice. This could be seen as a negative but it truely isn't. It speeds the whole shopping experience up. There is less to be tempted by.
3. The Super Six. They always have a a selection of fruit and veg on offer for fab prices. You don't have to spend your time looking for them inbetween everything else because that is all they seem to have and most of it is what is in season.
4. Great cheese and ham selection (they are German so they are good at it).
5. Frozen fruit mixes from crumbles and smoothies.
6. The best frozen cakes around. My mum, who is a brilliant cook, told she has had a cake almost as good as Aldi the other day. My answer was why to bother to go to the effort if they cook it that well. They are packed with fruit and there are about 4 different favours to choose from of my favourite Speciality Range Cakes.
7. The Speciality Range is brilliant. It is not Tesco Value pricing as you would think but it is a lot cheaper than shopping the Finest/Taste the Difference/M&S ranges and the quality can be as good.
8. The nappies are brilliant. I saw unother Mum in there buying 3 packs and I thought I would give it a try and they are the best around so well worth a try for both the money saving and how well they work.

I could go on and I will over the next few posts. I have a meal to post that I made last night from my Aldi Super Six buys.

Early Learning Centre 10% Off

I do love the Early Learning Centre and this voucher will give you an extra 10% off when you spend £100 online: PSLA09 Just enter the code at the checkout.

It is also worth joining the ELC Big Birthday Club because you get a voucher send to you just before your child's birthday for an extra 20%.

Voucher Codes : A must for Bargain Hunters

Voucher codes are a must whenever you are trying to get a bargain online. Even if the price is really great it is still worth having a quick search to see if there is even more money you can save. This morning in a toddler group I went too (it may be sad but I do love going to toddler groups because someone elses toys are always more exciting to children and there are 20 Mum's to help to tidy up afterwards) I was given a whole book of voucher codes. I have put a few in the next few posts to get you started...

Very Pink Shoes

My little girl saw her sister's shoes on the computer and wanted to show you hers so here they are in all their bargain glory:

What do I wear to the Wedding?

I have a wedding tomorrow so I have 2 outfits to choose from I do not know which one to wear?? Isn't it nice to have a choice and to actually be leaving the house and getting dressed up. I have so much maintainence to do before I can be seen in public but the choice of the dress is another really big decision. So what is it to be? Both the blue and red dresses were bought in sample sales at the cost of £10 each. I would love to be able to tell you were these wonderful sample sales were held but alass they finished this summer and I cried genuine tears about it. The last seasons shop is still there and I will let you know where. The shoes were from Amazon at £10 instead of £100 and the bags are vintage (that is to say I found them in my mother's wardrobe). I will post a picture of the event and you will be able to see which one I went for and more details of the outifts themselves.

Bargain Children's New Shoes

Having two little girls who are growing at an alarming rate I seem to be forever handing over large amounts of money to Clarks for new shoes. It is really important to be able to get them really good fitting shoes so this is one area where I am not willing to compromise and go secondhand but I am still looking for a bargain. This is not always possible because my little ones have very wide feet (I could say lots of other things here but they could read this when they are older and I won't want to dmage them too much). I have tried for bargains in two places this time; online and in an outlet store. My first try was Amazon kid's shoes and what I bargain I found:

They arrived with much excitement last week and I was really surprised by how good they are. The most imaportant thing is that they were only £10!!! They are reduced from £29.99, so the all important saving for all us ladies of £19.99. Delivery was free. They are last years colours but I think I can just about cope with that :) They are Umi shoes and even though she has very wide feet they were great and leather lined. The size I ordered was a little big but I was so impressed by them and the price that I ordered the smaller size knowing she will grow into them.

For my older little girl, who just turned 3 and is a 9 and a half G, I went to a Clarks outlet shop, in Bridgend. They didn't have a huge amount of choice but I don't get that in any shop because it is more a case of what fits. If I don't have black then I am happy. I bought a pair of last years version of the pinkest shoes you can ever imagine and saved £10 on the RRP of £28. I will try and get a picture up later so you can under just how pink these things are.

Welcome to My Blog

Hello and welcome to my blog, where I hope to be able to share with you all my adventures bargain spotting in the UK. To explain why I have started this blog, I have always enjoyed nice things in live but I have recently chosen to stay at home with my children so I have had to become very aware of everything and the horrible phrase "living within my means". This does not mean that I want to enjoy anything in life any less but I have to think a little more about things. I love to cook, do craft and love making my house a home. I hope to be able to post recipes, craft projects and the fun of life on the site for all to see and have an option on, good or bad. It is all good fun and a great way for me to get through my days.
Take care
The Bargain Queen