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.