Birthday parties

Argh....

O is 6 tomorrow, and has requested a birthday party .  Not a problem.  Just a few kids around to play.

But it isn't...

First the total number of kids is 9, add in 5 adults, and that is 14 (in my tiny terrace).

Then you have to decorate.  Balloons, banners etc.  Plus party plates and cups, napkins, party hats, and party bags.

Then you have to have the cake.  It is a massive Olaf cake.  And I have made it huge on purpose because we are having family round on Saturday for more birthday cake, so it should do both.  But the icing came to £15...

And then there is the party tea.  £46 in Asda. Well, that included nappies and milk, plus the things to bake the cake, but lets say £40.  Biscuits, trifle, sandwiches, sausage rolls, pizza, crisps, veggies, dips etc.

And the main problem I have with all of this is that it is processed crap.  I looked into how much it would cost to make things like sausage rolls, pizza and biscuits from scratch and it is much cheaper to buy processed ready to eat stuff.  Annoying!!!  Generally I will take health over convenience and price (to an extent), but on this occasion I came to the swift conclusion that life is too short.

And I bet the children eat every bite.  It would be an interesting experiment to see if the children would eat the homemade equivalent with equal gusto, but I suspect that processed food has many chemicals that encourage gluttony.  Urgh....

I miss the days when my boy asked for a roast dinner with Nana and Gaga for his birthday treat!!!

A busy morning

I am having one of those rushing around sort of mornings, with whingy children that are probably feeling a bit neglected and bored, and so are throwing massive temper tantrums as a result.  It is also the big boys 6th Birthday on Thursday, and he is ridiculously excited (and so overwhelmed) by the idea.

Today I have started cleaning and tidying (the never ending jobs) and seem to have been on the phone for hours.  Firstly trying to find  dog daycare for Saturday (O's birthday treat), sorting out who we are raising money for in our Junior Church fundraiser (Wirral hospice St Johns) and speaking to them about it, and arranging to pick up balloons and banners, and sorting out O going to Beaver Scouts (2nd Birkenhead, maybe!!!).

And then, whilst rushing around, playing catch up on the household jobs, the washing line snapped!!!

It is one of those days!!!

Breakfast soup

Breakfast is not for me.  Never has been.  Bread can upset my tummy, as can dairy, I only like eggs covered in cheese, I am not fond of cereal, and most of the time I don't have the energy to cook anything properly.  So that leaves me with poptarts.  Which I love.  But possibly not the healthiest of options.  

One of my Mum's every so funny stories from my youth is about the fact that I have always been hopeless at breakfast, and that I ate vegetable soup for 2 years before school because it was the only thing I would eat.  

So in an effort to ensure I eat breakfast, that it is cheap and healthy, I have decided to revive the tradition.  A pan of soup made once a week, and it only takes a couple of minutes to reheat.  Today's offering is carrot and ginger soup.  And the best bit of this soup is that it was made with an onion from the allotment, some ginger left over languishing in the veg box, and a half a bag of carrots that were starting to get that slimy feeling on them, but were fine once peeled.  Plus a couple of stock cubes.  And it is very tasty.

So a mug of that for the next few days and then, hopefully, it will be breakfast soup everyday!!!  Perhaps I can convert the rest of my family, and then the world!!!

Free lettuce

I do love my allotment.  Everyone is so kind.  There is a lovely elderly chap who works his 2 allotments everyday, and they are pristine!!!  He is always friendly.  This morning he stopped me to have a chat and to ask me if I wanted a couple of lettuces that he had that were about to go over.  Yes please, says I.  So we left the allotment with 2 lettuces (and he gave each of the children a strawberry!!!), a couple of bolted onions from our plot and a little box of strawberries that have escaped the slugs.  Happy happy.

So lunch is on the table for the children.  And what a frugal lunch it is.  Lettuce (free from my nice chap), cucumber, beetroot, tomato (aldi!!!), a couple of hardboiled eggs (free from my parents chickens), and some potato salad with left over jersey royals from yesterday tea, a spoon of mayo, and some chopped mint from the garden.  The entire thing came to probably about 40p, and what a healthy lunch it is too.  And if we are still hungry, I got some cheesey bread reduced from tesco to 53p for a loaf (from £1,50) and then there are strawberries from the allotment with a spoon of homemade yoghurt!!!.  I am feeling productive today!!!

Foraging and allotmenting

We love our allotment.  It is not the most productive of plots.  Plenty of wasted space, weeds and lack of time but good intentions mean that we have a few harvest of different things, but mostly have to rely on Aldi.  But there are some things that Aldi can't provide that an allotment can.
Number 1 - Strawberries.  Warm from the sun, perfectly in season.  No matter how hard they try Aldi cannot match that.
Number 2 - Gooseberries - I have never seen a gooseberry in Aldi.

We have 3 gooseberry bushes, but they aren't quite ready yet.  Last year every single berry was eaten by birds between one day and the next, so this year we have covered them over.  But there is an abandoned, completely overgrown allotment at the end of our row which has gooseberry bushes over hanging the path, and are an early season variety.  Now, I wouldn't never advocate taking anything from anybody else's plot, but over hang from an abandoned plot is fair game as far as I am concerned.  So today, after picking a solid punnet of strawberries from our patch, we wandered around to the abandoned plot to get some gooseberries.  I only picked around 200g.  There were loads, but not all of them were ready to pick.  So what is a girl to do with such a quantity.  Gooseberry fool!!!


Gooseberry fool is possibly the easiest dessert in the world.  I stewed the gooseberries gently with about 70g of sugar, and a splash of water.  Then, when completely cool, spoon into whipped cream, and chill for a bit.  Serve on its own, or with some ginger biscuits.  Delish.  So simple, and quick and the main ingredient was completely free.  Next time I make it, I may try to add some elderflowers to the gooseberry mixture too, but I didn't have time to hunt for any today!!!!

Todays attempt

So today is a beautiful day, and supposed to be nice and warm, but I have been up since 4am with an IBS related poorly tummy.  So today is mostly going to be an "at home" sort of day.  Which, incidentally, means I can't spend any money!!!  Every cloud has a silver lining, and all that.

Today's efforts at frugality involve making a couple of new things for my Etsy shop, and making a ham joint in the slow cooker which should last us a fair few meals.

I was planning on buying a large gammon joint in Aldi, but they only had the smaller ones.  £2.99 spent well though I think!!
Now some souls soak and rinse for days.  If I am roasting it, I do the same, but I never bother with the slow cooker.  I just put plenty of water in to start with.  And then I add 10 or so cloves, a couple of dried bay leaves, and leave it on low all day.  And I shall serve it tonight with a savoury rice type dish, and some corn on the cob and green beans.  Sounds reasonably healthy (and cheap) to me.  I will use some for lunch tomorrow (possibly in a salad, maybe a stir fry) and the final remainder will go in a macaroni cheese for the freezer for a different day!!

My final attempt at frugality is to do as many loads of washing and put them on the washing line as possible.  I can be guilty of not being organised enough and using the tumble drier, even on a nice day.  Today, I shall be organised.

Later all!!!  xxx

Introducing Broke HQ

Hi, I am Alison.  I am a stay-at-home home educating Mama attempting frugality in an expensive world.  I love my kids, my husband, my allotment and my sewing machine in that order.  My husband is a teacher, and we live on 1 basic teachers wage in Merseyside, and we are flat broke.  We are always flat broke.  And the decisions we have made have ensured we will remain flat broke for ever and ever and ever and ever.

We can afford rent.  And bills.  And good food (mostly, with a bit of imagination).  But not much more than that.  We don't go out, we don't have expensive holidays, we don't drink or smoke or socialise.  But we are HAPPY!!!  We have 2 amazing children who are our world.  We have a good old life really.  I just wish we could get to the point where we don't have to chose "new shoes or hair cut" for the children every month.

I am determined to be better at this.  I am starting an Etsy shop selling sewn stuff.  My husband writes articles to earn a bit of extra cash, and I would love to get to the point where the alloment takes care of a chunk of food money (it mostly costs up money!!! But is fun too).

My beautiful babies have a happy old life, and so do we.  It is a life I wouldn't trade for all the money in the world.

Although the latest discussion about whether or not we can continue to run the car is a fun one!!!

This morning, in the name of getting up a bit of extra cash, I have made a couple of dribble bibs to sell on Etsy (search stitching by Alison!!!) and will be spending some of the afternoon baking, and some of it weeding.  And my husband will come home to a calm, happy and (somewhat) organised household, which he wouldn't if I were still working!!