Cool Kid

WARNING - BOASTFUL MUMMY POST

First of all, welcome to my new follower: Donna Scott.

Up until this point, I have hardly mentioned my 2 children.

My [almost] 14 year old daughter [Alice, aka superscout] is super cool, even though I say it myself.  REALLY.

She properly does not run with the pack and is not motivated by money at all.  She is motivated by happiness.  She is into photography and writes her own blog.

Anyway, this week she used ebay for the first time.  She bid and won a pair of skinny jeans for £1.21 plus £2.99 P and P.  She is so proud of herself. 

She is now researching/watching DM boots, in preparation for a winning snipe.  That is so like her; she always does her research about things.

This is her, wearing my 'Underground' shoes, that we share!

Today, I hope to capture the skinny jeans look; so watch this space.

Right Place/Right Time

Not the clearest of photos, but great bargains nonetheless.

Found these yesterday - carrot and  coriander soup; reduced from £1.80 each to 36p each!

Ideal for lunches at school.  I have popped them both in the freezer.

[Wrote 30 writing and 30 'speaking and listening' comments yesterday.  Plus listed 2 pairs of shoes on ebay]  

Fantastic Bank Holiday Monday/Whitson Half-Term

When I woke up this morning, an email was waiting for me offering a composter, through Freecycle.  I was delighted. It was very timely.  Only yesterday, I had found a composter on Ebay; collection only.  The current bid was £1.75, with 24 hours to go.

I set up a snipe bid; max. £3.00

I had previously ordered one from a supplier offer a concession to my local council. However, I had received an email to say that there had a problem with the check out on their website and my order had not gone through; would I like to re-order? NO!

Then the Freecycle offer came.

Superscout and I went to collect it at 4:00PM, from a lovely lady.

On the way home, we stopped at a Marks and Spencer 'Simply Food' store.  We planned to buy a £10 'Dine In For 2' offer, because it was Bank Holiday.

WELL WE ARRIVED AT THE RIGHT TIME ....................... JUST LOOK AT WHAT WE BAGGED!

ALL 10P!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All in all it has been a great Bank Holiday.

Plus, I wrote 30 ICT comments and 30 Art and DT comments.

Added to which, we re-arranged Superscout's bedroom and did a major spring clean in it.

The Ebay composter finally went for £19.

I also have a chicken carcas in the slow cooker. #stock

Hard Core

Since I have come back to blogging, I feel more hard core about saving money.  I am trying not to let any more at all slip through my fingers.  I also get a sense, from reading the blogs of others, that they are doing the same.

So, 3 little successes to note:

• Yesterday was my fortnightly lunch duty day [Don't have to do anything unless it rains.  If it does, just have to go into the corridors and support Lunch Time Supervisors bringing the children in]  For this we are entitled to claim a free lunch.  This I did.  In the past I have not bothered to claim. So, I ate vegetable curry and rice, with a shortbread biscuit for pudding. [I kept the biscuit and ate it after school, when I was doing my marking]

• I was also given 2 free-range eggs, from the school farm.  I am planning to have scrambled eggs on toast for my breakfast.

• I have just sold a vintage telephone on ebay.  It was a wedding present and never used.  It spent almost 20 years in the loft.  I did my research and believed I might get as much as £200.  This was based on dedicated dealer websites.  However, I have had to list it 3 times.  It has sold for £45 [best offer] on the third attempt, but I am at peace with this because it was not adding value to me when sitting in the loft.  It is going towards the £100 per month mortgage overpayment target.  So far this month I have achieved £93 [£30 Moneysupermarket; £45 ebay and £18 other]

I will update my sidebar accordingly.

I have also emailed Tesco about the oxtail.  They have tried to contact me by phone, but I was not able to answer the call.  I await to see if they offer a resolution to my complaint!