On a budget - Basic Tips No.2 Shop Around

For a while now I have been coping on a very low income. Even when with my daughters father I was scraping by and then since having to leave my job I have had to adapt hugely. This is even though I wasn't exactly having much of life's luxuries anyway and by luxuries I mean clothes when I need them, occasionally getting my hair cut, a social life.
My ex partner was on a higher wage still did these things and more yet objected tome getting our growing baby the next size up of clothes. Since becoming pregnant most of my money had gone towards G anyway but since becoming so short of pocket I very rarely have any to spend on myself and without these series of tips I'll be posting I'd be living in black bags!

I'm starting a voluntary position at my local hospital soon to help me get on the path back into work, but even then I will be on a tight, maybe slightly improved budget. I hope these simple saving tips will help others, whether you are not even scraping by, coping but never affording anything beyond groceries and bills or doing a bit better and wanting to be able to save for a holiday, emergencies, something more expensive you need or for your children.

This is the second of the budget tips & advice posts I'm doing and this one is really simple.

SHOP AROUND     

 If there's something you need try not to buy it from the first place you see it. If you do more often than not you can end up kicking yourself when you find it/see it being sold cheaper elsewhere.
I've never really understood why people shop in Waterstones when books are always cheaper know second hand isn't for everyone and it of course can limit your choice but you can buy books cheaper in certain supermarkets, online (Amazon etc) or cheaper bookstores such as The Works.
I understand wanting to support local people and businesses. I can't afford to right now but that doesn't mean I don't support it.

Another example - there's a specific toy/toys that your child/children want for Christmas. Shop around and find the best deal or if you don't have time to trawl the web etc join a site that might already have found the best deal for you.
A good site I joined on facebook recently is Bargain Finders Group. People share where they have seen great bargains and it can save you loads of money, especially on the run up to Christmas when I'm sure most of us need to make the pounds stretch further. They also have a social group so if you want any advice of where to look you can ask there.

Amazon is great for having brilliant deals on popular sought after products. You could maybe save 50% or more than you would have done just picking it up in say Toys R Us.
Of course the internet has made is so much easier to find a good deal. If you're not specifically looking for goods, but instead more along the line of experiences, treatments and the like, Groupon, wowcher, kgbdeals and a variety of others are great.
Even if you can afford to consider expensive treatments lipolysis, invisible braces, even a brain and body MRI scan which I've just spotted this evening to name a few you're not going to say no to 60% * off.

Anyone who's got a TV, in the UK at least will know about price comparison websites for car, home insurance etc. What's great is that you can use them to check your energy bills and see if you can save money by switching suppliers. This time of year, if any energy bills are on most people's minds, so it's worth a look. Don't forget to check to see if you or a relative might be eligible for the warm home discount too.


Then there's your general groceries shop. For me not driving and being ill I find it easier to just stick to one supermarket/shop but they all have different deals on/better prices for certain products. Aldi which has become 'trendy', is fantastic. so is great if you can get to one. Even saving the pennies counts as they all add up! Most would welcome ways to be frugal in the current financial times but especially if you are finding you're really struggling try to shop around.

Apple, Orange and Cinnamon Strudel

As mentioned in my first basic budget tips post I always check the reduced sections when out grocery shopping. At the moment there always seems to be fresh puff pastry packs, usually anchor, in the chilled reduced section. I grabbed one and a 'roll back' short crust for some planned cooking/baking later in the week. You can freeze these blocks so don't worry if you spot some reduced and don't have any imminent baking plans!


 I love baking. It's an activity I like to involve G in, so the more simple the process the better at this age. Ready made pastry also obviously saves time which there never seems to be enough of! Cooking/baking everything yourself instead of buying it ready made from the shop isn't always cheaper like people like to preach (though this one would be if pastry was done from scratch - but it then still depends on what you're already stocked up on) but you can get past the problem of not finding exactly what you want.


I thought it would be nice to try out using orange juice and rind instead of the usual lemon for this recipe.

Our strudel turned out lovely but possibly a bit on the sweet side for those who don't have a sweet tooth.
Not everyone uses egg so feel free to leave this out if you prefer.


Recipe


Ingredients:

• Block of puff* pastry 500g
• 4 ready to eat apples
• Sultanas
• 50g Brown Sugar
• Flat tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• Orange rind and 1-2 tbsp juice
• 1 tsp margerine/butter
• 1tbsp flour
• 1 small egg (optional)
• Icing sugar for dusting

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180oc
• Roll out the puff pastry on a floured or icing sugar coated surface
• Roll into a large oblong shape
• Peel, core and chop apples into small chunks or thin slices
• Grate orange and add rind  to the apples, then slice and add the juice of one half of the orange. Make sure the apple is coated.
• Add chopped apples, sugar and a handful or two of sultanas to your mixing bowl
• Add small knob of butter/marge
• Add the cinnamon and nutmeg and mix well
• Add 1tbsp flour, mix well.
• Add the egg and mix well
• Place mixture in a straight line along side of the pastry (leaving a gap between the mixture and the bottom edge of the pastry).
• Fold the pastry over, sealing the filling inside.
• Make horizontal slices in the top (up to you how many) to allow steam to escape.
• Bake for 20 - 25 minutes until golden brown.

We served ours with custard the first time and ice cream the next. It's not keeping inline with my getting fit and healthy but it's a lovely pudding for the cold Autumn and Winter months.




*Strudel is also often made with filo pastry, the method is just slightly different when filling.

White & Dark Chocolate Cookies

I followed quite a basic recipe for these. They turned out quite well but next time I'll be following one online and trying out some corn starch for optimum results.

This makes a small batch, it yeilds about 10 - 12 large cookies.

Ingredients:

150g Dark chocolate broken into pieces

Half a small bag of white chocolate chips

225g SR flour

50g Caster sugar

50g Light brown sugar

125g Margerine

1 large egg

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Method: 

• Preheat oven to 180oc
• Cream together the margerine and two sugars.
• Add in the egg
• Add in the vanilla Essence
• Fold in the flour
• Add in the chocolate and the chocolate chips

Put dollops of the cookie mixture onto a baking tray covered with baking paper.

Leave plenty of space between each one as they really do spread out. Some of ours didn't have enough space so didn't turn out a lovely round shape as we had to cut them apart from the others.

Bake for approx 12 minutes.

This was fun to do with G. Cornstarch is on my next shopping list and I'd like to try out some peanut butter cookies too.

On a Budget - Basic Tips No.1

Look in all the reduced sections when out shopping at the supermarket you never know what you might find.


My recent savings include finding boxes of Asda Non-Bio laundry detergent for 25p just because they were rebranding (my best saving so far - would have got more than one of didn't have a load of other shopping to carry) and these two:

500ml Baylis & Harding Royale Bouquet - 80p

We had nearly run out of hand-wash and I normally get whichever 250ml bottle that has been reduced to £1. Preferably one that either is good for sensitive skin or says antibacerial on it, but either way only £1.
 I could use the cheaper option of a bar of soap but it helps manage my ocd like flare up's of freaking out about germs & dirt by using handwash.
This was double the volume of the £1 bottles and luxury being Baylis&Harding, lovely fragrance, lovely bottle but with just a slight dint in it...hence the reduced price. I'm not fussed about having fancy hadwash but it's a nice change.











nspa Hair Rituals Shampoo £1.50


I was also looking for cheap but effective intense care for my long suffering, damaged hair. They had the N-spa 123 range in the reduced section. They also had nSpa's great looking hair mask. Shampoo (1) pictured, conditioner (2) and serum (3). £1.50 down from £3.95. The information tells you they obviously work the best if all used together. However I could only get just the one....but it still promises to make a difference.









I was very lucky they happened to have things I had been looking for that day. If I had the opportunity I'd go shopping in the evening to make the most of reductions in the chilled, baking and veg sections but you can still make savings looking during the day too.


What's your best saving you have made in your grocery shop by looking for reduced items?

Apple and Cherry Flapjack

So we did quite a bit of baking over the summer holidays. Flapjack is a fun, cheap and easy one to do and a tasty snack.

Recipe:

• 2 sweet Eating Apples of any variety
• 250g Margerine or butter
• 250g light brown or caster sugar
• 3tbs Golden syrup
• 450g Oats
• Couple of handfuls of chopped Cherries

Method:

• Preheat oven to 160oc
• Grease and line a baking tray
• Peel, core and chop apples
• Melt the butter/margerine, sugar and syrup in a pan until melted.
• Take off the heat and mix in the oats, apple and cherries.
• Fill tray with mixture and bake for 20 - 35 minutes.
• Cut in to bars and refridgerate

I thought the chopped apple was lovely in this flapjack, rather than grated but I actually found the flapjack itself way too sweet. If done again I would use half the sugar or I fancy trying out this recipe without the apricots and seeds (I can't eat seeds and just not a fan of the apricots). Also I'd love to find some cherries to bake with that aren't glace as that was unneeded added sugar to the recipe as well. 

Pif-Paf Theater

Stockport had their Fringe Festival the last weekend of August. It started Friday evening with a great mix of food and music. 

I didn't have the option of going on Friday evening and Saturdays weather was mixed, so we ended up popping in to see what was going on on the Sunday.

One of the attractions we came across in the Market Square was Pif-Paf Theatre who were putting on their fly cycle and submercycle show.

Here's what their wesbite says about the show: 

Come away with us on a journey of your wildest dreams, aboard our famous traveling machines, The Submercycle and The Flycycle!  

Choose a traveling companion, find the Departure Lounge and we’ll take care of the rest. We take two at a time and dress you in hats so sublime. With Captain Bigshot, you’ll fly up up and away, crossing continents in turbulent adventures, or dive under the sea with Captain Calypso, encountering denizens of the deep. Under the sea or high in the sky, all ages are welcome.Together we’ll weave unforgettable stories.

This Cycle based Street Theatre is suitable for most weather conditions outdoors, or indoors (in a large space) these travelling machines are a guaranteed crowd puller. Check out what people are saying.

The vehicles/contraptions looked fantastic and were parked by some flashy blue curtains. We queued up for the Flycycle and G went behind the shiny blue curtain to chose some dressing up items. She shared with an older boy called George. They both had to decide where they wanted to go in the world and what they wanted to see. G doesn't know much about other country's yet but she decided she wanted to see a Zebra and George wanted to see some fish. I don't think G realised at the time that it was pretend. As you would at that age she thought the Flycycle was really going to fly and she was really going to see a Zebra. It was a lesson for the imagination!

Getting dressed up

Her chosen outfit

Once they'd had time to dress up and decide where they wanted to go an air hostess/assistant announced them on a microphone. She told the audience where the little travelers where hoping to travel through and then they walked through the blue curtain back to the public to 'board the flycycle'.

Above is Captian Bigshot helping them aboard and strapping them in. I think there was some kind of horn they could squeeze and a rope each side to pull on to make the wings flap as they went a long which looked great. G was a it too small to do this but it didn't bother her.

It's a great thing for children's imagination and even if she was was disappointed by not seeing a real zebra I didn't hear about it as she was just happy to have gone in the vehicle - which is attached to a bike, pedaled around by 'Captain Bigshot'.

She would have gone on the submercycle if we'd had time and she kept asking about it afterwards. Captain Calypso manned this one. Joining in was free of charge.

I think it's a wonderful street production and would be interested in seeing some of their other shows particularly 'Something to hold' which will be at the Ramsbottom Festival 19th-21st September for anyone in the region interested in checking them out.

Choosing a dance class

My little girl is always singing, dancing and what seems like performing all around the house, the town, wherever I take her (when she's not having a major tantrum that is). She is a born performer. She turned 3 at the end of July and due to the generous relatives she has, she has a bit of birthday money that I'm wanting to put towards dancing lessons for her.
However when it comes to choosing the right dance class I'm lost! As in our current situation money is very tight I'm needing a class in walking distance really - for me anyway as for a while she can still go in the pushchair. However due to a free bus service through the town center classes in that area are still an option too. This could really limit me as it seems a lot of great or perhaps diverse looking classes are based a bit out of my reach if I don't use public transport. A lot seem in the Cheadle area.

Also what kind of class? I have seen a great looking class (Unique) that seems to involve dancing, acting and singing and they learn dance routines but this is in Cheadle (distance) and price wise is more than others I am looking at. It's £6 a session. It's an hours walk but there is a chance I could get help with transport. It sound great though so I have signed Grace up for a trial lesson this coming Sunday afternoon.
My little girl has already met the teacher but in Queen Elsa form at a Summer event.

Most seem to center around ballet or modern. Is this where all dancers start off? My little girl seems to dance in a contemporary style (if you can catagorise a 3 year old's dancing! ) but she loves watching dance troupes at local events who do fun little dance routines to pop songs. Are dance troupes something separate to sign up for or do they evolve from dance classes? At the moment I am so confused.

Other classes I am looking at are a newly formed street dance tots class with the well established RJL Dance based in Bramhall and Hazel Grove. £5.50 a session I think. That class in particular is a 54 minute walk for me if we weren't get the bus. A trek for me and a long time for G to be stuck in a buggy. I have signed her up for a trial session this Friday afternoon so I will see how it goes - journey wise and how G enjoys it.

I am also looking at Debut Academy in central Stockport. £5 a class. This would be easier to get to and I could bob to Asda and get some very quick shopping done whilst Grace was there. They have a great reputation too. I'm sure all of them do, but I have seen as I have taken Grace to the play center held in the same building.

Also in town is Miss Muldoons school of dancing. I was slightly put off at first by not being able to find any details online. I heard of it through recommendation from a friend who's children go there and she has told me class times and that it would be best to start Grace in November after a show the class are currently practicing for was out of the way. I would feel more confident if I could talk to the owners in person but on searching for info online I have seen several professionals mention they were trained by her which can only be a good thing. Also it is only £3 a session so is much more affordable for me. It also would mean if I have a day where I am particularly unwell I don't have to worry so much about the cost of jumping on the bus to take her and I can also pay for that weekly. If financially things aren't too bad over the next couple of months I could pay for that normally and save her birthday money for one of the other (different style e.g  Unique or RJL) classes up to November ish (paid termly).

Despite the worry of choosing the right one I am mostly excited for her :) I was never able to go to dance or any other kind of class (except normal school!) and I am so happy she will get too. It seems to come from her soul, her spirit if that makes sense. When she is happy that is mostly what she is doing. I am nervous for the trials with it being her first time in a structured class but I'm sure she will love it.

The dance troupes who do funky dance moves (like G herself also loves when she's not prancing around like a ballerina) to pop music I am still clueless about. Any insight would be great if anyone can help please comment :)

Soda Bread

Baking is something which I enjoy and sporadically takes place in our house. When I do it now it more often than not involves my now turned 3 year old. It's fun for her and I've slowly learnt to not worry so much about how messy it gets. It's a good activity when the weather is bad or a break from whatever we are doing at the time. It's usually just a simple recipe to make it easier as baking with a child but also as we're not often stocked up on lots of exciting ingredients due to lack of funds.

My mother used to make us soda bread when we were little and seeing it being made on one of CBeeBies shows recently reminded me. That along side it's simplicity and it being budget friendly meant I decided to to make it in our next baking session.

Ingredients:

• 250g/6oz self-raising wholemeal flour
• 250g/6oz plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 435ml buttermilk

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6/fan 180C and dust a baking sheet with flour. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Pour in the buttermilk and mix it in quickly, then bring the dough together very lightly with your fingertips. Now shape it into a flat, round loaf.
2. Put the loaf on the baking sheet and score a deep cross in the top. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. If it isn’t ready after this time, turn it upside down on the baking sheet and bake for a few minutes more.
3. Transfer to a wire rack, cover with a clean tea towel and leave to cool.

I got my recipe from bbcgoodfood.com and changed it slightly to suit our needs.
I didn't have buttermilk so we used normal milk and stirred a couple of spoonfuls of lemon juice into it 5 minutes before using it. I also used white flour not wholemeal and left out the oats (not used in simple/ traditional soda bread recipe's) due to my health conditions. 
I altered the volume of milk to accommodate these changes.

Mixing

The recipe tells you to handle the mixture very gently but this wasn't going to be something I was worried about as I wanted G to get stuck in and experience it. She often can get funny about getting messy hands but enjoyed this part and the needing as well as the earlier mixing parts. 

Getting Stuck In

We used 450ml of milk and our dough was a bit too sticky and needed more flour so I have altered my recipe to 435ml milk for this post.

Lovely warm with jam

We had our bread warm, G tried hers with margerine and I had jam (which she's not a fan of). If you haven't tried it before I would suggest only eating it warm as it's much nicer then. It would be nice to make it again in the Winter.

Llandudno day trip

Friday the 15th of August at approximately 9am G and I arrived at a local church, St. Matthews, who had organised a coach trip to Llandudno for the day.

I have fond memories of my mum taking my brother and I on a coach trip to Llandudno when we were younger.....it was raining but we still tried out the beach, a cafe for cups of tea and a Welsh Library. We were older than G is now so seeing everything written in Welsh was a novelty. 

With the crazy weather we've been having this August I was worried it might be raining this time round as well but anything to get to the seaside!

Along side the fond memories, it was only £5 a seat (return) so I couldn't say no! I invited my brother a long too.
We got there just gone 11am and luckily for us the rain had got itself out of the way during the journey and sunshine was heading our way.
We walked through the central shopping area towards the North shore, pebbles and sand and the pier. All this area is comercialised and was busy with regular boat trips, Punch and Judy shows, the land train service and the usual pier activities.

The Mad Hatter, G, Uncle Matt

The Mad Hatter, Llandudno

After spotting the mad hatter - one of the carved statues from Llandudno's Alice in Wonderland trail, we stopped on the beach as that was all I had really planned....being by the sea, the sun and the sand. However the tide soon started coming in and seeing the other activities available the plan changed. We got on one of land trains for a short trip over to the West shore.

The second land train for the journey back

The Cheshire Cat by the West shore

The west shore was not comercialised and was more calm and quiet. There was a lovely play ground for the children which we took G in for a while. Great place for taking photo's of the Great Orme, however there was also a cable car ride for that nearer the north shore for the less faint hearted. We didn't have the time for that though and it's not something I'd take a 3 year old on.

Play park for children

This swing was a big hit with G

and with the adults too!

Beautiful Landscape

Beautiful Beach

The beach on the west shore is lovely and we spent some time on there playing, a bit of quick sand castle making, shell finding and also making discoveries of jellyfish and a sharks tooth.

Beach Fun

One of the many washed up jellyfish

Lots of shells

Lovely Weather 

Due to the time limit we didn't spend half as long as we would have liked on the beach or get to stop for a proper lunch (afternoon tea would have been lovely - a few venues offer that) but instead jumped off the land train back at the North shore, grabbed some chips and headed back for a boat ride on the sea jay before having the be back at the coach depot.

On the boat

There were a few different boat trips going out regularly from mid day. The Sea Jay was £4 per person and G was free. It's listed as a half an hour trip but it's about 20 minutes. There were speed boat options too for the more daring but this was choppy enough for my liking. This was G's first boat trip, much like mine and my brothers first boat trip in Tenby, Wales at similar ages. G wasn't too fond of the wobbly sensation when sat on the boat waiting for it to leave but was ok once we'd set off and once sat on my knee. A fun short trip.

A bit too wobbly for G

After that it was a quick rush to an ice cream shop and back to the coach. Would be lovely to have a longer trip there again on another sunny day, but for the price and someone else organising the coach you can't complain. Generally a lovely day. Thank you to the lovely lady at St. Matthews who organised it.

The Orchard at Tesco

I'm always looking for idea's to save money and saw The Orchard at Tesco  mentioned on a local mums page I follow on facebook and had to see what it was all about. The lady who posted mentioned getting vouchers to try produce for free providing you did a quick review for the product afterwards. That was me sold - free groceries - great! Reviews - I enjoy doing them and good timing as I'm just starting up a blog again.

After signing up i didn't expect to get invited to a program for a while but after only a couple of weeks I received my first invite. It was one involving ice cream and gelato and I was sent a £3 voucher which covered all their ice cream from Tesco Every Day Value to their Finest* Range.

I decided to treat myself and try one of either the Finest range or their Cornish ice cream. I'd never tried Gelato before so I was curious about trying them out too. The store I was in had a fairly good range but only Vanilla from their Finest* ice cream (not sure how many flavours they do in that range) so looked at the Gelato. I was a bit shocked to see the price at £4.99 per 500ml carton. That's more than Ben & Jerries and Haagan Dazs normal tubs and the same price as their special ranges (core and special sensations).
£5 is expensive for one 500ml tub of ice cream so I expect they must be extra special. As I am on a tight budget, don't normally allow myself the luxury of ice cream and joined to program to save money I went for a cheaper option. Their other 500ml Gelato tubs were £3.50 and I spotted a Marscarpone flavour and knew straight away that was the one I was having. 50p for a tub of luxury ice cream, yes please!

When I finally got home from a stressful shopping trip the ice cream had defrosted a bit and after the trauma of yet another difficult grocery shop with a just turned 3 year old I thought I'd indulge myself and have a sneaky spoonful before getting on with things. The conclusion? It's the most amazing ice cream I have ever tasted! For those of you who don't know Gelato is just the Italian word for Ice cream and it is made from mostly the same ingredients but the difference is the way that it is made and as Tesco might say themselves you really can 'Taste the Difference'. I'm not sure if I can do it justice with words so I can only suggest you try it yourself. I'm looking forward to trying some more with some home made banana cake and I'm sure G is going to love it.
I can imagine it is incredibly fattening (I've not looked at the nutritional information...don't want to ruin it for myself just yet) but as a treat or part of a desert for a dinner party you can't go wrong.
I got sent a few 50p off vouchers for friends or family in my Orchard pack so I will be sharing them out and making some recommendations.

After buying and trying the product you follow the instructions on the Orchard site on how to review it. This can be done via Twitter and Facebook or just on the Orchard site. It's up to you how you do it. The more active you are and the better your reviews, the more programs you get invited to.
If trying things for free was not enough you get rewarded with clubcard points for each reviewing activity you do. I have earnt 85 clubcard points already just from the Tesco real ice cream program.

Within a couple of weeks of my first program invite whilst waiting for the vouchers to arrive (they take a couple of weeks to come after accepting the invites) I got invited to another for fruit and veg. It was late at night when I read the email so decided to join the program in the morning. Sadly by that time it was full, so my tip is to join straight away if you get an invite to a program you want to be part of. I didn't click at the time about their being limited places and how popular that one would be (I blame the tiredness - who's not going to want free fruit and veg!).

Have any of you signed up for it? What have your experiences been?


*Disclaimer: This is not a sponsered post and is all my own words

Stockport & Surrounding Summer Days Out

When I started writing this post the summer holidays were in full swing. Now the end of them and Autumn it seems are rapidly approaching!

During the holidays I find days in are fine spread out. There is plenty to do but for my sanity I often find it better to go out and do something. Also at home, at the moment, it is just me and my daughter (and the cat - the child fearing cat) so it's good to go out and do something social and days out are better at burning the abundance of energy so many 3 year old's have.
We are lucky in that we live by a few different play parks ...but as a mum there are only so many times in a week/month you can go to the same old playgrounds!

Finding days out/outdoor events to keep my 3 year old active and entertained that are 1. financially viable for us and 2. are within reaching distance (with me not being a driver), could have been a bit of a challenge, but luckily living in Stockport it has been fairly straight forward the past two years.

Last year Stockport (and surrounding areas) had a lot on and I took my then just turned 2 year old to every local free/low budget event that was going. I felt like we'd had a really good run for the holidays but I ended up admitted to hospital by the end of it.
This time this year I am coping better, but also not made it to quite as many events. We have missed a couple either due to the crazy mood swings of the UK's weather stopping play, limited funds or me not pushing myself as much. Also not all events were annual.

This summer we have made it to a few that are annual including National Play Day and Handforth Paddock Fair. Luckily both were free entry and rain free.
Dig in the City was on again this year and I was hoping to make the final day but the stormy weather once again returned.

Some of the other local low budget possibilities this summer are/were:

•  the open to all holiday sessions held at Jumpspace, 
• special offer £1 sessions at the Playhouse - a small local indoor play center we hadn't yet tried. The £1 offer continues this week. Lovely and clean but best for small children with being a small play area.
• Some free weekly local craft sessions which started last Wednesday at the Stopford open learning center
• A day trip to Llandudno Friday just gone organised by St.Matthews Church - I will be doing a seperate blog post on this.
•  Spinningfields Free Family Film Club on Saturdays - free outdoors cinema screen showing Disney films, deckchairs to sit on and free face painting & balloon sculptures. 
• A few fun days at local pubs with bouncy castles, face painting, Peppa Pig, Queen Elsa etc
• The Here's one we made earlier exhibition at the Lowry in Salford ...90 years of childrens TV, it's free, looks fun and is great for anymore rainy days.
• An upcoming funfair at Woodbank Park
• Stockport Summer Festival 29th to 31st August. The 31st being the best day for children.

Some useful online places for getting ideas for days out include new page Happy Days Out which I'm part of on Facebook. Family Link who have a very useful Summer activities booklet which can be accessed online and FamiliesOnline.co.uk's What's On section. Many events I have found out about by just being part of local mum's pages on facebook and your local councils events page can be helpful too.
Next year I'm thinking of publishing my own list of things to do at the start of the summer if I am up and running by then! I also will be doing a post of general days out rather than one off events, these generally are further to travel to, so look out for that.

A little about my new blog

As I mentioned in my first post things have changed a fair bit since I was writing my last blog. I'm now a single mum to my wonderful little girl and have faced and still am facing many difficulties but she is my shining light in all of this.

G is my main focus in life right now but I have many interests and aspirations which I'll be covering as well as our adventures and general journey as mother and daughter. This might seem vague but I don't want to ramble on to specify all my interests in this post. You'll get to know them if you stick around and read my blog.
I'm on a very tight budget so many posts will include activities on a budget and idea's to help get by.

 After time off with my long term illness and other serious personal problems I am hoping to get back to work before the years out. I will be starting with voluntary work hopefully at the local hospital and animal sanctuary, so fingers crossed I will be writing about those experiences too.

When I first started blogging I had just found out I was pregnant and I started actively 'comping' and was quite successful. I reviewed a couple of the competition prizes and I also reviewed items (most not on my old blog) sent to me from Pregnancy and Practical Parenting Magazine for my newborn. I had many review posts I wanted to do but that was around the time my life became too difficult to carry on with the blog. Although my child is 3 now and I'm not yet in the right situation to have another (fingers crossed one day I can give G a sibling) I want to include a few of those posts in this blog and will be doing reviews to items more applicable to our life right now. I don't get paid for any of them but I always find it useful before buying items to see how others have found them, so I hope my posts help others too.

 Blogging is something I enjoy and something I'm using to finally reintroduce a bit of much needed me time which I never have anymore (I'm actually writing this when I should be getting precious sleep). I have lots i want to blog about and there will be personal post's too - it's a good way to let off steam.

I hope some of you join me on my new blogging journey. x