Budget holiday time

Being on a really tight budget we dont have foreign holidays , Its not just about money either we love England and there are still lots of places we haven't visited and prefer to be closer to home with our health problems just in case we need to cut a holiday short for any reason.

 We try to get a bargain holiday and use the private static caravan sites to book a late deal most of the time , You get a better equipped van than you do when you book through a main site.

So this year we are going back to the place where we honeymooned over 38 years ago , Dawlish Warren ,
 We like somewhere where we can drive to different places daily and it looks like there are a few places in that location ,

I always combine the holiday with places to go to that i can get stock for my  business from too.
 So if any of my readers know the area and can tell me of locations  that have good charity shops or car boot sales there please let me know.  

We always take our own food and i try to Squeeze out the meals from our meagre food bill so the food we take with us does not cost any more than what we would normally spend in a week , So i am now starting to fill a draw in the freezer with 5 meals we usually have fish and chips on the day we get there and eat out just once.

This weeks meals from  our meagre food shop were.

Tuesday 

Gammon and oven chips. I  Already have the oven chips its one of the items i buy from lidl they taste very good   at 50p a bag they are a bargain too.

Wednesday

Home made Chilli with rice & Garlic bread 
 Sticky chicken thighs , these are too homemade  jacket potato coleslaw and salad

I would love to find a way to make coleslaw that tastes like shop bought as i have made it in the past but prefer shop bought its one of the very few things that i cant get right. 
  

Thursday.

Pork chop Dinner.

Friday.

Burgers and Salad (The burgers and baps were  Already in the Freezer)  , This is a quick meal as i do the market on a friday and when i am back home i am no good for nothing  lol.   

Saturday , Home made Pizza .


I use  A few tinned pineapples  on my pizza and Dave has pepperoni , The rest of the pineapples will be used on Sunday with old fashioned jelly an blancmange ( had to get the packet to spell this lol ) and Belgium buns.  

I made a large batch of pizza dough some wholemeal base for me and some plain white for Dave as he doesn't like anything healthy lol , Although he does eat in moderation.
   

Sunday

 Pork loin dinner.  

Lunches consisted of mainly sandwiches, Cheese , bacon, beans on toast , Home made soup.

Breakfasts were either stores own weetabix ( Already in the store cupboard) , shredded wheat or wholemeal toast. 

Treats this week all home made include a batch of home made Chelsea buns ( Forgot to photograph them ) , Half have been frozen so they keep longer. 

 We do eat different meals to each other but whenever this happens the extra cooked is always frozen for a future meal so nothing goes to waste. 


Some more vintage finds.
This beautiful geometric Art Deco table cloth.

I wish i had the patience to embroider these imaculate framed pictures.

And these i really dont mind if they dont sell as they look so good in my hallway. 

Then i bought this for £2.00 ,  It needs rewiring but as it happens  my son in law  is an electrician.   

xxxx

We will Eat Well for less & rediscovering Tesco

Does anyone else get really frustrated with the women on the Eat Well For Less Program , I feed ourselves for a month on just over  what they spend in a week and that's after Greg has saved them money.

 Do you think its  idleness or more deep rooted.

This is what my cupboards look like at the end of the month waiting for the monthly shop to fill them up  

The store cupboard 

And shelves. 

I could make some meals out of what we have left but there are a lot of things we are out of so i need to do the shop.

For two months now instead of Aldi  we have been using Tesco as you  just cant get everything from Aldi , Plus we are fed up of not being able to park and look properly as the stores are so small so they get really congested  

I am really impressed how Tesco have dropped there prices to be more competitive and the meat range is really good quality also, very cheap .

 The only thing i am not impressed with is the wine range, But you get points on your shop too.

So today i did our monthly shop , It cost us £.72.77.

And the Checkout spit out a coupon for £7.00 of £50 so our next shop will be even cheaper .

I dont menu plan any more as we change our mind so much but i will blog about what we have had for meals week by week , The photographed food will last us a month with just a few fresh bits when we need them , Cooking from scratch , Baking our own bread and treats .

The only things i now buy outside of Tesco are toilet rolls, butter  sugar & frozen fish  from Farmfoods   & Tomatoes from B  & M  four cans for  £1.00

  

  

And the wine is on special at Sainsbury's if you buy 6 bottles there is 25 % off , They have two really nice bottles for £3.75 ( I only like a quality wine too ) Ones a Shiraz the other is a Chardonnay.

It  works out at £2.81 per bottle with the discount. 

Wish i had the will power to resist it so that i could stock up for christmas , Ohh no now i've gone and  said the C word lol

   

XXXX

A fantastic jumble sale this week

In the summer months Jumble sales are few and far between , so when  one was advertised double the distance i am prepared to travel  i thought is it worth the travel distance and the only way i could find out is to try it so i did , Well judge for yourself , some great finds here.

This tea set is all hand painted , Its called Bingo by Coalport.

Two pay phones in the original boxes , Priced at £94.99 

I also picked up an Art Deco Bedspread that's beautiful  , I will post about this at a later date. 

Then there was just one local one this week , This was just as good

Then i forgot to show you this , It was amongst the auction buys , Its Beautiful a muslin /cheesecloth type of fabric with lost of oriental style embroidery , It needs some repair but its still a rare piece  

Things seem to be looking up financially at the moment diversifying with the market , Ebay  and Facebook sales .

 At the moment all my profit is being spent back into stock wich hopefully will reap the benefits in the long run so i am still being as frugal as ever.

 Tomorrow i will be doing my monthly shop and will post about it in my next blog post showing you along the way how i make it stretch.

xxxx