Is it Autumn yet?

Well, summer is over in my house. My girls are spending this last week of the hols at their dad's, as he hasn't been able to have much quality time with them over the rest of the six weeks - which is pretty rubbish for me as this is the longest I've ever been apart from them.

The good news is that because the girls are away, and S is working silly shifts (1-10), and the letting agent came for a house inspection on Tuesday - it's really given me the impetus to have a good clean! I have no willpower and so this is the tidiest it's been since we moved in and I hope to keep it this way. The laundry has changed from a mountain to a handful of items, not even enough to run a load!

My frugal tips for cleaning?

• You don't need 101 different cleaning products. At the minute I'm using a 99p apple-scented antibacterial spray from Morrisons. I've just bought a 25p all-purpose cleaner from Tesco with the aim of cleaning the floors with it once I buy a mop - but it can be used for surfaces etc too. I have an Astonish mould and mildew remover from Poundland which works wonders in my bathroom at getting rid of the yucky black marks (my bathroom has no window so it's not surprising if it gets a bit damp in there). I have Toilet Duck, and of course washing up liquid (Tesco brand) & laundry products. I also find baby wipes come in handy for all sorts!
• I buy large boxes/bottles of branded laundry products when they're on offer. They last me months & I've tried using the cheaper brands of powder before but I don't feel they remove our marks - similarly, I don't think the cheaper fabric conditioners scent the clothes for as long. I do use less than the recommended amount. I paid about £7 for our box of Surf when we moved in (May), and it's about halfway through now. I've considered making my own... But I'm not sure it will work out as worth it!
• Vinegar! Every so often I have a vinegar phase. It's so cheap and a fab cleaner for all sorts. Iuse it in a spray to clean surfaces (sometimes sprayed over bicarbonate of soda for tough marks) and sometimes instead of fabric conditioner. I used to use it neat but saw a tip online to use your old citrus peel to infuse the vinegar, so I had a jar stuffed full of orange peels which I then poured vinegar over and left to sit until I needed to refill the spray bottle. The orange scents the vinegar, and the vinegar pickles the peel, meaning that you can pretty much keep it in the jar indefinitely, refilling with vinegar as needed and it won't go off - mine stayed in there over a year. Another option would be adding a small amount of essential oil for the scent of your choice.
• Lovely smells. Scenting my house is a little low-cost luxury for me which makes my house feel that bit cosier. I can't stand scents that smell synthetic, like plug-ins or aerosol air fresheners - they're not for me. What I prefer instead is Febreze, scented candles, incense sticks or oil burners. I bought some Febreze recently from Poundland but rather than buying another when it ran out, I refilled the bottle with a mix of fabric conditioner and water. I like to spray the bedding and carpet with it to freshen up the bedrooms - it's a nice clean scent. Right now in my sitting-room I have a Glade blackberry and fig candle which I bought reduced from Tesco for £2. It has a lovely scent which drifts around the house (the stairs lead up from the sitting-room) - it's a little bit Christmassy but not overwhelmingly so. I LOVE Glade's Christmas scents but I'm not willing to pay £5 for the pleasure just now ;)

I think that's about it on the frugal cleaning front! Welcome to my new readers who are here from Netmums *waves*

Last weekend.

The girls' dad picked them up at 6:30am on Sat. We had to stay in all day to wait for a parcel so we made the most of it!

S put together a wardrobe we have had sitting upstairs for a couple of months. Although our house is furnished, there wasn't enough wardrobe space. I had a look in the BHF shop a few times as they usually have good, sturdy furniture for a low price. I've bought wardrobes from there before, solid wood ones that were decades old for only about £50. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything this time though, so we got this set. It was really handy as I'd just moved L into her own room at the time (she and R had shared previously) so she got the shelves and we got the wardrobe.

Once that was up, I spent the day sorting out bits and pieces. Clean laundry that hadn't been out away, random boxes of stuff, relocating make-up and things. Our room looks so much better now! I need to do a bit more tidying in there today and then vacuum, and then the plan is to hopefully keep it tidy. We aren't the tidiest people!

We also dyed my hair so it is now dip-dyed turquoise!

All in all a no-spend day as we went nowhere but were productive. I also came up with an amazing tea, which was 1/2 pack cooking bacon, 3/4 pack gnocchi, 1/2 pack soft cheese, 1/2 block cheddar and a few handfuls of kale and peas, topped with fried cherry tomatoes. It was the creamiest, cheesiest sauce I've ever had and we will definitely be making it again. Approx cost: £1.75; kale was free from Morrisons, peas and tomatoes would have cost pennies as they were from the value range but I've included them roughly. Less than 90p per serving and I'd have happily paid £5 in a pub served with garlic bread.

Sunday was a lazy day. We were planning to go to a bar in Newcastle for my birthday meal but I actually forgot until Saturday! We already celebrated with the kids on Wednesday and that feels like ages ago now. The bar in question serves the most amazing steaks I've ever had. We went last year when I won a £50 voucher at work and paid £12 each for the steaks on a special offer (the rest went on cocktails!) I've been wanting to go ever since, although the price had gone up so it would have been £14 each. In the end though I decided at almost 7 months pregnant, I know my body and I know after a big meal I'd rather just go straight to bed to chill rather than enduring a 25 minute metro ride and 15 minute walk. So we decided to go to our local instead!

We don't really drink, but we do enjoy the food at our local. It's a Greene King pub, and has great offers. For kids, it's £3.49 for a 2 course meal and a drink and then adults have daily specials. We actually visited on Friday too as a treat for the kids. But on Sunday, we decided that would be a good compromise. I got a standard Sunday roast which comes with roasties, carrots, peas, broccoli, gravy, Yorkshire pud and half a roast chicken. S got the large meal, which comes with extra roasties and veg plus a whole turkey drumstick *as well as* the half roast chicken or beef which comes as standard. He got a Guinness and I had a pint of lemonade, and for afters we had churros to share. Altogether it came to £19.66 but we had a voucher for £5 off, printed from their site, so we only paid £14.66 - bargain considering if we'd gone to Newcastle, we'd have paid £28 for food, £9 for travel plus drinks on top of that.

Summer holiday fun!

Last year was my first with a proper 'summer holiday' break and I took about one day off a week. It saved me a bit of money in childcare, but of course because L wasn't at school I was spending more than usual, over £100 a week. I also couldn't really do much with the girls. I knew they were doing fun activities at the childminder's... But I didn't get to participate.

This year I deliberately started my annual leave and maternity leave in July as I didn't see the point in paying for childcare when I could be spending time with my girls myself! As a result I'm only paying £40 for the contracted hours and the girls are going there one day a week.

Before the hols started, I printed some summer holiday planner sheets from Netmums - one for each week of the holiday. They only run Mon-Fri, which is odd - but I guess a lot of parents already have Saturday and Sunday off so it's only to cater for the extra days. I found the planner really useful. I've noted S' shifts and everyone's appointments, plus our daily plans. I'm flexible on these - for example on Friday we should have gone to soft play, but it was raining, so we stayed home and did some educational activities and watched a film instead. Incidentally, I'm not telling the girls our plans for the most part so that they get a nice surprise on the morning and aren't disappointed if we don't go for any reason.

So, here are some of the things we have done or plan to do:

- Visiting local parks with a picnic - free
- Visiting local museums - often this is connected to the one above - free or small charge for extras
- Signing up to the library and borrowing books/participating in craft activities - free or small charge for extras
- Visiting local art galleries and joining in with craft activities - free or small charge for extras
- Sleepover at Grandma's house
- Visiting the shops that the girls like - such as Lush, Poundland, Disney Shop, the pet shop etc - technically free!
- Soft play - BOGOF locally so £2 each before 10am, bargain!
- Beach, again with a picnic - free
- Sunderland International Airshow - we spent a bit here on souvenirs, rides etc but it was mostly free. We could have done it for free, I just wanted to treat the girls. And they got loads of free sweets!
- Sunderland Glass Centre - free entry, small charge for craft activities
- Walk by the river and marina with picnic - free
- Hairdresser - likely about £15 total, something necessary for school but only done once a year so quite a novelty!
- Optician & dentist - free - again not really a 'treat' activity, but needs to be done and the girls will hopefully find it interesting!
- Swimming - I think it's about £12 for a family ticket
- Funfair - we may do this as part of a day out in South Shields - so it'll be about £25 for ride tickets but then can keep costs down elsewhere by taking a picnic etc
- Metrocentre - around £11 travel costs - this is for my birthday so we will be spending more while we are there as it is a special day
- Cinema - £10 total or preferably less - I never spend full price for the cinema! The most I would pay is Orange Wednesday or Saver Tuesday prices. We usually go to Empire Juniors on the weekend which is just £1.25 per person. On this occasion we are going to the Odeon in the Metrocentre which is £2.50 each but on every morning, not just weekends.
- Bowling - early bird special - unclear whether this is £2 per game or per person
- Newcastle Centre for Life - around £69 for a year's family ticket which we will likely invest in
- Visiting Nanna and her new puppy - free
- Educational activity books to keep them in practice over the summer - cost around £5 per child
- Scrapbooks to document everything we are doing
- Eating out - McDonalds, pub, restaurant, ice cream parlour, cafe - price varies

That's all I can think of offhand! As you can see, we aren't doing anything too pricey because we simply can't afford it. The more expensive stuff is a one-off but activities really don't have to be expensive to keep kids happy, certainly not aged 4 & 6! We do have parks and a beach within literally minutes walk of the house so they aren't big trips and we are spending time at home too. I don't want the girls to do so much that they get bored of it... And not only that but as I am currently 6.5 months pregnant I just can't handle lots of walking! We are aiming to do the more exciting things when S is off work which is handy as it spaces them out nicely.

I hope that we are creating lots of nice memories. I'm lucky in that I will also have next summer holidays off thanks to taking a full year maternity leave!

Changes!

Well now, hasn't it been a long time since my last update! We've had a few changes since the last time I blogged. S now lives with us in a townhouse next to the sea, and we are expecting a baby girl in November.

Because of this change, I'm not currently receiving tax credits and expect them to be massively diminished when they do restart. I'm on annual leave from work and officially start maternity leave in late August. I won't be going back to work until September 2015, which is fantastic!

Not going to work is saving me £19.80 a week in metro tickets. I've recently discovered a lovely and really cheap little bus which runs from the seafront (5 mins from my house) to my mam's house via the town - so that's really everywhere I'd need to visit in this city! I can even use it to travel to Tesco and back which is only a 15 min walk but that's a long way when you have heavy bags. It costs £2 for a day saver, £5 for a family day saver which covers up to 2 adults and 3 kids, or £8 for a week pass.

Not going to work is also saving me money on childcare... Which is really lucky as my tax credits have stopped! I'm paying £40 a week now, rather than £100 a week. This will change again in September as R will be in reception full time.

Not going to work is saving me money on food and drink. I'm not able to drink energy drinks, whereas I was spending about £2 a day on them before! And I'm not buying sweets when out and about due to being a bit peckish.

Of course, because it's the summer hols, life is running a bit more expensive than usual despite not having to go to work. However, I'm approaching this in a frugal way and I will blog about this another day.