Saturday Night Out

In my usual thrifty living manner I organised a Saturday night out for us this last weekend. After working out the costs afterwards we had ultimately paid nearly half price at around £45 instead of £85 for the two of us. So what does £45 for two get you? A three course meal with alcoholic drink and a night out at the theatre.

Dance Sampled was showing at the Lowry theatre - my favourite theatre compared to the other ones in the area. The tickets should have cost £15 each but I paid just a £2 admin fee via a website that I have subscribed to. We use the website regularly and have seen films and shows through them for the last couple of years. My sister recently subscribed and got her first free film last week which she went to see with her husband. 

We drove to the Lowry as it is not too long a journey, so parking cost £4 for the evening. I had received an email earlier in the week from Prezzo at Media City. They had a three course set meal with a variety of choices for £13 a head. There are a few restaurants to choose from at the Lowry and Media City. They are all high street chain restaurants but they are all okay if you want a cheap & cheerful meal. There is Pizza Express, Nando's, Cafe Rouge, Wagamama, CAU etc. So we usually eat at them in turn or depending on what vouchers or offers that I have been sent by them.

We both had a meatball starter, a chicken penne pasta dish and I then had the honeycomb cheescake and David had the chocolate fudge cake. I had a gin & elderflower drink and David had a small Peroni as he was driving. The bill came to £36.98 and we left a 10% tip so it was £41.

We walked the 5 minutes from Media City to the Lowry theatre and took our seats for the dance show. Each set showed a short film of the dancers and/or the choreographers introducing themselves and the piece beforehand. There was such a variety of dance genres - some were funny (they were meant to be), some unsettling (a bizarre modern piece) and one set ballet piece was so beautiful my eyes welled up. It was called Casanova and was portrayed by a male dancer with a female dancer playing his lover. The piece was beautifully choreographed and was breath taking.

I could tell it was not really David's "thing" but he sat through it without falling asleep. He has nodded off at the ballet before but at least he didn't snore!

This weeks bargains

We seem to have got into a little routine these past few weekends whereby we get up early on Saturday and Sunday mornings to go two specific supermarkets. It is Waitrose on a Saturday morning for fresh bread and vegetables and a free latte coffee each plus two free newspapers.

On Sunday it is Booths supermarket in Hale Barns for any bargains that they have in their reduced sections in the fridges and two free lattes and a newspaper. We then head home to drink our coffees and read the papers before starting the day. This week I stocked up my decidedly roomy freezers with lots of half price meat from Booths. I had a £3 off a £30 shop voucher too so my shop should have cost £67.29 actually cost me £32.88 and I saved £34.41 not including the free lattes. I love that Booths always email your receipt too - not sure why but I like it.

I bought the following packs of meat. Three packs of lamb mince £4 down to £2. It was on offer if you bought 3 packs at £10 but I still only paid £6. I will use this to make moussakka or bolognese sauce or meatballs. A half price chicken at £3.47 instead of £6.94. A chicken always provides us with three meals each. I roast it and we have the breasts for the first meal. We have the legs and thighs for the next meal. I then cook the carcass in water to make chicken stock and then make a soup with the stock. I use any vegetables that I have in the pantry so it is usually onions, carrots, celery and I pop in a potato to thicken it.

Two packs of rolled pork shoulder joints with sage & onion stuffing and bramley apple sauce. These were £2.30 reduced from £4.60. Again these were on offer at 2 packs for £7.50 but I still made a saving by only paying £4.60.

Two packs of boned chicken thighs rolled in bacon and stuffed with mushroom duxelle. These cost £2.10 instead of £4.20. These had the same 2 packs for £7.50 offer but I only paid £4.20.

Two packs of lamb steaks with a herby mint crust at £2.60 instead of £5.20 and two packs of duck breasts at £3.50 instead of £7. Both are great with new potatoes and fresh vegetables. An easy weekday meal when I get home from work.

And just because .... two packs of very naughty but very delicious looking cakes at half price. Who could resist lemon meringue pies and coffee renoirs. Both made in good old Lancashire too. At least I did not buy the family sized cakes and just went for the packs of two.

I got a mixture of freebies through the post this week too. A couple of teabags - a chocolate one from Hotel Chocolat. Have you tried their chocolates? They are just divine and so rich that you only need two at the most. A deep almost bitter chocolate taste that is heavenly.

A PG tips green tea - strawberry cupcake flavoured complete with 50p off voucher. I've not tried either one yet but will give them a try this week.

Finally a sample tube of Olay moisturiser. I really appreciatethese little tubes for taking away with me when we go away for the weekend. I just love getting freebies in the post and never know what the postman will bring each week.

Oh! I need to thank our postman for being such a lovely chap. I used to work with him years ago, and if he has a parcel he always rings the front door bell and then walks to our back door as he knows I always open this rather than the front door (it sometimes sticks if it is very hot or very damp). He always says hello and has a quick chat and always has a really happy smile no matter the weather. Now it is not often that you get this kind of service from the Royal Mail.

Ebay Sales

I have been feeling a little overwhelmed with the task in hand of getting rid of my clutter via eBay. Part of me thinks it would be easier to just bin the unwanted items but I can't stand the thought of the discarded items going into landfill. I have thought about charity donations but I already give a fair bit to charities via direct debit and cash donations. My frugal side knows that there is money to be made by selling my "stuff" and I just have to be patient. I feel this inner turmoil every weekend when I would like to be relaxing but end up spending hours sorting through everything and washing and ironing clothes to photograph and list. I just need to be patient. 

I sold eight items these last week which were mainly clothes that I no longer loved or no longer fitted me. I spent most of Sunday listing 20 items of clothing while watching the TV. Not a great way to spend a day but as 4 items sold fairly quickly it was rewarding. I just need to be patient and know that I am in for the long haul.

One of the downsides of selling on eBay is sometimes items get lost in the post or become damaged in transit. 99% of the time the customers are lovely about it and I apologise and we come to an agreement or I arrange a refund. Luckily they are very few and far between. There is however that 1% of people who are just plain obnoxious and rude. I had one this week. I will refund her as she has said the item hasn't arrived (although I suspect she has it) and she took out a case with eBay 6 days after I had posted it and before I had chance to respond to her. She has sent me the most patronising and arrogant emails that I have ever received from a customer which were totally unnecessary as I had already said I would refund her. I would love to name and shame her but I am too much of a lady. I was going to refund straight away but after receiving her emails and in silent protest I am waiting until the last possible minute to refund her.

I have started reading a blog recommended to me by one of my lovely readers, Dee, over the last few weeks.  The one post on the blog that held my attention was one on wardrobe reorganisation which spurred me on to clearing out my own wardrobe. She recommended those thin flat coat hangers which have a velvet finish. These stop your clothes falling off the hangers (doesn't that always happen?) and take up less wardrobe space. The blogger recommended buying the hangers off eBay but when I used the link I thought they were too pricey at £50 for 100 hangers. I went to Costco this week and they were selling 50 of the same coat hangers for just over £10 so I bought a box.

I thought 50 hangers would be plenty. What a shock I had to find there were not enough for my wardrobe. I counted and found that I had 19 pairs of trousers and jeans alone so that left 31 hangers for tops, dresses and jackets etc. Not enough. I think I need to buy another box of hangers. Swopping my clothes over onto the new hangers led me to have a wardrobe clearout and left me with even more to sell on eBay.

I then ended up clearing through my shoes. I found I have 9 pairs of Birkenstock sandals and 9 pairs of Fitflops ...hmm.... I can't part with these as some are new and I only just bought them last month but who needs 18 pairs of sandals? No wonder our house is full. I found 5 pairs of shoes to sell which were mainly high heels. I struggle with high heels these days although I can manage a heel of around an inch to inch and a half.

I think the clearout is going to take me a long time and I need to be tenacious to get it all done.. I treated myself to a Dolce Gusto hot chocolate and a mini two pack of Oreos as sustenance as I listed loads of items the other day. It was also a reward for doing a task that is starting to take a lot longer than I thought.

This Week

I am still on Operation Empty the Feezers and have one freezer almost empty. David opened it this last week and could not believe the amount of ice that had built up inside it - major igloo. Once we have it defrosted and cleaned there will be twice as much space in it once the ice has gone. I suggested we get rid of the fridge freezer altogether but then realised we don't have a vehicle big enough to take it to the tip and it works okay so it will remain in the garage. 

This past week we had a reduced price chicken that I roasted with reduced price stuffing. This stuffing from M&S is just so delicious and the tastiest stuffing we have ever eaten. Sadly this was the last packet in the the freezer. We had reduced price vegetables with the dinner. I know this sounds weird but I prefer my carrots cut into batons instead of rounds. I am just not keen on round carrot slices and wonder whether it reminds me of school dinners and hence the dislike?

We also had mildly spiced curried chicken breast with rice and a side of aloo saag tikki bites with mango chutney. I loved this as a fairly light meal one evening.

I work from home a day or so a week and knew I had some ready made quiches in one freezer. I pulled out a vegetable quiche and was puzzled as to why I had bought this as I normally buy cheese and onion or cheese and ham. I turned it over and noticed the 30p price and then realised why I had bought it. David and I had it warmed through in the oven with some salad. It made a really cheap and tasty lunch for both of us. Luckily I had bought two so I look forward to another one next week.

I have been enjoying the Yankee candles wax burner in our lounge in the evenings. Some of my candles have been leaving a sooty deposit on the top of the window frame but with the wax burner I am only burning tealights so we get little smoke and we still a lovely scent in the room. The melted red wax came with the burner and is a cinnamon scent. I knew I had some more wax melts tucked away in my candle storage box (I've become organised now) and found these lovely maple syrup scented tarts. They look too nice to melt but they are ready for this evening.

eBay sales have been steady but slow. I cleared out the cupboard that I use for crockery this past weekend and found two items that I had bought from a school table top sale and the Cheshire carboot sale. One was a pizza stone - used once and then put to the back of the cupboard and a lovely chip and dip set from the Royal Worcester Jamie Oliver range. This has never been used as we are not really chip and dip people. I bought it because I liked the style of it and the thought of relaxed entertaining - just a ""fancy really and so both are now listed on eBay.

We went to the Lowry on Thursday evening for a Tesco voucher meal at Cafe Rouge followed by a visit to the BBC at Media City (a 2 minute walk from the Lowry) to be in the audience for the filming of the new series of Porridge. It was an interesting and entertaining experience and the actors were brilliant. They were cracking jokes and having a laugh with us between scenes and I look forward to watching the series when it is shown on TV.

Morecambe Day Out

We normally have a few days away at Pine Lake at this time of year, which my sister usually books. This year she was struggling to get anyone to go as the usual attendees, including me, did not have any annual leave from work left to go. She ended up cancelling the break as only her and my David could go. David and I missed the idea of our break so decided to go for the day as we love the tired and faded holiday resort of Morecambe which is a few miles away from where we stay.

It only takes an hour to get there but because of the continuous ongoing work on the M60 motorway (when will it ever end?!!) the speed limit has been reduced so it took us a little longer to get to Lancaster. What then sped up our journey is a new by pass road which misses the slow crawl through the centre of Lancaster. It came out just next to Lancaster college and we noticed they had an indoor table top sale there. We popped in and I bought a great Bodyshop gift set containing a number of Shea butter items for just £2. This item is selling now at £20 on the on-line body shop My sister loves Shea butter and as it is her birthday in April I will give her this as part of her birthday gift.

We were only in there for a few minutes or so as it was slim pickings so drove on to Morecambe and parked on the front promenade road just outside the Midland Hotel. It is such a beautiful Art Deco style hotel and I love the circular sweeping staircase right at the entrance. We have eaten in the restaurant before now but chose not to this time.

We had a look around the outdoor market and serendipity is such a wonderful thing. We had been planning to go to Colwyn Bay to visit a fire shop to buy a gas fire for a few weeks now. We wanted a living flame fire for our dining room and these style of fires are no longer fashionable so it was going to have to be an hour or so journey to buy one. David had been in contact with the shop and it was £175. We kept putting off going and buying it for some reason. The market has some carboot stalls and there is the fire we want complete with fitting instructions etc and all boxed up for £5. David is looking at it now as I type and will arrange for someone to fit it for us. Now that was a saving in both money and time.

I called into the indoor market to visit the food stall which seems to be expanding over more and more stalls. I bought lots of junk food from them for £8.20. All rubbishy naughty treats which I should not have bought but I could not resist the cheap prices. Who could resist three multi-packs of   6 bags of crisps for £1; two boxes of Cadbury's chocolate biscuits for £1.20; two packs of McVities digestive bites for £1 and 6 bars of Cadbury's Oreo chocolate bars for £1.50

There was also 5 packs of single portion bolognese sauce for £1. Great with some cooked pasta for an office lunch and each lunch will have cost about 25p including the pasta.

There were a lot of American sweets so I bought all the below for £2.50. The strawberry twizzlers are not too naughty but it's still not a piece of fruit.

I had a real trip down my school girl memory lane when I found these original curry flavour pot noodles at a cheap 50p price. I used to love these when I was about 14 or 15 years old. No doubt full of chemicals but I could not resist. Another lunch for a couple of days. I hope they still have those little packets of mango chutney inside them.

We then drove on to Milnthorpe which is lovely village not far from Arnside. We called into the Age Concern charity shop which is always open on a Sunday. David found a new shirt for £5 and I bought some brand new Hotter boots for £10. Prices are not as cheap as they used to be in charity shops thanks to Mary Portas but as these were new and the money does go to charity we paid with a smile on our faces. I also indulged my teenager side for gory films and bought series 3 of the vampire diaries for £2 and the boxed set of the Alien films for £5. For a 52 year old woman I have such a varying taste in films and love some of these teenage type films. I'll watch just about anything apart from Westerns starring John Wayne - they bore me to death.

I also bought a biography about the wonderful John Betjeman for just £1. What a wonderful Poet Laureate he was and I am really looking forward to reading this. It doesn't look like it has been read to be honest.

We called into Booths in Carnforth on the way home and I spent the grand total of just £10.88 saving £13.37 on reduced food. I bought fresh melon, fresh berries, seasonal vegetables, bread, chocolate pots and ready made pancakes. We both got a free latte each and that was after we had grazed our way past the deli counters. Their cheeses are always divine.

Back in time for me to cook a roast Sunday Dinner with the reduced vegetables and a turkey joint and stuffing from my Operation Empty the Freezers. There was no wine left in the house to go with the meal but I found a chilled bottle of champagne in the spare fridge/freezer in the garage. We decided "what the hell" and opened it. Great end to a great day.