January 2013 | Mum In The Madhouse

January 2013

How to ‘Downscale’ Your Groceries Bill

How to ‘Downscale’ Your Groceries Bill
British families have been hit hard by the rising cost of groceries, with food prices reported to have risen by 32 per cent since 2007 (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). Households are understandably struggling to find the extra on their grocery bill, with the average coming to over £4000 per year.
However, there are ways to easily slash your groceries bill, bring down the total at the till and struggle no more. See if you can apply any of the following suggestions to your weekly shop, and ‘downscale’ your shopping bill.
Price Promise
Some supermarkets offer a price promise, which means that your shopping basket is guaranteed to cost less than at any other supermarket. When you buy your groceries online at http://groceries.asda.com you can take advantage of the ASDA Price Guarantee, which means that you’ll save at least ten per cent on your shopping bill, compared to Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s. If this isn’t the case then ASDA will give you the difference, meaning that you just can’t lose.
It’s easy to use the ASDA Price Guarantee online – all you need is a receipt. And as the calculator is powered by independent website MySupermarket.com, you’ll have peace of mind.
‘Downscaling’
One way of instantly making savings in the supermarket is to ‘downscale’ your brand choices. For example, if you usually buy the most popular branded products ie Heinz Baked Beans, you would simple ‘drop down’ a level and try the Premium supermarket brand instead.
Likewise, if you usually buy premium supermarket brands, you can downscale to regular supermarket brands, and then to the basics range.
Downscaling your shopping basket has to include an element of trial and error, while you discover which items you are happy to downscale on and which you simply can’t compromise on. However, simply downscaling on some items can save a considerable amount on your groceries bill.
Meal Planning
Planning your meals is one way to ensure that you don’t overspend on food that will end up getting wasted. With the average family estimated to waste around £500 of food per year, simply ensuring that you buy only what you need could save you around £50 a month!
Buying your groceries online makes it easier to stick to a shopping list, as it eliminates the temptations presented when walking around the supermarket. It’s also easy to search for the specific items on your list, making your shopping experience quick and easy.
If you usually cook the same meals each week, the ‘Favourites’ function means that you could have your shopping checked out online in mere minutes – saving that other precious family commodity – time.

With a little thought there are ways to easily trim the grocery bill, making increases in food prices far less painful. Choose a supermarket such as ASDA that prides itself in offering great value across all of its ranges – and puts its money where its mouth is with the ASDA Price Guarantee!

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Win an ‘I Love Chocolate Hamper’ from Thorntons!

We’ve teamed up with the friendly people at Thorntons to giveaway a delicious ‘I Love Chocolate Hamper’!

Thorntons sell yummy personalised chocolates, toffees, fudges and also some delicious looking hampers like this one we’re about to giveaway. Everyday there is a reason to make someone smile, whether it’s to say ‘I Love you’ or just to say ‘thinking of you’, why not lift and brighten up someone’s day by buying them a box of chocolates from Thorntons to create those smiles

To enter answer the question below via the rafflecopter mechanism:

Who opened Thorntons’ very first shop 100 years ago?

a) Harry Steven Thornton

b) Joseph William Thornton

c) Andrew Thomas Thornton

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Joy, it is a conscious choice

Many people are posting about New Years resolutions and I keep seeing updates on facebook and G+ about dry January and diets. So I wanted to do a quick update on my Winter Manifesto and also my word of the year Joy. I posted last year about the fact that I was choosing Joy. I was making a conscious decision to focus on the good stuff and make the bad stuff less relevant in my life.

It is all about choice and it is my choice. Way back when a very wise person taught me that we always have a choice. Yes there are things in life that we can not change, these are the things that it is not worth expending energy on. It is like worrying about a plane crashing, not matter how much you flap your arms you will not be able to effect it. However, you can change the way you think about it. You can make the choice not to worry about it. It doesn’t take the worry away, but it does give you power over it. So this year I am actively choosing Joy.

However, I am also making this year more joyous by choosing to learn more. I have started a craft course and am making Mini a quilt. I have had the fabric for over six months, but had a mental block on cutting it. I booked the lessons (2 hours every Tuesday) and asked for some help and in two weeks I have cut the fabric, stitched the top and sandwiched it all together ready to quilt. I made this happen.

I have also enrolled on a Collect the Moments e-course from Capturing Childhood, which was recommended to me by my friend Kelly.

Whilst talking about resolutions, goals and aims for 2013, I have been asked to tell you about Hillarys Facebook competition, yes that is the people who have a vast vertical blinds range available. They are currently running a New Year, New You competition on Facebook. The competition offers a chance to win a different prize every week for the next four weeks, and began with a Wii with Wii Fit Plus to get fit this new year. This week is a chance to win a £100 spa voucher, Week 3 is a chance to try something new with Zorbing, and in Week 4 the prize is a Merlin annual pass for a family of four.

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The Crap Crafter Challenge #crapcrafter

There are lots of people out there that think they can not craft. That want to make and create, both on their own and with their children and Ella at PurpleMum has asked for help, as she feels that she can not craft with her children. So I was more than happy and between us we have decided to start the Crap Crafter Challenge #crapcrafter.

Each month I am going to send a little package of things to Ella and do a post of activities that she can do on her own and with her children. Ella will then do a post letting us see how she got on. We will have a linky on each of the posts for anyone that wants to join in and will be using the hast tag crapcrafter

This month we are focusing on Valentines and heart crafts. Nice and easy things that can be done when you are short of time.

Top Tips

Buy a cheap plastic table cloth to make clean up easier.
If you have a fear of glitter then get to Poundland and get some glitter glue, they do them in pots so you can plain them on rather than just shake the glitter over glue.
Remember when you are crafting with children do not have a need for perfection, let them do there own thing and have their own outcome.
Paper plates are great for using as paint palate
Have a bowl of soapy water near or the sink full and doors open to it to make clean up easier.
Heart lolly flowers

Heart Book Marks

Button Hearts

Jam Jar Valentine candle holders

I have lots of other simple and easy valentine crafts pinned on my Valentine Pinterest Board

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Bikes and BBQ’s – our family Manifesto for 2013

I have mentioned before that I am not a New Year resolutions person, however that doesn’t mean that I do not love to plan, set goals and have aims, as I do. I am just not sure that the dark, dank and dismal January is always the best time for them.

But I do want to encourage my children to set goals and learn how to plan to achieve them. The safest way for us to do this is to set a family manifesto for the year. We have sat down and discussed what we would like to do and get out of 2013 as a family. A family holiday was on our list and we have that booked for November with my wonderful brother nad his family. However, I wanted to do something that brought me closer together with the boys and they both love exercise and sports.

Now I am not the fittest person (that is something of an understatement and although I do watch them play Junior Football. It is not something that I really enjoy. But one thing we all do have is cycles. So we decided the time has come to dust off my Bike. My bike that has been hanging in the garage since Maxi was born. It is over eight years since I got on my bike! That cycling is something that we can all do and have fun doing. Something that brings us together as a family.

So the boys got new bikes for Christmas. Mountain bikes with gears and mud guard and MadDad got a bike carrier for the car.

We live in a beautiful part of the world, but with hills each side of the house, there is no way that I am capable (yet) of riding very far from the house, so the bike carrier was essential.

Our plan is to use our family discovery pass for Dalby Forrest and get cycling followed by a BBQ. Our discovery pass was gifted to us by the Forestry Commission and would be an annual cost of £42, which is super value as Dalby is peppered with bike paths suitable for all levels.

Plus Dalby is a fantastic place to explore, play and just relax. It is somewhere that we love to visit as a family, as you can BBQ in designated areas and is just a wonderful relaxing place.

By taking the boys to Dalby I can ride as far as I can and then return and cook us all a treat. I am hoping that by doing something together, it keeps is all together and helps me get fitter.

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Seasonal Wreaths – A craft challenge

My front door was looking very sorry for itself after I took down and packed away the Christmas Wreath. SO I decided that I would challenge myself to make a wreath for each of the seasons this year.

My inspiration for January was a wreath I saw on Instagram by Snugglefeet. I decided on this one as it used up things that I already had on my stash and all I needed to buy was the polystyrene ring.

It only took me an hour to make and was really fun to do too.

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Fingerprint thank you cards

In fact it took less time and effort to make the cards than it did to hassle them to filling them in. I really do want the boys to have good manners and thank you cards are part and parcel of receiving gifts in The Mad House, but at six and seven I feel that the responsibility for writing them should come down to the boys and that I no longer should have to send them in their behalf, but what a palaver. I ended up nagging and nagging them to get them done.

Do you make your children write thank you cards? If so how do you encourage them to complete them?

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Parental control with Video Games

1) How many PEGI ratings are there?
A) There are five age ratings; 3, 7, 12, 16, 18

2) Which 3 PEGI age ratings are legally enforceable?
A) The 12, 16 and 18 ratings are legally enforceable for retailers – 3 and 7 are advisory only.

3) How many PEGI Content Descriptor icons are there?
A) Content Descriptors explain a little bit more about why something has been given a particular rating. There are 8 in total

4) What does the Spider icon mean?

A) It means “Fear” – i.e. it might be frighening for younger children (handy to know, as my younger daughter is quite sensitive!)

5) What does the Fist icon mean?

A) It means that the game in question will include depictions of violence.

6) Parental Controls are available on Smart Phones; True or False?
A) True.

7) Parental Control features on a video games console can be used to control the amount of time that your child plays on the device per day? True/False?
A) True. This is an absolute GODSEND for me to have found out, especially when it comes to no.1 daughter, who is notoriously difficult to wrench away from games!

The second part of the challenge was for us to set up Parental Controls on our Xbox. You can see how I got on below:

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