Pancakes and Shoppix

Happy Saturday evening All!  I must be almost back to my normal self after fighting a very bad cold or two over the past couple of weeks.  Geesh has my energy been swiped!  Pancake Day is Tuesday, so in preparation for that yummy day, I'm going to share the recipe I use every single time I make pancakes at home... oh yeah, they're the fluffy American version... and they're soooo good. I also want to introduce you to Shoppix - an app that earns you rewards when you snap pictures of your receipts. 

Many Saturdays begin with pancakes. Delicious... hot... yummy... pancakes.  So American, right?!  Every now and then we'll even enjoy them during the week for supper with some bacon and either a fruit salad or smoothie.  I'm not one for European-style flat pancakes or crepes... do nothing for me, tbh.  The shop shelves are prepped with all of the ingredients and skillets to make pancakes on Tuesday.  That's fine, but for inexpensive, fluffy pancakes, here's the recipe I follow:

Pancakes 
Recipe from a Betty Crocker cookbook. Recipe for 6 pancakes; can be easily doubled.

1 large egg
1 cup all-purpose/plain or whole wheat flour
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Butter

1. Beat egg in medium bowl with whisk until fluffy.  Beat in remaining ingredients except butter until smooth (but don't over mix).

2. Heat a griddle or skillet over medium heat. Grease with butter to prevent sticking.

3. For each pancake, use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop out equal-sized pancakes. Cook pancakes until bubbles rise to the top of the pancake then flip pancake to allow to cook for a minute on the other side. 

4. Serve with warmed maple syrup.

We use Costco's Kirkland 100% Pure Maple Syrup.  This 1L jug of syrup works out cheaper per 250ml than the maple syrup from Aldi.  

We sometimes enjoy pumpkin spice pancakes, banana pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes and oatmeal pancakes.  There are so many variations!  On Pancake Day, we'll probably have savoury pancakes, but I haven't decided what exactly.

I downloaded the Shoppix app last month with the aim of finding little ways of making money with little effort.  So far, it has been quite easy - I simply submit a picture of my receipts and collect tokens, which can be redeemed for gift cards from Amazon.co.uk, iTunes and Love2Shop.  I can also earn tokens by earning bonuses, taking short surveys and referring friends to Shoppix.  It's really not complicated or time consuming. I haven't redeemed any tokens yet, but they're adding up quickly.  

If you'd like to try Shoppix for yourself, feel free to use my referral code BWYWDADY when you download the app and sign up. We could both earn 200 tokens!  

Just a quick overview of our day - today was a "Home Day" for the Boltons, mainly because my in-laws are coming to visit at the end of the week and some major organising needed to happen today - some did, but we didn't get as far as I would have liked.  After pancakes this morning, I headed to Home Bargains for a few items:
Allinson's Plain Flour - 69p
Wild Bird Seed - 99p
Heinz mayo - 89p (a super buy for a 710ml jar)
Bag of Cadbury Picnic Bites - 49p
4x boxes of Tempo tissues - 99p each
Tyrrells crisps - 79p
Toilet bowl cleaner - 59p
Hills biscuits - 26p
Heart chocolates for the girls for Valentine's Day - 79p,
Microfibre dish cloths - 99p
Red lentils - 79p
Fig rolls - 39p
Aquafresh toothbrush for Ellen - 95p, which I saw a little while later at Tesco for £2! 
LOVE Home Bargains!

Then I went to Tesco - I won't go through everything I bought there, but one thing I really love are the FREE Tesco magazines that can be found at the checkouts.  I pick one up on the way in to look at the page of coupons in case there's something I can use in store.  Once home I made homemade ranch dressing mix to make a dip for veggies to have with lunch, then lunch, then dishes... boring.  I did, however, listen to the inspiring Retire Inspired Podcast while I was making lunch.  We spent the afternoon organising the girls' rooms; in attempt to de-clutter, I managed to give away a chalkboard easel that we had been given, but nothing else I posted on the Facebook selling pages sold yet... bummer. 

Something that frustrates me soooo much is the cost of soup at the grocery store... it's sooo expensive for what you get. Think about it! It's mostly water and vegetables!  So although I did buy a small container of carrot and coriander 😝 soup for £1 at Tesco for the girls for tomorrow's lunch, I made a huge pot of my favourite curried butternut squash and lentil soup this evening to last us a few days plus some for the freezer.  Here's the link to the recipe.

My super-exciting, envy-inducing day has concluded with submitting receipts on the Shoppix app, updating our budget and writing this blog while enjoying this super-amazing bar of HRH Highgrove Milk Chocolate... with the hubby, of course. This bar of chocolate was part of a Fortnum and Mason gift basket we received for Christmas (my friend, Pam, really truly knows the way to my heart), but out of curiosity, I perused the Highgrove website for said bar of chocolate.... £3.95!!! What?!  Sooo delicious.  And there's a salted almond chocolate bar, too.  Oh, yes! 

Pancakes, Home Bargains, Tesco, organising, soup, Shoppix and a bar of chocolate.. that's what dreams are made of, right?  Not exactly, but that was my day.  How was yours? 

How I "Spent" My Day: Christmas Eve Eve

To be honest, Christmas Eve Eve wasn't super "wow", nor super "last-minute-Christmas shopping hectic"... it was quite like a normal "home day". For some reason, if we're home on Saturdays, I tend to spend most of it cooking and baking.  Not that I don't enjoy doing both, but I do wish I could get to something else in the house. I really must strive to do that. 

My day started at the gym with my friend - an arm and shoulder workout. A few hours later, at about 9:30, I left my local Morrisons shop this morning with a smile on my face.  After having been there since 7:50, having spent the majority of it waiting for my Christmas order, I could have very, very easily left feeling very upset.  Instead, I had received FANTASTIC customer service just minutes before.

For a second year, I made a Christmas order from Morrison's - a ham, a pork pie for Jeff, a Christmas tree cake and a robin cake - yep, two cakes.   I selected the 8:30 pickup time, but arrived at Morrison's just before 8:00am to get a few more things to "survive" through Boxing Day.  At about 8:40, while I was bagging my groceries at the checkouts, I looked to my left and noticed a queue of customers.  It was customers waiting for their Christmas orders.  "Oh, great, it's happened again", I thought.  Just like last year, the delivery was late, so staff were scrambling to get the orders together.

I went over to Customer Services to enquire about my order. The young man behind the counter told me the lorry was late, so the orders weren't ready, but I was welcome to have a complimentary tea or coffee in the cafe.  I was actually impressed that the staff already had a plan to appease the customers while they waited for their orders.  I got my cappuccino and waited about 5 minutes in the cafe, then the same young man came over to tell me that my order was ready.  I joined the queue and waited... and waited... and waited.

As you can imagine, I became more agitated as I waited and was asked my surname numerous times.  The queue thinned out and I was the last one standing there.  I received numerous apologies but still no order.  Finally the customer services manager came over to find out what I was doing still standing there. I explained that I understand that the lorry was late to arrive, but the disorganization and the lack of staff to help sort it out was simply not good enough.  Somehow I remained calm while the refrigerated and frozen items I bought slowly came to room temperature in my shopping bags.

The customer services manager surprised me by offering me a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of Cava "to put a smile on my face".  I thanked her, but said that I'd rather have a small discount off the remainder of my order.  When I placed the order, I paid a £20 deposit.  She walked away and came back moments later with a lovely bouquet.  When another member of staff brought my order up in a large box, she explained that the pork pie I had ordered hadn't come in, so they replaced it with another one.  "I sure hope they don't charge me for that pork pie after waiting all that time", I thought.  A £10 pork pie for free would be nice!

The customer services manager then rang through most of the items, except the pork pie and the partially-thawed bag of peas I grabbed while I was waiting. £35-something rang up on the till, but she said that she didn't want me to pay for it.  Twenty pounds would have come off that for the deposit, but she gave me at least £15 worth of food for free plus the lovely bouquet!

She told me she wanted me to walk out of there with a smile on my face.  I thanked her and walked out slightly embarrassed for being doted upon.

Once I got home - and calmed down a hysterical 3-year-old - I made a small batch of my slow cooker bolognese.  This is the link to the recipe: http://littlespicejar.com/slow-cooker-bolognese-sauce/, but I don't follow it to a "t".  I also add probably 1/2 a cup of lentils to the bolognese not only to add a bit of fibre to the sauce but to "bulk out" the ground beef/mince.  Sometimes I add the cream, sometimes I don't.

The kids and I made cut-out Christmas cookies today after lunch, which I do enjoy, but admittedly, it is slightly frustrating.  The main thing is that the girls enjoy it and we have delicious cookies ready for Santa's arrival.

Our friends visited this afternoon for a short while, which is always nice, but always too short.  We've always been touched by their thoughtfulness and generosity.

Fast forward to now, and this is my view. A simple, cosy evening. Jeff and I are watching "It's a Wonderful Life", the Yankee candle my friend surprised me with lit in the background. I'm sitting in our comfy recliner typing this post and while sipping a small glass of Chilean Merlot that was leftover from my work's Christmas party.

"Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings", George Bailey's little daughter says in his arms in the last scene of the film. George's house is filled by the people whose life he's impacted and for whom he is so grateful.  I am grateful for your support of my blog and want to wish you and your family a very merry Christmas.

How I "Spent" My Day - McDs Sticker, Nectar Points and a Tiny Brownie

My day was pretty normal - gym in the morning, kids to school, work, kids from school, home.  I missed out on about 68p at the gym that someone had left on top of the shelves when, for a brief second, I felt insecure about my "weird" status as I was walking out with my friend.  Ugh! I should have just picked it up.  Darn it!  

So my normal day got a bit more interesting - in terms of my "finding the pennies" hobby/ mindset/ lifestyle when I was walking to my car after work and found litter *gasp!* next to my car - it was another McDonald's coffee cup with the loyalty sticker STILL ON IT!  Jack pot!  I secretly high fived myself.  The sticker completed Jeff's coffee card, so he can get his free coffee the next time he goes to McDs.  Caring is sharing, right?!

When we got home from the school run, I discovered that Mr Postman delivered a Nectar card promotion containing a coupon for 800 bonus points, worth £4 on my Nectar card.  Yaaayy!  More on my Nectar points in a bit.  

I wanted to have a meat-free, low-cost meal this evening and the solution was egg fried rice. It ticks the boxes for protein, carbs and veggies, as well as being very inexpensive.  I hadn't ever made egg fried rice before, but it turned out really well having followed this recipe. I used frozen mixed veg rather than chopping up fresh veggies - I boiled them first while the rice was cooking - and actually got to use an unopened bottle of oyster sauce that I bought a couple of years ago and didn't end up using (and it was just fine, by the way).  The girls enjoyed this meal, and even asked if we could add some prawns to it the next time we have it.

 

Are you wondering what's in the glass? It's iced tea "made" from last night's leftover tea in the teapot.  Why pour perfectly good tea down the drain when I can drink it cold another time?  Sooo good.

So it's Nectar Double Up Week at Sainsbury's!  This happens twice a year - once in November and once in the summer.  You can swap Nectar points for vouchers worth double the value of the points in a handful of departments, such as toys, entertainment, clothing and wine.  £5 worth of points can be exchanged for a voucher worth £10, exchange £10 for a £20 voucher, and £20 for a £40 voucher.  We save our Nectar points to mainly use during these double up events because they're such a great deal, especially considering the points were mostly free in the first place.  Find out more by visiting your local store (I've just looked at both the Sainsbury's website and the Nectar website and there is ZERO information about this on their websites - that's not good advertising!) I ended up buying some DVDs, a super cute My Little Pony dress costume for Brenna and toys for both of the girls for Christmas and walked out having spent £8.55 for £88.56 worth of stuff.  These won't even affect our Christmas budget, as the points were free.

I did have a quick nosey at the reduced sections in the store and found a bottle of Sainsbury's lotion reduced to 50p and this tiny gluten and dairy free chocolate & coconut brownie reduced to 10p.   This tiny brownie was tiny... tiny... only a few bites worth.  I cannot imagine paying £2.00 for this tiny little jar of brownie, but I thought it was worth a try for 10p.  I have to admit, it was very good - I heated it up in the microwave for a few seconds.

So, that's how my money-saving mindset worked today.  I hope I've encouraged you to find some small ways to save, too!

An Adventure to Costco

Do you know how to get this American all choked up?!  Put her in the middle of a Costco surrounded by huge packaging she has no idea where she's going to put when she gets home, somewhat familiar surroundings (like that in America) and the challenge of figuring out whether the huge package of whatever is a good deal.  Give her a voucher for £14 off at the checkouts and a three coupons for FREE products and she might just explode with joy.

So this trip to Costco started a couple of weeks ago when someone posted to an Facebook page I'm part of about Costco and whether a membership was worth buying for the American products.  It has crossed my mind a couple of times before that this may be a worthwhile investment because we always bring back so much from Ohio when we visit and if we could possibly buy them in the UK instead, it'd save us a lot of effort bringing things back with us every summer.  Comments to the question asked made me look into the membership, but it would cost about £36 for the membership.  Perhaps that wouldn't be worth it.

Then a few days ago, someone posted an update to the same Facebook page that Groupon had a deal on an annual membership for £28 plus a £14 off voucher and freebies.  Wow!  But wait... there's more.  I know there's usually a discount code for Groupon... so after a little search and a few attempts to find a discount code that works, I got a discount of 20% off the £28.  So we paid £22.40 for the annual membership.

Now one drawback is that our closest Costco is 35 minutes away in Birmingham, so I won't be able to go too often... maybe that's a good thing!  However, even if we just go once, it'd be worth it because of the coupons.

We had fun looking around the warehouse and sampling a few tasty treats.  I made sure to pick up my free rotisserie chicken (worth £3.29) and HUGE chocolate fudge cake (worth £9.99)... we'll get the batteries next time.  What else did we buy? Lots of toilet paper, 1L of maple syrup (the same exact one I bought my mom in Ohio), 6 boxes of Kleenex tissues for less than £1 a box, 3 pints of Ben&Jerry's cookie dough ice cream for £6 (my daughter's favourite), 44 packs of microwavable popcorn (this one is a gamble because I don't know if it'll be any good), a big can of coffee, guacamole, raspberries... and diesel.  Yep, Costco even has a petrol station that sells fuel cheaper than where we usually fill up.

I can't lie, I was slightly disappointed there weren't more American products there that I would usually bring back to the UK with me, but there are big bags of chocolate chips there that I'll get another time.  As always I went through the store scouting good prices. The only way I can do this is by knowing my prices, like I always say.

A Bowl Full of (Wonky) Lemons

There's something so "homey" about a bowl full of gorgeous yellow lemons resting on top of a kitchen counter... but I didn't buy a big bag of lemons to simply look pretty in my kitchen... oh, no... I already drink gallons of water throughout the day, but sometime last week, I thought, "why not add slices of lemons to my water bottle?"  It's supposed to be good for you, right?  I did consider the cost of a lemon, about 35p per gorgeous fruit, but I thought it'd be worth it for the "promised" health benefits.  

No, I didn't pay £3.15 (35p x about 9 lemons) for this bag of lemons... no... I paid £1.  That's right. £1.  Notice what the label says... "Wonky Fruit".... uhh... they sure don't look wonky to me!  Perhaps a little smaller than their 30p friends, but boy, what a savings!  

This isn't the first time I've bought less-than-perfect produce.  Each of the major supermarkets carry perfectly edible and oddly beautiful fruit and veg.  Morrisons offers "Wonky Fruit" and "Wonky Veg", like these lemons.  Tesco label their "ugly" produce as "Perfectly Imperfect" and Sainsbury's called "Greengrocer Value Selection".

This comes after a campaign to pressure the large supermarket chains to relax their standards on the appearance of fruit and vegetables, which would allow a greater - much greater - amount of produce to be sold in the supermarkets and not to be simply plowed back into the fields as fertilizer.  This in turn also helps farmers earn a greater profit on their crop yield.  Seems like a win-win situation!  Find out more in this article from the Guardian.  

You do have to search for the delicious gems a little, but they're there, and they'll save you a small (very small) fortune... but hey! We're finding the pennies, right?!

A Few of My Favourite Things: Aldi

I admit it - I'm a big fan of Aldi.  I have been shopping at Aldi almost every Monday for at least a year and a half in an attempt to save on our monthly grocery bill.  I love Aldi because, for the most part, everyday food items are cheaper and the quality is excellent.  I definitely feel that I am getting great value for money.

I'd love to share with you which products from Aldi I buy on a regular basis and the prices of a comparable product at my favourite "orange" supermarket.

As you can see, in this one "basket" I saved £9.00.  That's a lot!  This doesn't even include fruit and veg, which I mention below.

We love Aldi's Everyday Essentials Mature White Cheddar, but I couldn't find the price of it quick enough to include it in this blog and I don't have the package anymore to look at how much cheese this is.  However, if my memory serves me right, this is a 1kg block of cheese that costs about £3.50. When open this cheese, we cut it in half and wrap both halves in cling film/ plastic wrap.  We use up one half before using the second.  The second half has never molded before we use it either.

I included these cotton pads in the list above, but I have to say, they are so cheap and softer than the basic variety at the orange supermarket.  200 pads at Aldi cost 69p but £1.60 at the orange supermarket.  What a difference!

Ok, I'm just going to mention it: feminine hygiene products at Aldi are just as reliable as what you'd buy at the supermarket but WAAAAYYY cheaper.  Just a gentle nudge to try them for yourself (if you are a female, of course!).

A few more of my favourite things from Aldi are: frozen fish fingers, frozen fruit and veg, crisps, some cereal, biscuits (though my husband finds the digestive biscuits to be too sweet) and houmous.

In addition to the products listed above, prices on fresh produce is also much lower than the supermarket, especially the new-fortnightly "Super 6". These super-buys are 6 fruit and veg favourites marked down to an even-better price than usual.  I will write a separate blog post on the bargain fruit and veg at Aldi.  Some people say that Aldi's produce molds quicker than at the supermarket, but I have never found this to be the case. Oh, and quick a quick tip, Aldi charges per banana, not by weight, which I find can be more expensive than at the supermarket, but I will find out exactly when I post my fruit and veg blog.

There are a few things at Aldi that I don't like as well as the comparable products at the orange supermarket: toilet paper, tissues, bacon (it's too thin), body lotion and jarred pasta sauce.

BUYER BEWARE!  Aldi does sell name-brand products.  Just because it's being sold at Aldi doesn't mean it's a good price.  Quite often I've found that name-brand products are more expensive than at the typical supermarket. Please make sure you're getting a great price on an item before you automatically put it in your trolley/cart.

Just like anywhere and any time you shop, you have to know your prices.  Learn whether your favorite item or brand is a good buy by keeping track - either simply by remembering or by writing it down - of the quantity versus the price. You don't have to shop at Aldi but if you want to spend less on your supermarket shop, I want to encourage you to figure out whether what you're buying a good deal or not.