Top Ten Tips for shopping at Charity shops

My challenge to myself this year is to only buy second hand or fair trade clothes. This is already difficult as all of my clothes are too big! My bum has disappeared so even my smallest pair of jeans are baggy. I never used to like my big bum but now it has gone I miss it!  So I need some more jeans and trousers. Unfortunately I have only bought one successful pair of jeans from a charity shop but I have bought many tops, cardigans and dresses that are now well incorporated in to my wardrobe.

For our day out at the Harry Potter studio tour I wore two of my favourite charity shop finds.

My red jeans I bought from a charity shop in Manchester for £5.99. I was pregnant so it was a bit of a gamble as to whether they would fit me or not. The gamble paid off I LOVE them. They are one of the two pairs of trousers that still look OK on my small butt. My top is my most recent charity shop buy. My friend Jen found it and made me try it on. I wasn't convinced when I saw it on the hanger but it really suits me, it is good for breast feeding and makes me feel a little fancy. It cost £4.99.

I have been shopping in Charity shops for clothes for 8 years now so I have gathered some top tips:

1. Go with an open mind - Every time I shop knowing I need a certain item I come home disappointed, but if I go just to see what I can find I find some lovely things.

2. Try before you buy - too many times I have decided that an item of clothing will fit me without trying it on. Second hand clothes may have been stretched or misshapen and you wont necessarily notice unless you try them on.

3. Set yourself a budget - Just because your spending money in a charity shop doesn't mean you are saving money. I have spent too much before and didn't notice because I was only spending a few pounds in my favourite charity shop every couple of days.

4. Take Cash - Most Charity shops now take cards but it is easier to keep an eye on what you are spending when you use cash.

5. Only buy things you love - It is not worth even a pound if you aren't going to love and wear it regularly.

6. Take a friend - It is good to have a level headed friend who knows your style and size as he / she may spot something that you wouldn't have noticed and they can keep you under control if you get the urge to splurge.

7. Make a day of it - If you have time it is worth taking an afternoon or a day every now and then to properly explore all of the charity shops in your town. 

8. Make friends with the volunteers in your favourite charity shop - Since having Fred it has been so much easier to start conversations with some of the older ladies in one of my favourite charity shops. They are happy to keep an eye on Fred for me while I try things on and they will give me their opinion if I don't have friend with me.

9. If you have the chance it is always worth travelling to a posh town or village and finding their charity shops. They often have better quality, less worn clothes.

10. Donate your own clothes - if people don't keep donating good quality clothes charity shops will not have good things for you to find. I like to think I have some friends that I have never met who are my size and share my style. We are effectively swapping clothes whilst donating money to charity. 

Easy and cheap three bean chilli recipe

As promised this is my recipe for three bean chili.

It makes roughly 6 portions of chili.

You will need:

Three tins of various beans
Two tins of chopped tomatoes
Two chillies
Two cloves of garlic
Two onions
Two peppers
Two carrots
A corgette
Table spoon of tomato puree
Table spoon of sugar
Table spoon of Worcester sauce
A chicken or vegetable stock cube (depending on whether your vegetarian or not)
And any other veg you fancy throwing in. Sometimes I use leek instead as onion, I would put mushrooms in but Jamie doesn't like them. You could also add a splash of red wine.

Start by cooking you're chopped onions, garlic and chilli in a little oil until soft. Add the drained beans, the tinned tomatoes and chopped carrot, stir and bring to the boil. Add all of your other veg, the sugar, worcester sauce, tomato puree stir and then put a lid of your frying pan, turn the hob down and simmer, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes or until the carrot is soft. Season to taste. Boil your rice or cook some jacket potatoes and its ready. :)

I have worked out that it costs about 80 pence per portion. A very cheap and yummy meal!

Save money on Valentines day

 If like me you are taking part in the Great British Budget challenge this February, you probably haven't got much spare cash to be spending this valentines day. Here are a few ways I have come up with to help you celebrate valentines day on a budget:

✳Buy flowers that aren't red roses. Roses are expensive at the best of times, but during the valentines period the price sky rockets! Other flowers are just as nice and are a lot cheaper. (Just don't buy carnations)

✳Stay in and cook. Pull out all the stops and make something challenging. Your other half is bound to be impressed.

✳If you can't cook, go out for lunch or dinner next week. Restaurants are ultra busy over valentines weekend, miss the crowds by celebrating a week later.

✳Make something. A special photo album of you time together will always go down well.

I may now come across as a bit of a Scrooge, but if you are really serious about saving money this Valentines day. 

Don't celebrate it.

There I said it.

If you love someone and want to show them you care why wait for Valentines day? Buy them flowers and go on lovely (inexpensive) dates all through the year.

If you are a fan of Valentines day then please ignore the above suggestion. The essence of Valentines day is to spend time with the person you love. It doesn't have to be big or fancy. Put some thought and time in to it and I'm sure your significant other will appreciate it.

How to save money on your weekly shop

Currently we spend under £40 per week on our food shop. £40 comfortably feeds two pretty hungry adults. 

One is breastfeeding the other just eats a lot!

Spending this little takes some planning, a little compromise and a willingness to cook.

Below is an average weeks shopping list.

I plan our evening meals in advance but I am open to change if I spot a really good offer. I never buy portions of chicken, I always buy a whole one and portion it up myself, this way I can make 4 meals for two from one £4.99 free range chicken. I don't enjoy cutting up the chicken but it is worth it. To buy an equivalent amount of breast meat would cost nearly the same price as the whole chicken.

At least two of our evening meals a week are meat free. I learnt how to make 3 bean chili from scratch and veggie curry. Jamie is not really a fan of vegetarian meals but he loves curry and chili so the vegetarian versions are bearable.

For breakfast we eat porridge, because we like it. But it also happens to be much cheaper than cereal- it is also lower in sugar and salt. Win win.

We shop primarily in Aldi, partly because I can walk there. Saving a tiny bit more money on petrol. It is a good super market but only if you are willing to be flexible as they don't always have everything in- this week they had run out of free range chickens so I bought a pack of bacon and a pack of mince instead. Since changing our main super market shop to Aldi it has been much easier to stick to our £40 budget.

Over the next few weeks I will be sharing with you my recipe for 3 bean chili and some ways to make the most of a whole chicken.

Lisa from the blog TheLifeOfWife suggests having two simple meals a week such as beans on toast.

What tricks do you have for reducing your food bill?

The Great British Budget; being the master of your own money

This February I'm taking part in a campaign to help people take charge of their money. Part of the reason I am passionate about being the master of my own money and helping people to do the same is tied in with my faith. The most misquoted verse of the Bible is Timothy chapter 6 verse 10.  Usually people say money is the route of all evil, but actually the Bible says 'the love of money is the route of all evil'. Money itself can't be evil, money has no power unless we give it power. That means that we need to be charge of money,  make money serve us not the other way around. 

If you are in debt and are worrying a lot about money, it is in charge of you.

 I'm hoping this campaign will help someone put money where it should be in their life and help me to improve my budgeting skills.

About the campaign: It's called The Great British Budget and the aim is simple, to encourage as many people as possible to set and stick to their budgets.  Yourwealth.co.uk have created a budgeting app and are on a mission to get Britain budgeting.

As part of The Great British Budget campaign this February I am going to be sharing my experience of saving money and living on a budget as well as money saving tips and some more budget friendly recipes like my Vegetable Frittas, and Spicy Pepper Soup.

Jamie and I are already living on quite a tight budget due to me being on maternity leave. We have also been giving 10% of our income to charity and saving 10% of our income every month for nearly 2 years now. The process of choosing where our money would go and working out how much 10% of our monthly income was, helped us to take charge of our money. We do have a credit card, but as a rule we always pay it off. We didn't pay it off immediately only once, when we bought out tickets to Cambodia. It took us 3 months.

We aren't perfect, we spend too much money on random spending sprees, and we do like treats in our weekly shop. We also have been meaning to cancel our love film subscription for a couple of months but we just haven't got round to it!

We are saving money for a few reasons; 

  * one day we want to buy a house.

  * we really like holidays

  * we would like to have enough set aside for emergencies such as the car breaking or long term illness.

What about you? Do you have subscriptions you could cancel? What are you saving for?

There are a few different ways to get involved with The Great British Budget this February. You can join in with the twitter competition to by tweeting a picture of something relevant to the days photo challenge. You can win shopping vouchers :)

Follow @yourwealthuk on twitter for money saving tips and to take part in the #GreatBritishBudget photo challenge.

You can commit to sticking to your budget for February on The Great British Budget website and download the app to help.

I am going to sign up and try out the app. I will let you know how it goes.