Unblocking the Toilet

This week MrShoestring has been spending a great deal of his time trying to get the toilet in the master bathroom to flow properly. We have had problems for a few weeks now and so over half term he resolved to tackle it properly !

All the usual remedies were tried, vinegar and baking soda, an ordinary plunger, hot water and finally he bought and used a toilet plunger. He used it so vigorously that he broke it ! Still the toilet flushed slowly and the water crept closer to the top of the bowl !

Finally , yesterday he dismantled the whole thing and poked his plumber's snake down the main drainage pipe, no blockage could be found. We were about to purchase drain rods when I suggested that we have a look down the inspection traps to the septic tank. Lo and behold a whole mess of toilet paper was clogging the entrance drains !

We have not had this problem in the ten years we have lived here but a bit of research showed that some common toilet papers now contain plastic fibres to make them smoother. These do not dissolve readily in water, hence the build up. Apparently it's not a problem for mains drains which are wider.

MrShoestring cleared the blockage, reattached the toilet and I bought 100% recycled toilet paper for use hereon out !

Free Seeds

The 'Kitchen Garden' free subscription from Tesco paid off this month when three free packets of seeds arrived in the post yesterday.

First, a packet of 'Lolla Rossa' lettuce seeds which will come in very handy for succession sowings as the lettuce we have is pretty mature now. We are trying to make it last longer by picking only leaves rather than whole lettuces but eventually it will bolt so we are looking forward to planting some more.

Second, some coriander, which we love to put in homemade salsa but the seeds we already planted appear to have been eaten so these new ones will come in very handy !

Finally, some sweetcorn, which it is almost too late to start but we are going to take a chance and start off in pots in the polytunnel !

Fingers crossed all the seeds grow. The free seeds have a recommended retail price of £4.45, so a nice little freebie on top of the magazine itself !

Freezer Inventory

So there is a nice lot of rhubarb growing in the garden now but before I pick any I thought that I should check on exactly how much I still have in the freezer. It turned out that I still have 4lbs from last year, so I think that I will try and use that up before I pick any more. I was reassured that you can go on picking rhubarb into the summer, so I don't think that we will run short !

I also inventoried the rest of the fruit and vegetables we had preserved last year and discovered that we still have 16lbs of stewed apple; 16lbs blackberries; 7lbs summer fruits; 12 packets courgettes; 4lbs pumpkin and 11lbs of jam ! So using the rhubarb for jam isn't going to be helpful ! Usually I also make my own elderflower cordial but with the flowers already on the trees I can see that I'm not going to manage that this year !

June's menu plan is going to include a lot of these items so that I can defrost the freezer and get ready for storing this year's bounty. It should make making the menu plan very easy but I'll have to be careful, as too many courgettes on the menu and the family will rebel ! Also hot weather means that people don't want to eat so many crumbles or muffins. I have found one of my US cook books uses apple sauce instead of fat in lots of the recipes so I can see that I shall be making good use of that next month.

What would you do with all last year's bounty ? I'm just going to be grateful I think !

May Challenge Updates

Well the bluebells are over for another year and we actually have roses blooming all over the garden, amazing ! Time to see how well we did with this month's challenges.

I'm pleased to report that other than a new hat and pair of slippers for MrShoestring at the start of the month we did not spend another penny on clothing this month. We found a good quality pair of suede, lined moccasins for MrShoestring's slippers which only cost £14.99 including postage and he's been wearing them since they arrived with no problems.

I did manage to empty out the small freezer and placed the fruit that was left in it in large plastic bags in the big freezer in the garage. I now have one large bag of apple, one large bag of blackberries and one large bag of mixed summer fruits including rhubarb. We've nearly finished all the frozen rhubarb so I might be able to pick and freeze some of this year's crop this week. I hope so, because all the hot weather means that it will soon be past its best !

The final challenge for the month was to make it through exam season. Well we are half way there, with 2 weeks in June to go. Apart from at least 4 extra packets of biscuits a week it seems to be going alright ! But I think June's menu plan must make a concerted effort to use up what is left in the big freezer too as I've noticed that it really needs defrosting.

How have you been doing in May ?

Meal Planning for Half Term

With all of us home for half term I knew that I needed to plan for lunches and dinners this week instead of just dinners. It is also the final week of May and the grocery budget is all spent apart from £2 which I might use to get special ingredients for a birthday cake on Thursday. Planning means that I know the family won't just go to the fridge and eat a load of stuff I had planned for other meals !

Here's this week's plan :-

BREAKFAST - toast, yoghurt and granola, cereal, coffee, tea

LUNCH - waffles, beans on toast, picnic for a birthday, egg sandwiches, soup and bread, leftovers

DINNER - bacon spaghetti, beefburgers, chips and salad, gabriel potatoes in the slow cooker, pizza and salad, birthday choice, quiche, potatoes and courgettes, tortillas and salad

This should use up some stuff in the freezer and make sure that there is plenty to eat. I also have a snack plan which will be implemented once all the fruit muffins I made yesterday have been eaten.

Fingers crossed I can make it to Friday using this plan !

Football Final

Tonight, everybody in the household, apart from me, will be watching the big game for free at

www.BTSport.com

I am very happy that they can watch the game for free and am hoping for a winning performance from Liverpool so I do not have lots of sad faces to look at tomorrow !

I, on the other hand will be meal planning and reading a good book !

Frugal Friday

Another quiet week recovering from being away over the weekend ! On Monday I made a slow cooker full of bolognaise sauce and that made three evening meals: spaghetti bolognaise on Monday; cottage pie on Tuesday and leftover cottage pie on Wednesday. It was so successful that I'm thinking of doing the same thing this Monday !

I spent only £6.67 at the supermarket this week and picked up a free newspaper and magazine whilst I was there. We also got a free Sunday paper and a free novel from the clearing out pile at an agency where I work. Together with a new, free subscription to 'Moneywise' magazine that should make sure that we have plenty to read ! Not to mention free books and magazines from the library, where I was able to collect the final two books in a trilogy which I had started with a book I got at a jumble sale. They were in stock already so no reservation fees, which was great !

Just as well that we have been utilising all the free entertainment options as we are well overspent in the PETROL budget category, probably due to all the commuting I'm doing for the counselling course. Since it is all at peak hours there are lots of hold ups and that is not good for petrol consumption ! I'm on holiday next week so that should save a bit !

Hope your frugal living is going well !

Finding a Cheap Flight

USAShoestring has very kindly invited MasterShoestring over for a week in July after he has finished his exams. It is a good opportunity for the brothers to meet up and we would like to make it happen. However, we have not budgeted for an extra transatlantic flight this year so we needed to make sure that we got a good price, preferably a lot under £500.

Getting a flight as low as we needed involved a bit of flexibility on dates and on airports but eventually we found what we needed at Primera. This is a new budget airline flying out of Stansted and Birmingham and it offers a no frills service. That means no meals, entertainment or luggage ! So MasterShoestring will have to pack light to get everything in to 1 small cabin bag. He will also have to eat before he gets on the aeroplane and find a good book to read !

Stansted is equidistant for us compared to Gatwick where Norwegian fly from, so we don't have to go any further to get a discount flight and booking for a time just before the school holidays means that we get a bit of an extra discount. A final amount of saving was made because MasterShoestring is not 16 until 15th July so still qualified for the concession on Child Air Passenger Duty.

I'm so glad that frugal price comparing and having some savings in the bank means that we can make this trip happen for MasterShoestring !

Quick Cheese Sauce

The plan tonight is to make a quick macaroni cheese to use up the last of the homemade pasta which I got out of the freezer. As I'll be teaching until late I'll use this quick cheese sauce method rather than gradually adding the milk which often takes ages to stop the sauce going lumpy!

1oz butter

1oz flour

 450ml milk

ground pepper

Put all the items into a small pan and put on the heat. Whisk vigorously until the sauce starts to thicken, then take off the heat and add

3oz grated cheese

Stir the sauce until the cheese has all melted and then use as required. 

Tonight I'll start the pasta and the sauce at the same time so that both are ready at about the same time. The macaroni cheese will be served with some courgettes from the never-ending freezer stash !

Feed Yourself for 50p a Day

The lovely Lesley over at "Thrifty Lesley" has put up a very useful post about feeding yourself for even less than £1 a day, she has suggestions for feeding a person for 50p a day ! Well worth hopping over to :-

www.thriftylesley.com

to get some thrifty inspiration for meal planning. Lesley's great ideas got me thinking too, so here's my menu plan costing 50p a person for an entire day !

BREAKFAST - 2 value wheat biscuits and 200ml milk Cost = 6.25p+8.5p=14.75p

LUNCH - egg sandwich made from 1 egg, teaspoon of value mayonnaise and 2 slices homemade bread, 1 fruit Cost = 10p+10p=20p

SUPPER - spaghetti with bacon made from 75g value spaghetti, homemade tomato sauce and value bacon Cost=15p

So a grand total of 49.75p ! 

You would have to drink water with this menu plan and not have any snacks, so I suppose it might fatten up your bank balance as well as slimming down your figure !

Have you got a favourite, low-cost recipe ?

Everything in the Garden is Lovely !

MrShoestring and I had a stroll around the garden yesterday once I got back and saw that things in the kitchen garden are growing very well.

We have already started to eat some of this lettuce which we started indoors in January and have chives and other herbs to go with it.

The strawberry plants have plenty of flowers on them, so we're looking forward to strawberries in a few weeks time.

There is even blossom on the pear tree, so I'm hopeful of finally getting a crop this year !

How is your garden growing ?

A Visit to Latimer House

So I'm here today, at Latimer House for some training. The weather is lovely and there are very nice deck chairs on the terrace so I'm hoping that there will be a chance to admire some views and go for a walk as well as doing the training.

Even though I'm away there has been lots of frugal planning ahead so the from scratch meals continue, the laundry is hung out to dry in the Spring sunshine and a car share was used to get to and from the venue !

Have a lovely day everyone `!

Frugal Weddings !

The Royal Wedding will not be a frugal one ! However, ours was ! Here are 10 things you can do to cut costs.

1) Get married on a week day.

2) Buy an outfit you can wear again.

3) Have the reception at home or in a church hall.

4) Have a buffet rather than a sit down meal.

5) Get a friend or family member to do the photos, flowers, music etc.

6) Buy plain wedding rings.

7) Forget about the stag and hen do.

8) Only invite close family and friends, have a party later on for others.

9) Go on a short honeymoon.

10) Invest the money you have saved !

Frugal Stress-free Friday

Staying debt-free and living below your means is definitely one way to lower stress, so here's what we did this week to remain that way !

The garden is growing well, with plenty of rhubarb and lettuce so I used the last of the leeks to make a leek and potato soup for supper one night. We also had our first cutting of lettuce for salad one day. I still have rhubarb from last year in the freezer, so have yet to cut any of the new growth. However, I did move the remainder of the frozen fruit into the big freezer and cleaned and turned off the small one to save money.

We switched to a cheaper gas and electric deal and I made 3 birthday cards and used stamps from the postal survey to post birthday presents for free. I also sent some books to Ziffit and got another £11.01 for the gift fund. The postal survey also send £8 in Love2Shop vouchers to reimburse me for posting some parcels.

I borrowed 5 books on thrifty living from the library and used them to plan gifts and mend some clothes. MrShoestring mended our living room clock, which is an antique so that saved some money on parts and labour. I used YouTube for a free workout video when it was too wet to exercise outside and I made kinetic sand using an instruction video from there as well.

Finally, I got a free washing powder sample though the post and plan on getting 3 washes out of it, not just one !

Another Free Resource for Stress Busting !

The research on mindfulness is compelling and it has been shown to be helpful to all sorts of people including those suffering from chronic pain.

There is an excellent mindfulness course here:-

https://palousemindfulness.com/

I used it as part of my counselling training when I wanted to know more about mindfulness but couldn't afford a course or another book!

I practise mindfulness myself, especially in traffic jams and on days when nothing seems to go right. If you've never tried it, might be worth a look !

Free ebook

Head over to Amazon to download this free book by Ariel Stefan on how to cope with stress in different areas of your life.

You don't have to have a Kindle to read it as the app for reading on the computer is free too !

Enjoy !

Ten Ways to Relieve Stress

I saw this little quote and thought it so apt for this week's theme of stress relief. Lots of us are very busy and stressed by things we can't change, so here are ten things you can do for yourself.

1) Go for a walk outside.

2) Take 10 deep breaths.

3) Stroke a pet.

4) Phone a friend.

5) Have a bath.

6) Take a nap.

7) Read a book.

8) Listen to music.

9) Laugh at a joke.

10) Count your blessings.

Whatever you do, don't go shopping !

Mental Health Awareness Week

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. As a trainee counsellor good mental health is something I am very committed too and I know that money problems can contribute to poor mental health. So all this week I'm going to be highlighting positive ways of improving mental health !

If you are interested in knowing more then do have a look at the website :-

www.mentalhealth.org.uk

It is full of stories and ideas that can be helpful or used to start conversations with someone you are worried about. There is a great scheme which has just started in England to have a mental health first aider in every workplace just as you have a physical first aider. Similarly with schools there are plans to have at least one member of staff trained in mental health in every school. I'm currently doing volunteer counselling in a school so I know that these people are much needed !

The focus this week is on managing stress and I know from doing the quiz on the website that I am much less stressed doing my counselling training than I was previously, which only goes to show that there is always something you can do even if it means making radical changes !

What do you do to manage stress ?

Thrifty Inspiration

The water bill arrived yesterday as we are on a meter. We got quite a shock to discover that our monthly direct debit is to go up by nearly 100% from £9 a month to £17. I checked the bill by reading the meter myself and comparing it to last year's bill and we are using almost the same amount of water, just a small increase for MissShoestring. The big change is because they have started to add a fixed charge for mending pipes etc. As there is no choice but to take water from the water company in your area I went to the library looking for thrifty inspiration !

The first book I found was about frugal interior design. MissShoestring will probably move out at the end of the month and I am looking forward to a giant clear out of all the stuff we have been keeping for the oldest two, "just in case" ! With fixed spending going up, any home makeover will have to cost nearly nothing so this book looks like good inspiration !

This one has lots of good ideas for using the stuff we grew in the garden to make nice gifts, some of which could come in handy for MrShoestring later in the year !

This one I can imagine using already, as I have quite a few clothes which would benefit from being taken in a bit. As I'm still trying to limit adult clothes purchases, altering the waistbands would be very helpful and this book shows me how to do it properly.

This is a short little book which I hope will help me take another look at our budget and see if there is anything else I can cut or be more efficient about. I've checked it out before and remember finding the money quiz at the front of the book very funny !

I had seen this book advertised and had a look at some of the recipes on the author's website. I was not too keen on them as I think the portion size is just fro 1-2 people. However, there is nothing to lose from checking it out from the library and if it has a few ideas of keeping 'hollow-legged' teenagers fed on a tiny budget I'll be well pleased.

So, lots of reading to be done this week and hopefully a plan to cut water waste and the bill formulated by the end of it !

Ten Things to do in Exam Season

This is the last time that MrShoestring and I will have to live through GCSE season, we started 17 years ago so we'll be glad of the break ! Over the years we have come up with a few ideas about how to survive it !

1) Keep the cupboards well stocked !

2) Let it go ! Now is not the time to get into an argument about a messy room.

3) Encourage your candidates to get outside.

4) Make sure they get enough sleep.

5) Have something nice planned for when the exams are over.

6) Ask what you can do to help.

7) Be prepared for last minute panics.

8) Have stocks of pens, pencils, water bottles etc. ready for those last minute morning requests for such items.

9) Plan how you will get them to the exam on time if the car/bus breaks down !

10) Rejoice that your days of doing GCSEs are over !

Frugal Friday

Quite a quiet week on the frugal living front as I have been so busy with other things ! We did manage a frugal barbecue over the holiday weekend and I only spent £6.47 on groceries.

When I was at the supermarket I got a free magazine and local paper. Similarly on Sunday we used a voucher to get a free Sunday paper, unfortunately there were no magazines with it this week, so a little less reading than usual !

On Saturday I went to the library and got some new books and although I was disappointed in a couple of them that was still plenty of reading for the week. MrShoestring finished the series he has been reading but has now got stuck into one of the books from the jumble sale, so that was a good buy ! I also downloaded a free ebook on frugal living and deleted a couple from my Amazon wish list having decided that most of the information is on the author's blog !

My prize book arrived and I managed to sell it on at a discount price. So as well as helping someone else get a cheaper copy I have a little towards buying a book I need for my course. I had noticed a few weeks ago that one of the towns I do some training in sells much cheaper petrol than round here and this week I was able to fill up the car there and thus save a few pounds !

The lettuce and rhubarb  in the garden are ready to pick this weekend so I can foresee an urgent need for salad to appear on the menu and to use up the last of the frozen rhubarb from last year!

Emergency revision biscuits

These simple little biscuits were made after we discovered last night that MasterShoestring has eaten his way through 2 family size tins of biscuits ! Well, it was his first exam yesterday ! I had had a busy day and could not face the thought of getting in the car and going somewhere to buy biscuits so lightning use was made of my super quick shortbread recipe. I also used baking margarine instead of butter to make them quicker to make. They taste nicer with butter but I knew that MasterShoestring would not mind !

6oz flour

4oz butter

2oz sugar

Cream the butter and sugar together and gradually add the flour. Push the mixture together to form a dough. Press out onto a floured board and cut into squares. Prick with a fork and bake on an un greased baking tin for 20 minutes. Cool and scatter with sugar.

I make about 16 from this recipe.

An Unsuitable Match

I was very excited on Saturday when the library contacted me to say that I had reached the top of the reservation list for Joanna Trollope's latest novel. I have read all her books and have found that her reading of social changes to be spot on.

With beautiful weather and a good book on hand I was looking forward to settling down in the garden for several hours of great reading ! Well. it started off alright, I warmed to the main character and the theme of love second time around seemed a good one !

By Sunday night I was disappointed ! I won't give the plot away in case you want to read it for yourself, but I think I was looking forward to a happy ending and there wasn't one as far as I was concerned. I think the main character was happy ! I also think the ending is realistic, but does anyone else long for modern novels to have happy endings ? I'm not sure I'm going to read anymore of her novels ! 

One happy ending for me was returning the book ! So glad that I did not buy it at the book shop, I would have been even more disappointed !

Free Ebook

If you hop over to Amazon this week Kate Singh has her ebook " Living on One Income" up for free all this week. Well worth reading and there is no better price than free !

Having a Cheap Barbecue

With all the lovely weather we have been having the children were very keen to organise a barbecue, so we did it all on a budget !

First of all the barbecue itself and all the tools came from a garage sale a few years ago - cost £5 with tools !

Second the charcoal was picked up cheap last year at the end of the season - cost £2.50.

Third, MrShoestring made a homemade lighter chimney, to get the charcoal started, out of an old decorative bucket - cost £0.

Fourth MissShoestring made delicious kebabs out of things we already had on hand - cost £0

Fifth we used salad from the garden - cost £0

Sixth we drank homemade grape juice and elderflower cordial which had been made last year and stored in the freezer, hurrah for using up some more freezer stock - cost £0.

So a barbecue for 4 all at a very reasonable cost. Everyone enjoyed it so much that MrShoestring is wondering about building a permanent brick barbecue in the garden using the existing one for parts ! Long may the sunny weather continue !

Finding a new Phone and Broadband Deal

With our current broadband and phone deal expiring on 7th June I knew that now was the time to search for a better deal. The first thing I did was work out what we had spent over the last year, including line rental. This meant I knew how much saving I was looking for.

Last year we spent just over £420 including all calls and unlimited fibre broadband. I thought this was rather a lot but still wanted to continue with fibre broadband. With a teenager in the house and lots of visits from adult children this prevents fights and annoyance when they all want to access the internet at once.

I decided that this year we did not need to pay for a call package as we have so many free minutes with our £5 a month mobile phone deal. I don't want to drop the landline completely just yet as sometimes the mobile phone signal is not reliable and so the landline is handy in emergencies. However, I do not want to pay a large amount for line rental.

A bit of research and some help from moneysaving expert's excellent broadband tool and I had signed up for Vodafone fibre broadband, unlimited for £20 a month and no line rental charge ! This means that we shall only be paying £240 a year instead of £420, a saving of £180 a year or £15 a month. This is a much larger saving than I was expecting so I hope the changeover is smooth and it all works properly !

Ten Things to Do over a Bank Holiday Weekend

With the weather set fair for once over the weekend here's what we shall be getting up to :-

1) Plant seedlings out into the greenhouse.

2) Plant some more pepper seeds and find out what we have to do to get them to germinate.

3) Enjoy the garden and possibly have a barbecue.

4) Help MasterShoestring revise fro his French speaking exam next week.

5) Cook ahead to stock the freezer.

6) Bake bread for the week ahead.

7) Write assignment for college.

8) Look for a better telephone and broadband deal.

9) Give GCSE Science tuition to someone who leaves revising to the last minute 

10) RELAX !

Frugal Friday

So into May and this is a long month and quite an expensive one, with a car MOT and service to save for. We also need to change broadband and phone deal, so plenty of incentive to look for savings !

This week I went to Lidl to do some of the month's food shopping and I now know that I need to start a price book again to make sure that the journey there or to Aldi is actually cheaper than shopping locally. As part of the trip I had to menu plan ahead for May to make sure that I only bought what was needed. We also ate leftovers and gift food for a few meals this week and that saved a bit of money too.

I went to a jumble sale and got a nice gift for the gift cupboard and a few items of clothing for when mine finally wear out, so that is a saving for the future. I also got 4 CDs, nice to have for listening to in the car. No more jumble sales for a while so that type of spending probably won't happen in May again.

We bought potatoes direct from the farm again as part of the food shopping for May and have been lucky with the new seeds for lettuce, strawberries, cucumbers and aubergines. The only ones which have yet to germinate are the peppers, so fingers crossed that they do something this week otherwise we'll have to re-plant.

A funny story was that I was told this week that I won a copy of the recipe book, "Home Economics", which I reviewed a few months ago. I did not know that I had won the competition so have already bought a copy using a voucher from Swagbucks ! The competition closing date was two months ago, so little wonder that I thought that I had won nothing and bought a copy ! Perhaps it will take a very long time to arrive as well ! When it does I'll pop it in the gift cupboard.

I got a free paper at the supermarket and a free Sunday paper using a voucher from MissShoestring. We also saved foil, washed out plastic bags, made meals ahead for busy nights and froze homemade bread for busy days as well. I sold another small box of books to Ziffit and got a free roll of sellotape from the Royal Mail survey.

All these frugal savings help to offset the rise in spending for things like council tax and MasterShoestring's emergency revision biscuit supply !

A Bluebell Walk

Yesterday evening we had a beautiful walk in the bluebell woods. I was anxious to go before they were all finished, But there were still plenty to see and we only saw one other person !

The smell was gorgeous !

I hope that you are enjoying the beauty of nature where you are for free too !

Ten Ways to Use Cooking Bacon

Delicious bacon in 500g packs is available at my local supermarket for 60p ! MasterShoestring likes a meal with meat in it and once a week this month we are having something with bacon in it. The catch is that the cheap bacon comes in lots of strange shaped pieces and thicknesses, but once you have cooked it and cut it into pieces it looks and tastes the same as regular rashers of bacon at less than half the cost.

Here are 10 ideas for what to do with your cooking bacon:-

1) Use the chopped pieces in a quiche.

2) Add the pieces to the top of your homemade pizza.

3) Use in a homemade chicken and bacon pie.

4) Add to an omelette.

5) Use in spaghetti carbonara.

6) Have a bacon butty.

7) Make a traditional bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.

8) Add to a traditional full English breakfast.

9) Make liver and bacon.

10) Keep any rinds for the birds !

May Challenges

There is beautiful blossom everywhere you look and I am looking forward to the weather going back to echoing the time of year !

May is always a busy time for us as there are 4 family birthdays, reports to be written and a car to service and MOT. This means a more than usually expensive month, but that's no problem when we have savings in the GIFT budget and the CAR SERVICE budget ! However, a few of our savings challenges will have to come to an end this month, MrShoestring's lost hat had to be replaced and now his fix for his slippers has come apart he will be needing a new pair this month. So that means the transformation of the 'buy no adult clothing' challenge into the " buy no adult clothing unless absolutely necessary" challenge ! After buying nothing new for 16 months I think it is alright to replace something which has worn out. I have been looking in the jumble sales but haven't found anything, so now the challenge will be to find a new pair at the best possible price.

The grocery challenge has also come to an end and I have already spent more money on food for May than I did for the entire month in April. It is all menu planned so we should need very little on top and as there is still a lot of fruit and vegetables in the freezers I think a good challenge for this month would be to run the stock down far enough that I can clean out and switch off one of the freezers.

I already have gifts for the birthdays and have sent one package off already. The postage costs were far higher than the cost of the gift and in future I shall have to take account the high cost of sending a gift abroad. I have a good list of easy to post gifts and shall try and make sure that I stick to those things or hand deliver gifts when we see people.

The biggest challenge to come is the public examinations coming up and if we can get through those and stick to the budget I shall be very happy ! Good luck to anyone else entering exam season !