The art of thrifty gifting

We all have that one month that seems to be full of occasions, mine's March. Neve is ten and Chase is two this month, I know, I planned that well. My dear brother Steven has also, very inconsiderately I might add, decided to get married in the same month and as if that wasn't enough we have Easter to look forward to too! So, with all these events to buy gifts for, and of course new outfits, I need to keep costs down without looking like a tight wad, although with my dad being a scouser, I could blame him-I joke he's actually very generous! I have a way of buying gifts without spending a fortune, that are memorable and pleasantly received. I will use the last gift I gave as an example. My brother's lovely fiancé Charlotte has not long found out she was pregnant, much to my delight, although I cursed as another gift would be needed. I scoured Asda for the cheapest things I could find, that would relate to pregnancy and bought a gift bag to put everything in. I ended up with:

2 notebooks, one for him to keep the baby appointments in and one for her to document the pregnancy and birth.

A pack of Twining's ginger tea for if she was feeling sick.

2 face masks and a box of bath salts to have a pamper night while they had the chance.

A pair of booties for the baby. 

A box of paracetamol for him for when the baby was born!

I wrapped all the items in silver tissue and labelled what each one was for and it went down a treat. All for just short of £7! 

This was just an example of one type of gift, but the main idea is put some thought into it then you can get away with spending a bit less and not look like a cheapskate. Use their age as inspiration, for instance you could get a ten-year-old ten things from the pound shop, or if it's a wedding anniversary use the colour, buy red for ruby, silver or gold for 25 or 50 years (obviously not real silver or gold, just the colour) or you could make it a funny gift and buy a friend who you know doesn't like the thought of ageing, a pack of incontinence pads, a cover your grey dye and some slippers! Let your imagination go wild and think how you can make the next occasion memorable for someone without breaking the bank.

Cheese...and cake?.....Am I hearing you right?

This has got to be my all time favourite dessert and since I made my first one, no shop bought cheesecake has been good enough since. I've been a lot busier since starting this blog. Keeping my shopping bill down to a minimum, does incur a bit more effort in the kitchen, but who can moan when the end results are a raspberry ripple cheesecake. The only downside is you will become really popular all of a sudden, people will want to travel from miles to share it! I had to share this one with 6 family members. My hubby hates it and is very vocal to announce his disgust when people come for dinner. The recipe/method here is for a basic raspberry cheesecake. You can do anything you like to make it your own. Swap the digestives for chocolate biscuits, gingernuts or even oaty biscuits make a nice crunchy base. Add flavours to the filling, chocolate, vanilla, lemon curd...anything let your imagination run wild! The decorating is the best part, and it really isn't hard to make a cheesecake look pretty. It's a bit like putting make-up on Miss World, she's already stunning but with that extra help...wow! Yes, I just compared a cheesecake to Miss World. It really is that good.

For the base:

250g biscuits

100g butter

For the filling:

400g cream cheese

80g icing sugar 

200ml double cream

Grease a 23cm flan dish

In a food processor (or in a plastic bag with a rolling pin) place the biscuits and blitz/bash into crumbs

Melt the butter and mix with the sandy crumbs

Line the base of your greased dish with the buttery biscuitness (I sometimes get possessed by Nigella sorry..) and pack it down with a spoon until firm.

Place in the freezer while you make the filling to set.

                                                     
In a mixer (or a bowl with some elbow grease) Place all the filling ingredients and mix until combined and fluffy At this stage if you were adding something else to the filling put it in now

Now for the best part. Take the base out of the freezer and put the filling on top all that's left is to decorate.

Unfortunately when I did this part there were no kids around and I had to lick the bowl clean (the sacrifices I make)

After decorating mine, there were a few too many raspberries so I made a coulis (raspberry sauce)

Push the raspberries through a sieve and add some icing sugar to taste

I simply dropped some blobs on top of the cheesecake and used some to smear artistically on the plates, nobody actually cared about this and I was left somewhat disappointed....

            

Birthday's on a budget

My son Chase on his 1st birthday

Nobody likes to think they're having to budget for someone's birthday, especially their own children's. Unfortunately in this day and age we haven't all got the funds to be buying our teenager, or indeed our 6 year old, the latest gadget. So how can we combat the feeling of guilt for not spending as much as the 'Jonses' up the road? Well, it's simple really, the gift of time is the one they will remember more than the latest fad, (that will probably be forgotten when replaced with the shinier newer version they year after.) I remember when my eldest, Olivia, was 6. I planned a cinema trip, something a lot of people do on a weekend for fun, however I told her we were going for a girly night out, just me and her. We spent the afternoon getting dolled up, doing our hair, putting lippy on and got in the car.

Olivia on her 6th birthday ready to go out

She was so excited, not knowing where she was going and that she was on a 'girl's night out'. I took her to Mcdonald's, which she was very happy with and then onto the cinema. We watched Shrek the 3rd, actually that's a lie, I watched Shrek the 3rd. Olivia thought when the adverts had finished it was time to go! She played musical chairs and asked constantly is it finished yet (maybe not the best of ideas!) But the point being, she still to this day (she's 14 almost 15 now) remembers our night out. Would she have remembered getting the pink Nintendo D.S she really wanted that I couldn't afford? Does she remember being disappointed she didn't get it? No. She just remembers the fun night out she had with mummy. I can guarantee you any moment you make special will be remembered and even carried on for generations to come. Try it when you are stuck for something to buy, even if it's because they have too much and you don't know what to buy them. You don't have to be skint to make memories, rich people can be happy too.....

My daughter Neve on her 4th birthday