So we’re midway through the School Holidays.

If your family is anything like mine, you’ll be forking out for day trips, ice-creams and McDonald’s not to mention being ripped off by holiday companies because this is the only time that you can actually go on holiday without being chastised by the school head mistress for taking holidays in term time!!

And as if all that wasn’t enough, the day soon arrives when you have to buy the dreaded new school uniform. Fortunately, plenty of shops out there offer cheap uniform options so it’s not as hideously expensive as it was.

The big spend for me though, is shoes. I have bought cheap shoes in the past, but it’s a false economy. They barely last more than a few weeks, so I often end up spending more over the course of a year than I would if I’d paid more in the first place.

It got me thinking why shoe shops don’t do back to school deals. I have three boys and it would be a big saving for me of shoe shops offered something like buy one get one half price of if the big brands produced famous footwear coupons.

Having worked in the fashion industry, I know what a huge mark-up retailers place on shoes and clothes, so I’m sure they could absorb.

a little money off here and there and it would be of huge benefit to harassed, cash strapped mums like me.

The e-book is coming along at a pace. Now that I’m finally in my flow, after months of ‘umming’ and ‘ahhhing’ , it’s coming along easy and effortlessly, for the time being anyway!

I consider myself very privileged to work from home and on the days that toddler is in playgroup, I can spend a couple of hours writing. I usually stop when the kids get back and then continue once youngest is in bed.

But increasingly, eldest has been stealing my netbook to do his homework on. I obviously don’t mind this as his homework comes first, it just that it leaves me at a bit of a loose end and I end up watching rubbish on the TV!

OH has his beloved apple mac, which even god himself is not allowed to touch, so I would even think about asking to use that, plus his fingers are permanently glued to it. It’s slowing dawning on me that it will only be a matter of time before we become a three laptop family, especially once eldest goes full throttle into GCSE’s.

Eldest went out last night and so I managed to bag my laptop for long enough to look at some refurbished netbooks. Not a bad price to be fair and as OH is a computer whizz, I feel confident buying something second-hand.

So it looks like we’ll be buying yet another laptop. I remember writing all my GCSE (or  16 plus as it was called back in the day) work by hand. It wasn’t until I left school and went to college that I started to use a typewriter of all things!!

I wonder whatever happened to those?

Some time ago I wrote a couple of blog posts revolving around feeding a family on a budget.

I received more interest and comments about the recipes that I posted than any other blogging before or after. Even now, almost two years later, people still ask me about it and so I’ve decided to take the plunge and write an e-book.

If you would like to have one of your recipes included in the book,  you can email me at dalyandie@gmail.com

The recipes have to be cheap to produce and be vegetarian.

I look forward to reading all your ideas and suggestions.

Having a teenager in the house is a very interesting experience. I could sit here and write at length about all the things I have learnt being the mother of a teenage boy, but I feel that may be the subject for an e-book!

Today I am going to focus yet again on what we are going to do with him once he’s finished sixth form.

My eldest is a good lad. He’s so funny he has me crying with laughter most of the time. We’ve learnt not to speak to him before 8:30am, to provide him with unlimited snacks and that he can argue us under a table.

In fact, so long as we stick to points one and two, life is pretty much plain sailing.

But now, as he approaches the fifth year (is that year 11, I can’t tell?) and his GCSE’s loom, we are looking to the future. For him, going to University seems like a million years away, but we know only too well how fast these next three years will go.

In fact it’s not so much the choice of course that worries us, more like how he’ll survive out in the wild once he’s flown the nest. He can just about tell the difference between the washing machine and tumble drier but can’t use either and his cullinary skills are limited to instant noodles. Where as middle son can follow a recipe and bakes gorgeous cakes at the age of 9, eldest struggles to turn the kettle on for his pot noodles.

After my original brainwave to send him to live with my brother and attend Sydney University , I’m beginning to have thoughts about him staying at home and completeing an online I T degree .

I haven’t mentioned the online I T degree to OH yet, as he’s convinced that all children should leave home at 18, but at least I’ll know where he is, what his up to and help him make his pot noodles!

OH and I were chatting last night about the impact of the credit crunch, in particular on families.

We were laughing about the different strategies we have used of the last 18months to see ourselves through the tough times. We are grateful for agencies such as the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) who have given amazing advice and even thankful for payday advance companies who loan money out before payday.

But my big shout out goes to FLM loans who must be the most user friendly, helpful, genuine, funny, real and down to earth loan company I have ever come across.

Loans, and advancements on your pay cheque are not ideal, and I’m certainly not advocating them, but we’ve all been there when times are tough. If used correctly and sensibly they can be a life saver…they were for us.

How much are you spending on your kids this Christmas?

It’s a dilemma I have every year, especially as we have four between us.

Both eldest and step-daughter end up having two Christmases, one with us and one with their other parent, our ex’s. So they get two piles of pressies and I don’t think that’s right.  In fact step-daughter said to me that the best thing about her parents divorcing was that she gets two birthdays and two christmases!

Our other two children only get one boring christmas with us and as far as they are concerened it’s just not fair! Maybe OH and I should split up to make it more even!

Once upon a time, my ex used to give me money towards our sons christmas gifts and we’d buy him presents between us. But not any more, as he’s got older my ex wants to buy him his own gifts, usually stuff that I won’t buy him like horrible,blood spilling PS3 games!

So how much to spend on each of them?

This year I announced that they could have 10 things on their lists and no more! Last year the lists just grew and grew, they were even adding things to them on Christmas eve!

So far it’s working and it’s made them sit down and think about what they really want. I’m then going to hand the lists around the family and get them to choose a gift from the list. I’m hoping that by the time the lists get back to us, they’ll only be one or two things left.

I’ll then choose a gift for each child and they can have that and a  stocking filled with cheaper treats. We’re also going away for Christmas this year and I am NOT lugging a load of stuff with us, just to bring it all back again!

How much are you going to spend this year and where do you draw the line?

Ok…this is just getting plain spooky now!

You remember the Prosperity Game that we have been doing every day (Thanks to Esther and Jerry Hicks and the Teachings of Abraham ‘Ask and it is given’)…well….one of the things we keep ‘buying’ each day is property, mainly holiday home/ rental property.

We’ve had great fun finding holiday homes both here in the UK and abroad, however the reality is that our cashflow wouldn’t allow us to buy one right now.

So…where is this going….Ok I’ll tell you!

A couple of weeks ago, O.H had a letter regarding his pension and had a brain wave about cashing it in to use as a deposit on a property…oh…except you can’t do that until you retire at 65! 25 years from now…’But I need the money now!’ I heard him telling his Financial Advisor to no avail.

So there was only one thing he could do in a situation like that…search the Internet for some information.

After a bit of ‘googling’ he came up with SIPPS…I won’t bore you with what a SIPP is (Self Invested Personal Pension) partly because I don’t quite understand, but you can read about it at Money Saving Expert.

I’m going to cut a very long story short now.

After doing some sums we realised we had £27,000 in pensions between us which we could then invest in some overseas property.

To cut the story even shorter we met up with a friend of my O.H and in less that an hour and a half we had put our pension into a property in Cape Verde and not a penny down!!

Not only that, but the rental we will earn each year, will be put straight back into the pension, giving us a far better return on our money and, if our calculations are correct, the chance to retire at 55!

How exciting!!! And what had we been asking the Universe over and over for…an overseas property and now we have one with the least amount of effort ever!

What a brilliant day!