Thrifty But Glam

2016 is set to see a huge strain on our finances as I have just started maternity leave!  In an effort to save money I am operating a zero waste policy in the kitchen.  After rummaging in cupboards the other day I realised I had not only an almost full jar of Nutella that was just sitting there, but also a small amount of powdered almonds left over from the Christmas baking.  Something had to be created from these two wonderful 'leftovers'. I am a huge fan of cinnamon rolls and a bread maker version had been on my pinterest wishlist for ages!  I'm also quite in love with an amazing chocolate brioche that Aldi sells and was wondering if I could come up with something in the same family to squash my craving.  The lightbulb moment came when I decided to combine two recipes; the breadmaker cinnamon roll recipe and one I found for Nutella and almond rolls! The process for this is super easy and only involves about 20 minutes of actual work, the bread maker doe...

So it's January and a lot of us are feeling the burn from a big Christmas money splurge.  Every year we say that we will save throughout the year and every year some unexpected event or bill clears out any plans that we had to put money aside for Christmas. What if I told you that you could pay for Christmas by putting aside a few pennies a day?  At first I thought that there is no way that you could save a reasonable amount in this way, but the figures don't lie.  The basics are on the 1st day of the year you save 1p, on the 2nd 2p, on the 3rd 3p, on the 4th 4p and so on.  The most you will ever put away is £3.65, and at the end of the year you will have earned a cool £667.95 (£671.61 in 2016 as it's a leap year!).  In fact it's only part way through April when you will need to start putting away more than £1 a day, plenty of time to recover from last years Christmas over-spend. There are a few people out there that prefer to start the money challenge backw...

Well 2015 is over and today we are enjoying the first day of 2016! 2015 was certainly eventful and although I lost my much beloved Nan, we have come through the year being thankful for all that happened too.  I am currently 8 and a bit months pregnant and we finally moved into our forever house a few weeks ago. As we move into the new year I'm in a quandary about what to do with this blog.  Trying to conceive has been such a huge part of my life for over 5 years, but that chapter is about to come to an end.  My blogging and crafting hobbies helped enormously with regaining a sense of self that our miscarriages and struggles robbed me of, but at the same time I don't know where my new role as a Mother will leave these priorities. Most importantly I am all too aware of the lovely people that read this blog that are still trying to achieve their dream of parenthood and I don't want them to have to read about the new baby and have it feel as if it's being rubbed in....