Have yourself a Merry Thrifty Christmas

The gift of giving shouldn’t leave you bankrupt !

• Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose - looking at what you already have and making use of it is the easiest and cheapest way to save money at Christmas.

• Make a plan for Christmas, work out what you can afford, create a budget and stick to it.

• Cut out unnecessary presents. Make a list of the children and close family and consider excluding extended family, friends and colleagues.

• Agree a price cap (£10/£5), have a Secret Santa or give a donation to charity.

• Find the bargains, deals and early discounts and buy when you see them.

• Consider home made gifts / decorations

Home Made with Love from Personally Organised x

Here are some ideas for a Home Made Christmas

• Scrabble Word Picture (arrange Scrabble tiles into words and frame them)

• Pompom gifts - pompoms are easy to make - there are lots of amazing ideas out there of things that you can make as decorations and gifts.

• Thoughtful Jars - create and decorate a jar and fill it with

  • Wishes & Dreams

  • Fun Activities for the New Year

  • Happy Memories

  • Date Night Ideas

  • Children’s Activities / Days Out

  •  Pine Cone Crafts - pine cones are abundant this time of year and can be made into lots of amazing Christmas decorations and gifts. Give a keen gardener a home made Pinecone Birdseed Feeder

  • Home Made Sweet Treats - hot chocolate bombs - chocolates/biscuits - jams/pickles

  • My Favourite Recipes Recipe Book - collect together some of your favourite recipes and put them together in a lovely book - leave room for them to add their own

Great ways to save you money in the kitchen

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been chatting to everyone I know to ask what their ‘top tips’ for saving money in the kitchen are - here is what I found out …

Organise your Food Containers. Match bottoms to lids and recycle any that don’t match up.

Use Food Containers to store your Batch Cooking. Cooking uses lot of gas/electricity, batch cook as many meals as you can and simply reheat in the microwave (cheaper to use than an oven). For maximum savings, batch cook meals that can be eaten cold (pasta/rice dishes).

Food Containers can also be used to Save Your Leftovers. Food in the bin, is money in the bin. Wasted food is a huge waste of money.  Use your food containers to refrigerate/freeze your leftovers. Stats say that the average UK family spends £470 a year on food that's binned.

TOP TIPS 4 LEFTOVERS

• Soup is a great meal to make from leftovers and is great for a quick meal to warm you up on a cold day

• Use vegetable peelings to make tasty stock

Make Better Use of Your Freezer and freeze anything you don’t think you’ll use for a while or any batch-cooked meals you want for later in the week. Buy in bulk, portion and freeze. 

Never put hot/warm food in the fridge/freezer as it will increase the temperature and use more energy to lower the temperature down again. Always make sure that food is cool before its stored and Always Label your stored food.

When defrosting food, pop it in the fridge. Firstly it saves money on energy (microwave defrosting etc) And secondly, it helps to keep your fridge cool, so your fridge uses less energy.

Check your Expiry Dates regularly so that food is not wasted.

Use your Pan Lids. If you pop your pan lid on when cooking, it will hold the heat in the pan and enable you to turn the hob down and save energy.

Steam Your Veg and cut down on your cooking times. By steaming veg instead of boiling or roasting you will cut down on energy costs. 

Drink More Water, it’s good for you and it fills you up. Save money and forget bottled water – invest in a water filter system and drink home filtered water.  

Turn off the Oven just before you’ve finished cooking (works for the hob too). The food will still keep cooking for a short while with the heat in the oven/hob.

Get Organised & Save Money

Saving Money in the Kitchen

The ‘cost of living crisis’ is everywhere at the moment and its affecting most households across the country. As we feel the pinch of these rising costs, anything that can be done to save those pennies and generate money from the things that we already have in our homes that we no longer need will only be helpful to us all.

My hope for you is to share some practical, valuable and easy-to-use advice on helping you to organise your life a bit better and help you save some money - now when you need it the most

How to Save Money on Food Shopping

The best advice for saving money on food would be my 4 step shopping plan (this works for clothes shopping too).

1.      Plan

2.      Check

3.      List

4.      Stick

1.      Plan (your meals in advance)

You don’t need to create a four course menu for your family for each meal, but planning in advance can really help save money in the kitchen.  Meal planning helps to make sure that you cut down/reduce food waste and ensures that you don’t overbuy.  

Meal planning has benefits other than saving money.  Planning can help you to eat/provide a balanced diet and it also encourages you to be more creative with your meals and reduce food boredom.

2.      Check (what you already have)

When you have your meal plan for the week, check the food items that you already have in your fridge/freezer/cupboards at home. Make sure that all of the food items that you already have are able to be incorporated into your meals for the week. Bulk buying is a great way to save money (see shopping tips below), however if you are holding lots of stock in your cupboards this can often become food waste if it is not used.

3.      (Make a) List

Who doesn’t love a good list? Make a list of the things that you are missing from your meal plan, once you’ve removed all of the items that you already hold in your kitchen stock. 

4.      Stick (to your list)

This is the most difficult, but the most important and cost effective part of the process. Sticking to the list, not being distracted by everything else in the shop is not always easy to do and I’ll be the first person to put my hand up and admit that this is not something that I stick too.