Littlemummy.Com

I’m not a great fan of these type of posts but I am desperate to tell you a few things;

1. Please check out this post ‘SexEd from Early Years’ at British Parent Bloggers and get involved in the discussion.

2. I have a cool new three piece suite, I’m pretty excited as a) it’s the first ‘new’ suite I’ve ever had b) It’s a funky teal and grey and brown colour c) The chair is a swivelling, rocking, recliner d) Erin hasn’t spilled anything on it yet and it’s been…like…24 hours already…

3. I have a new job working as a food and beverage associate at a fancy restaurant located in a country club, and to be honest I’m really excited to be back working even though it’s just ten hours a week waitressing, it’ll be nice just to have a change of pace a couple of days a week.  Oh yeah, and I’m looking forward to picking up some recipe ideas and tips.

4. The Uni degree is motoring on, my second essay has been sent in and I’m at the mercy of the tutor now.  Wish me luck.

5. Does anyone know how to upload photos on the most up to date wordpress? I keep getting HTTP error messages.

6. Littlemummy.com turned two last month and I have renewed the domain for like ten years or something so I have the best of intentions to keep up the postings.

7. I’m looking for some fresh reading material, leave your URL in the comments and I’ll add to my newsreader. ta.

The growing season began in March, I was so keen I started in February, deciding initially to start with a few pots (next year I hope to progress to raised beds and then a small greenhouse).  So far we’ve harvested (with mixed success) lettuce, chives, parsley, strawberries, rosemary and basil.

Lettuce

I used wooden trough and sowed a ‘mixed bowl’ variety.  I’ve managed about three salads but think I’ll hold off growing again until I get a greenhouse as I found the leaves easily drown especially during a downpour - and this is scotland after all.

Chives

This has grown well on a window sill and I have used in salads and in dips.

Parsley

I started this indoors and then moved outside, it grows like crazy but not when potted with basil - no love there…  I have used this in various recipes and for garnish.

Stawberries

We are currently growing these in a large terracotta pot but next year I plan to try and start from seed and move into hanging baskets.

Rosemary

I cheated and bought an established plant but I plan on planting more along with thyme directly into the garden.

Basil

This has been the most successful, it thrives indoors and I’ve managed to pick enough leaves to make two batches of pesto (I’ve included the recipe below).

Pesto Recipe

I’m not sure how pesto is ’supposed’ to be made but this makes a fresh and lemony pesto that’s nice with pasta, chicken, mozzarella or focaccia.

Ingredients;

Basil (two handfuls)

Garlic infused olive oil (one slug)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (two slugs)

Parmesan (small handful)

Toasted Pine Nuts (small handfull)

Juice of half a lemon

Freshly ground salt and pepper to taste (needs a generous amount)

Simply whiz up the ingredients in a food processor and serve

I’m back after a summer hiatus of three weeks, although, in my defence we were on holidays for two of those weeks - we stayed home for the first week, or rather, went out every day to galas, breakfast barbecue’s and swimming. During the second week we went to a family owned caravan near pitlochry, we swam everyday (Erin loves swimming now) and generally lounged about, it was great.

Back at home things are revving up with my OU course, the second lot of assignments are due on tuesday and I’m not exactly on schedule… on the upside I have been winning at poker, which is nice.

That’s all for now, but hopefully the posting schedule will be back to at least a couple times a week.

My social science course with the Open University (OU) started in May. The first ‘package’ arrived late in April and included workbooks, cd’s, dvd’s, study pamphlets and the main course books. To be honest it all looked a little intimidating and I wondered where to start, until I found the most important document - the study calendar.

The study calendar provides a week by week guide as to where you should be on the course and what you need to achieve to stay on target. I started at Week 1 and tentatively turned to the corresponding materials, in hindsight I needn’t have worried, the way the course is laid out is excellent - way beyond my expectations. Each stage leads onto the next, nurturing you from ‘headless chicken student’ into ‘I’m in control student’, and that’s after only 5 weeks!

The materials are varied as mentioned above and of excellent quality, each study period can involve a multi-medial approach which I find keeps the course fresh and interesting. My course is split into four sections divided as such by the Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA) due at the end of each “block”. The TMA is sent and returned with tutor notes to help you improve, I’ve just received my first back and was pleased to see a score of 80%, there’s a long way to go but at least it’s a start.

I’d highly recommend anyone who has ever considered doing something similar to look into it. I’ve found it easy to manage around other commitments and it’s worth mentioning again that this course hasn’t cost me anything as it was fully funded, the next will probably cost me a couple of hundred pounds but I definitely think it’s worth it.

I was fortunate enough to receive a big pile of books from Hill and Knowlton a couple of weeks ago. I decided not to give them to Erin all at once but to spread them out over the summer (read: keep them as a secret stash for when I want half an hour to blog!), the first one doled out was Kipper’s Rainy Day, I should mention that all the books are from the Kipper series and were given in connection with Fairy’s “Make Story Time Special” initiative.

I have to say this book really set the standard, we spent a really pleasant half an hour reading and re-reading the story (which I won’t spoil for you…), although I can tell you it threw up discussions about the weather, animals and the noises they make. It’s a lift the flap book which adds to the enjoyment, for Erin not me (there so rough with them…!). I’d highly recommend this book for a toddler aged child, it’s definitely up there as one of the best books we have.

I love walnut bread, but at £1.19 for a small loaf it’s pretty expensive and I therefore have to ensure that when I do splurge I use every morsel….and because it’s yummy and I can’t bear to leave a crumb!

1. Simply sliced and eaten with quality butter, I like Lurpack.

2. Toasted with a little quality cheese.

3. Blended and used as breadcrumbs to top pies/pasta bakes.

4. Chopped chunky and dipped in olive oil and balsamic (I like raspberry vinegar too.)

5. Sliced and used for an open sandwhich.

6. Cubed, doused in olive oil and baked. Use these croutons in a nice salad, I like chicken and bacon salad or a simple green salad with parmesan and pine nuts.

7. Cubed and doused in olive oil with a slug of balsamic, bake, then plop into a nice bowl of tomato soup.

ACF stands for America’s Cheapest Family by the way, it’s a book I bought last year after it was given a positive review at The Simple Dollar. The book covers all aspect of saving money and spending wisely, one of the biggest takeaways though has been their budgeting system.

Like most people (I think?) I used to muddle along and as long as my bank balance was ‘in the black’ I thought I was doing just fine, until of course the car broke down and we hadn’t accounted for the unseen cost of repair, which is where it all starts to get complicated and stressful if you don’t have savings. The ACF budgeting system takes into account these seemingly ‘unseen’ costs and factors them into a budgeting system that is easy to use and provides piece of mind that when something unexpected happens the funds are there to take care of it. Sound good?

I manage my budgeting system in a (very) simple spreadsheet (no formula required! Unless you want to). Along the top I have all the categories in which we spend money, ie insurance, clothing, car, mortgage, food etc.. I take the projected annual cost of each category and divide by 52. The amount left is the amount I must put into that category or ‘account’ each week, we are paid weekly, you may choose to do this part monthly. The projection is easy to figure out if it’s a monthly direct debit I times by 12 then divide by 52. If it’s something more difficult like the car (which includes repair!) I allow for the most expensive car repair we’ve had (£650) and then divide by 52 and hey presto. For household maintenance I allow around 1% annually for the value of our home which is a generally accepted amount ie if my home’s market value is £100,000 then I allow £1000 per year, which sounds about right.

So as we are paid weekly (and this is much easier if you have internet banking), I breakdown the pay into these categories, leftover money is put into a seperate ‘frivolous spending’ account. All bills and spending which is accountable comes out of the first account, I manually minus the money out of the categories each morning. This sounds like a complicated process, but in reality it takes me around five minutes or less each morning.

I’ve been testing this budgeting system for nearly six months and I can honestly say I’ve never worried less about money. I’ve nearly always kept savings for unseen disasters, however, it’s all too easy to spend those savings, not when you’re using this budgeting system, it’s easier to realise that eventually these ‘unseen’ events will happen and that you’re actually just saving up for when they do. Instead of the event being a financial disaster it becomes just another bill, one that you’ve already budgeted for! Now that the routine is in place it’s so simple to manage that I can’t ever see me not doing it now.

How do you manage the household finances?

I’ve been planning the family’s evening (main) meal ever since I first moved out of home at age 17. I’ve found it to be a useful practise that has helped keep our meals fresh, in the interesting sense, and fresh, in the literal sense too, ingredients can be purchased in the correct quantity and stored appropriately ie chicken for a meal later on in the week can be frozen. I always leave one day free which allows for meals out/takeaways or family invitations. If none of the above materialise then we eat leftovers, or from a reserve of ‘freezer food’.

I usually plan several weeks ahead, taking inspiration from magazines, cookery programmes and books that I have. Recently though I’ve been wondering if there are any ways to improve on my current routine.

If you’re a meal planner how do you manage breakfast, lunch and snacks?

There’s been a lot of coverage recently about an impending recession, the american mortgage crisis, and the rising price of food and fuel. Is there anyone who hasn’t given at least a quick thought to their monthly budget and looked for where they could trim some fat? I have, and I’ve also been wondering how I’m doing with my food budget compared to everyone else. This isn’t an opportunity for one upmanship, I’m actually more interested in finding those who are spending less, and how?

Please answer the following questions either on your own blog (and link here, so I can find you) or in the comments.

Here are the questions and my answers.

1.) Predominantly, where do you shop? Tesco

2.) How often do you shop? Weekly

3.) How much (on average) do you spend? £60(this includes household products and nappies)

4.) How many people are you buying for? 2 adults, one infant

5.) Do you do any of the following - meal plan, make a list, have a budget? Yes to all

6.) If at all, how have you tried to lower your spending on food and household items? I started meal planning and buying online to keep my costs down, recently though I have had to increase my budget from £50 to £60 as I was really feeling the squeeze.

Thanks for taking part.

I haven’t done a post for review me for ages, perhaps a year or more - however, this offer really caught my imagination.

LVUTV

It’s basically a website that has collated the information of colleges across America into an easy digestible format for prospective students. Students can study the wealth of information and make comparisons before settling on a shortlist.

You can search for colleges by a number of criteria, including rank, state and size. Each college website offers various other information including the basics such as address and phone number through to the average cost of supplies and selectivity. The site offers a dedicated facility to make college comparisons based on statistical data - this alone would be an invaluable tool.

But there’s more…perhaps the most exciting feature is the student reviews - short video clips of students providing the insider knowledge that can only be gleaned from those in the know, like what the classes are like, where the best bars are, and what the general atmosphere is like. This feature also has a search function, so you can type in anything you like and it will find the most appropriate video clips.

I think LVUTV is invaluable to someone considering their academical future. I’m already wondering if the UK has anything similar, because this is very impressive both in it’s conception and useability.