A very belated merry Christmas and a belly full of boxing day dinner!!

Merry Christmas everyone hope you've all had a wonderful few days! I've been terrible and not blogged in ages partly because i flew back to England to visit the folks and have been spoilt rotten with lots of love and hot brews from my family! It is wonderful to be back home with mum (even though I am only 23 I moved out when I was 18 and have been living in northern Ireland for a while)

So since i've been back I had been invited to a gathering of old friends. A group of 12 of us got together to cook an early Christmas dinner to share. Everyone bought something to contribute(a great way of feeding a big group on the cheap and fun too!) We all chipped in to make beverages food and lets not forget the wonderfully decorated yule log! During the festivities we swapped our "found, free, homemade or acquired prezzies" and I came home with an amazing amount of thoughtful gifts! Including a free book of Christian stories and a customized t-shirt which I've totally worn everyday since :P

Christmas eve we attended a very magical Christmas carol service at our local church. The songs were beautiful especially as they were accompanied by a very talented trio of musicians! The church was lit by candles, we all had a few prayers and (this is where I spent a few pounds) gave money to a local charity. (I'm all for giving money for a good cause especially when it's to feed people at this time of year!) the whole community got together for mulled wine and mince pies after and it was a jolly good time!

Yesterday was a simple celebration with the folks, we swapped simple prezzies, had lots of yummy food (just the veggies for me) had a few drinks watched "white Christmas" and played games. Today is always my favourite day as I get t make and eat bubble and squeak! A plate of bubble, cheese and pickles is a plate of happiness!

Me and my mummy! She's a beaut!

The beautiful Christmas table (mum dug out the original Christmas table cloth which has festive characters on but this photo doesn't do it justice) complete with an old Santa hat each! I didn't get a chance to take a pic of the dinner as everyone was too hungry and excitable about crackers!

The amazing bubble and squeak!

This really doesn't look much of a meal but for me it was just perfect (the bubble was really thick, we squeezed every last veggie in that frying pan!!!)

How were your Christmas celebrations? Did you have a yummy dinner? Celebrate frugally by having leftovers the next day? Scrimping where you can? Or go out with a bang? 

Tis the season to be jolly

For those of you who have been reading my blog you'll know the amount of love and thought that goes into my Christmas plans. For me Christmas is not about splurging the little pennies I have by giving in to today's advertisements. I start my preparations long before most people, I put thought into every gift, book my flight home to family as early as possible to get the cheapest seat (this time I got a return flight for £66) and organize a lot of outings. As I've previously mentioned my friends and I have a Christmas pact the gifts have to be free, found, homemade of for a good cause. This year in April me and a friend purchased a medium sized hardback plain notebook in a supermarket costing £1.99 (something along those lines) and have created a journal for each other. Last night at 3am I finished my copy! I have filled it with experiments, tasks,   boredom solvers etc (I can't write too much about this in case a certain somebody has a sneak peak at my blog).

When I arrive in England I will be spending lots of time with friends and family, having movie nights, eating lots of food, celebrating good health and good company! I sadly haven't been able to bake anything yet as I can't take baked goods in my suitcase, so I will be have a mass baking day with my mum in England on the 21st. I plan to make scottish shortbread following the recipe from frugaldom's blog, bread and butter pudding (as it's my stepdad's favourite) mince pies, mulled wine and or spiced apple cider, dried oranges (for decorations and to make the house smell wonderful-possible potpourri ) and of course help with the Christmas dinner. 

Free food and free films= a wonderful long weekend!

Having recently moved to northern Ireland and therefore having a new address i was able to sign up to the 30 day free trial of love film (again). I must say i was a little suspicious of the free trial at first wondering why they needed my card details and how it would work but i cancelled with no problems after 29 days and didn't have to pay a penny!

So this weekend whilst pondering life over my hot morning coffee, i was greeted by a small white envelope. After excitedly ripping open the package i found series 1 of Alcatraz and the new Disney film brave. This may seem a bit of a bore to most people, however our household does not own a tv license or channels and therefore dvds are our only form of entertainment (making the 30 day free trial even more exciting). So the challenge now is to watch as many dvds for free over the next few weeks...challenge accepted!

The other website I was able to sign up for (again due to the recent change in address) was Graze. I first tried this in London and thought it rather wonderful, a box with 4 compartments (each individually sealed) consisting of tasty but healthy snacks ranging from olives, breads, dried fruits, nuts etc. One single box is usually £3.49 which includes delivery...however there was no way i would pay half of that for a snack! So i received my free box and cancelled my subscription. No strings attached cancel anytime etc.
So after a very cold day of northern Irish wind and rain I returned home to find this absolute BEAUTY waiting for me to open and devour!

My box today consisted of:

•  Slightly sweetened popping corn (ready for the microwave) 
• Blueberry swirl (yogurt covered raisins, dried cranberries and blackberries
• Some cheddar oat cakes with caramelized onion chutney
• afternoon tea sachet and a slice of blackcurrant and apple crumble

For those of you wondering what a graze box looks like or are interested in signing up check it out here. The first one is free and you can cancel anytime. I do NOT receive anything for sharing this link with you, it's just out of kindness, free food and films are a must! Enjoy

http://www.graze.com/uk

www.lovefilm.com

Anyone else out there get as much enjoyment out of free food or entertainment? I'm currently sitting my the fire having just watched a free DVD and had a sneaky midnight snack that didn't cost me a single penny. Rather happy with how this weekend turned out!

Christmas is around the corner!

So the festive season is upon us, there's frost on the ground (in N.I anyway) the adverts are flashing everywhere you look attempting to suck you in to commercialism and spend every penny in your bank (or overdraft). Well for me i'm holding two fingers up to this idea of Christmas, as I don't believe this is how it should be celebrated! Christmas is about family, good food, all mucking in together, building snowmen, board games hot mulled wine and thoughtful gifts (usually handmade or cheap tokens). Especially since i've been living across the water from my family i'm sure just having me home for the festive season will be a good enough present hehe :P

A few years back me and a friend made a pact for xmas gifts. It had to be free, found "acquired" homemade or for a good cause. For example anything you find on the street, freebies from websites/samples in the post, homemade gifts or a thoughtful gift in a charity shop (up to £5)  Having this challenge for xmas has been a much more exciting use of my time, and we always end up with great gifts each!

What's your idea of a great Christmas? How much will you be spending on presents and food? Will you give in to the temptation of high street shops with their sparkly advertisements and fake snow? Or will you be creating a low budget, homemade, heartfelt xmas like myself?

I'm still rather excited that our garden backs on to the local forest! Moving to the other side of the UK has made me more aware of such beautiful things we can sometimes take advantage of; for instance beautiful scenery. (especially when it's free) It's sickening to think how much some people pay to visit gardens/woodland trails/nature reserves when there's plenty out there for free! The sad thing is the "free ones" are usually bursting with free berries to pick, local wildlife to spot, little pathways and streams that naturally occur and generally have a better sense of adventure about them. Grab your boots and woolly hat and go explore!

Us supporting our local forest ^^^ 

So other than Halloween preparations the house has been filled with lots of job applications, lots of tea and cake meetings with family, and the constant challenge to not spend a penny unless needed. 

Our latest achievement being FREE homemade blackberry jam! There's no catch, honest! We picked the blackberries on an early morning walk in our local forest, brought them home to wash and boil, added sugar, simmered and poured in an empty jar, wallah! 

Berries found in Ballykelly forest, Northern Ireland.

Simmering the berries

The final product

There's something very satisfying about creating something for free! I'm interested to see if any of you are as frugal with food as I am? Any creations you'd like to share? 

For those wonderful people who sometimes browse upon my blog, a big fat SORRY for the lack of posts recently; It's been a bit of an "up and down" last few weeks here.
The big halloween party has been and gone, it was great having the challenge of attempting to make/find all of the decorations this year! I was lucky enough to not be working and to have my two best friends fly from London to stay for the celebrations!
Here's a little peek at the adventures we got up to:

Amy being a perfect model for my Halloween make-up experiment :)

The top of our stairs (complete with coffin, shackles and lots of blood )

One of le pumpkins (also one of the only things we purchased for halloween)

What did everyone else get up to for Halloween? Parties/scary movies/quiet night in?