Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

Gosh, what an original post title! In anticipation of the weekend sun(!) last Friday, my father in law suggested we all head to Frinton on Sunday (9th March) and, never one to turn down a day trip or the seaside, I swiftly agreed! We headed off early (for everyone else, whereas Bubbah and I were up from 5:30 *yawn* and totally ready when everyone else was just waking up) and managed to hit the beach before it got crazy busy.

I'd never been to Frinton before and was completely besotted with how picturesque it was (or "stuck in the 50s" as others said) but then I like that kind of smaller community vibe as it reminds me of growing up spending summers in Hayling Island/Margate mere minutes away from their respective beaches and practically living there before returning to my grandparent's house for a picnic tea/fish and chips!

Bubbah had never been to the seaside before so I was very excited about how he'd react. He loves his baths and playing in the water, and happily spends hours in the sandpit at my mum's house. However he completely freaked out at the feeling of the sand on his feet and made me put his socks and shoes back on! He also spent an hour running screaming from the waves as they rolled in and got anywhere near him.

Finally, after that hour of many screaming runs and dog chasing (the boy is dog obsessed and the quickest flash of dog would send him toddling after them chanting "dog, dog, dog, dog!" until I either distracted him or the kind dog owners stopped their dog and let him say hello) he finally ventured into the sea after daddy and absolutely loved it!

Lots of splashing (and falling/bumping down deliberately) later I managed to drag him out of the sea (now kicking and screaming about coming away from the sea rather than running kicking and screaming away from it) and get him changed out of his absolutely soaked clothes and into Frinton high street to grab some lunch, whereupon Bubbah promptly fell asleep in his pushchair!

After a quick tea of fish and chips (so filling) we got home just past Bubbah's bedtime and, clearly affected by all that lovely sea air, he just about managed to stay awake for me to get him in his PJs and into bed and not a peep was heard from him until his normal wake up time the next day!

Budget busting: stock check

Like many people at the moment, our budget is down to a very fine line. Hubby gets paid and things are great until about the week or so before he gets paid again and it gets a bit more tight. So to help our budget and reduce feelings of panic I began looking into way to keep on top of our money. One such way is a monthly/fortnightly stock check.

Now clearly I'm talking about my house and not a shop but the principle is much the same. So once a month or fortnightly (depending on how tight the purse strings are) I drag everything out of the cupboard, fridge and freezer (one at a time or I'd end up putting peas in the fridge or something silly) and list down to the minute detail what we have.

This works in several ways, firstly it helps reduce waste. I did a stock check last week and found four tins of coconut milk. I barely ever use coconut milk but went through a phase where I made curries or coconut rice, And then I forgot about it and the tins sat languishing at the back of the cupboard. Thankfully because I'd forgotten about tins over something fresh there's a bigger scope for using something before it goes off. When it's something fresh that's looking a bit limp I'm faced with one of three choices; chuck it, freeze it or cook it. Thankfully most fresh things we have can be frozen in some form or another!

The fridge usually goes next and this is where the second bit of help comes in. By knowing what I have in that needs using up quickly, it helps with meal planning. I haven't posted a meal plan on here for a while but I do it every week. When I know I have a load of mince in the fridge that needs using up next week I can use my lists from the cupboard/freezer to see what I can make with it (e.g. chilli, lasagne, spag bol, burgers or rissoles) which in turn saves us money for the next week's food shop.

Somewhat unconventionally it can also give you a few nice surprises. As well as the coconut milk languishing at the back of my cupboard, during the last stock check I found an unopened pack of m&s Dutch shortcake biscuits (a firm favourite of mine from childhood) that had clearly been pushed to the back of the cupboard by other things.

Yummy!


So, let me know in the comments below, do you ever do a stock take?