Slow cooking a whole chicken.

Most people probably know that it's more cost effective to buy your chicken whole than in bits, right? Considerably less people probably know that cooking your cost effective chicken in a slow cooker instead of the oven is even more cost effective.

I don't know the exact ins and outs, but I can only assume the smaller size and lower temperatures mean slow cookers use less energy.

After a quick internet search, it became clear that a lot of people are wary about not killing off bacteria in a slow cooked chicken. Well, again, I'm not an expert by any means but I do know enough not to be worried. The legal limit in Scotland for serving hot food in restaurants/cafes etc is 82 degrees. At this temperature most microscopic beasties that could live inside you and make you ill will be dead. My particular slow cooker boils water (slowly...) on it's high setting, so reaching 82 degrees is no trouble.

That being said, I would definitely recommend allowing your chicken to come to room temperature before putting it in the slow cooker, and make sure you cook for long enough for the insides to cook completely (6hours on high was enough for our small chicken).

Anyway, I'm rather getting off the point, which is cheapness! Asda are doing 2 whole chickens for £7 so a £3.50 chicken can be slow cooked, pulled apart and split up to make many meals.

Ours was particularly small, so each breast will make a meal for 2 and the leg meat will make lunch for the Husband for 2 days. 6 meals worth of meat for £3.50? Quite the bargain, if you ask me.

Before I sign off, I have one tiny disclaimer about cooking a chicken this way- it is not for the faint hearted. Your chicken will fall to bits once you get it out. There will be bones everywhere, and you will be able to see the chickens innards. If you're the kind of person who gets a bit squeamish about meat, this is probably not for you. Once I had finished with our chicken last night, it looked a bit grizzly.

So don't say you weren't warned.

VIP Week at Dorothy Perkins

Let me start off by saying - I frickin' love Dotty P's. Love 'em. They're my shop saviour. I just always forget they're there. I can't count the number of times I've been schlepping about the shopping centre looking for a dress, or a cardigan getting increasingly frustrated by the too-young too-small offerings in H&M, the too-tarty in International and the too-expensive in Next, only to be saved from blowing my brains out at the last minute by Dorothy Perkins.

Let me also say that the bulk of the clothes I buy come from ebay. Probably about 80%. Occasionally though, I spot something new that I have to have. This week was one of those times. I spotted the beauty below and fell instantly in love.

£30 though? A little more than I'm prepared to pay these days. What to do? I noticed a wee link at the bottom of the page offering a 10% discount for newsletter subscribers, so subscribe I did. By a very happy coincidence this week happens to be VIP Week, which means DP offer 25% off everything with the appropriate code.

Hell yes!

I rushed  to the check out, entered my VIP code and my subscriber code. They both worked! I nearly did a dance right at the computer. My beautiful £30 dress was now a beautiful £19.50 dress. Still more than I usually spend, but much more reasonable.

VIP Week happens fairly regularly so if there's something you really have to have I'd recommend holding off. The postage on my dress was £4 so if you can get to your nearest Dorothy Perkins for less than that (I can't, sadly) I'd suggest buying in-store too - the VIP  prices also apply there.

Now I just need to find an excuse to wear it.

Approved Food.

Food is expensive! Especially with a 6ft7 husband with an appetite like a horse (and 2 step children who use the phrase "I'm hungy!" more than any other).

I was made aware recently of  Approved Food. They're bloody brilliant. They sell a tonne of stuff either short-dated, or a little past it's "best buy" date for next to nothing. This includes big brands, supermarket brands and brands I've never heard of.

To put you in the picture, in my last order I got 8 packets of Sainsbury's lemon & coriander cous cous for a measly pound, enough shampoo and condition to last a year for £2.69, and a 2 litre bottle of double concentrate Robinson's for £1.69. I've just placed my next order and I'll be getting a full case of thai red chilli paste sachets for only 49p, 2.5kg of washing powder for £2.97 and 5 packs of tortilla wraps for £1, among other things.

I could be saving even more money if I could resist all the great deals on sweeties and crisps (28 bags of hula hoops for £1.60 anyone?)

Eventually I plan to have a nice big supply of all my non-perishables already in the house so that I can cut my £40-50 weekly shop down to meat/veg/bread/milk/cheese only.

The less I spend on food weekly, the more I can stash away.

Condescending Money-saving Advice.

I've found that money-saving advice from people who are not actively living on a budget tends to be condescending as all hell.

Do they mean well? Yes. Are they actually helpful? Not so much.

There's an article floating around (possibly on yahoo, or msn or similar) which tells the reader how to save up the deposit for a house in 2 years by drastically cutting down on their outgoings. It gave me a right good laugh. It was full of such gems as "Make do with one car", "Don't take a foreign holiday this year" and "Move in with the in-laws".

Uh.. What?

We don't even have one car.

We have never taken a foreign holiday. We could barely afford a weekend in York when we went last year.

Neither of our sets of parents have the space, or the money for us to stay with them either.

Frankly, the whole article was laughable, and clearly aimed at someone with considerably more disposable income than us. Where is the real advice, from real people who live on slender means? There are a few blogs, which are useful, and even inspiring but they're few and far between.

Hopefully my little blog can be added to the ranks of "useful advice", rather than fluffy nonsense.

It's always hard to start.

Let me clue you in.

I live in a small 2 bedroom council flat. I share this small 2 bedroom council flat with my husband (the borderline hoarder), my 3 month old son and -2 nights a week- my 2 pre-teen stepdaughters (the collectors of tiny plastic animals).

This is a set of circumstances which is rapidly becoming inadequate as the kids all get older. Before the birth of our son the flat was cramped but acceptable. We had a bedroom, the girls had a bedroom and all was dandy. Now though? Not so much. We are currently squishing the baby into our room - which is fine, and actually recommended til the age of 6 months. After that though, the poor mite has nowhere to go.

He can't sleep with us forever ( think of the therapy bills!), and given the fascination his sisters have with teeny tiny little swallow-able toys he most certainly can't share a room with them either.

A particularly hard-nosed friend suggested giving the baby their room and simply have them sleep on the floor when they stay over. Uh. No. Somehow I can't see this making me very popular, or the baby for that matter. They'd never speak to us again!

So why don't I simply apply for a bigger council house? Well, we tried that. It turns out that with step-children who's visitation accounts for less than 50% of the week, they don't officially "live" here. Yup, you heard. In the eyes of the council we are a 3 person household with 2 occasional overnight visitors. I could get on board with that if they took everything they own away with them when they left.

Obviously, this does not happen. The bunkbed stays. The billions of little toys stay. The only thing that leaves, in fact, is the girls. And their school bags. So yeah.

We need a bigger house, and we'd love to buy. So this is the blog-based story of our scrimping, and saving, and (hopefully) eventual purchase.