Postcrossing Sept 15 Update

In August these postcards were either sent or still travelling and sadly all of them are still travelling on there way there :(

I'm not sure why but lets hope the postcards on the way to
Ukraine
USA
Netherlands
Germany
Taiwan
arrive really soon.

Sent this month

1. Germany

2. Russia

3. USA

4. Taiwan

I have received some this month though which as you know I'm always happy about. I've had :

- Germany x 2
- Russia x 2
- Malaysia

It's still great fun Postcrossing, keep an eye out next month and hopefully I'll be have more Postcrossing adventures to tell you about.

Slimming world - Week 1

As you may know last week I joined slimming world and today was my first weigh in day. I've had an OK first week, it took a few days to get settled into the plan. Mainly working out what foods are free and how many syns other foods are. I've been out quite a few times this week, which has been hard to keep on plan but I think I did fairly ok.

I went to group this morning really not knowing what to expect, I was just hoping I had lost. And as I stepped on the scales I really didn't want to look but;

I LOST 2lbs

Yay!!!!!!!!

I'm quite happy with that, I kind of hoped it would of been more but it will do. My plan this week is to be extra good eat lots of fruit & veg and be really strict sticking to the plan.

Approved Food

I've used approved food before and had some really great deals. The official description of Approved food is online retailer of short dated and residual stock food and drink. The site sells products that are often after there best before date but as we all know that's only an estimate and all the food I've ever had has been perfectly edible. There's great brands and products for a fraction of the cost in the supermarkets.

 

I ordered recently and as usual got some great bargains.

 

 

Irn Bru x 3

KitKat Chunky x 3

Walkers Cheese and Onion x 8

Salt & Vinegar sticks x 2

Sea Salt Ridge Crisps x 2

 

 

 Jordans Country Crisp with Raspberries

Nescafe Coffee pots x 2

Soreen Malt Loaf x 3

Birds Custard 3 pack

Fox's Chunky Cookies x 2

Blueberry Muffin Mix x 2

Choc Chip Cookie Mix x 2

 

 

Mixed Berry Energy Drink x 6

Apple Juice x 3

Coke Mini Cans x 24

Apple & Guava Cider x 2

KitKat White Chunky x 6

Tango Apple x 2

Onion Rings x 3

Choc Brownie Multi Packs x 3

 

 

 

I was also lucky enough to snap up a lucky box. This one cost me £1 and I had no idea of the contents until it arrived. But I got a lot as you can see in the picture below. 

 

 

So how much did all of this cost me?

If I had bought all this from the supermarket this would of cost me £71.45. Instead buying it from approved food I only paid £29.30. The stock on approved food changes daily so there will always be new offers but I completely recommend it to everyone, I love being able to save money on food and drink.

Starting Slimming World

Back in July I wrote a post about my plan to lose weight and to be honest the diet lasted about 2 days before I had a bad day and hit the chocolate. I find that I need to be on a set plan, and if I'm paying for a diet plan like slimming world or weight watchers then I tend to keep on track. I've done weight watchers before and lost quite a lot and was fairly happy at that weight but then I stopped going and I put all the weight back on again.

So to get to a weight I'm happy with again. I'm going back on a plan. So today I joined slimming world. I headed to the class this morning and was greeted with a friendly smile, after filling in the registration form I listened to a new member talk which explained all about the plan and what was in my pack. I love that food is important and they tell you to eat as much of the free foods as you like. Then it was image therapy and each member talked about there week and whether they were happy with there loss, it was really inspiring. Then it was time to get weighed. I was 14 stone 3 1/2 lbs, a lot more than I thought I would be, but I am determined to get back to the 9st10lbs I was happy at. Now to spend a few hours reading all the booklets to make sure I understand the plan.

Keep an eye out next week for a post on how my first week goes and if I manage to lose.

Jacob's Cracker Crisps

I was invited to take part in a recent BzzAgent campaign to try Jacob Cracker Crisps. They sent me a pack of each 3 flavours to try Thai Sweet chilli, Sour Cream & Chive and Sea Salt & Balsamic Vinegar.

I'll be honest I was concerned I wasn't going to like them, I'm a really fussy eater and it's the texture of food and usually and not the taste. But I was really surprised at just how nice they were. I opened the sour cream & chive ones straight away, they were a lovely flavour and more importantly for me had a nice amount of crunch, they had a sort of texture of a crisp but the thickness of a cracker. I really did enjoy them. The other 2 flavours were exactly the same, a nice strong but not overpowering flavour but the same crisp texture. I would totally buy them again as a snack just for me or for a party. I think they'd make a great barbeque snack.

Music Magpie

I'm sure many of you have probably heard of the website music magpie before. But for those who haven't it's a website where you can sell your unwanted DVDs, CDs, games and electronics. It's really simple to use, for CDs, DVDs and Games you simply scan the barcode and the website (or app if you prefer) will tell you how much they will pay you for it. For example

Shark Tale DVD - £0.30
Bob the Builder Skyscrapers DVD - £2.58

So not always a huge amount but I have quite a few items to sell so it all adds up. I've got 22 items to send this time.

 

Before sending the estimate for my items was £8.33 which is always subject to change once there checked by music magpie. So once you've had an offer and accepted it they will send you a welcome pack with a postage label and the information about delivering or your collection.

 

My parcel was collected on 16th July and took until the 21st July to arrive at music magpie, the items are then checked and the quality assessed. On the 23rd August I received a cheque for £8.14 so a bit less than the original amount but an ok amount for a few DVDs that were just sitting there.  

Pizza Express

On Friday night before the theatre we wanted some dinner, we didn't have a lot of time so we wanted somewhere nice and close to the theatre. So we headed to Pizza Express in The Forum, Norwich.

2 of the 4 of us, are dairy free food only and they were both really pleased to have quite a few options on the menu they could eat. I opted for the Lasagna Classica with some garlic bread. The meal was delicious but I'll be honest I was a bit disappointed with the garlic bread, it didn't have a particularly strong garlic taste and was more like just warm bread.

The staff in the restaurant were great they let us know straight away how long the wait for food was, and were really apologetic when a drink we ordered wasn't available. We all enjoyed our meal and we would all go back there again and at only £58 for 4 of us it was reasonably priced too.


EDIT

I popped a copy of this review over to Pizza Express and had the following reply from them

Dear Tanya

Thank you so much for taking the time to write - emails like that really
make our day!

They'll make our Norwich Forum team's day too, so I've forwarded a copy on
to their manager.

It's great to know you and your friends enjoyed your visit and thank you
for your kind words regarding the work of our team and the quality of our
meals. We would like to thank you for sharing your positive feedback with
your readers on the internet as well.

We put a huge amount of effort into providing you with the highest level of
service, so when people notice this and tell us, it makes all the hard work
worthwhile.

Thanks again. We really do appreciate it, and hope to welcome you back soon!

All best wishes,

I've had the night of my life

Last night I went to the theatre, which you know I do quite regularly with my friend Robyn, but last night we took our mums as a late birthday treat. So last night as the title suggests we saw Dirty Dancing. It was incredible, the talent of the whole cast was amazing, and the partnership of Jessie Hart and Lewis Kirk as Johnny and Baby was just as I expected it to be.

My mums favourite film is Dirty Dancing, so I know the storyline well and I'll be honest there were a few scenes I really did wonder how they would do, especially the iconic lake scene, but the director and the creative team had done them so well. The well known songs including I've had the time of my life were there, and you know what I think my only negative of the whole show was that my favourite song 'she's like the wind' was only the instrumental version. Other than that small thing I absolutely loved the show and I highly recommend to everyone if you get chance go and see it, I would certainly go and see it again. It does come with a slight warning though, you'll be singing the songs for days after, or is that just me.

Saving for Amelie August 15 update

So current total is £84.32 / £13,120.00. it's not a huge amount but it's a good start and I do have at least 10 years to save it all. I think I've had a fairly good month, and added to it a bit this month.

1st - I've added a full bag of 1ps and one of 2ps of loose change, as well as £5 to add from  selling an old rocker of Amelies (£91.32)

6th - Added a full bag of 10ps so that's another £5 to add to the total (£96.32)

13th - Loose change of £6.35 to add to the total, going to add as I go along now instead of waiting for a full bag, to make it easier to keep a record of what I've got where. (£102.67)

18th - Loose change of 33p, not a lot but it all adds up (£103.00)

20th - Only a bit more loose change added, but I know there's some money on the way from a few bits I've sold. 43p today (£103.43)

21st - Sold a DVD for £1 today, so have added that along with 46p loose change (£104.89)

23rd - 22p loose change (£105.11)

28th - 74p loose change (£105.85)

So not a bad month total is now £105.85 which means I made £21.53 this month which i'm actually quite pleased with. Hopefully next month will be better, I think it's a case of getting to know the best ways to make money.