MY CAR BOOT SALE

Today we decided to have a car boot sale. We had been planning it for weeks and the kids wanted to make some extra pocket money. Kim was saving up for a new mobile phone so unlike any other morning she had to get out of bed early.

We arrived about seven o'clock and set up our stall. Of course we had the 'vultures' around first, but I just wanted to get rid of stuff and sold a freestanding mixer for £8 and a craft set for £4 which was worth about £40 new.

Kim made enough money to buy a new phone, but Kelly ended up spending what she made on a huge animal hospital helicopter and some books!

All in all it was a good morning, we came away with just over £100 between us, but I came worse off than all of them. I only made £15 and 2/3 of that went to pay for the space in the field!

However I did get some bargains - 2 pairs of curtains, brand new, still in their packaging and some lovely books, one named Hints and Tips From Times Past, which particularly looks interesting.

MAKING ROOM WITH AMAZON

Still on my clearing out theme, I decided to get rid of some of my books. I love books and I have 2 book cases in my living room - 1 floor to ceiling, 1 on the landing and the kids have a bookcase each in their bedrooms. All these are absolutely overflowing with two rows of books on each shelf.

I was not going to get rid of any of them to begin with as I am quite attached to them all! But common sense had to take over in the end - no one needs 3 chocolate cookery books, and paperbacks that were read years ago and never to be read again. So I listed a few on Amazon.

I couldn't believe it! I was still in the middle of listing some items and I was getting emails to say that the items were sold. I made just under £100!

So anyone wishing to clear out their books - Amazon is the place - Brillliant!

MORE THRIFTING....OR IS IT?

Have you ever lent anyone anything and not had it back. I have. A couple of years ago I lent someone ALL my Jean Greenhowe toy patterns and did not get them back. We have since lost contact with each other, so there is no chance of getting them back now. However I managed to buy all these toy patterns for only 10p each at our League of Friends stall at the hospital. I was very pleased and thought I had definitely got a bargain. But if I had got them back to begin with I wouldn't have had to buy them again would I?

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES, LEMON TRAY BAKE AND A CHEAP CREDIT CRUNCH SUPPER

As I have now finished crafting for for my Valentine Swap, I decided to spend the afternoon baking and cooking. As I am trying my best to cut costs I made chocolate cupcakes using cocoa powder for the chocolate flavouring - they taste just as good as using real chocolate. I made 18 about 3hrs ago and there are now 11 left!

I also made a huge Lemon Tray Bake (I bake them in my roasting tin) with a view to them lasting all week. Although this rarely happens with my kids around!

The best money saver today though has to be our supper. I made Tomato Pasta using a Jamie Oliver jar of pasta sauce. These are on offer at the moment at Tesco for only 89p a jar. I added a pack of spaghetti costing 49p and topped it all with a little grated cheese. There was more than enough to feed all 4 of us.

I then made pancakes for afters using ingredients from my store cupboard. This has to be the cheapest meal I've ever cooked - I'm now going to see if I can better this one next week!

FABRIC SAMPLE FREEBIE!

With thanks to Mel from At Home With Melmel, who gave me the idea, I too have been trawling the internet for fabric samples. This is what arrived in the post last week from 2 different companies.

I thought the character patterned pieces could be used for applique or cardmaking. The others are going to be used for some fabric hearts.

I hope to get started by the end of next week, although I do have 2 cushion covers to make and a cross stitch cupcake picture I quite fancy stitching. So many things to make - so little time....oh well.....

IN PRAISE OF READIT SWAP IT

Having Seen The Thrift Book on quite a few blogs, I decided to buy a copy. Wow, I was impressed! There are lots of money saving tips some of which I already use and lots of new one's too. There are also lots of useful web addresses, one being the Read It Swap It site (you simply swap books with other readers).

I joined up on the Monday and put on 17 books, within 2 days all my books were wanted, some with 2 or 3 people wanting the same. The hard part was choosing who to swap with!

One word of warning though - be careful with the size and weight of each book. I've just posted 2 hard backs and the postage came to nearly £10! Definitely one for paper backs only!