365 Day Penny Challenge

I have been thinking of ways to save extra money this year to go towards a few future plans. We already put a set amount away into ours and Sonny’s savings account which is one lump sum at the end of each month but I was thinking of other ways to save extra money.  Whilst browsing Facebook I came across the 365 Day Penny Challenge and I thought we will give this a go.

The idea is to put a small amount of money each day into a pot, the amount you put in depends on the day of the year. I have done a few examples below.

Day 1 (1^st January) – 1p into the pot

Day 2 (2^nd January) – 2p into the pot

Day 126 (6^th May) - £1.26 into the pot

Day 365 (31^st December) - £3.65 into the pot

By the end of the year I will have saved £667.95! 

I think this is a good way to save little and often and it uses up the loose change from my purse.

I need to now go and find a jar and pop my loose change in. I will keep you updated with the progress!

We are back!

I have been meaning to post on my blog for soo long but with both of us working as many hours as we could and then finding out the exciting news that I was pregnant at Christmas we have been sorting the house and finances out ready for our little ones arrival who made his grand entrance on 16th August! 

Meet Sonny, the newest member of the Rogers family.

Sonny is almost 2 weeks old (it is going so fast) and we are all settling into life with a newborn. We are working on some new projects at the moment and as soon as we are ready we will share you with you. 

Handmade Gifts

I love crafts and I always have a few projects going on, such as cross stitch, paining wooden shapes, handmade cards and many more different things; keeps me out of trouble you see ;) . My Gran celebrated her 80th at the weekend and I was struggling to come up with an idea for her that would be different but special. After a bit of research and my dads map (which now has a heart shape gap!) I came up with this (apologies for the poor photos but was in a bit of a rush).

My Gran was born in 1934, a great year for many reasons.

The map is of part of London where my Gran was born and grew up. I added some facts about 1934 as well. And then the fun part, decorating it! 

A goal for 2014 is to make as many hand made gifts as I can for friends and family. I wanted to give myself this goal as handmade gifts are so much more personal and also helps keep the cost down. 

Well March and April are busy months for me with lots of birthdays so I better crack on. 

Wood Stack

A friend of ours has some old pallets and lots of other lengths of wood that he wanted to get rid of so the hubby and I spent most of yesterday morning cutting it up with the chainsaws and stacking it all the the truck. It was 2 loads worth and the truck isn't small. 

It then took another good hour to stack it all and we found a large plastic cover to keep it dry. Some of the wood has nails and is all different shapes and colours but it burns well and is keeping us warm. 

This pile will probably last us through the winter and the great bit is was that it was free, just a few hours of hard labor. 

What a week!

We have just come back from our holiday, we have spent one week on the beautiful Island of Wight and have fallen in love with the place. 

We went on Red Funnel from Southampton and spent most of the journey enjoying the view from the deck, it was rather windy.

We visited so many places and will post all my photos over the next few days, some of the views were stunning and the animals we met were such funny little characters. 

We have eggs!

When I went to let the ducks out this morning I had a lovely surprise of not just one but 2 eggs!

I didn't have time to wash them this morning as was off to work early but they are a lovely duck egg blue! Now is just need to decided what to do with them, I think I may make a cake as I really enjoy baking and that's what we wanted ducks for.

Will let you know how I get on and if we get any more over the weekend.

A Bit of Cooking!

Tonight I have been doing some baking, we had some left over bacon and cherry tomatoes that needed using up, I had some shortcrust pastry in the freezer left over from baking last week. So i decided I would make our lunch for tomorrow. 

Here they are before putting them in the oven, I have put some dried herbs on them to add some more flavor and used cheddar cheese. On mine I have added some garlic. 

They smell great, can't keep the husband away from them, I added tomatoes onto the tops of the ones with no garlic as the other half does not like it.

Yummy Yummy

Really looking forward to my lunch tomorrow and the best bit, they didn't cost a lot as I used up things we had in the fridge / cubbard.