£2-a day:The Final Days!

29th Jan

Budget: £2

A whole day at work again today, so nothing spent, but that's fine seeing as I went so overboard on Friday night!!

30th Jan
Budget: £4
Literally nothing new to report, more work and more staying in feeling tired and sluggish. There's a deep freeze coming this weekend, so maybe that's why...


31st Jan (LAST DAY!!!)
Budget: £6
Tom and I are NEARLY DONE! So to celebrate, with a joint budget of £12, we drove into Berkhamsted, tempted ourselves with the bargains to be had in Oxfam, and then went into one of the nearby cafes and had a slap-up lunch of sausage sandwiches and posh crisps and coffee!!




So... WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED??

• It is entirely possible to do this!!
• We are so much more aware of what we're spending on things: I write this 4 days later, and in that time we've flippantly gone and spent £70 - my entire January budget - in ONE VISIT to Tescos. Ridiculous.
• We've learned to trust own-brand goods, such as cereal, crisps, etc.
• We've learned that our family and friends can be very charitable and giving!!
• I have got so much more done craft-wise and had time to create things on a budget, much more make-do-and-mend.
• We went swimming and actually used our gym memberships more times last month than we did in September-December last year.
• It forced us to be more creative with food.
• We ate faaaar more healthily and we were never hungry once over the whole month.
• We saved £150 alone on meals out - wowsa!!!
• We did a lot more walking and free things to fill our spare time
• We read... a lot!

The downsides though...

• You can't drink (unless someone buys you drinks or you are donated wine)
• You can't go out on a night out with your friends unless they're willing to foot your bill.
• Occasionally, JUST OCCASIONALLY, being at home because you had no money to go anywhere got very, very boring. It definitely made us irritable sometimes, but then again we went on a lot more walks and did free things and probably tried things we didn't know we would like before.

I seriously recommend anyone to try this. We haven't saved buckets of cash this month, it being so soon after the damage that Christmas brings financially, but we plan to do it again in April, July and October, so that over the year we give ourselves chances to catch up and put money away.
As a result of this month, we both go into supermarkets now with a different head on, eating out really is a treat again, and we can always look at our savings account to make us feel better too!


Good luck on your own £2-a-day adventures! 
BBxxxxx

Button Heart, love love love...

Yet another one to add to the portfolio - latest Folksy design, made from vintage fabric that Tom's Grandma gave me, and ofcourse, LOTS of buttons!! I appliquéd the heart on to the fabric with my new favourite stitch, blanket stitch, then added the buttons as a boarder and finally a bow, cut off from an old pair of pj bottoms I used to own!

Vintage heart fabric at it's best!

Yours for £20! Happy browsing! BB xx

Lacey Light

A friend of mine from my college days, Ruth, has started her own blog, Crafty Little Maker, and I literally started squeaking with excitement! Her ideas are simplistic and easy to make, but ultimately utterly stunning when they're finished! Have an ogle at my attempt at a lace tea-light holder made from an old jam jar (I have literally HUNDREDS of jars because of my project for a friend's wedding... pictures of that coming soon too.)

I added little pearl buttons to mine for an extra texture with fabric glue

It's beautiful. I love it. And EVERYONE I KNOW is going to have one of these by the end of the year!! Thanks Ruth! Have a look at her blog for further instructions and more homemade ideas. x

£2-a day: Week 4

22nd Jan:

Budget: £11

Work meal tonight in Hemel, and we decided on a curry. I had enough 'spare' cash to pay for it, as Les Mis money had come through and I had a budget saved for it, but even so I decided to try and eat before I went. Gool and Nibs donated more M&S reduced price food today, which was unbelievably kind of them, and in it included a chinese meal for two, bottle of red and some beef mince. At lunch time, I went out and bought an onion and tried making my own burgers for the first time at home, and they were gorgeous! I pan-fried mine, but Tom grilled his in the evening and said they were even better :) That one pack of mince made 8 burgers, so we've got several dinners for the rest of the week.

The curry house were doing a meal offer of a starter, main course, naan bread, a rice dish, and a veggie side dish for £9.95, which I thought was pretty good and anything I didn't eat I could have taken home in a doggie bag. But after a pint of coke each too, we ended up paying £16 each for the meal...?!? The bill was, annoyingly, correct, and I begrudgingly handed over my cash. It made me think about how often Tom and I eat out and spend double that amount of a meal several times a month. Apart from our frugal fish n chips meal a few weeks back, we haven't spent that much in a supermarket shop, let alone a restaurant!

23rd Jan

Budget: £2
Not a penny spent today; we went swimming (did 60 lengths, get in!!) and had more home-made burgers. Winner!!
I should probably say, I've changed the look of this blog today, and should post here the link to the website that sells these beautiful ceramic buttons that I have a picture of as my backround. They're STUNNING, don'tya think? Buy them here, and start using them on your own designs, I know I shall be once I have money again...!!!

24th Jan
Budget: £4
I was treated to lunch today courtesy of Tom's poker winnings :) Spent £2 very carelessly on the table-top video game console in the restaurant, super damn cool though! It had Pacman, Donkey Kong and Frogger on it, to name but a few. And whilst in the restaurant, we had a massive brainwave of an idea for cushion designs... watch this space! I looked into craft fayres in Berkhamsted today, and once I have a collection I think I might head down to it.

25th Jan
Budget: £2 
I am an angry lady, right now!! I went to St Albans Hospital today to have a check-up, and forgot that to park in their car park you have to pay a minimum of £4 for a ticket... £4?!?!? Luckily, I had a £5 in my purse (but not all budget) and got pound coin change thrown at me by the staff in the hospital cafe... ridiculous. I then boarded a train to Manchester to see my friend Pat from Sam's. Luckily I was treated to dinner with her and we stayed at her place for the night. Good times.
Seriously... £4 for a hospital car park. What if it's an emergency???


26th Jan
Budget: £2
On the way back from Op'North, I got talking to none other than the owner of the Afflex Palace 'The Bead Shop'!! This'll mean nothing unless you eve visited this place, but it was truly an honor! That shop was decked from floor to ceiling with beads to make your own jewellery with, and they run workshops and classes throughout the year. Read their blog and get links to their website HERE. 
Before going home, I dropped round to see my grandma, Gool, and her friend who lives completely self-sufficiently (she was the one who came up with the pepper-and-plum dinner). I looked around her backgarden and met her ducks and chickens she keeps there! All the chickens were rescued from battery farms and when they first got to her, they were completely bald and no more than a skinny bag of bones. Now, all of them have their feathers back, they live outside with a cosy shed to go in and out of at their will, and they have the gaggle of ducks to be friends with. Jo has people lining up for fresh boxes of eggs every day. She also makes her own jams and chutneys, and her hubby Gary is an ex-pastry chef too, so all their homemade meals (made using a stove heated from the woodburner in the centre of the house that is so hot it also heats the 9 radiators in the house) are to die for. Now THAT'S frugal living, kids!!

27th Jan
Budget: £4
Tonight was the belated Christmas Do at work, and I totally and utterly ruined this budget month thing... spent £20 on drinks in all :( Mainly because I was buying them for others. Ah well! Happily deposited the remaining earnings from Les Mis into my savings account today though, and so I didn't feel too bad about it. Our team went dressed as The Pink Ladies from Grease, but were pipped to the winning post by my lover's team who went as the cast from Batman... it was a no-brainer really, especially as they did kareoke after they accepted their awards.


28th Jan
Budget: ?!?!?!?!
Yet another party today at work, this time it was the relatives of the lady I support celebrating her birthday more intimately at home with a tea party. Consumed nothing healthy whatsoever, but the cake made me very happy indeed! I contributed a plate of mini burgers made from the mince left over from my grandparent's donation and homemade cindertoffee:

Mmmmmmnice! So all-in-all a freebie day. I'm going out in a little while to a house party, but won't be drinking as I'm driving home solo. :*(

I'm In Need Of A Coffee...

Check it - my latest design up on Folksy.com is here for all to see (and buy... definitely to buy, too!!) It's made from a cushion the same as the 'Time For Tea' one, but it's accompanying coffee sibling. I'm especially pleased with the biscuits! Have a looksy, and let me know your comments below:

Appliqué and embroided cushion, complete with their own Bourbon biscuits!

£2-a day: Week 3

15th Jan:
Budget: £7.80
I had a lovely day at work today, for a change, and my client and I went swimming this morning. After work I went to a rehearsal for the Boxmoor Playhouse youth's production of Les Mis (on from 18th - 21st January if it floats y'boat...) and the pit band were treated to homemade cupcakes courtesy of one of the cast members, which were gorgeous!
Tom and I went for walk around St. Albans Abbey in the dark, but needed to pick up food items on the way home. As there were no supermarkets open, we had to make do with a petrol station, and spent nearly £5 on milk, bread and some chocolate Buttons :( Budget fail. Still, we were kindly given a £20 Asda card by my Mum this week, and that's definitely going to buy the rest of our groceries for the month. 

16th Jan:
Budget: £7.50
After a morning at work, I aquired £10 for taking Tom's Nan to the hospital - bless her, I tried to say no! - but then went and promptly spent it in Asda on things we needed, but managed to overspend by £3 because I went without a clear list, and also didn't take a lot of notice of labels and prices today. It made a big difference - if I'd gone with those two things, I would have spent half of what I actually spent. Naughty girl!!

17th Jan:
Budget: £6.00
Tonight was the dress rehearsal for Les Mis, and boy oh boy... interesting!! No money spent, so all good! We bought some bread on Sunday that tastes totally minging, even by frugal standards! So Tom made a beautiful bread and butter pudding with cream and sultanas. Flippin' gorgeous :) Am loving how his culninary skills are coming to light since beginning this experience!!

18th Jan:
Budget: £5.00
It's the simple things in life that make you happy... today we stuck two fingers up to the weather and packed a picnic of tuna sandwiches and a flask of Gool's homemade vegetable soup, and set off to Stanborough Lake for a walk and to feed the ducks the last of our bread loaf that was going stale. And it was ruddy brilliant! Didn't cost us a penny, and we got a load of chilly but refreshing cold air! Give it a go, y'all! Find your inner child!!!

19th Jan:
Budget: £7.00
I spent the entire day at work, so I haven't touched a penny of my budget again today!! We're out for a curry on Sunday with the work girls, so I might keep on saving it so I can have a glass of wine... or 3? Maybe a bottle?! I'm going to add anothe cushion to Folksy.com tomorrow if I finish it, watch this space!!

20th Jan:
Budget: £9.00
I used Mum's Asda card today so that Tom and I could treat ourselves to a fry up... yom!
Genius idea of mine came up on Tuesday night at Les Mis: the stage is swaddled in hessian bagging for the effect of the play, and there's too much around the band pit area, so Dan (our MD) asked a stage hand to cut it back. I got in there quick and took it from her, so that next month I can start doing rag rugging projects. I think after Saturday night's final performance I'll probably tear the stage apart... muahaha!

21st Jan:
Budget: £9.00
So I got into bed last night after another nail-biting evening playing through Les Miserables, all tucked up and getting off to sleep... when at 1.30am Tom comes in, visibly buzzing from having drunk 6 coffees and a beer at a Poker night in Tring with his friends, and tells me triumphantly that he WON the game and returned home £40 richer than when he left!! Satisfyingly, it will more than pay his allowance until the rest of the month! I also finished my stint at the playhouse tonight and got paid for that, but that's going into our savings account.

It's Time For Tea

Happy days! I'm now on Folksy.com listed under 'The World of Button Brown', and therefore officially selling my shizzle to the big Wide World! I've not got a huge number of things to list at the moment, but my rag bag and button box have expanded recently and so I have a lot to be getting on with, including some stuff with tassles on...!!

It's come to my attention that you lovely people are actually reading these babblings of mine, which is great to hear, so THANK YOU! I will now put out a plea for anyone out there who happens to have a lot of fabrics, cushions, threads, beads, buttons, etc that they are looking to give to a good home! You'll get a mention on Folksy and on here if you help the cause!! Ha!

Here's my latest design for y'all to look at, I'm pretty pleased with it:

Appliqué and embroided cushion, using felt and recycled fabric

Save enough money, and you can afford THIS...

Tom found this online today... I reckon, if we continue to live on £2-a day for the rest of our lives, AND never bought clothes again, AND never ate again, never socialised or drank again, lived in a shed and did all our work by candlelight, we might - just might - be able to afford it. Clicky:

The Dream House, Berkhamsted 

Inspiration for my next design...

 Have you ever seen anything so cute, so cheeky, so innovative, so clever in your life?! Nope, me neither! He's going on a cushion, sometime, somehow!!
(Sorry it's the wrong way round - if anyone knows how to solve that problem, comment below!!)
BB xx

Folksy, I love thee!

I just had to write about this before I shoot off to a day of work experience at an office (snooooooooooooooze...) BUT... Go and check out FOLKSY. It's an online market place for people wishing to sell their crafts and art, but with very reasonable listing costs (20p per item) and you can list as much or as little as you like at any one time. They take 5% commision, but for the low listing cost this seems pretty reasonable to me. Plus, if you opt to start selling on there, you can customise your page to make sure you get your name and brand-look across to potential customers.

Brilliant - I'm going to be busy this week stitching! x

£2-a day: Week 2

8th Jan:
Budget:  £4.00
Had to do our 2nd ASDA shop of the year today, and we needed a few staple items such as butter again, bread, sugar, etc. My tip for the day is CEREAL: At the end of the day, those chocolately cereals that are all singing and dancing have the same calorie content as eating half a packet of cookies for your breakfast, and as well as being bloody expensive! ASDA sell their green&white branded bags of cereal for less than a £1, and so we've come home with easily one month's supply of corn flakes and coco pops. Well impressed! Again, a whole small trolley of food has cost us under £13, and we're well set for another week or so. Really impressed :)

9th Jan:
Budget: £2.00 
A truly horrendous day, personally, today. I had to go to my work's head office for a meeting, and on the way there I needed to fill up on petrol, but spent well over what I planned because I succumbed to a chocolate bar and an Innocent Smoothie to steady my nerves. Turns out they were well needed.

10th Jan:
Budget: £2.00
We finally have Broadband in our flat! WOOOOP! So now this thing is easier to update than ever!! Anyway, I managed to keep my whole budget today because I stayed indoors with said-Internet, surfing and chilling. We had dinner at Gool and Nibs' house tonight and were thoroughly spoiled - M&S Steak!!!! Luxury! We also left there with half a homemade apple pie, a bag of rags to use for my sewing, MORE buttons and Gool had dug out my old sewing box from when I was a teenager, which happens to have loads of thread and pins in it, which I really need. Good day :)

11th Jan:
Budget: £4.00
I have for you a perfect example of thoughtless, or sneaky, spending; coffee. Today was my first day as an Office Angel in our local Sports Centre, doing typing jobs and whatnot. I stupidly left home this morning without eating any breakfast, and by 11am my stomach was growling. To my dismay, there wasn't anything to pick at in this office, and so I looked into my purse and was happy to find £2 sitting there from yesterday. I walked down to the sports centre cafe, and ordered something to keep me going. A mocha was my poison of choice, mainly because the sheer amount of milk fills me up and the sugar keeps me zaney. £2.00. Right there. If I worked in that office full time, 5 days a week, I reckon I'd have up to 2 or 3 of those coffees a day, that's £30 a week on coffee...!!! Madness. Utter madness! I walked back to my desk and I made that goddamn mocha last me for two whole hours... it was more like a chocolate-coffee-gross milkshake by the end of my shift, but at least I have my pride. Right? RIGHT?! 

12th Jan:
Budget: £4.00
After yet another tough day work-wise, for us both (Tom's working like a monkey at the moment, bless him) we decided to treat ourselves to fish and chips for supper, and to make sure we were extra good we walked there in an attempt to burn off some extra calories before piling more on... Muaha! No free food,sadly. We'd hoped we'd go in and be offered some 5hr-old fish cakes for nothing on top of whatever we ordered, but the fish shop at Adeyfield had a que, so there was no added extras for us. I had saveloy and chips and Tom had battered sausage, and we sat and ate it on a bench in the shop square, serenaded with the sound of shouting chavs and police sirens. So romantic! By the way, budget-wise, it wasn't that cheap: £2.20.

13th Jan:
Budget: £3.80
Hurrah!! I'm now listed on Folksy.com under The World of Button Brown, go and check me out! Only one item up at the moment, as I'm a solo-worker, I don't have a huge turnover of stock to put out! But atleast I can brag that whatever you buy from me is a complete one-off! Our Friday night activity was swimming (for nothing again, thanks to our Sports Pass) and then we got veeeeeeeery drunk at home on two bottles of left over bubbly from Christmas - oh so classy!

14th Jan:
Budget: £5.80
Hangover central... bleeeeeeugh. I'm due at work later for a sleep-in, but before that I've got the rest of the afternoon and evening to sew, sew, sew. Going to pop down to Dunelm in a mo to buy felt (less than 50p a square) and have a look at the haberdashery for inspiration. 

Dotty Love

Yon!

I made this for Tom's Auntie for Christmas. I'm proud of it, as when I originally stuck it altogether I didn't think the colours worked. But as soon as I finished the buttoning and the beading, it seemed to work really well! The polkadots give it quite a quirky look, and the felt against the synthetic material of the pillow gives a nice contrast too:

 

All the cushions and designs you see on this blog are available to buy, and I take requests too! Please don't hesitate to contact me at hannahlou.brown@hotmail.co.uk

x 

£2-a day: Week 1

1st Jan:

Budget: £2

Happy New Year!! Party's over now; I worked today in the afternoon, and spent all of the morning recovering from New Years Eve party! That's all good though, as I haven't spent a penny - which means £4 to spend tomorrow. Tom has also spent nothing. Easy peasy!! We have worked out between us, however, that we may not have a huge bundle of cash left at the end of the month, because there is an outstanding parking ticket to be paid, I owe gas money, my sign language course installment will be coming out, and I have dry cleaning to pick up. Damn. Just as well we're too tired to go out and spend anything then, really!

2nd Jan:

Budget: £4

We looked in the fridge this afternoon and discovered we actually need some more food already - it seems brussell sprouts left over from Christmas are no good anymore... We went to ASDA with a grand total of £8 to spend, and we HAD to come back with loo roll, milk and washing powder at the very least. So imagine how chuffed we were: we managed to buy crisps, some veg, bread and butter, plus the necessaries, for £6.50! It was actually quite a fun game, finding the cheapest and best deals as we went around. We made a slap-up meal too of jacket spuds with chicken mayo, courtesy of my parent's pub, and some soup left over in the back of the fridge. I also made a banana cake with ingredients already in my store cupboard at 10pm at night, it was HUGE! It will serve as a welcome, free, treat with a cuppa tea when we start to feel depressed we can't afford to go anywhere!

3rd Jan:

Budget: £2.75
Long day at work today, and so didn't come home until 6pm. Using our food contribution system at work, Tom rustled up a tasty tomato beef casserole that kept us going until dinner time, then I had my usual 'frugal-tastic' meal of pepper and plum (I got this recipe from a very frugal person I know; half the pepper and the plum, taking out stones and seeds etc, then roast them together and finish off with a grating of parmesan cheese. Absolutely gorgeous, you get this sort of sweet'n'sour effect with the juices) ...And it only costs about 75p!


4th Jan:
Budget: £4.75
I got a phonecall from my Grandma today to say she'd been to M&S and bought me and Tom a load of reduced food for £12 - literally amazing! We got hotpots, risottos, vegetarian parcels and beef in yorkshire pudding. It helps that my Grandpa works for M&S and has a discount card that gets them 20% off whatever they buy! So long as Tom and I don't spend any money tomorrow, we can afford it all :)

5th Jan:
Budget: £0.75!!
Thankfully, I worked all day again today, and Tom's parents fed us dinner. It's nice to know, though, that there is in fact food at home for us when we want it. Interestingly, we never had this much food in our fridge and freezer before we started doing this. Yesterday I looked through my bank statements online, and every transaction made in a supermarket was atleast £20 or more in the last two months, and there were several of those kinds of transactions a week. I've not even spent £20 yet this week, and I have more food than ever... how does that work?!?!

6th Jan:
Budget: £2.75
A rare simultaneous day off for both of us today, and we spent the first half of the day in Berkhamsted doing jobs that needed doing, and sadly that included paying bills etc :( I needed to buy a birthday gift for my friend Jenn Allen, and so grabbed a purse in a charity shop for a small amount of my budget, then decorated it by hand when I got home. It raised the question of whether birthday presents fell into the 'necessary purchases' category, or the 'frivalous items that could wait' category - what do you think?? I decided that, as I spent SO LITTLE on Jenn's gift, it didn't affect my budget this time. Striving for an evening activity, we went swimming as we can go for free with our direct debited membership, which was also good for our waistlines as well as our wallets!! Today was, however, the first day that a budget meal disappointed us, although it could have been more down to the fact I didn't really know what I was doing; I tried to make a tortilla, with sausages, canalinni beans and sliced potatos and cheese, but it tasted pretty grim... Eugh. Really craved a takeaway, not gonna lie!!

7th Jan:
Budget: £4.75
Tricky one, tonight... Birthday meal for Jenn at possibly one of the most expensive bar/restaurants in Berkhamsted, The Kings Arms. I made sure I ate (the rest of the rancid tortilla) before I came out, and had planned to only drink lime and soda waters. It was actually an awesome night: turn's out that Jenn is friends with a chef couple, the man who is in fact Dave Philpot, winner of Best Scotch Egg of 2011!! I also met a lady called Caz who is embarking on her own crafty business this year, and has a superb product to offer the world! Watch this space for more details, I will definitely be pushing her name to you!! Jenn and Aly already knew of my £2-frugalness, but people were very interested to hear how I was doing. Dave Philpot ordered the Kings Arm's scotch egg starter (obviously!!) and after taking a bite and giving it a mark out of 10, offered me the rest to eat myself, even though I insisted I was OK! Chris, Jenn's boyfriend, bought wine and Prosecco for the table, so I got a glass of each, and Aly bought cupcakes with candles in for Jenn's birthday treat. Both of my lime and sodas came to £1.80 together, and that is literally all I spent, all night!! However, it did make me wonder whether people thought I was just being tight: no one had to give me food, or buy me a drink, but they were very eager to do so, so it would have been rude to say no!

£2-a day? Really? Follow the Frules...

Finally fed up of having no money at all at the end of the month, Tom suggested in the middle of December last year that for the whole of January we only live on £2 a day in order to really see how much we spend on pointless things and to limit how much money we blow on luxuries (McMuffins when there's cereal in the cupboard, eating a curry when there's chicken and rice already bought, etc...)

To be fair, December's always an expensive month, and at the start of the season of goodwill I'd decided I would make half of my presents for my family and friends, and buy the other half of them from charity shops and antique stores. This saved me an incredible amount of money compared to other years, but the Christmas dinner ingredients were what rinsed us this year; £100 on the first 'big shop', but then I went back the following day for the forgotten cranberry sauce, then the next day for Baileys... and probably spent another £50 on top. SCARY AMOUNT OF MONEY!!!!!

Tom's tried the £2-daily thing before: he says he saved most of his wages that month, and it put him in a good position to pay off some long-standing bills and debts.

Sounds awesome, right??

I mean, we're planning to buy our own house in the next few years, and this seems like a sure-fire way of putting away some decent savings at least once a year. The ultimate plan is to do this quarterly; so January, April, July and October, should it go well.

THE FRULES (frugal rules, geddit??)

1) £2 a day to use on food, drinks, anything else you can get for that amount.

2) If you don't spend your money that day, it can be carried over to the next day so you have a larger budget.

3) Direct debits, bills and petrol come out as normal, as we'd be in big trouble if these were left unpaid!!

4) Make a list of exceptions because they were already planned (i.e. I have haircut. VERY ESSENTIAL.)

5) Any cash earnings we make over the month can be added to our daily budget.

6) We give eachother our debit cards for use in absolute emergencies only.

PREPARATION:

1) Bought in pasta, tinned veg and fruit, cereal, bread to freeze, squash, drinks, cheap and therefore big bottles of toiletries and other things that can be stored up over the month.

2) Tell all our family and friends, rack up the sympathy vote, and get them to save any food they don't want AND ask them to make extra when they cook big soups etc, and give it to us.

3) Keep freezer bags in my handbag for unexpected doggiebags!

4) Withdraw £62 from the bank and change up into pound coins ready to spend!

5) Take advantage of having food at work.

PLACES TO GO: 

1) Fruit and veg markets tend to give you really good deals on decent produce towards the end of a market day, usually giving it away in bowl-loads for little money. We go to these fruit and veg stalls with the man we support, and he saves so much money there, instead of going to Tescos.

2) I'm very lucky to have parents who own their own pub, and apart from getting largely discounted dinners there, the kitchen always has a lot of left-overs, especially on Sundays after roasts!!

3) Vouchers and coupons for places such as Pizza Express, Cafe Rouge and Pizza Hut are largely available online to get a cheap meal with - one for if your budget has built up over the days. Try your luck at vouchercodes.com.

4) As a general rule, I always head to the reduced isle in supermarkets to see what's on offer. Some items aren't always worth it, but then you also find things you maybe wouldn't normally go for for little money. If you don't eat it that evening, freeze. And, the later in the day you go, the bigger the reduction!!

Any other ideas we haven't thought of? Comment below!!

x

"I can do this myself!!"

Two months before Christmas 2011, and my partner Tom and I were doing some extremely organised Christmas present shopping in St Albans, Hertfordshire. That same month, my parents had just embarked on a big adventure of their own, and had taken on the lease of a pub in Tring called 'The Black Horse' (www.facebook.com/The-Black-Horse) and as a result were rushed off their feet getting to grips with that. Originally, my Mum had sensibly suggested that the family create a Secret Santa this year so that no one had to spend loads, and also because herself and the other family members she had roped in to helping her and Dad work the pub, would have no time at all to go out and do mountains of shopping. I thought, fantastic! I have no money this year anyway!

However, a week later, she phoned and said she didn't like that idea and instead wanted everyone to buy for everyone. Hence, St Albans.

In an unnamed shop, I picked up a beautiful black felt throw cushion with a number of brightly coloured buttons scattered over it. "This'll be nice for Charlotte", I said, admiring it. I then saw the price, and disgustedly threw it back on the pile. It isn't that I begrudge paying good money for a nicely made soft furnishing, but I was on a budget here, people!! 

"I can do this myself, I mean, how hard can it be?!" I said... 

Exactly.

On the way home we stopped in Needlecraft in Hemel Town Centre and I spent an extortionate amount of money on a big bag of mixed buttons. Since then, I didn't look back: I made 3 beautiful cushions for my Mum, Grandma and Charlotte, and the whole project cost less than it would have to buy three from a shop. And I had buttons left over. Joy.

And that's where it began: button's saved my Christmas, and got me thinking that this money-saving thing wouldn't be as hard as I thought.

I created this blog to let the world wide web audience read and see two things:

1. How can you live on £2 a day?

2. Button Brown's frugal gifts!! (shameless advertising, in other words.)

Charlotte's velvet button cushion, complete with old earrings of mine!

Gool's applique bird and sequin cushion

Mum's applique butterfly cushion