Sunshine has to mean BBQ time

The Great British weather has taken a turn for the good, making a nice change for all of us, especially if you aren't planning on going abroad this year.

When the sun is shining brightly, it always gets me in the mood for a good old barbeque, so when moneysupermarket.com set the "charcoal challenge", I was eager to get involved. We were given £50 to spend on creating the best barbeque on a budget and anyone who knows me will know that I am always on the look out for a bargain.

First off we actually needed to buy a disposable barbeque because we don't actually own one of our own due the garden not being a massive size. I managed to get a double sized one from Morrisons for a tiny £5.00, leaving me £45.00 for all the food and drink because you know what goes well with a barbeque, you guessed it, alcohol!!!

I managed to buy a lot of food with my money :

* 16 burgers
* 20 sausages
* 8 jacket potatoes
* 5 turkey steaks
* 5 lamb kebabs
* rolls for burgers and sausages
* ketchup
* salad
* coleslaw and potato salad

all of this cost less than £20.00 and in the end managed to feed 9 people and still with food left over!!

Then on to the drink, not quite as important as the food but it definitely plays a vital role I think :)

In the fridge we had :

* wine
* beer
* cider
* alcopops
* fizzy drink
* juice

Adults and children well catered for in my opinion, oh and ice was already in the freezer so no extra cost there!!
This still left me with arond £4 out of my budget to spend, what else would you need for a BBQ in hot weather??

What better to keep cool and keep the kids entertained whilst you are cooking than toys for the garden.

I love poundland for a tiny £3 I managed to pick up

* 3 fun shaped bubble blowers
* 3 water guns
* a small paddling pool

I think this prooves that when given a budget to stick to, it can stretch very far, I will definitely be setting myself more budgets in the future.

Now after all the buying, it was time to finally sit down and enjoy what we had bought.

Bring on the fun in the sun.

So of course Daddy Hazelden was in charge of cooking the food

Gracie decided whilst waiting for her food that she would chill out in the paddling pool.

And was just as quick to sit at the table as soon as the first burger was ready.

Even Layla enjoyed herself with her partner in crime, Freya keeping her company.

I really loved this challenge because it made a day spent with friends and family possible and really opened my eyes as to just how much you can get with your money if you really try. Here's to many more BBQ's this Summer!!

How many BBQ's have you all had this year so far, did you manage to do it on a budget?? 

xxxx

Disclaimer : I was sent £50 by moneysupermarket to take part in this challenge, however all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Getting Green Fingers #KidsGrowWild Challenge

I have to admit I am not not very green fingered, I tend to leave the gardening up to Daddy Hazelden. However my children have always been very keen to plant flowers in the garden, they have grown sunflowers and watercress previously at school.

So when the opportunity arose to take part in the #KidsGrowWild challenge with MoneySupermarket and BritMums, I jumped at the chance.

In the post we received a really lovely gardening kit, this contained everything we would need to get us started. The kit included a fork, a trowel, a pair of gardening gloves, a watering can, 3 packets of different seeds and labels to help you indentify the plants once they had been planted. All of this came presented in a beautiful bag, which my girls have now placed in their dressing up box.

The gardening kit arrived at a perfect time because the children were on half term and it just happened to be a gorgeous sunny day.

We found a little corner of the garden that seemed to have the most sunshine on it and proceeded to dig.   As we began to do this, the children discovered all of the bugs and worms that lived in the earth, we also found a lot of ants. My 3 year old, Gracie wasn't too sure what to make of all the insects.

The girls took in turns to dig and after a little while we had managed to get rid of any weeds and make a nice patch to put the seeds in. We decided to use two of the packets of seeds and leave the sunflowers for another day because we needed to buy a pot to put these in. I helped by opening the packets and pouring the seeds into their hands, they then sprinkled the seeds everywhere and then covered them back up with the mud that we had dug up.

Their favourite part of the process was watering the seeds. Again they each took it in turns and they have been watering the seeds every couple of days, just waiting for them to start growing. I am surprised at just how patient they have been. As you can see from the picture below, the kids obviously did a good job because we have little plants sprouting from the ground, I think I am just as excited as them to see the flowers growing, it will be nice to have a good splash of colour in the garden!!

The kit we were sent was an ideal size for all the children. It allowed them all to get involved, and get out in the fresh air, much better than being indoors and watching the television. It was also nice being able to explain the whole process of plants needing sunlight, water etc to be able to grow, although my 7 year old did seem to have a better knowledge of this than me!! The kids are looking forward to planting the sunflowers, as soon as mummy finally remembers to go and buy that pot!!!

*This post is an entry for BritMums #KidsGrowWild Challenge*