Fairest Of The Mall

Hiya Lovelys!

MoneySupermarket are brilliant at coming up with different challenges and competitions for UK bloggers. They recently set us a challenge of hosting a BBQ on a budget of £50 and I was dead excited to give this a try!

So once MoneySupermarket provided me with the £50 budget it was off to Asda I trotted! I choose Asda because they recently had a massive promotional offer on BBQ meat advertised on TV, so this being a budget challenge, I thought I would go with the places that would offer me the most value! I bought the alcohol separately from my local off licence store as I find their alcohol is a lot cheaper than larger supermarkets such as Asda and Tesco - always a good idea to check out your local off licence girlies whenever you are hosting a party, because these are usually independent companies or family run so they can offer you discount on multiple buys (it’s worth an ask at least!) :-)

Once I had sent everyone a text invitation to my BBQ, and purchased all the food and alcohol I then realised I had NO entertainment! So, sticking within my budget as I only had £9 left, I went down to my local car boot sale and hunted around for a few board games for in the evening. I managed to pick up 2 board games for a whooping £3! (what a steal!) plus a summer club classics CD for 50p! with the remaining £6 I opted to purchase some more alcohol - surely this falls into the entertainment category anyway? ;-) I went back to my local off licence store as I remember they had a promotional offer for 3 bottles of Bucks Fizz for £5. I thought these would be a good idea to mix in with cocktails or to drink on its own as a refreshing budget summer alcoholic drink! (corr that was a tongue twister!)

To keep the cost low, I set my guests a challenge of providing a dessert to bring along with them – preferably homemade! :-)

I managed to spend £49.82 and this is how I spent it:

0p Text invitations as I have unlimited texts

0p Sauces and condiments – I already had these at home in our cupboard, plus my friend brung around some McDonald's sauces and some sauce sachets from a cafe when she found out it was a budget BBQ... Cheeky!! Lol!

50p Summer Club Classics Music CD – from the carboot

£3 2x board games - from the carboot

£5 3x Bottles of Bucks Fizz - on offer from my local off licence store

£14.99 bottle of Pimms – on offer my Local off licence store

£7 2x bottles of Rose Wine – on offer at my local off licence store

33p 6x burger buns – Asda Reduced to clear section

£2.99 6x burgers – Asda

£2.00 Ready Made Salad Bowl – Asda

99p Marsh mellows - Asda

£2 2x bottles of Coca-cola - Asda

89p Vanilla Icecream - Asda

49p Cowslaw - Asda

£3.99 4x seasoned steaks – Asda

£2 9x Sausages – Asda

66p Cheese slices - Asda

99p Breadsticks - Asda

£1.99 Dips for breadsticks - Asda

0p Desserts – Provided by the guests! (scones with jam and cream, trifle and strawberries and cream!)

So, first of all I told the guests to arrive at around 3pm on a Saturday Afternoon. before the guests arrived I put the CD on and set up the breadsticks and dips on the table as well as plates, cutlery and condiments. I also prepared the Bucks Fizz and the Pimms. When guests arrived I greeted them with a Pimms each and showed them through to the garden!

After my guests had finished their Pimms, I then made coke floats! I thought these would be a really good idea because these remind me of my childhood - Seaside holidays in the summer! Coke floats are simple to made for those of you that don’t know, all you do is add a spoonful of vanilla ice cream to your glass of coke! – You HAVE to try these if you have a sweet tooth!

We then cracked on with the BBQ and cooked up all our yummy food :-)

By the time we had eaten it was already about 6pm, so after eating we got out the Pimms, Wine and more bucks fizz and cracked on with the ‘’evening entertainment’’ of BOARD GAMES! – as we were all feeling slightly tipsy at this point, it defiantly made it more fun as we all were giggling throughout the whole night! We also put some marsh-mellows on the BBQ and had toasted marsh-mellows before the dessert came out! (our belly’s were popping!)

We then got out the deserts that the guests were asked to bring along and I put our outdoor fire on, from then on.. it’s pretty much a blur and then next thing I remember is waking up with a hangover – a sign of a good night? I think so!

(Slightly drunk in this picture! Showing love & dedication to the wine....)

So all in all, for the £50 I managed to feed 5 of us as well as provide entertainment and alcohol! Which works out at £10 each!! – Mission completed!! :-)

If you would like some hints and tips on how to host a BBQ on a budget through twitter please check out the hashtag -#TheCharcoalChallenge

I also found some great BBQ hints and tips via the hashtag - #BBQbudgetTips

For Further information regarding this challenge please visit - (www.moneysupermarket.com/home-insurance/competitions/the-charcoal-challenge/)

Shaunie Xxx

Hiya hunnis,

So I recently got introduced to a little trick with eBay to pick up cheap amazing bargains! I was chatting to a friend at work who gave me the heads up, and since buying a product this way I have fell in love and wanted to share it with you all! I call it... Gift Recycling! Haha

So my friend told me to type in "unwanted gift" in the search bar on eBay you can get loads of amazing bargains this way, Buy typing this in you can see items that people generally don't want that have been given to them as a gift. most of the items people just want to get rid of it or they don't appreciate how much they are actually worth so they list them for dirt cheap!

Anyway, I thought I would try this out for myself, I also added to the search line a few things I have been interested in buying (just to try my luck!)

I have been meaning to purchase the Xen-Tan Face Tanner Luxe for a while now, but I haven't been able to justify spending £20 on it even though it is AMAZING, so I typed that in as well as unwanted gift and up pops a brand new bottle listed for 99p and a £2.50 delivery charge with a day left on auction! I ended up winning this item for £2.34 and the delivery charge... So all in all, someone's unwanted gift has saved me over £15!! Woohoo! The box was slightly damaged, but she stated this on the listing but as the product was for myself and it was such a bargain I really wasn't worried about the box!

I also picked up some makeup brushes in a holder, these cost a grand total of £4.59 including delivery!! Wowza... They also have MAC written on the case and on the brushes, I'm presuming these are fake as they weren't listed as being MAC. if I had known this, I wouldn't of purchased them because I hate fake products... BUT I'm not bothered and cant complain as they were such a bargain.

Any one else given this a go? I'd love to hear what bargains you received! :-)

Shaunie xxx