 Sponsored PostSummer is creeping upon us (allegedly), as is the prospect of hauling our eight year old Corsa to Stylish Cousin's wedding, 300 miles away. Getting there in one piece will feel like an achievement in itself. Little Lad shall be riding shotgun, with Little Lady providing the soundtrack. Mr mammasaver shall dutifully be in charge of directions (well, when I say 'in charge...'). The car is insured, serviced and MOT'd, although we do not yet have car breakdown cover. Utterly stunned by our last insurer flatly refusing to reduce our renewal price of £150 for a year's cover, I completely forgot to renew. Whoops. The prospect of becoming stuck on the M6, bereft of any roadside assistance, is not one that I now relish. All is not lost, however. You can compare car breakdown cover just as you might use a car insurance comparison site.Doing this, we have found a deal including European Cover for our 8 year old Corsa for £58 - nearly £100 cheaper than our renewal price. That's not including the 15% cashback from Topcashback.com. Included is an Onward Travel option, so even if the trusty Corsa breaks down a mile down the road, we should be covered.
Arriving at Stylish Cousin's wedding in a tow truck? Now that would be different...
 This week, little lady has established herself firmly on the foodchain.
Yes, weaning has begun.
She's eating so much more than her big brother did at her age. In fact, she eats more in one sitting than he would eat in three days. She is quite a girl.
A slight problem is, I can't actually remember what you give babies to eat. However, she is eating everything. Everything.
Following an emergency dash to the supermarket (she had eaten through our usual supplies), I knocked up the following baby hummus recipe, served on toast and fingers firmly crossed that it would satisfy her:
Baby hummus:
One can of chickpeas
A handful of frozen coriander
A tablespoon of olive oil
The juice of half a lemon.
All blended together with a handblender, and served on toast soldiers.
It's protein packed, but in plant based form. If you wanted to boost the protein up further, you could add some sprouted Quinoa grain to satisfy your hungry little caterpillar.
This makes enough for four servings for hungry babies.
Like this? Check out:
Avocado and Cherry Tomato Toast Recipe
 'Tis the night before payday, and we have managed to get to the end of the month with the following, respectable items in our kitchen:
- 6 cans of baked beans
- 2 boxes of margarine
- A leek
- 4 Slices of Bread
- 1 fillet of reduced sticker seabass (in the freezer, of course).
Lunchtime with the small team was a picnic on the lounge floor affair, complete with our free picnic set, courtesy of Verbaudet.
It seems that chopping up any leftover vegetables and putting them into brightly coloured plastic tubs makes a convincing looking picnic.
Dinner was a defrosted bolognese, frozen from a mighty batch cook earlier in the month, which meant that we haven't had to deplete our baked beans supply.
A double success - sticking to our food budget this month and NOT having to clear the fridge out ahead of the monster online shop, which shall arrive tomorrow!
Phew.
If you have any ideas about what to do with this lurking, singular Seabass fillet, any suggestions would be gladly received in the comment section below!
 Since we moved into the new mammasaver towers, we haven't actually plugged in the television. Sitting awkwardly on a low bookshelf, gawkish and grey, big-backed and out of vogue (no slim line television in this house), we thought it only kind to retire him to the back of our wardrobe.Replacing him currently sits toddler shrapnel, and the hope that one day, we might have the time and inclination to watch scheduled, live television again.Using the various catch up programmes on iPlayer, More4, and ITVPlayer, we've not missed anything that we'd normally watch live.In light of this, I read with interest on moneysavingexpert.com that you do not actually need a Television Licence if you only watch catch-up television.The thought of saving £145.50 a year, and not having to find the money again next January propelled me to action.I quickly hopped onto the TV Licence website to request a refund, choosing the 'I bought a licence by mistake' option. Filling out the online form, I briefly explained that I did not realise that catch up TV does not require a licence. I also filled in a separate declaration form,to have our home listed as 'no licence required.'As to whether or not a full refund is issued is yet to be discovered. As to how I break it to mr mammasaver that he can no longer watch live football on the laptop is also, yet to be discovered. Ah.
 Our new little lady has kindly cost us very little since she was born.Wearing her big brother's cosy boy clothes and using every piece of equipment that we bought for little lad, the only real outlay has been four Emma Jane nursing bras when I first came out of hospital.However, I've been a bit unhappy with the Baby Bjorn Miracle carrier that we've been using. As she has grown to become the strapping 5 month old girl that she is now, the Baby Bjorn carrier seems to less carry her, but dangle her from her crotch. This cannot be good for a girl of any age.A bit of digging later, and I found out about the Ergobaby carrier - essentially a rucksack-style Mei Tai carrier, which can be used with baby facing in, on your hip or on your back.Crucially, your baby's legs are positioned nice and high up around your waist, rather than dangling down. Of course you could make your own cloth version, but as little lady naps in the carrier, I need as much padding around the shoulders and support around the middle as I can get.They don't come cheap though - Amazon list the Performance Carrier at £104. However, go directly to their UK Site, and you can buy exactly the same carrier in Euro, instead of GBP. Simply by keeping an eye on the exchange rate, you can potentially save a bit of money.As for the Ergobaby Performance carrier? So far, so good.
Best of all, noone's being dangled by their crotch.
 One of little lad's most successful Christmas presents this year has to be his beloved box of Playdough and cutters from his Big Irish Uncle.
Played with every day since its arrival, it has been starting to get a bit dry and crumbly, and looking rather sad.
Step forth humble cooking oil to the rescue - the tiniest drop has transformed little lad's dried out play dough into a gloriously pliable handful once more. Huzzah!
 Following the demise of Google reader, anyone wishing for an alternative can now use Bloglovin.
Click below for the link:
 Innocently taking the small team out to our local garden centre for a mooch about, little lad discovered a pretty looking bucket of coloured windmills, right at eye height. The following ensued: "Mummy, please me have one of thoooooooose...." "Darling - you have one already. At home." "I'd like two. Two would be better." Then followed a realisation - our little boy has discovered consumerism. Having things, but wanting more. Oh dear. Frantically, I searched the air for a suitable answer to his request, one which he would accept and would dig me out of this windmill-shaped hole. 'I'm afraid not darling - we have to save our money. For cake.' Aha - answer acceptable this time... Do you have any good pester deterents? Comments open below!
 Apparently, the Clarks website was not taking orders properly yesterday.
As a way of saying sorry, they've sent me this 10% discount code: BESORRY3
This is very decent of them, seeing as I wasn't trying to buy anything anyway.
I do wonder what they were sorry about twice before though...
 A momentous event has occurred in the mammasaver household - our little lad has successfully achieved Potty Trained Status. Poos and everything. Thank heaven. Really - the thrice daily poos, the nursing of little lady only to hear the dreaded call to the potty, the endless laundry... I digress. Taking the small team to Asda to investigate night time nappies (now rebranded 'Night Pants' by us), we duly bought a couple of packets of Huggies Dry Nights. What struck me was that they really weren't cheap, working out at around 58p per nappy, or £4 a week (£16 a month).Essentially a step-in nappy, they didn't seem any different to the Pampers Easy Up pants, coming in at 22.2p per nappy, or £6.21 per month.Huggies do their own version - Little Walkers Step In nappies, currently 23p per nappy at Boots. What's more, the Dry Nights seemed very plastic in comparison and not terribly breathable, unlike their daytime equals. We have duly switched, saving our household just under £10 per month on Night Pants.A little easier on the pocket, and indeed the bottom.Prices checked this evening through mysupermarket.com - check out link here.
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