Back to School with Asda

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Like all parents I dread the start of the new school year in terms of how much it will cost in new uniform. Children do seem to grow more in the summer months much more than in the winter. Having a girl and boy I can't even hand down lots of uniform as my son would look rather strange in his sister's cast offs. To top it all they are much of a muchness in size any way despite the 3 year age gap!

I had already forked out for both to have new school shoes when Asda asked me if I wanted to review their School Uniform. There was no way I was going to refuse that offer! So I set about choosing a virtual basket of school uniform items to request for the review. The site is easy to use and usefully gave alternative or additional suggestions when you browsed for something like girls' trousers.

My children have an official school polo shirt and jumper so I was looking for bottom halves, PE kit and backup tops for forest school. My children seemed very pleased with the choices I made for them. First up my daughter's PE Kit:

Jogging Bottoms £4 for outside games:

2 pack of cycling shorts £4 for indoor PE:

Then she needed new trousers and skirt. Being a skinny mini she suits the snugger fitting trousers so I chose her the same ones but in black and grey both £4:

To ring in the changes I also ordered her a skirt £4.50 (not sure how often she will wear it as a bit of a tomboy!):

As you can see this crumpled up a bit when my daughter just shoved it back in the packaging after checking it all out! The pleats are supposed to be permanent though. It has an adjustable waist which is an essential on a skinny child.

Next up my son, he is a very active 6 year old so needs trousers that will stand up to football and a few tumbles in the playground. These certainly look like they fit the bill as they are both Teflon coated. 

First up Grey half elasticated waist trousers £4 again need an adjustable waist but could also put a belt on too. The secured hem is a great idea with the rough and tumble at school:

The Black flat front trousers were slightly more expensive at £4.50! Again these have a secured hem and adjustable waist:

He does forest school once a fortnight and needs tops that can get mucky so I picked a 2 pack of blue polo shirts at £3:

Finally I still had enough left out of a £40 budget to buy him some PE shorts for £4:

So definitely a great way to kit the kids out for school without breaking the bank. And at the moment if you spend £20 online they will deliver it free next day delivery!

Obviously they haven't been fully tested out yet as the children aren't back at school until Wednesday but they look of good quality. I will have to come and update this post at half term after 7 weeks wear and tear!

Change4Life: Supermeals

I have rather neglected my blogging for Change4Life recently so thought I'd better get cracking as they have recently launched their Supermeals campaign. In order to help parent change their families diets they have brought out recipes for meals that are:

• low cost
• quick and easy to make
• tasty

I ordered a paper copy of some of their meal ideas but they also have an online Supermeals recipe finder. With this you can search by ingredients, create a shopping list and make a 7 day meal plan.

If that doesn't appeal then you can have recipe ideas e-mailed to you instead. All you need is to register and then wait to see what pops up in your inbox. All the recipes cost about £5 to make 4 adult servings.

You can get the children to join in by creating their own Cookbook crammed full of their favourite healthy recipes. Think I need to try this with my 2!

The  final part of the Supermeals programme is a free cookbook featuring Ainsley Harriott. All you need to do is buy a copy of the Daily Mirror on Friday January 20th and hand the voucher in at your local Asda store. The book has 30 easy, healthy and tasty recipes which all cost around £5 to make.

So what are you waiting for get over to the Supermeals site now and start changing your families diet!

How not to do Internet Supermarket Shopping

Regular readers of my blog will know that my kids and I are very good at creating chaos out of the most simple tasks e.g. cooking or being a domestic goddess. Today was no exception as I had finally given in to the lure of getting my shopping delivered from the supermarket.

It all started so well when at the weekend I logged onto mysupermarket.com and started to fill up my virtual shopping trolley. I reserved my delivery slot with Asda and browsed the aisles for the products I needed. The icon telling me how to get a cheaper version of what I had chosen was very useful at saving me money. I looked at the calorie saving swaps too but as most of what I was getting was for the children I didn't swap anything. What I didn't realise was that as I didn't checkout I lost my delivery slot - newbie error!

Having completed the latest meal plan with the kids on Tuesday I went back to the site to complete my shopping list. I managed to get the same delivery slot that I had lost before but then realised that I wouldn't actually be home at that time.. so I found a slightly later £3 delivery slot that was available. This time I successfully completed my shop and checked out. So now all I had to do was sit back and relax until tonight when it was delivered.

Sunday Review: Asda and Morrisons Cafes

Being the disorganised person I am I've had to sample both the Asda and Morrisons cafes in Kendal during the last month. I have to admit they were a big contrast and I will only be choosing to eat in one of them again! Coffee is fine in both but hot meals were a different matter.


So first up Asda, my initial impression was that the menu looked good and the hot food on display appeared delicious. There was a small menu on the way in that gave the children's options as well as the main menu. The food on offer was child friendly with a choice of potato accompaniment and vegetable plus a drink but this was not fruit juice.


On ordering I was told that the adult food was served immediately but children's food was cooked to order. This is really not an ideal combination as your hungry child has to watch you eat whilst waiting for theirs. The fact that my food had been sitting on the hot food counter meant that it didn't taste as good as it having been cooked fresh. 


Why they don't have children's food ready to go and adult done fresh I don't know as that would be a better way round or do both the same. Basically not impressed and will only go for coffee and cake in future.


Next up Morrisons, the cafe was larger than at Asda and had several large menus on the way in. As it was Sunday lunch time there was a long queue but the Morrisons' solution to this is to have a Hot Food Order point at the entrance. 


My children again had a choice of kiddie friendly food with options on potato accompaniment and peas or beans. The meal came with a Capri Sun drink, a Freddo chocolate bar, fruit snack pack and an activity pack. (There were also a couple of adult meals offered as half portions for kids with no extras). As soon as they had been handed the Freddo and activity park my children headed off for a table and were quite happy waiting for me to finish queuing to pay. 


The food was all cooked to order so there was quite a wait but the children managed to eat their chocolate bars as a starter and drew in their activity books. The freshly cooked food tasted better than being prepared in advance. We all enjoyed our meal though the kids didn't want their fruit snack packs (safely taken home for another day). My daughter even managed to get a member of staff to provide her with a glass of tap water.


So on the whole I would go back to Morrisons but not Asda for a hot meal. It was healthier, nicer and if you don't go on a Sunday lunch time it's probably not too long a wait!