Thanks to Morrisons and Britmums I was chosen to be a part of the  #MorrisonsMum / #MorrisonsDad project to help promote their recent 'I'm Cheaper'campaign,  permanent price drops on thousands of every day items.  Rather than increase their savers range, they've decided to make higher quality products cheaper, so you get better for essentially less.  In their own words, they're 'cutting prices, not corners'.  It isn't just Morrisons own lines either, you'll find thousands of popular every day branded items.

Our brief?  To descend upon our local Morrisons store and do some shopping using vouchers they kindly provided us with to experience the price drops and resultant food over the bank holiday weekend.  We actually chose the second closest as our usual branch is quite small and we wanted to visit the cafe too.

Seeing as The Preschooler had been poorly previously in the week, we decided to fortify him first with a hearty dinner in the Morrisons Cafe.  Yum!

We're no stranger to Morrisons, as our own local supermarket happens to be a Morrisons, however in the past we've only really used it for bare basics having to venture further afield to be able to feed our family on our small weekly budget.  However, despite our familiarity we were greeted at every turn with price drops.  There was no need to look for them, I went in armed with a list to make three meals (Thai Curry, Creamy Chicken Pasta and wholemeal calzones) over the weekend yet found often when I reached for something, it was cheaper!  This is where the the penny drops, it really is buying your usual items and getting them cheaper.  It really is everyday items you probably buy anyway.  Often you'll find in supermarkets that the items on offer are those that you don't actually need and wouldn't ordinarily buy which although make a nice treat, it's a bit of backwards economics as you end up buying them in addition to your usual items.  Brilliant for the supermarkets yet not so good for our purses.

This meant there was room for the odd extra that wasn't needed nor on the list such as the bargain £2.49 Ben & Jerry's ice cream.  Shush, I'm pregnant.  It's medicinal.  Oh and some cheeky king prawns.....

So what did we eat chez Tiaras & Prozac this weekend?

Firstly The Husband and I had a delicious Thai curry which although I have a picture of the ingredients, there's no picture of the finished article....I was hungry.  It didn't hang around long enough to be photographed!  It's unusual to ever get any meal that all of The Family will eat together so The Spawn had an old favourate, sausages and garlic bread.  Morrisons cheesy garlic pizza breads have been a firm favourate of ours for years and they're nearly always on offer so a bargain to boot.  Yet i'll admit to being pleasantly surprised at finding the sausages cheaper too.

If you look here, you'll see The Preschooler making some Jammie Dodgems with the #ImCheaper jam we bought.  He's only just turned four, so be kind.  He's an excellent baker.

Another night I made is a Creamy Chicken dish adapted from one of the recipes found on Morrisons own site with their basic range garlic baguettes, which again are firm favourates of ours.  They're cheap as chips  (only 30p each!)yet tasty too.

To make our version we used:

Serves four 

* 300g pasta (We used Farfalle instead of spaghetti) - £0.95p for 500g.
* 200g smoked middle bacon snipped into pieces (the recipe says 100g, what can I say though? we love bacon) - £2.18 for 240g #ImCheaper
* 200g cooked chicken-  £2.00
* 1 crumbled Stock Cube (From store cupboard)
* 300ml reduced fat creme fraiche - £0.90 #Imcheaper
* 1 tbs wholegrain mustard (From store cupboard)
* Garlic & mixed herbs (From cupboard)

* x3 Garlic baguettes @ 30p each.

Total cost : £6.93
Cost per person: £1.73

Surely that's a bargain in anyone's book?

It's super easy to make:

- Cook the pasta as specified on the pack.
- Dry fry the bacon then add the chicken (we used Morrisons Savers cooked pieces) with a crumbled stock cube and 4tbs water.
- Combine the Mustard, garlic, herbs and  Creme Fraiche then add to the meat.
- Stir in the cooked pasta
- Serve!

The Baguettes easily cook in the oven whilst the pasta cooks on the hob.  A quick and easy meal.

Last night we made our own wholemeal Calzones using my favourate quick pizza dough recipe.  These are an absolute favourate with all of us, the bonus is The Spawn make theirs themselves, we find that if you involve them in the making process they enjoy eating it even more.  We're huge meat eaters (Sorry Babe) so we had a mix of chicken, pepperoni, salami and ham.

I really do urge you to go to your local Morrisons and see how much of your usual shopping you can get for cheaper.  As soon as you enter you're presented with a mass selection of fresh fruits and vegetables, many of these, you've guessed it, are included in the 'I'm Cheaper' price drops too and the price drops just continue around each subsequent department you walk through.

***I received Morrisons gift vouchers to purchase the food however all opinions expressed and experiences described remain my own.


This post is part of the #MorrisonsMums promotion, why not visit the Britmums linky and see how some of the other mums got on and find some more tasty recipes!

12 ways to shop savvy and make your budget go further

The truth of the matter is, if we were still ordering our weekly shop to be delivered from a supermarket, we'd not be able to afford to eat much beyond beans and toast.  However, there are ways to make your money stretch that little bit further and enable you to eat varied and decent diet for less and still be able to buy the household items you need.  The catch? It's not as convenient as ordering on-line and getting it delivered.  You have to shop around.

1. If you have a Home Bargains store near you, use it.  You will get all the usual branded toiletries and cleaning products, only cheaper. Also cheap pet food, stationary, greetings cards, books, craft items, towels, crockery, bake-ware, alcohol (oh, hello!) confectionery, soft drinks and toys.  You can also get food, cereals and tinned goods especially.  Passata for instance and Branston beans are half the price of the Morrisons next door.

2. Frozen food isn't necessarily lesser food and is infinitely better than no food.  Shop at your local Iceland or Farmfoods and save an absolute fortune.  Erase the preconceived notion many have about these places being all about ready meals and turkey twizzlers, they're not.  Frozen meat, frozen fish, frozen fruit and vegetables etc all make for good old fashioned cooking from scratch.

3.  If like us you're massive carnivores, many local butchers are now doing 'meat packs' and will deliver, a good way to buy decent meat in bulk at a more acceptable price than the supermarkets.

4. For fruit and vegetables, if you have a local market do use it.  You will get infinitely better value for money.  Shop around though as you'd be surprised how much prices vary from stall to stall.  Some now let you get your own fruit and veg so you even get to see/feel and pick what you like as you would in a supermarket.  We literally get double the amount of fruit and vegetables that the same money would buy us from our local supermarket.  You'll also be supporting local independent traders, which is always a bonus.

5.  Look out for loyalty schemes and vouchers, they all add up.

6. Explore your local pound shops, once again you can get branded products for a fraction of the price that you'd find them selling for in a supermarket.

7.  Supermarkets generally reduce items three times a day, the discount getting progressively larger the later time gets.  Find out when your local supermarket does it's final reductions and fill your freezer up!  Apparently even Marks & Spencers reduce things ridiculously low at the end of the day.

8.  Meal plan.  Do this before you go shopping and stick to it.  You'll have much less waste and buy less unnecessary extras.

9.  Some things, in my opinion, need to be branded such as ketchup and beans otherwise the sacrifice of taste really doesn't make the savings worth it.  However, many no-frills and value ranges are absolutely fine.  Experiment and you may be surprised how much you could save without significantly sacrificing taste nor quality.

10.  Cooking from scratch is often cheaper, if you learn how to utilise left overs into another meal (i,e chicken soup or bubble and squeak) then your food goes even further.  If you use a slow cooker you can buy cheaper cuts of meats that will come out extremely tasty and tender.

11. Certain items can be bought in bulk and save you money especially if you buy them from places such as Home Bargains.  Items such as washing detergent, toilet roll and kitchen roll etc

12.  Try doing your weekly shop at Aldi or Lidl.  If you're used to shopping primarily at a mainstream supermarket you will see tremendous savings with no sacrifice of quality.  However, if you already shop around, you may not find you save as much in comparison to those who don't.

Granted there will be some items that you can only get from a supermarket, yet through utilising other places for the majority of your shopping you will soon see your costs decrease.

How to survive Christmas shopping.

I know most of you are more then likely infinitely more shop savvy then me yet for those of us who aren't I thought i'd share just a few ways of getting the most out of your Christmas shopping online, or should I say the most out of your money.

1.  Google is your friend.  Never ever purchase until you've googled the item to compare prices elsewhere, you may be surprised at how a price can vary for essentially what is the exact same item.

2. Cashback.  It's free to sign up and no admin fee's are taken from your 'earnings'.  Basically you'd be surprised at how many merchants that you frequently use actually offer cashback through a cashback service.   It really is that simple, you get money for spending money.  No hoops to jump through or small print.  Just search for a merchant, make sure you visit the merchant via their link on the cashback site and jobs a good 'un.  Often it's 5% etc other times it's an actual monetary value, especially if you're changing media services, energy suppliers or mobile phone companies, you can literally get £100's of pounds free purely through going via a cashback site.

3. Discount codes.  Never complete checkout until you've googled for promotional codes.  You can often get a range of discounts varying from a percentage discount or free delivery.  It all adds up and every little helps as they say.

4.  Membership sale sites.  If you're a mum you really ought to sign up to Zulily.  Every day at 6am they release new offers on a whole range of items from well known brands from slings, toys, clothing etc for mums and babies/toddlers/children.

5. Discount stores.  Never be afraid to mooch round your local pound shops and Home Bargains.  You can often pick up remarkable bargains.  Often things you'll find going for triple the price on eBay   You can get so much more for your money on the same items you'd purchase elsewhere.  Gifts for everyone from main presents to stocking fillers.  Cheap books, gift sets, clothing and toys!  Also ideal for hampers/baskets and such if you want to make your own hampers.

6. DIY.  If you're craft orientated, seriously do it yourself.  You can make something unique and quirky that the recipient will really appreciate.  Why not do hampers? from Christmas goodies hampers to a movie night hamper or even an indulgent Christmas eve hamper.  You can fill them with bought goods or if you're so inclined home made pickles, chutneys, puddings, home brews, sweets and truffles.  Get the children involved they can make truffles, potato stamp paper for wrapping paper, do salt dough impressions..... kill two birds with one stone that way, entertain the spawn and save money.  Win.

7.  If you're not a member of Amazon Prime you may be eligible for a free trial membership.  The best time to do this is Christmas.  No more stressing about when items will arrive, especially with our rather unpredictable weather.  Free next day delivery on many items.

8. Save up your Tesco club card vouchers as they have club card exchanges at Christmas  last christmas I managed to buy £80 worth of toys for £40.  Can't be bad!