This week we have been given a theme by Shannon over at Rocks In My Dryer and todays theme in preparation for Valentines Day is Love, Sweet Love.

One thing that I will be doing this year is making a Heart Shaped Ice Cream Cake. It is so simple to make and everyone loves it.

Simply pour some softened ice cream into a heart shaped cake tin. Put it back into the freezer to firm up again. Once it’s firm take it out of the freezer and place the bottom half of the tin in some warm water to melt the edges slightly. Turn the ice cream cake out onto a serving plate or the lid of a large container (turned upside down, so you can place the container over the top as a lid).

Melt some white chocolate in the microwave and add a few drops of red food colouring to make it pink. Drizzle the chcolate over the top of the cake and place it back in the freezer until you are ready to serve it.

You could also decorate it with fresh strawberries or sprinkles.

Don’t forget to head over to Shannon’s Blog for more Love, Sweet Love Ideas!

Here is week 2 of Frugal Friday. This is my first time hosting a Blog Carnival (you can read more about that below), so please be nice and play with me, I’d love to hear your tips

Here is todays Frugal Friday Tip:

Birthday Card Organiser

I am staying with my birthday theme for the moment and tell you about my birthday card organiser. I bought an expandable file from a discount store. It has 13 pockets, so I have labelled it with the months of the year and I have a spare pocket. I have printed up a list of birthdays and special events that I need to buy cards and gift wrap for and I keep it in my purse. When I am at the discount store or anywhere that I see nice cheap greeting cards and gift wrap, I pull out my list and see what birthdays or other events are coming up and buy cards and paper for them. When I get home I put them in the corresponding months in the expanding file. I use the spare pocket to hold an assortment of cards and paper for kids birthday parties that pop up during the year.

This saves me having to rush out at the last minute and spending a fortune on cards and paper

So you may be wondering:

What is Frugal Friday?

It’s a blog carnival that I have begun. I’m the “host”, and you can write your own articles in your blogs and enter a link here. Other readers can then come to my blog and see the collection of links.

What do I write about?

Each Friday you can write a Frugal tip that you have learnt.

Do I have to sign up or get your permission to join?

Not at all, Just jump right in.

Can I use your banner on my blog?

Yes you may, but you do not have to if you don’t want to.

Some other pieces of information for you:

Click on the Mister Linky Button below to enter your link.

Please only leave a link if you have written a Frugal Friday post.

Please mention Frugal Friday in your post, and link back to my list here.

Link to your Frugal Friday post, not to the front page of your blog. This makes browsing so much easier for everyone. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Enter a 3-4 word description of your post after your name. For example, where the box says “Your Name”, you might put:

Sharon (Reduce Grocery Bill)

OR

Marie (Cheap Gift Idea)

Make sense? This will make it easier to browse through the tips.

Hopefully you haven’t been turned off by all the information. Thanks for taking the time to read through it. I’m looking forward to hearing your tips

I’ve found another blog carnival to be part of… I’m loving this, sometimes I struggle with things to blog about, but now I have all these fun exciting things to blog about each day

Here is my first contribution to Slow Cooking Thursday:

Crockpot Barbecued Chicken

1kg chicken (breast or thighs – cut breasts in half, leave thighs whole).
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 onion, chopped
1/4 cup vinegar
3 Tabs brown sugar
1 Tab Worchestershire sauce
1/2 tea salt
1/4 tea basil
1/4 tea thyme

Place chicken in a crockpot (slow cooker).
Scatter the onions over the chicken.
Combine all other ingredients and pour over the chicken.
Cover tightly and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

Serves 4.

Head over to Diary of a SAHM to see more great Slow Cooking recipes!

First up I have to say a huge thank you to Shannon over at Rocks In My Dryer for her tip last week of putting DVDs in a CD Folder. I had never thought to do this. But I am very happy to announce that I ran out and bought a CD folder. My kids had a great time collecting all the DVDs throughout the house, taking the DVDs out and putting them into the folder. Not only do I no longer have DVD cases scattered on the floor, no longer do I have to search for a cover when I need to put a DVD away, no longer do I have to help an irate toddler find the Blue’s Clues DVD with the sock puppet in it (what the???), now I send the kids to the folder they can quickly and easily find the DVD they want and it is super easy to put the DVDs away rather than letting them pile up on top of the DVD player collecting dust and scratches……… so Shannon, thank you, thank you, thank you

Ok now onto my Works for me Wednesday post:

In my endeavour to find anything to make my life easier, I found a great tip to save time when preparing kids lunchboxes.

I make up a loaf (or two) worth of sandwiches, wrap each sandwich individually and put them in the freezer. Then each night I grab out whatever I need for the following day and put them straight into the lunchboxes. It sure helps when you are in a rush to get out the door in the morning.

Some sandwich fillings that freeze well are:

• Sliced or shaved cold meats and poultry
• Peanut butter
• Cheese spreads
• Processed cheese
• Cooked egg yolk

A handy hint: Butter or margarine helps to prevent whatever filling you choose to use (like mayonnaise or salad dressing) from soaking into the bread.

What you can’t freeze:

• Hard boiled egg whites, they become tough and often develop off-flavors when frozen.
• Lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and other raw vegetables lose crispness and color.
• Sliced natural cheese becomes crumbly, but you may not mind this.

Head over to Rock In My Dryer for more great Works for me Wednesday Tips!

This is my first Tackle It Tuesday post so here goes:

I was searching around my house for the thing that needed tackling the most and I decided that my fridge really does need a clean out. The shelves are sticky and there is a ring of soy sauce on the shelf on the door. The freezer also needs defrosting since someone left the door partly open one night… grrrr! It’s like the Antarctic in there, ice everywhere!. So at some stage this week I am going to tackle the fridge and freezer

Thanks to 5 Minutes For Mom for hosting Tackle It Tuesday.

Birthday Gift Box

My kids get invited to a lot of birthday parties during the year. So when I see something on special that would make a great gift I grab a couple of them and put them in our birthday box. Whenever we have a party to go to I check the box for suitable presents first. This saves as heaps of money and our friends get great gifts

So you may be wondering:

What is Frugal Friday?

It’s a blog carnival that I have begun. I’m the “host”, and you can write your own articles in your blogs and enter a link here. Other readers can then come to my blog and see the collection of links.

What do I write about?

Each Friday you can write a Frugal tip that you have learnt.

Do I have to sign up or get your permission to join?

Not at all, Just jump right in.

Can I use your banner on my blog?

Yes you may, but you do not have to if you don’t want to.

Some other pieces of information for you:

Please only leave a link if you have written a Frugal Friday post. Please mention Frugal Friday in your post, and link back to my list here.

Link to your Frugal Friday post, not to the front page of your blog. This makes browsing so much easier for everyone. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Enter a 3-4 word description of your post after your name. For example, where the box says “Your Name”, you might put:

Sharon (Reduce Grocery Bill)

OR

Marie (Cheap Gift Idea)

Make sense? This will make it easier to browse through the tips.

Hopefully you haven’t been turned off by all the information. Thanks for taking the time to read through it. I’m looking forward to hearing your tips