Right Place/Right Time

Not the clearest of photos, but great bargains nonetheless.

Found these yesterday - carrot and  coriander soup; reduced from £1.80 each to 36p each!

Ideal for lunches at school.  I have popped them both in the freezer.

[Wrote 30 writing and 30 'speaking and listening' comments yesterday.  Plus listed 2 pairs of shoes on ebay]  

TV Licence

It is half-term, so I have time on my hands to catch up on little tasks I postpone during term time.

Inspired by a tip I read when we were all writing our '30Ways To Save £1' posts, I rang TV licensing today.

I wanted to save £5 per year, by paying by monthly DD; rather than quarterly [with £1.25 per quarter premium]

It is true you can do this, but there is a catch.  According to the guy I spoke to, the first time you go onto monthly DDs you must first pay £29.10 monthly for the first 5 months - IE the full licence. Then you are allowed to pay monthly.  I pointed out that I have a proven track record of responsible payments.  However, to no avail.  Apparantly, it is government regulation.. HOW SILLY?

As I now pay £37.62 quarterly, I don't want to go onto £29.10 monthly for 5 months; even though I would save the £5 in the following year.

WHAT WOULD YOU ?
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Fantastic Bank Holiday Monday/Whitson Half-Term

When I woke up this morning, an email was waiting for me offering a composter, through Freecycle.  I was delighted. It was very timely.  Only yesterday, I had found a composter on Ebay; collection only.  The current bid was £1.75, with 24 hours to go.

I set up a snipe bid; max. £3.00

I had previously ordered one from a supplier offer a concession to my local council. However, I had received an email to say that there had a problem with the check out on their website and my order had not gone through; would I like to re-order? NO!

Then the Freecycle offer came.

Superscout and I went to collect it at 4:00PM, from a lovely lady.

On the way home, we stopped at a Marks and Spencer 'Simply Food' store.  We planned to buy a £10 'Dine In For 2' offer, because it was Bank Holiday.

WELL WE ARRIVED AT THE RIGHT TIME ....................... JUST LOOK AT WHAT WE BAGGED!

ALL 10P!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All in all it has been a great Bank Holiday.

Plus, I wrote 30 ICT comments and 30 Art and DT comments.

Added to which, we re-arranged Superscout's bedroom and did a major spring clean in it.

The Ebay composter finally went for £19.

I also have a chicken carcas in the slow cooker. #stock

Ridiculous Price Increase

At this time of year, I am partial to coucous, occassionally.  

The last time I bought some, it was approx 35p.  This time it cost 62p!  At first I thought it was a mistake.  Sadly not.

On the other hand, following on from a post and comment by Frugal Mum, instead of buying these:

£2.00/kg

I have bought these:

£0.63/kg

£1.37/kg saving.  

I plan to grated/slice them and freeze them ready for use.

Contact lenses

I wear daily disposable contact lenses, which I buy on a monthly basis from Tesco.  They cost £18 for a month's supply.  Surprisingly, they recently came down in price slightly.  I mean what comes down in price these days?

Anyway, I have decided that I shall stock up, whilst Tesco Clubcard Exchange is on; thus bringing the cost down to £9 per month.

I have to say, that this month, despite having an unforeseen leak in the bathroom and a problem with my brake lights, I have managed to save money.

Thus on the 24th [the day I receive my salary] I shall overpay another £100 off my mortgage.

Well done to me.

Hair Cut

I used to have my hair cut at a local salon.  The price had gradually crept up over the years, to £45.00.

I really enjoyed going: the magazines; the head massage and the nice coffee.

However, my stylist, who is a lovely person, has left.

This got me thinking, together with my reinvigorated frugal fervour, that I should re-think my hair cut approach.

Thus I contacted a mobile hairdresser, whose name I saw advertised in the Post Office.  She charges £20.00.

When she was actually cutting it, I wasn't sure.  However, I have had so many positive reactions - far more than normal.  So, I am now quite pleased.

As I have my haircut approximately every 10 weeks, that is an annual saving of approximately £130.00.

Not bad.

Finally, a very warm welcome to my new follower: Kirsty.

Grating And Slicing

 

 I love the way I am pushed on/gently encouraged and inspired by other bloggers.

Today, I mentioned that I have being buying grated cheese and carrots.  Frugal Mum then kindly left a comment, which inspired me to look carefully at 3 food processor blades I have had in my cupboards for years.  They turned out to be: a finer slicer/grater; a thick slicer/grater and a chipper. [I Googled them - how else would I have found out?!]  Indeed, if I wished to buy them separatley, they appear to be selling on ebay for approx the £10 each mark.

So, I had a little go, using a carrot and a courgette.  I AM SO PLEASED WITH THE OUTCOME.

I love my blogging friends.
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Food budget

First and foremost; a very warm welcome to Scarlett, my new follower. Wow - I now have the grand total of 6.  Sign up, if read but don't follow.  It is so exciting when I get a new follower.  I realy like knowing you are out there!


Before, I get started about my food budget, I will just let out a little frustration - GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR- for about 5 days now I have being trying to upload a photo.  It is just not happening - hence a lack of posts.

I made myself an ace spinach and chickpea curry, but I don't want to blog about it without a photo.

#frustration.

Moving on; I am pleased to say that I have significantly reduced my food/supermarket expenditure over the past month.  I have a budget of £70 for the three of us [2 adults; one almost adult; including a certain teenage  boy who tends to think it is not a proper meal unless containing meat.]

The last 3 weekly shops have cost: £35; £35 and £40.  The first 2 were reduced to that figure because I had £5 off when you spend £40 vouchers.

Notable successes: I used to buy 5 'eat me' bananas for £1.  Now buy 5 loose ones for about 60p.  I also used to buy 250g grated carrot for 50p/£2 per kg.  Now buy loose ones for 80p per kg.

Why did/do I buy grated carrot or grated cheese?  I have been using the grated carrot to make lentil burgers,  which create a very cheap meal.  So although within that , the carrot is not the cheapest, the eventual lentil burgers are a heck of a lot cheaper than my previous bad habit of nipping into the COOP on the way home, when tired, and blowing around £10 on ready meals - if you follow my logic.

I also buy frozen chopped onions, for £1.  They enable me to make quick meals from scratch.  It is all about being smart and saving money in ways that work for you.

Hair Cut

The last time I went to the hairdresser, my regular stylist had left.  I have been going to the same salon for a number of years and have been very happy there.

My last haircut cost £42.  [I never leave a tip, but always feel a bit guilty about it]  £42 seems like a lot of money, although if I went to a well known high street chain, such as Toni and Guy, I know I would pay even more.

Anyway, I have been thinking, and have decided that I am going to try out a mobile hairdresser.  I have started to ring round and have had a quote of £20.  However, I have another phone call to make, because a friend has specifically recommended the lady she uses.

Obviously, I want to be happy with the cut and finish.  However, if it works out I have calculated that I would be saving myself approximately £132 per year.

30 Ways To Save £1.

Alerted by Sarah and Iona, I have tuned into MoneySupermarket's celebration of the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the £1 coin.  They are offering £30 to every blogger who posts 30 ways t save a pound/money.

Here goes.  My ideas are:

1. Sit boiling - boil food stuffs like pasta and rice for half the time it says on the packet.  Then turn the heat off and let them continue to cook in their own ambient heat for the second half of the time.
2. House swap for holidays.  Five years ago I swapped my house and car with a Spanish family and had 3 fantastic weeks in La Manga.  Accommodation and car hire TOTALLY FREE.
3. Save bread bags, cereal packet innards etc to re-use as freezer/sandwich bags.
4. Use voucher code sites to actively search for vouchers to reduce he cost of a whole manner of things.
5. Put 'wanted' posts of Freecycle.  I usually get what I want.
6. Get rid/sell your tumble dryer.
7. Buy supermarket value/everyday etc products.  The family usually cannot discern the difference.
8. Bulk buy when there are genuine reductions on products you actually need.  For example, last week Tesco were selling my usual bath foam [normal cost 59p] for 17p, so I bought 6.
9. If you have savings, but credit card debt, use your savings to pay off your debt.  Martin Lewis draws an important distinction between'good debt' and 'bad debt'.  He considers 'good debt' to be things like a mortgage and education.
10. Use both sides of printer paper.  At school we are now issued with our own termly supply of paper.  In order to make mine go further, I now re-use and print on both sides.  Moreover, I have started to apply this principle at home too.
11. Leave purse/wallet at home.  I now only take my purse with me if I know that I will need to fill up with fuel or have something very specific to buy that day.  This principle is proving highly effective.
12. Don't go window shopping.
13. If you can, buy what you can online, if free delivery applies.  For example, both my children needed new school shoes.  We knew their sizing and the style they wanted, so I bought them online, with free delivery.  If we had gone into town, I would have had to pay to park, been pestered for a Starbucks etc.
14. Batch cook.  Last night I cooked a wonderful butternut and bacon risotto.  There is now masses to freeze.  Similarly, I have loads of lentil and carrot curry to freeze, sitting in my slow cooker.
15. Use a slow cooker.  They provide delicious hot meals when you come in after a busy day and run on tiny amounts of electricity.  Plus you can make large batches of food, using cuts that take a long to time to cook.
16. However, on the subject of meat - reduce the amount you eat.  Meat is expensive and it is healthier to eat less.  Substitute for lentils, chickpeas etc.
17. Read frugal blogs.  I have found out so many new ways to save money through the blogging community.
18. Shower rather than bath.  This saves money on your water bill, if you are on a meter.  That said, when we do have baths, 3 of us use the water, one after the other.
19. Car share.  A colleague and I plan to do this, as soon as our schedules coincide.  In know others who do already.
20. Get things repaired - don't just default buy new.  For example, the hoze on my Dyson recently split.  I had had it for over a year and assumed it would be out of guarantee   Someone told me to check.  It turned out, it had a 2 year guarantee and they replaced it free of charge.
21. Use Youtube to watch videos on how to repair things.  You will find almost everything is on there.  For example, my son's braces came slightly unhinged at the back.  We found a video on how to re-thread.  This saved the fuel on a journey to the orthodontist.
22. Shop around for tariffs.  I used Bill Monitor to track my actual mobile phone usage prior to re-newing my contract.  I now pay almost £30 a month less for the contract, because I am on the correct contract for my needs.
23. Don't go food shopping with children, if you can avoid it.  Seriously, pester power is real and powerful.  My bill is ALWAYS much cheaper when I shop alone.
24. Take packed lunches, snacks and drinks to work - so much cheaper.
25. If you need to travel by train, and you know you are going somewhere well ahead of time, book in advance.  Superscout and the teenager's dad now lives in London.  They book their tickets online, well ahead of the date of travel.  I have been v pleasantly surprised at how inexpensive the tickets are.
26. Don't pay TV licence by quarterly direct debit.  If you do, you pay a £1.25 per quarter premium [£5 per year].  If you pay monthly, you don't.
27. Grow some vegetables, even if only a small amount.  I have a metre square raised bed and will plant 3 to 4 courgette plants in there.  When the courgettes get going, they will save me real money.  [The bed  itself is made from the sides of my old pine bed!]
28. Don't leave electrical items on standby.  Turn off lights in empty rooms.
29. Use half the recommended soap and conditioner when washing clothes.  I have been doing this for years and no-one has ever noticed.
30. Get to know trusted local tradesmen.  I now use a mobile mechanic to look after my car.  He is so much cheaper than a garage [I have actively compared prices]

So there you have it!  Let me know my frugal friends, what you think.

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Tesco Everyday Value

Yesterday, I went shopping with superscout.  During our trip, we had a discusssion about the amount of Tesco Everyday Value products I buy.

Since the re-branding from Value to Everyday Value, I seem to buying a lot more.  Superscout says it is because of the re-branding.  I am not sure.  I feel that the quality has improved.

In a way, does it matter?  If I am happy, as the customer/consumer, surely that is a good thing.

Here is a selection of products we currently have in our cupboards:

 

What do you buy of a similar nature?  Any top tips?

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Rotary Clothes Line

Thanks to my lovely friend Mark, I now have a rotary clothes line cemented into my garden.

It was £19.99, from Argos.

I did already have a washing line, but you have to stand on the grass to use the full length of it.  With all the inclement weather we have had over the past year, including last summer's never ending rain, I have been discouraged from pegging my washing out.  I only very occasionally resorted to the tumble dryer, but want to reduce the amount of damp laundry hanging about around the house.

 

 Superscout and I had a great time in Norfolk. Will write a post tomorrow.

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Hidden Saving.

I knew that I would have to buy supercout and the teenager new school shoes this Easter.

I have done so online.[Clarks]

I tried buying superscout cheaper ballet pumps,but they just fell apart,. They simply could not take the walking to school.

Anyway, this morning,it dawned on me, that I could order them online, which I have done.

So, the hidden saving is the petrol, parking and snacks/lunch out.

[I looked and looked online to find discount voucher codes, but sadly could not find any valid ones]

That said, I have never really got the hang of cash back sites.

I KNOW IT IS EARLY DAYS FOR THIS BLOG AND FOLLOWERS,BUT IF ANYONE OUT THERE HAS ANY ADVISE RE CASH BACK SITES, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.
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