Yellow Stickers

Hands up if you are a fan of a bargain? I know I am! With my local supermarkets I am learning the best time to go in for the best bargains. Tonight just after 7 PM it was Morrisons as they close earlier than other shops. I basically got a 3 course dinner for 97p:

What are your best yellow sticker bargains?

Tesco Mobile #XmasSavingsTips Blogger Challenge

Sponsored post

It's a pleasure to be asked by BritMums and Tesco Mobile to share my #XmasSavingsTips. Being on a limited budget I need to make sure that Christmas doesn't blow a big hole in my finances! So here are my money saving tips:



1) Budget

Well ahead of the shopping season set your Christmas budget. You know how much you can actually afford so don't go over the top. I tell my children the maximum I will spend on each of their main presents to manage their expectations (no Xbox 360's at our house!).



2) Save

A bit late for this Christmas but put money on one side each month to a Christmas pot. This can either be in the form of a savings account, cash at home or in my case high street vouchers which I pay in instalments for. You need to make sure that your savings match your budget! Don't over stretch with your overdraft or credit cards.



3) Vouchers and Offers

Now is a good time to use all those loyalty points and rewards you have built up over the year. I knocked £10 off my children's main presents that way leaving me extra for helping Santa fill their stockings! Be canny and look out for 3 for 2 offers or other ways to get more for your money.



4) Christmas Cards

Make your own ecards using a special photo from the year. In the past I've turned school portraits into cards. With most people being on email this can really keep costs down. Of course some aren't so be organised and post in plenty of time to use second class post..



5) Tesco Mobile

This Christmas Tesco Mobile is offering families some of the best deals on handsets and tariffs. Most notably the Samsung Galaxy Ace available for £12.50 a month including 500 free minutes, 5000 texts and 500 MB of data.

And the BlackBerry Curve 9320 - available on pay as you go for £125.

Why Tesco is great for Families:

* You can control your mobile spending with their capped tariff: This means that family members can't use any more than their allocated monthly minutes, texts and data and you don't end up with any nasty surprises on the bill at the end of the month.


* With two or more contracts you get extra perks with the Tesco Mobile Family perks offer - this means you can add all your family handsets onto one single bill and each member can choose from a selection of extra perks each month such as free texts, minutes or data.


* What's more, if you?re a Tesco Clubcard customer, you'll get triple points for every £1 you spend at Tesco Mobile (that's a lot of Pizza Express vouchers - Clubcard members you know what we mean!)




What #XmasSavingsTips can you share?

Perpetual Picnics

This is something I mentioned in a previous post about going to Legoland and I thought I would expand on it!

• So what is a perpetual picnic and when do you need one? 
  It is a picnic that lasts all day and you don't need to sit down to eat it! So ideal for trips to theme parks etc. when you don't have time to stop or you are spending 30 minutes plus in a queue for a ride.
  
• What sort of things are good for a perpetual picnic?
  
  Anything that you can eat holding in your hands without needing a plate and won't melt or make a big mess:
  
  crudities and dip
  cherry tomatoes
  bread sticks
  crisps
  small sandwiches
  mini sausage rolls
  mini pork pies
  mini egg bites (basically anything bite sized from your supermarket!)
  melon slices
  strawberries
  pre-segmented mandarins etc.
  dried fruit
  fairy cakes
  small non-chocolate biscuits
  
• what about drinks?
  
  small cartons of juice
  bottles of water
  any re-sealable soft drinks
  flask of tea / coffee
  
• anything that is no good?
  
  things that melt in your hand
  if it needs more than a couple of bites its probably too big

So pack up your cool bags and go out and enjoy days out with the kids. Taking a perpetual picnic saves time and money that you can then use on something more exciting ;-)

Signed on...

Well having given up my job as of Friday I had an appointment to "sign on" today. Needed to make sure I got all the benefits I was entitled to as quickly as possible. It took me ages to fill out the forms last week (do they deliberately make them hard?) and I went along the good old Job Centre at Heron House in Hastings today...


All the tales about it being nicknamed Heroin House made me glad I was not with my kids. Though one inside it wasn't quite as scary with computer job search booths and lots of open plan desks. Last time I went near a Job Centre (15 years ago) the staff were all behind glass screens! I did have to wait to be escorted to the correct area and the loo needed a card swipe from the Customer Services Assistant...


After a short wait on a comfy sofa I got taken for my interview which was basically a review of the form I'd filled out. Turns out that the guy on the phone should have told me to apply for Income Support not Job Seekers as my kids are both under 7... Aargh that was an evening wasted.. Any way the nice lady gets the right form and even she struggled to help me fill it out!! 


Luckily someone from Lone Parent Support was available so I then got sent upstairs. Thank goodness for taking a big book to read as I had to wait about 20 minutes on the next comfy sofa... interestingly I was reading the advisors favourite book of all time (Ken Follett - Pillars of Time)...


She was a lovely understanding lady and made me feel like I was doing the right thing and offered advice on housing benefit etc. A quick call to the Tax Credits people got those adjusted so I now know what my budget will have to be based on. I shouldn't have to go back for 6 months and just need to inform them if I earn any money. Apparently best to earn just under threshold to keep claim open. And I don't have to actively seek work until O is 7 (more than 3.5 years!) - sure I will want to do something before then!!


Let's hope it all goes smoothly and I get the accounts sorted for council tax benefit too!

On the edge of the unknown...

Well I have 3 weeks or 9 working days left (subject to snow!) as a paid employee which is kind of scary. I know it will mean a lot of changes as my income will plummet as will only be from benefits & tax credits and any ad hoc Usborne money.

BUT I will not have the stress of juggling work pressure and the needs of my kids.

I have made an appointment at the Job Centre for my first day as unemployed. Just hope I don't get penalised for quitting my job....

So will need to start budgeting better (must get gas/electric bill down as has rocketed in this cold snap!). The nice extras in life will have to be several rationed e.g. coffees out, meals away from home etc. At least it should help my waistline as will have to cut back on naughties such as wine, chocolates and yummies. Then again I will have time to improve my home baking & cooking techniques! Just have to get my kids to eat the results...

Please let me know any really good budget recipes that I can try out!! Or any other top budgeting tips...

How did those resolutions go??

Well on my old blog I made some resolutions 12 months ago. Time to look back and see how I did...

1. losing 2.5 stone to get to just being overweight! result: loss 4.5 stone and now healthy; challenge for 2009 keeping it off...
2. sticking to a sensible budget. result: better but still more going out than coming in; challenge for 2009 reducing level of debt
3. maintaining kitchen & living room and sorting out rest of house. result: kitchen & living room mostly OK, dining room making occasional appearances, kids' room 50:50, rest of house - ummm; challenge for 2009 keep on baby stepping to declutter
4. attic playroom. result: started freecycling furniture but filled up space with medieval kit and car boot left overs! challenge for 2009 keep on freecycling...
5. keep up quality time with kids whilst doing everything else? result: hope so though temporarily doing 3 jobs wasn't good
6. keep blog up to date. result: better than last year but still not always doing it - must get off Facebook more!!

So what am I going to do in 2009:

1. Keep on working on the budgeting
   
2. Work hard to keep the weight off  (1 might help as no money for naughties!)
   
3. Keep on sorting out the house (might help 1 if I can sell some stuff!! and help 2 to keep running up and down to the attic)
4. Blog to preserve my sanity!!

Let's see if I can do better this year...