Tesco Mobile #XmasSavingsTips Blogger Challenge

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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?

Reasons to be Cheerful week 50: My Christmas Angel ( #R2BC )

 

We have a guest host over at Pressies by Pebbles so please visit her! I'm going to focus on my daughter this week as like all mums and daughters we have our ups and downs but I'd like to focus on great things this week. She has had a rough couple of years to deal with at a young age but her angelic side can still shine through:

 

 

We've had a couple of Christmas fairs over the last few weeks that my children have helped me to sell books at. On each occasion my daughter has befriended some new people and been a fabulous addition to my sales team!

Tonight and yesterday was the Christmas production for the juniors at her school. As you can see from the photo she had a part as an angel in the nativity section as well as singing in the choir.. Despite her tonsillitis she put a 100% effort in for her small part in a wonderful school production.

She is still really focussing on raising money for cancer charities as a way of coping with her day's cancer. It's fabulous that she is thinking of others at a time she is hurting herself.

Well done to my Christmas angel and I hope to see more of the angelic side in 2013 ;-)

 

Charity Appeal: African Children's Choir

The African Children's Choir, who performed with Gary Barlow at this year's Jubilee concert, are asking parents to Give up a Gift for Africa on behalf of their children this Christmas.


Sacrifice the value of just one stocking filler gift and instead donate that money to The African Children's Choir here http://www.justgiving.com/give-up-a-gift-for-africa

Not only will this gesture help us raise much needed funds to educate more vulnerable African Children, it will also allow you to teach your children the importance of giving this Christmas - a stocking filler gift with true meaning.

If you donate via Just Giving you will receive a link to a printable Christmas card from The African Children's Choir which can be printed off and placed in your child's stocking as a thank you.

Or you can donate via your mobile - text GUPA88 £amount to 70070.

This is my daughter Belle on the ACC Facebook pagehttp://www.facebook.com/africanchildrenschoir she has given up a Disney DVD from her stocking, and we have donated the money instead, teaching her the importance of giving to other children who are less fortunate than herself.

We would be delighted if you could donate on behalf of your children and then shout about your donation on Twitter, Facebook and on your blog. Feel free to even send us a picture of your little one declaring what gift they gave up for Africa and we may post it on our Facebook page.

This is Belle on the ACC Facebook pagehttp://www.facebook.com/africanchildrenschoir she has given up a Disney DVD from her stocking, and they have donated the money instead, teaching her the importance of giving to other children who are less fortunate than herself.

We would be delighted if you could donate on behalf of your children and then shout about your donation on Twitter, Facebook and on your blog. Feel free to even send us a picture of your little one declaring what gift they gave up for Africa and we may post it on our Facebook page.

Just imagine the good we could all do if we gave up just one of our Christmas gifts each.

The African Children's Choir travel the World as ambassadors for Africa's most vulnerable children. They raise much needed funds for the education programmes run by Music for Life, who have, in their 28 year history, educated over 52,000 children!

Watch this 2 minute clip about The African Children's Choir and be inspired...


You can Give up a Gift on behalf of anyone, your husbands, parents - anyone! Who really needs another pair of socks anyway - this gift is much more rewarding!

You can read more about the campaign and the inspirational work of The African Children's Choir here - www.africanchildrenschoir.org.uk


 

The things kids say...

Me: you are a big boy now and should be able to hold on until you get to the loo

 

Son: but I can't

 

Me: gramps can wait until he gets to the loo so you should too.

 

Son: but gramps is very old so he ought to wet himself!

 

 

Mattel Fun Times: Chameleon Crunch

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This is the latest toy we have tried out from our Mattel Fun Times box. This gave us quite a surprise once I'd put in the batteries as he started to run round in a circle! I realised that to do him justice I'd have to try him out in a bigger space than our tiny front room...

 

So he took a trip to my children's after school club to test him out in the school hall. The children from aged 4 up were all delighted to have have a chance to try and feed him once he stopped and opened his mouth:

They found it even funnier when he spat some back out! The hard thing was getting everyone else to stop playing so I could video my daughter on her own:

 

Over the sounds of the school club you can just hear the chameleon making comments like I'm hungry or yum! A cute game that seemed to entertain lots of different aged children. He felt so at home at school that we left him there to enjoy his new friends!

A good fun game for younger children but you do need plenty of space!