Starting my Journey

Kepp

Those yoghurts will also be really expensive - a large pot of Greek yoghurt, some bananas to slice into it and a little bit of honey tastes lovely, is healthy and also much cheaper!

Ashamed_2

Yeah the Yogurts are mega expensive thinking about it.

I think the muller light 6 pack was on special offer 2 for £5.50. Then the crunch corner was the same, so that's 24 yogurts for £11 (works out about 40p a yogurt). I thought I was getting a good deal by saving £2.10 here with the multibuy option.

I think I'll cost up the natural yogurt, honey and banana option.

What's the OS board?

Kepp

I think there's where you have to be careful with special offers - they suck you in because you think your saving. Some I've seen look good at first, say 2 for £2 but when you check that only saves you 10p and you only really wanted one anyway! What they're designed to do I guess

OS is Old Style - link here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=33

It's full of great tips and advice for how to save money on cooking and cleaning etc

Ashamed_2

Thanks Beccie I'll check that link out.

Ashamed_2

I forgot to mention. We also had an additional £50 a month for takeaways, but since we started our diet we haven't had a takeaway now for 6 weeks so I guess that's £75 saved already .

Kepp

Great for the diet and the moneysaving! :T

fannyadams

Hi Ash,

I stumbled onto your diary and I've just finished reading your AMAZING effort! it's fantastic that you've tightened your belt (literally, with all that weight you're losing) and paid off over 11K in 6 months. I am really proud of you.

firstly I have subscribed cuz I wanted to see how you get on. Although I don't have a diary on here so don't worry about finding me...

a couple of things I wanted to share with you:

have you looked at http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/ This site will give you a chance to look at the big 4 - tesco, ocado, sainsbury's, asda and save a bit of money by chosing the lower priced items, (there's even a Martin Lewis Downshift Challenge on there)! I can't go shopping without it now and it's saved me HOARDS. You then click to send your shopping list through to your online shopping account. They also have MOC for delivery as well. Don't forget to check out the MSE forum for tesco, asda and other online shopping codes. AND you can get maximiles points if you use mysupermarket. (I exchange my maximiles points for £5 Odeon Cinema vouchers, good for treating the children this xmas).

On the subject of Cinema - do you have a Cineworld near you? They do £1 cinema on Saturday mornings... http://www.cineworld.co.uk/films/junior sneak in a bag of popcorn and a fruit shoot in your coat pocket and no one's any the wiser...

Did you try this calculator for Child Tax Credits -
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/payments-entitlement/entitlement/question-how-much.htm
to see if you can get some money. You're paying out for childcare surely you are entitiled to something!

Keep up the great work and I wish you all the best for the season to you and your family from me and mine.

Take Care,

FA
xxx

Ashamed_2

Thanks Fanny,
I'll have a look at those sites this morning.

Ashamed_2

Had a look at the tax credits site.

I think it's safe to say we don't qualify, which is pretty much what I was expecting

Also signed up with topcashback and Mysupermarket sites.

Ashamed_2

wow. That mysupermarket site is very good indeed.
I previously added a basic months worth of shopping to my basket via tesco.com just to see the prices. I've then added the exact same shopping list to myshopping and have found quite a few swaps that I can make. 8 / 10 times I've swapped things. I don't really want to start on the blue and white value labels that tesco's do as I think food and flavour is very important but even without the blue and whites I've managed to save £22 on a £175 shopping bill.

Thats for the site FA, I'll be using this for sure. Just need to show it to my wife now who I'm hoping will agree to use it.