2007 Savings Record

EagerLearner

Bet with the baby every penny counts...!

Added £120 to savings today as this is what I have removed from our joint account so we have to manage on the rest re shopping for the rest of the month. Have been doing this each month, although not always £120.

Hoping for £100 Halifax bonus soon...

jo_b_2

EagerLearner wrote: »

Bet with the baby every penny counts...!

Yes - the baby doesn't cost much directly at the minute, luckily. I'm still breastfeeding which is obviously free! He's wearing his brother's handmedown clothes mainly and we kept most of the baby items too. Just bought a couple of extras really.

The main expensive is that I'm taking a whole year's worth of maternity leave!

Hoping for £100 Halifax bonus soon...

I haven't received mine yet despite opening the account ages ago and fulfilling all the conditions! Thanks for the reminder. I need to chase that up!

jo_b_2

Latest update:

Received some freebies this week:
A Mr Men Bruise Soother!
A free travel highchair from a magazine offer worth £12. :j
£10 Boots voucher from Pigsback
£10 cashback from Quidco

Last week's shopping used £7 worth of vouchers and saved £11.50 on BOGOF offers.

This week saved £13 on BOGOF.

Also made £11.15 from selling my stuff on Amazon

Total: £74.65

EagerLearner

Yes, breastfeeding has to be the ultimate on baby's self-sufficiency - well, in the family anyway! Hopefully you are getting all the freebies you can too.

I won £25 on MoneyBackMadness yesterday, very pleased indeed as that takes my free cashback site clicking to over £204... also got a free preview cinema ticket to the new Tarantino movie, so will add £6.50 to savings later this week. Will call Halifax re £100 in a week or so to chase that up.

Apart from that not much to report...

jo_b_2

Savings since last posted:

Bought a Bissell Carpet Cleaner from recommendations on this site. Ordered from Tesco Direct and used a £10 discount code. Paid just under £60, including p&p. The same model is £99 in Argos so saved £33. :j

(I really need the cleaner thanks to the two children!) :rolleyes:

Also made a separate Tesco Direct order for some cheap baby wipes. Got 24 packs for less than £20, including p&p. Saving at least £5 off the cheapest BOGOF offers elsewhere.

Chased up the Halifax £100 offer last week at the branch. It still hasn't been credited yet though! :rolleyes:

Cashed in a £5 cheque for a Try Me Free offer and sent off the details for another.

Total: £43

EagerLearner

This week got a free grater from Kikkoman (buy bottle of Terriyaki sauce, send stamped SAE, receive free expensive microplane grater within 2 days!) and called Halifax - they said my account should be credited with the £100 end of this week early next. Happy days!

Have never ordered from Tesco Direct - wish i could just add cd's etc to my grocery order instead!

jo_b_2

EagerLearner wrote: »

called Halifax - they said my account should be credited with the £100 end of this week early next. Happy days!

Mine still hasn't been credited! :rolleyes:

Yesterday, I did a bit of a luxury shop at Sainsburys (lots of nice cakes and bisuits) . I offset the cost slightly by using a £2 coupon from Nectar and £4 luncheon vouchers for completing online surveys.

Today I stocked up on nappies at Boots and used my parenting club vouchers, saving £6.75. (I paid in full using my pigsback vouchers and now have nearly £60 worth of points on my Advantage card too!) :j

jo_b_2

Hoping to have a No Spend Day today.

I usually use disposables on the baby but have decided to try and use at least one reusable nappy every day. He's asleep in one at the minute - saving all of 12p on a disposable! :rolleyes: It's still one less nappy in landfill, which is far more important!

The best part was that the reusable nappy was a free sample from Little Lambs so didn't cost me anything. The wrap was bought for my oldest son but rarely used as I didn't get on very well with reusables.

Edit: Used another 3 reusable nappies so far - another 36p saved! :rolleyes:

EagerLearner

I got my £100 from Halifax this week which is fab, although it's one of those times when I didn't realise my balance already included the £100 which was annoying! Have put it into an investment fund which I'd been meaning to start up, so whatever that makes is based on free money!

Have £2 off voucher for Sainsburys tomorrow and also will be seeing a free movie, saving us £6.50 each...

Sounds good re the reusable nappies - saves money and the environment - see how long you can do it for, I'm guessing alot of washing machine usage for the inner bit?

jo_b_2

EagerLearner wrote: »

Sounds good re the reusable nappies - saves money and the environment - see how long you can do it for, I'm guessing alot of washing machine usage for the inner bit?

I have to do a wash at least every other day (if not more often) so the nappies don't really add any extra. I shove them in with the baby's clothes - don't wash them seperately. (There's a paper liner that catches most of the solid stuff!)

The only problem that I have with the nappies I've got (prefolds with Kushies wraps) is that they leak if left for any length of time. I put baby in one yesterday (another 12p!) :rolleyes: and he was soaked through after just 2 hours! I try to use them at times when he's liable to just poo and need a new nappy straightaway as I don't feel confident leaving him in them when he's likely to sleep. :rolleyes: I wouldn't be convinced to give up disposables for most of the time, unfortunately.

Savingswise - I opened baby's Child Trust Fund with Nectar a few weeks ago. Got 1000 bonus Nectar points which has been added straight back into his CTF. That's worth £5. The reason I chose that account is so that I can top it up with Nectar points from completing surveys, rather than my hard-earned cash!

Been to Tescos today. Over 700 points this shop. Also used vouchers worth £12.43 and saved £4.45 on BOGOF. Used a till-spit to get £1.84 off petrol and received another till spit for next week's shop!