A stay at home mummy who wants to be a mfw - Yes I can and Yes I will!

I_want_a_baby

Well really enjoying this challenge! It really helps focus the mind when I know I have to 'report' back to you all!!

Progress so far (General) -
Mon/Tue/Weds - NSD's
No food shopping since last thurs
Need to do a small top up shop so have costed it out on Mysupermarket and will use the three local big shops 'M', 'T' & 'S' to get the best prices on everything. The costed shop on 'S' comes to just under £15 so I will take this in cash and hope to come back with some change. I am thinking of this as a 'beat the supermarket' challenge and hoping the shopping around will give me some much needed exercise! I have compared the prices between 'T' & 'S' online so will start the shop in 'M'!! (will update you on how much change I bring back!). While this may seem like a lot of work I have worked out I can save between £1 & £2 by doing this and it should take no more than an hour which in all honestly is better money than earnings through SB/SP/Surveys!
All meals cooked from mealplan - no deviations.
Massive tidy upstairs including all hoovering - husband will be pleased with tidy house and thus less aware of time spent on sites :rotfl:!

Things done today -
Increased Swagbucks from 151SB to 257SB (106SB increase!:D)
Increased Superpoints from 187SP to 195SP (8SP Increase - struggling with this one!:()
Pinecone survey complete - awaiting details of 'compensation'.
Mums i-view survey completed - £0.72 (Balance £1.92)
Above mentioned housework.
Checked prices for items needed for medical box.

Things to do - [BOLD = complete]
Comping for cash - Is this worthwhile? Does anyone do this and the points/surveys? Do you just pick out the things you really like or enter everything? How many competitions do the really sucessful compers enter per day? = My current musings....

Free CB on cashback sites still to do/look at. - did quote for car ins on Quidco should earn £1.75 - will see if it tracks!

Find holland & barrett card & activate Found card & activated - need to check back in 48hrs for points balance

Download 02 priority moments app

Figure out how to print vouchers from beforeishop

List all subscribed to survey sites, cashback sites & loyalty cards & their balance.

Plan some 'check in's' using quidco. Maybe work out a money neutral trip into town with the kids - I.e earn £0.30 through check ins and buy a 15p choc bar for me & DS (DD too young), go to park & library - walk so no fuel/parking cost! Of course the 30p spent will come out of the budgeted fritter money (£10pw:eek: none spent yet!;)) so the 30p earned from quidco will go to house savings!
Check Ins to do tonight - Morrisons 10p.
Check Ins to do tomorrow (weather permitting!) Sainsburys 5p, Tesco 5p, New Look 10p, WH Smith 5p, Superdrug 5p.
TOTAL check ins 40p

List items needed for medical box and cost from 'S' or 'T', walk into town and check wilkinsons, buy at cheapest unless cheaper in £land - in which case create a new list for purchases that need to be made in that town. - Created list and compared supermarkets & boots - will check wilkinsons tomorrow

Check petrol prices - tank needs filling soon. Usual petrol station 138.9, one in same town 134.9 potential saving based on 60L £2.40!

Check energy usage/meter reads.

Small bag of excess baby clothes (too many to keep, lots in attic already and not really worth selling) to charity shop.

Anyone who wants to earn a few extra pennies I really suggest trying swagbucks (click on my link above), I am easily reaching 100SB a day so far and you only need 849SB to get a £5 amazon voucher so I should in theory be getting one every 9 days!

Think that's my update for now!

Hope everyone else is sticking to their money saving and having a good day.

Stacey x

CathT

Hi Stacey, I have just found your diary. I have recently gone back to work f/t after maternity leave and have a 3yo and 9 month old. Part of my reason for being a MFW is to be able to work p/t in the future when the mortgage has gone or drastically reduced. I hate to think of the children missing out on things because we are stuck in work.

I joined SP a while back and am doing very well. The more people you recruit the faster you will earn points. You will see a difference once you get to gold member level. TCB often do offers for lovefilm for a free trial with cashback and I've done this through mine and my DH account. Also look out for a free credit trial and just cancel within the month. There are also daily surveys with Newvista which pay 70p a time and always track and payout.

I'll keep thinking.......

I_want_a_baby

Hi Cath,

Many thanks for your helpful reply!

I am trying to get people to join (as per the above links), although I can't really ask any of my real life friends/family and I don't think any of them follow my line of thinking and would just think I am crazy however I have sent a referral to my husband.

Where are the Newvista surveys? I don't have a tab for them?

I hope that you manage to achieve your goals regarding paying off some/all of the mortgage and spending more time with the kids.
Its is a weirdly positive cycle as obviously the more you save the closer you get to the end goal but in the meantime saving actually makes you spend more time with your kids (I find) as instead of paying for softplay where they run around/off on their own you instead go for a walk with them, and instead of rushing round shop to shop getting all those things you 'need' you instead stay home and spend so much more time with them.
One thing I am trying to do is balance our money/time pressures. I do try to do any errands and visiting family on a saturday so sunday can be our family day. We rarely have the tv on and instead spend time in the garden or inside, we may do gardening, tidy the house, cook tea, play games or make dens but whatever we do we do it together.

Thanks again x

I_want_a_baby

Anyone who has used the link to set up a swag bucks account - THANK YOU very much - please check out the mse swagbucks thread HERE this gives you all the info you need on how to earn your points. My main earners are:
Daily survey 70SB (on homepage), Daily Poll, Daily NOSO (literally just click through the links not on them), Daily searches (just randomly search anything), Tasks & Trusted Surveys (take the time to fill in the profiling questions to get the extra SB), Then the swagbucks TV (do the entertainment videos as they are only 1 min long - the house & home ones are nearer 5 mins).
Hope that helps xx

CathT

I think the surveys are under the tab for free cashback, the look under surveys and you should find it. They take a while to payout but if you're doing them regularly it's a steady trickle of income.

I've been back a month so still adjusting to the work/home balance. Days off feel like catch up days instead of family days at the moment but I think we will do something nice at the weekend.

linz

Glad u appear to have got accepted for P!nec0ne

I'm thinking of doing that check in thing too, easy money at the end of the day. Also second Cath T on the New Vista (and Populus) surveys on Topcashback, i've had about £80 back over a year or two. They do take about 3 months to get to payable but they are reliable.

I_want_a_baby

Thanks ladies!

Massive oversight on my behalf so I do apologise - I spent a good half hour on swagbucks looking for the new vista surveys and now on reading this see you had quite clearly written TCB!! {the shame!}

I will put those surveys on my list of things to do.

Linz - yes been accepted onto Pinecone and completed my first survey - I was very excited !

Very successful in my 'M' shop today spent £7.14 on food & household bits plus 70p on the local weekly newspaper (which I always get but forgot to put on my list!). Included in todays spends were two 'M' wholemeal loaves which were on offer at 2 for £1, they were very fresh as well. Also got two packs of 6 RTC crusty rolls for 9p each (from 69p each) and a pack of RTC warbutons 8 sliced rolls for 7p (from £1).

Have counted the purse and I have £7.66 left to spend until Sunday, provided I go to both 'T' & 'S' and manage to find the best value items I have items worth £6.66 to get. I may however hold back on buying some vitamins on the list which are £2.40 as they are not needed immediately. We will see how it goes tomorrow.

Quidco car insurance quote £1.75 not tracked yet.
Oh and forgot to do the check in at 'M'!! Maybe next time!!

Night everyone!

Stacey x

Beckyy

Good luck on your journey!

There are a few free sim cards you can request through Quidco and get cashback for if you haven't already. It comes to a few £'s if you go through them all

linz

Hi Stacey,

If you log in to Topcashback and click on the Insurance Comparison link under 'Insurance & Financial' there are a few more comparisons you could do as well as car insurance (ie home, bike, van with Go Compare at £1.50 each and Confused.com home & car for £1 each) I think you can only do 3 x go compares every year but you could always sign your OH up and he could have a go too You'd also get a referral bonus for signing him up too. I get £10 if I refer someone at the moment, not sure if this is across the board tho.

Also if Sainsburys or Tesco are cheapest for Petrol in your area it's a good way to collect Nectar/Clubcard points as well as on food shopping.

I_want_a_baby

Very quick update today as busy busy busy!

Didn't manage to get into town today due to kids/rain - however thats not all bad as it has been a no spend day.

1. Earned 150SB today (+ 50SB still pending!) Have met the SB daily targets for the last 3 days Subscribed to SB on facebook & twitter.
2. Earned 36SP
3. Completed one Valued Opinion Survey (not sure what I earned yet as it said between 75p and £2).
4. Realised I hadnt completed payment info for pinecone so now have £3 on its way to paypal for survey completed yesterday.
5. Entered some competitions using the 'competitions forum' link under free cash on TCB.
6. Checked and car insurance quote yesterday in quidco did track £1.75 :T (quick question are the 'only do 3 quotes' in total 'per cash back site' or over all? Ie can I do 3 on quidco and 3 on TCB? also I assume its 3 in total not 3xcar and 3xhouse etc?)
7. Attempted New Vista survey in TCB but it had already filled quota.

1. In laws are buying a chinese takeaway tonight so no food cost.
2. Have been trying to use less electricity (have been putting the washing on the airers for 24 hrs then into the dryer to finish off), will update this post with actual figures to see if I had made a difference.
3. Hopefully will be purchasing fuel at the cheaper fuel station tonight. (unfortunately sains/tesco/morrisons are all unviable for fuel as too far away from us, however we do often fill up if we happen to be near them running errands/visiting family.

To do
Defo look into referring hubby to TCB (if I get CB!)
Order some free sim cards to get CB

Think thats all for now.
Happy saving people & thank you so much for all your help, support and advice!!

Stacey x

P.s Providing I don't take any food money out of bank until Monday when my new budget week starts I will be on track to save £20 from this weeks food money of £45! I think this will be achievable each week this month but then I will be empty so will have to do a big shop!