EH - Keeping on track. (AKA focus Woman! FOCUS!)

EssexHebridean

I'd say.....why not have a look at the cost of subscriptions for the mags you're interested in (Gardeners World, perhaps?!) Then to a compromise with a subscription for your favourite mag, then use the rest on groceries? Realistically, are you going to buy the mags anyway? if so, then it might be a better way of doing it. We always use ours on deals now - either days out or train travel normally, but if things were really tight financially, we'd use them for groceries in a heartbeat, and Nectar points always get used on food, even though I believe there are similar deals for them, too.

Weekend FLEW by - this working Fridays lark is pants. Weather was intermittently rubbish on Saturday so we showered dodged at the local RSPB reserve. Yesterday was G-L-O-R-I-O-U-S though - threw all the windows and doors we could open in the morning to get some air blowing through, and then went for a walk in the afternoon, and I finally got to do a bit of playing with my new camera lens, which is every bit as fab as Caz told me it would be!

Working today, then heading up to Lincolnshire tomorrow morning for two days of playing with the new lens and some RAF Fast jets, hopefully. The Red Arrows have spoilt my fun a bit as they're combined to barracks this week apparently - yah boo sucks to them. This means that my previously booked hotel at Lincoln is a bit pointless as I no longer need to go this far north. Had a quick squizz this morning and twigged that Spalding is no further away from the base we'll now be....ummm....BASEd around, so have switched and booked the Travelodge there, which was cheaper than the original one for a start, then I found a £5 voucher off too....£38 spent, saving £12 on the original. Definitely qualifies as a Small Money saving Thing, and yes, I have remembered to cancel the other one! I'll take our big flask with me for tea, and some milk, and will take food for lunch tomorrow too. Realistically NSD's will be few and far between this week - I've already blown today with booking the Travelodge!

Shopping on Friday night came in at £10.11p - so just another 11p cash, but then we needed butter still, which I got in T's on Saturday. Used the 62p off Price Promise voucher off that, meaning just 36p more in cash....the look the checkout lady gave us when we handed over the CC Plus for that had to be seen to be believed! :rotfl: We'd bought MrEH's Newspaper as well, so there were points to be had!

Bread made yesterday for eating with soup tonight - it feels like a bit of a doorstop and I MUST remember to put white bread flour on the shopping list for the end of the week. If all else fails, I'll toast it!

youareallhelpingme

You may wish you had stayed at Lincoln, the Spalding Travellodge is attached to a half decent outlet shopping centre!


Shame about the red arrows, we get to see these and the other jets on a regular basis, plus lots of helicopters close up. Some too close up for comfort sometimes!

Pippilongstocking

Mr t vouchers and train travel? Oh dear lord trains something else to consider.

Plods off to find out about nectar points too....

Hmm I'm in for a change eh?

Hope you enjoy the trip

Big giggle at the checkout lady :-) well done you!!!

Have a good una and thanks for the help. Not missing my magazines (country living is my utter indulgence) but when I move I might........ponders some. More thanks again.

Cheery_Daff

Your grocery shopping savings are inspirational! :j :j i just don't know how you do it.

Thought of you today when i had to explain for umpteenth time that i have no nectar card - never seemed much point but now we have a small sainsburys up the road we probably spend a fair bit in there. Is it worth it! Tesco we usually end up with about 10p worth of points - especially since i lost the card and forgot to get a replacement, oh dear!!

Have a good time up near Lincoln, quite pretty round there even without the planes

Enjoying_life_more

Have a great trip !

EssexHebridean

Oh dear, poor abandoned diary! Lincolnshire trip was ace (there are pics proving it on my blog/website ) and the issue of the Travelodge/outlet shopping place was dealt with neatly by arriving after the shops were shut and leaving again at 6.30am the following morning! :rotfl: Youareallhelpingme it's LOVELY to see you about! (Even if I am jealous about you getting to see the jets regularly! )

Cheery Nectar points rather annoy me - we rarely spend anything at all in Sainsbugs and the majority of our points (not many!) tend to come over from British Gas now, but as we only have gas with them even that's dropped rather a lot! I seem to recall you can also earn them through eBay though? I work on the basis that pretty much wherever we spend, if they do a loyalty card, I'll have it even if it never ends up amassing enough points to do anything with..our co-op divvy card takes a couple of years to reach their threshold for sending the points out!

Stripes - converting CC points to train travel is a good one for us - as we tend to buy at the absolute rock-bottom cheapest prices too we often travel for pennies, pretty much!

I'm not quite sure how we've done it with the groceries either this month - we've spent under £50 all told, and under £13 of that was actual cold hard cash (mostly in the farm shop). That does rather suggest that we had FAR too much food in storecupboard, larder & freezers, doesn't it! We've eaten well, tried several new recipes, and generally surprised ourselves I think.

Small Money Saving Thing to report is that the second freezer has been emptied, defrosted, cleaned out and is now turned off. I don't intend that it will go back on again until the next time we bulk-purchase meat.

I've lost count of NSD's completely. I think I ended up with 2 last week, which is a bit poor. I know I blew one because I've tentatively booked another Lincoln hotel for Thursday night in the hope of seeing some Red-Jet action on Friday. Got to ask them what their schedule says though and also decide based on the weather forecast which is currently pants. It's a flexible rate room though so I've got until midday tomorrow to cancel...

mooomin

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Thought of you today when i had to explain for umpteenth time that i have no nectar card - never seemed much point but now we have a small sainsburys up the road we probably spend a fair bit in there. Is it worth it! Tesco we usually end up with about 10p worth of points - especially since i lost the card and forgot to get a replacement, oh dear!!

We have a Sainsbugs not far from us and I normally get fuel from their petrol station so those points add up, especially as I often get double points vouchers for fuel and shopping. I use Nectar Adpoints as well to add points to my total - it's normally good for 75-100 points per week and every little helps as the other lot say

I've earned 2715 points since 1st January which is £13.57 in cash. I normally use my Nectar points for food/treats through the year but this year am saving them for Christmas! That amount includes some surveys through Canvass and 750 points for buying an eBook through their website, but it's still not a bad total.

I think they're worth getting if you have a local store and it's also worth checking out the other ways that Nectar lets you top up your balance.

EssexHebridean

Ahh Mooo you've reminded me about that ebook offer - I must investigate that! I'll be honest and say I'm trying to shed surveys now. I've got one site I'm keeping on (pays £3 a survey so worth having) and I'm trying to reach £20 so I can cash out with Survey network. OnePoll I wander into when I remember as although it mounts up slowly they're so quick to do. I did debate about the AdPoints thing as I've seen a few folk say it's good, but I'm put off by taking on anything that will end up in me frittering away even MORE time online!

Lincoln hotel is remaining booked and I shall be making use of it tonight as the Reds have kindly confirmed that they are scheduled for practise tomorrow. *grin* I've got my flask in the car ready to fill tomorrow morning to avoid needing to buy drinks, and I have milk with me too, and a HM flapjack for breakfast. I will need to buy dinner tonight and lunch for tomorrow though - tonight will probably be "Wethergrub" - curry most likely - and tomorrow will be a sandwich or something similar, so reasonable. I'll need to pop a little bit more diesel in as well - probably £20 worth which will see me through the next few weeks too.

MrEH needs to be on the ball tomorrow morning as there is a train ticket he needs to book - London to Doncaster - it can be had for £10 if he's quick enough on the draw when the tickets are released, so we'll see...

Small Money saving Thing Is actually a money MAKING thing as I've managed to cram in about 5 hours overtime in the last week. As I get paid for this, that's good, and as the agreement I have with MrEH is that 50% of the value of extra time worked comes straight to me, that's even better!

MUST sort out our electricity over the weekend - I want to get a new supplier sorted (or a switch to the right tariff with our current one) ready for the current deal to end.

mooomin

I understand your hesitancy about Adpoints! I don't find it takes too long - you watch videos/ads and have to click to confirm you're watching at certain points. I'm now at the stage where I can estimate roughly when I'll have to click so can "watch" the ads while doing my other surfing I've seen some adverts for really interesting looking films while watching them too, so it's been worth it for me.

Enjoying_life_more

MUST sort out our electricity over the weekend - I want to get a new supplier sorted (or a switch to the right tariff with our current one) ready for the current deal to end.

I've just changed suppliers for Gas and Elec - my current deal ends in April - I didn't get anything cheaper but it's about the same and fixed again until next April - also got £40 cash back so pleased about that. The deals my existing supplier were offering were far too expensive.

Good luck finding a new deal - and enjoy your trip!