Reducing Costs and Stashing Savings

Hello everyone, it has been an eventful month with lots going on, so I am sorry for not having posted recently.

June has allowed me to take some time to analyse spending for these past 5 months and compare to previous years. The results are pretty amazing, even though I do say so myself! I hope that by sharing this information it might inspire you to get more out of your budget and put aside more even if just a little, for a rainy day. All savings in this economic climate are valuable protection against the unknown future.

Some years ago I set up a Budget spreadsheet and on it I log the 'extras' we buy, ie: the non-essentials. I have one spreadsheet for me and one for the joint spending. On my personal spreadsheet, I can see the following:

TOTAL Personal'Frills/Non essentials' Spend for the year + Average per month:

2006 - £5365 (£447 per month)
2007 - £3444 (£287 p/ month)
2008 - £3548 (£296 p/month)
2009 - £763 for 5 months (average £153 per month)

So as you can see, there has been a drastic reduction in 'silly' spend since I have started to be more aware of what I was spending on non-essentials and I have focused alot more in the last 3 years. There has been little suffering yet it's saved me an average £2,000 from 2006 to 2007 alone on non-essential spending. Around £294 less spending per month comparing 2006 to 2009!

TOTAL JointSpend for the year & Average per month:

The below include bills and all household spending:

2006 - £5058 (£421 per month)
2007 - £4209(£350 p/ month)
2008 - £4552 (£379 p/month)
2009 - £1652 for 5 months (average £330 per month)

This is a reduction of £90 per month comparing 2006 to 2009, which would be over £1,000 per year in savings if you averaged it out!
Now we are leading a more purposeful life and saving more, and inflation has not affected our joint finances because we have been more creative, therefore allowing us to put exactly the same money in every month since 2006 (£400 per month) and even take money back out into savings at the end of the month. This goes towards our house deposit fund and the way I see it, each £10 saved is another couple of pillows or money towards durable items like good quality pans, growing our own veg etc.

For 2009, I have spent £52 on clothing in the last 6 months, and £30 on charity, almost half of my clothing spend! Lunches and naughty snacks have cost me £95 which is shameful and I want to reduce those much more...
www.spendingdiary.com is a great site you can use if you find budgeting boring or hard to do. It really helps.

Personally, I like to take out £100 in cash on the 1st of the month, allowing myself another £100 in the bank 'just in case'. My £100 in cash has to cover everything that is not a bill. Going out, clothing, snacks, magazines, books and dvd's, all the fun stuff. I then make a note of what I have spent in cash and when, normally on my way home from work in a quiet moment.

Normally, the other £100 stays in the bank for times when I need to pay for something via debit card, but most times, quite a decent amount of that is left in the account at the end of the month, maybe £60 is left. I either save this, or sometimes buy shares or take it out and keep it at home for special treats like going out for dinner or a movie.

So by using this ATM machine rule, I have saved around £300 so far this year, proving that my thoughts last year that I 'couldn't possibly do any better in 2009' wasn't true...

Any extra cash I have come in (on top of my wages) from cashback sites for example, goes straight to savings, I have trained my mind to not even think of it as real money. I also would never consider buying anything off the highstreet now *IF* I can buy it online through a cashback site. See my Cashback Sites section on the right for more info on hwo this can save you some money.

I hope that this inspires you and if you are a homemaker or work a full time job, there are savings to be made in small tweaks here and there that do add up. Make a start, see how you like it and then try and challenge yourself week by week... perhaps keep a log if this motivates you.

Fat Cheese - Cashback New Kid On The Block!

Hi all,

Today I have another interesting cashback website for you - they're called FatCheese, a strange name but they seem to have good offers!

(If Cashback sites are new to you and sound confusing, don't worry - it's a great way to make money online and buy items you were going to buy anyway - see the Cashback Sites section on the right hand side).

A few sites as you all know just get you in on good offers and then once you start to use them, you see those offers dissapear. Some of the sites remain more loyal to customers than others. It seems FatCheese are aiming to be a real contender, with enough going on to keep us all interested, plus with quick customer service response as well but this is my first impression after a couple of months.

Customer service has not always been great with these types of sites, nor do they always share 100% of what they get from suppliers with us. So far my queries have been answered quickly, and my transactions are tracking smoothly, so I thought it was time to write about them a little more.

From what I can see at the moment, they have a good selection of offers on, it might be that some of them are of interest to you now, but you can always take them up another time if you don't need them at the moment. However, these ones seem particularly good, 3 of which involve no spend at all.

Some of the Best Offers at FatCheese today:

- Sky+ at £75 cashback. You can get a free Sky+ box plus £25 Tesco voucher so overall this is worth quite alot - IF you were planning to subscribe to Sky+ anyway.
- Hastings Direct Car Insurance. FREE £20 MOT voucher just for getting a quote, so there is no actual need to take up the offer if yous insurance is not yet up but you want to get an idea of prices.
- T-Mobile FREE SIM cards. £1 cashback for ordering two FREE SIMs. Costs nothing and is useful too if you need some SIMS.
- Gala Bingo. £20 cashback for each new player depositing and wagering a minimum of £5. Essentially you would get £15 free in cashback terms.
- Synovate. £1.35 cashback when you register, easy and quick to do.

As always make sure you clear your cookies effectively (ie: delete all cookies before you log in to the cashback site to make any purchases or register for no-spend offers such as the above SIM cards or Synovate / Hastings Direct) - see my Cashback section on the right-hand side menu for more tips, or request my full guide.

In addition if you follow my referral link:

Fat Cheese

You will get access to an extra £5 to use Coral, currently it's £5 cashback but the above link will give you £10. This will be credited in due course on your statement. You may of course like to check other sites for what they offer, I just thought I'd mention this little extra if relevant to you as that extra £5 effectively pays for your admin fee on FC.

Soon they will be offering a full 10% cashback on purchases at Play.com which is a great offer, given that you cannot get any cashback for Amazon. This means if you buy a £15 DVD from Play.com via FatCheese you would get £1.50 back, reducing your price to £13.50...

I would love your views on this site once you have started to also use it, so we can all comment on whether they may be serious contenders to Quidco!
They seem to offer 100% cashback rather than 'share' the cashback' with members. They do charge an admin fee but I think overall this will still be worthwhile, especially with the kind of offers they are starting to make available.

As always over the coming weeks I will keep you updated on any other sites and will also be updating my cashback site Guide with more info, removing the sites that have been failing members and updating with fresh offers and new sites.

Enjoy the sunshine out there today!

Ideas for Super Summer Savings

Hi everyone and hope you have been out and about in this lovely sunshine...!

This weather is ideal to make some savings, so see whether any of the ideas below inspire you to make some small changes! Perhaps you are already doing some of them, or have ideas for others that read this blog:

- Dry clothes outdoors if possible, or at least in a well aird room if you have no outdoor space. Saves time, energy and money!

- Eat less meat – this is a great time to eat more fish, more salads, more cous cous and perhaps some interesting pasta salads and vegetables. All of these improve you diet, save you money and generally help you feel better in these hot summer months…

- Spend more time outdoors – More time outdoors is money-saving as long as you keep to the free activities, such as street festivals, walking, going to the park and playing Frisbee, swimming, window-shopping etc. Take a packed lunch from home and enjoy the weather. This means you won’t be using electric at home and will get to enjoy all the outdoor activities that cost nothing. Check your local museums and online sites to see what’s on.

- Spend less on clothes – No need for all those expensive Winter clothes. Donate what you no longer need and spend more time in summer clothes. These are cheaper to buy overall as they cost less to produce. Scan your local charity shops and get inspired! Not only that, washing summer clothes could cost less as they take up less room in the washing machine and take less time to dry compared to winter wollies…

- Meet friends – This can cost next to nothing! Socialising on a budget can be about meeting on the beach or in the park, using Pizza Express or other restaurant vouchers to get money off, going to drink cocktails when they have a Happy Hour, all pitching into buy food and drink, or BBQ’s round eachothers homes. All these ideas and more can save you money – get your creative juices flowing!

- Make homemade – things like ice-lollies, cordials, fresh salads, infused oils and vinegars, salad dressing and more can all be made at home rather than being conned by the ‘Look it’s summer’ campaigns at the supermarket. Experiment with recipes – vinaigrette takes literally 60 seconds to make fresh and if you pop some in a clean jam jar it will last a few days for other salads, just give it a shake (use a third vinegar, 2 thirds olive oil, squeeze of lemon, oregano and a dab of Dijon mustard and shake till mixed!).

So there you have it – Summer can be enjoyable and keep you under that all important budget…

What are your ideas and how do you intend to keep costs down during the coming ‘Heatwave’ they keep predicting?

The £0.10p bar of soap extravaganza

Ok, so you all know I love it when I make things for £0.10p... for a litre of home made washing up liquid, for a litre of home made liquid soap... well now I have done it for bars of soap as well...

Goat's Milk, honey & Oatmeal Soap

This soap is ideal for sensitive skin...
I bought 6 bars of plain Castille soap for £0.99p at the £0.99 store - any inexpensive soap you can find will do (Tesco do some I think)
I then used two of those bars, £0.32. Each bar is 100g.
I grated down all of the soap into a glass bowl. I placed this bowl of grated soap inside a pot of hot but not boiling water (bain marie method).

To the grated soap, I then added a little over 100ml of goats milk (basically, half of the volume of the soap), plus one tablespoon of honey, a teaspoon of ground oatmeal and half a teaspoon of cinammon for texture. You can judge for yourself how much liquid to add, just don't make it too liquid or the soap may end up softer than you would like.

Once completely melted, this is when you would add essential oil if you wanted and mix well.
I then poured it all quickly into a clean used butter tub (the 500ml size is good). If you don't pour it quickly, it may start to set in the glass bowl so act fast... and don't overcook!

Once in it's 'mould', this was left to cool some more and once cooler, then placed in the fridge for 3 hours.

I then removed it gently and sliced into 5 soaps, which are perfect hand soap sizes...

A fun thing to do on the weekend and if you have kids it's lots of fun. You can experiment with any soap and any 'flavours', just remember if you are adding aromatherapy oils to add these when the soap is close to cool (but not yet hard) as otherwise the oils evaporate... also do not add too much liquid (milk, water, lavender water etc) as otherwise the soap could end up too soft.


Ideas to add:
- Ground almonds
- Orange / lemon / lime / grapefruit zest etc
- Aromatherapy oils
- Dried lavender etc
- Old soaps you want to melt down and reuse
- Chocolate powder

This process is what is called the 'Melt & Pour' technique, so no scary lye is involved, just a fun quick 10 minute project to multiply 2 bars of soap into 5 nicer, gentler ones...

As these simply involve melting down and re-shaping with some added nice ingredients, you could give these to friends and family as a thoughtful gift. Wrap with some nicely edged brown paper or card, with a little sticker and even maybe a dried flower or emboss the soap with a shape you like.

If you were to turn all your soaps from 2 bars into 5 bars - that will keep you going a long time, and soap improves with age!

Shabby Chic... from unloved to much loved!

Here is what I was up to this weekend - an old 2nd hand table we have was always kept in a corner and covered with a linen tablecloth, as it was marked... I sanded it down, bought some Crown paint for metal and wood in 'Crochet' cream and I will next post the resulting table... took around 30 mins sanding and another 2.5 hours to paint and dry. I then dinished off with a light sanding once it was all dry. So in 3 hours and for around £9, we transformed it into something we now love and will cherish for years to come...




I also found a teacup at a local market for £0.50p, so am using this as a laundry scoop, with a glass vase I found at TK Maxx. The powder is 50% normal laundry powder and 50% soda crystals (Dripak - around £0.70p for 1Kg from Tesco). This saves cash and also softens the water which is greas our water is very hard in this area. So not only is it maintaining our washing machine, it's also softening our clothes more and also saving us money!

Dandelions Revenge... and eating healthier!

Hi everyone and I hope you are well!

My thoughts so far in May have been that usually, Summer costs us more than Winter. This mainly in terms of going out, holidays, foods etc. However, Winter also brings higher fuel bills, Christmas and all those new Winter clothes to keep us warm…

So now I find that food will be more expensive because I love salads and fresh fruit and veg in Summer, as our appetites are smaller.

Do you have any fresh Summer recipes that are not too expensive?

What I have started to do is buy dried aduki beans (one of the SuperFoods), soak overnight and batch cook them to freeze in normal ‘tin’ portions. I have made:

- Tuna, Spinach and Aduki salad with dressing
- Salmon, aduki beans with cucumber and some dressing
- Chick pea, aduki beans, feta cheese and tomato salad with dressing
- Healthier Lasagne with aduki beans and lentils in, together with thin sliced courgette/aubergine etc. This can be frozen in those aluminium tins you get at the £1 stores, and go from freezer straight to the oven

Those are just some ideas for aduki beans – very healthy and cheap too! I love them for lunches too. You can throw on some sunflower and pumpkin seeds to make it even healthier!

My next idea, which I will experiment with soon, is to eat some Dandelions… we have lots of weeds in the patio, and I have discovered not only are they edible, they’re good for you! I hope to take my revenge on those pesky things by eating them… only the newest leaves to start though, as the flavours are more delicate:

Dandelion Recipe


You can then even make infusions from the dandelion heads, thus using the whole flower for body and mind! I do hope this inspires you to think of Summer salads and eating for less…

Saving Money... Nipping ebay in the bud!

Hi everyone and hope you are enjoying teh fabulous weather out there - even if it's just a quick walk at lunch!

Today I thought I would focus on the amount of money we all spend on ebay, as it can become an addiction... but as usual, I hope to save you some cash on that hobby too!

Around 6 months ago I joined this site called BidNip and they bid for you, in the last few seconds of the auction. If you do not win the auction, there's no fee to pay!

How it works is that you pay for some credits in advance so you can 'snipe' an auction. They are incredibly cheap at a few pence per 'snipe' (only charged if you win) and have saved me at least £80 over 6 months as I buy lots of clothes / books / aromatherapy, items for my workplace and more on there.

You then tell BidNip the auction number (normally on the right side of the screen on the ebay page). Copy and paste that onto BidNip, tell them the maximum you are prepared to pay, Snipe the auction, and wait to see if you win because they will bid for you in increments until your set maximum is met!

So - no more of that last minute paying more than it's worth because you got heated up and *had* to have the item...

I normally set my 'snipe' to 8 seconds before auction end... so if you want to be in bed, or out on the town when that auction finishes, now you can - because BidNip will do the work for you even in your sleep!

Let me know how you get on!

Shabby Chic - Make your own pretty things!

Hi everyone, hope you have been enjoying the sunshine whilst it lasts!

Today my post will mainly be pictures of what I have been up to at home, mostly gardening and kitchen stuff. Before Easter I attempted to make some jelly eggs for my nieces but failed miserably (how DO the Americans do it!?), then on Easter Sunday I made some muffins, what I call Breakfast muffins as they're made with carrot and apple, with honey and cranberries for natural sweetness. I also sprinkle them with sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds for added goodness. See left for a pic of one next to my Bonne Mamman customised jars... I used normal white address labels and just added a nice font in Word, then inserted an image I liked from Google and print... far less than what the stores would charge you for jam jar labels, and, you can afford to make mistakes or change your mind!



These are my customised coffee jars as they keep things so fresh. Just be careful not to put the lids in the dishwasher as after a while they absorb moisture and there goes your airtight lid!



I have also been planting - the tall ones you can see in the pic are green beans (wow do they grow super fast - it was like Day Of The Triffids!) - also we have basil, small carrots and tomatoes growing. Let's see what happens! Have tried lettuce but failed - must try harder as they're supposed to be super easy! We want to be able to have our own edibles this Summer, and so far have not really spend much on them - as you can see lots of the pots are yogurt pots! Whilst I am experimenting, I'd rather do that, then spend more later when I know what's what...

I love all things Shabby Chic - the gingham print on the jam jar lids, aged French furniture, you name it, it's how I'd love my home to be. Of you like that style too, do join us on MSE on this thread packed with lovely ideas!

Shabby Chic Thread

More cashback sites - more pennies, more pounds!

I have found a couple more ways to make some extra cash, which you may like to also try and then we can share feedback on here or on my MSE thread:

A a brand new site called FatCheese which has recently launched and has several daily clicks (ie: free clicks that earn you money - see my cashback section on the right for more articles about how to make money this way).

Fatcheese link - daily cash clicking

Hopefully we can all make some extra cash on these, as 8 months to go until Christmas which wil allow lots of click payments to build up.

We Promise To:
http://www.wepromiseto.co.uk/r/795295

I have a dedicated cashback guide explaining the routine I follow, and the cashback sites I use - simply drop your e-mail on this article if you would like a copy, but remember that once you have received the guide you should delete your e-mail address from here in case any third parties get hold of it.

Fabulous Face Oil - Frugal Fabulousness at £0.30p

Hello everyone and I hope you are enjoying these precious few days off…!
This week I have been investigating essential oils. It has always been a subject of interest for me, but I haven’t dedicated more than a few passing minutes here and there to the subject.

However this week my copy of The Fragrant Pharmacy arrived and once I started to read, it really did inspire me. For one, making beauty and home products with essential oils contain no chemicals – so cleaner and purer washing up liquid, air freshners, moisturisers, face oils, kitchen spray and general products can be readily made in just a few minutes. Quicker in fact, than nipping to the shop to get the usual ready-made product – so not only will you save money, but you will also save time.

My first product a while back was a lotion and a lip balm, which if you check the Beauty Is Fridge Deep article you will see went very well. Since then I researched some more, and now that I have the book, I have also made beautiful face oils, a ‘manly’ lotion and also learnt about the amazing powers once you infuse the right oils with eachother, rather than using just one oil alone. This is called ‘synergy’ and combines several oils which in their own right are already strong, to make a super-mix of goodness, whether for well-being, mood, to fight illness or to create welcoming home.

My face oil especially for dry skin was made as follows, as per the base recipe in the Fragrant Pharmacy, with my personal variation of oils. The author recommends 30 drops of essential oil per 30ml of base oil:

Face oil for dry skin
Base - 30ml apricot oil
15 drops geranium oil
7 drops Roman Chamomile oil
6 drops Bulgarian rose oil
2 drops carrot oil

I mixed this in a 30ml brown mixing bottle from Holland and Barrett (£1.49) and will keep it in there to preserve it and take some as I need it. I then decanted some into a smaller clean empty 10ml bottle which used to have essential oil in it, and as it has an inbuilt dropper. I just massage 3 drops into my face before bed and 3 in the morning. I can honestly say it’s one of the most pampering and delicious treats, and already feel a difference in my skin after just 3 uses. Remember if you make any face oil, leave it overnight, and then use the next day, just to allow the oils to settle and infuse together.

If you research online how much these kinds of face oils normally cost, you will be pleased to see that making your own little bottle will cost sooooo much less.

The 30ml I made will make 3 x 10ml bottles. That 30ml overall cost me just £0.90 in ingredients. Meaning each homemade 10ml bottle costs around £0.30p. Now compare how much these tiny bottles are online! There’s a Clarins Lotus one that costs around £24 for 40ml – that’s £6.00 per 10ml instead of £0.30p. The highly regarded Aesop Fabulous Face Oil costs £30.00 for 25ml, an astounding £12.00 for 10ml! Remember also that to sell these commercially, the companies probably add preservatives and other ingredients which when you make fresh, you do not need to add. As such the one I custom made only really had 2 ingredients – base oil and aromatherapy oil, all in it has 5 types of item.

Making yours at home not only allows you to save vast amounts of money, it's incredibly fresh and will give your skin an amazing glow, and can be made in less than 45 seconds, one of the easiest beauty products to make yet one that the industry charges us so much for. Not only that but you will be able to customise the oil with your favourite scents and what is best for your own skin type. For example. dry skin benefits from Chamomile, lavender, carrot oil, jojoba, rose, geranium and so many more, so I chose exactly what I wanted to use and how much of each.

These will now become staples when I would like to give someone a thoughtful gift personalised to their skin and the scents I know they like. I would far prefer a gift that was thought-out and made by someone than a more expensive item that was bought off the shelf. It means that at least by trying to make your own, you can see what works, what you like, and what your family and friends like! Plus at these low costs, you can afford to experiment!

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend!