www.kidsrooms.co.uk

I have just found a site called www.kidsrooms.co.uk that I thought I would share with you.

The site has so many ideas for themed bedrooms for both boys and girls that you really need to have a look if you are thinking about redecorating any time soon. I know a lot of people redecorate before christmas so you might even be planning to redo the kids rooms in th enext couple of weeks.

They sell everything that you could possible need for the room and it is grouped together by item and also by room theme so its easy to find what you are looking for.

I have found some lovely bookcases for my little girls room but if I hadn't just redecorated, I could have bought everything I need from the one site.

www.kidsrooms.co.uk has given me loads of ideas and I will definately be back when I decorate my little boys room.

Swap your old mobile phone for concert tickets....

Ticketmaster have just launched a new website called Ticketmaster mobile where you can recycle your mobile phone and get a Ticketmaster Gift Card in exchange, which can be redeemed against anything on the ticketmaster website.

It looks like a really simple process, all you do is check the value of your mobile phone on their website and then trade it for a Ticketmaster Gift Card. You will not only be making some money for yourself and helping divert harmful waste from landfill, you will also be helping Ticketmaster's nominated charities as they will pay £1.00 for each phone that you recycle.

Check how much your phone is worth here.

They also accept Ipods, so if you have an Ipod you want to swap, follow the same link.

Half Price Home Insurance....

At the moment Tescos have a brilliant offer on at the moment for Home Insurance. They are offering new customers 50% off the annual cost of your policy.

Get a quote here.

I think that the quotes are valid for 90 days as well so you don't even have to buy the policy straight away to benefit from the savings.

Free Orange Sim card with £5 credit....

Affordable mobiles are giving away a free orange SIM card with £5.00 credit on it.

Even if you already have a SIM card, you could get this one and only use it for Orange Wednesdays at the cinema.

Free SIM

Save £££'s on your mortgage....

We have only recently bought our new build house, we knew at the time that it was a really bad time to sell but we couldn't wait to get out of our old house. It had a leaky roof, mould on one of the downstairs walls due to the fact that the house was so poorly heated, electric storage heaters as we had no gas and loads more things that meant we could not wait to get out of there.

Anyway, we were able to part exchange and now we live in an area that I am happy to bring my kids up in and we have a house that I love coming home to every night.

The only problem with this is the fact that in order to move, we accepted a lower than expected offer on our old house and now have a higher mortgage that is fixed, so we haven't benefitted from the lowering interest rates.

We aren't in a negative equity situation at the moment and I hope that it won't come to that but just in case I want to start overpaying our mortgage as soon as we are in a position to do so. Which definately is not at the moment due to our other debt.

I can dream though can't I.... I like to look at this mortgage overpayment calculater and see how much quicker I could pay my mortgage off if I paid just £50.00 extra a month. I could save thousands in interest and reduce my mortgage term by about 3 years.

Have a look at how much you could save here, I think you will be surprised and I hope it motivates you to pay a bit extra each month.

Special Offer - Eurostar tickets to Brussels or Amsterdam....

The Daily Times are running a brilliant promotion at the moment - Return to Brussels - £90.00 for two and Return to Amsterdam - £130.00 for two tickets. You can travel between the 4th August and the 30th November this year.

In order to qualify for the special offer price, you need to have four passwords from the Daily Times or the Sunday Times. I know that yesterday's password was Explore and the Sunday Times published two passwords today, Destination and Connections. So all you need is one more password from tomorrow's newspaper. I will try and get one and let you know what it is if I do.

You can find more details about the special offer here.

Have a moneysaving break this summer!


EDIT: The remaining word that you need is chocolate.

£5.00 off when you spend £15.00 at WHSmiths

WHSmiths have a printable voucher on their website at the moment for £5.00 off when you spend £15.00 on Kids books, arts and crafts or outdoor activities.

Valid next week so its just in time for the summer holidays....

Click here for voucher.

There's also one on the same link that gives you 20% off back to school stationery but its a bit early for me to be that organised.

Save Money - Pay by Direct Debit....

I pay all of my bills by Direct Debit as I am too forgetful to remember to pay everything on time but there is one other advantage if you choose to pay your bills this way - It actually saves you money.

In fact, according to research recently completed by Bacs Payment Schemes, if you opt to pay your utility, telephone and television bills by Direct Debit rather than other methods you could save up to £230 a year.
Their findings confirm that by using the same company for your gas and electricity and making your payments by Direct Debit, you will save almost £100.00 compared to someone using different companies for their energy and paying by a different method.

The same thing applies if you get your digital TV and broadband from the same company. If you do this and pay by Direct Debit you could save around £60.00.

By paying a landline phone bill by debit, you could get an £18 yearly saving and paying a magazine subscription by Direct debit could lead to savings of up to £16 a year.

Some mobile phone companies include an extra charge on your bill if you don't pay by Direct Debit which means that you couls save a further £36 by setting up a Direct Debit to pay this bill.

Direct Debits also help you to budget as they are generally taken monthly so you know exactly how much will be coming out of your account each month and it is easier to budget for the bills as you can spread the cost.

So not only will you be more organised, you will also save money.

Make some easy extra money....

I registered with a company called Saros a few months back and they have just sent me an e mail link to a survey that they asked me to fill in for them. It took me about 20 minutes and they have just deposited £5.00 in to my Pay pal account.

You need to register with them and you will get the occasional e mail asking you to complete a quick questionnaire, usually for a £5.00 payment.

They also register your details in case they have any focus groups taking place in your area, these involve a bit more time and the payments are between £30.00 and £100.00 for this.

You can register here.

Free Cinema Tickets....

I love going to the cinema and I have posted before about cheap ways to take the kids to the pictures but I have also found a way to get some free tickets for more grown up films

Some websites offer you the opportunity to get free tickets for new releases by registering with websites such as http://www.seefilmfirst.com/ and http://www.thefilmfactory.co.uk/.


You could even get tickets for films before they’re even released as they also do show previews. Tickets are usually allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you are a Sky customer, they offer their customers free tickets to preview screenings of new movies. I haven't tried this yet but I have been told that you need to go to the sky perks area of their website and the details of the latest film offers are in there.

What if your creditors won't accept your offer....

If your creditors won't accept your proposals, contact one of the following nationally recognised debt counselling services:

• Consumer Credit Counselling Service
• The Citizens Advice Bureau

These companies are free of charge and will offer expert, unbiased assistance to help you with your financial problems. They may even contact your creditors on your behalf to arrange a reduced repayment plan.

If you are still unable to resolve your situation and have debts that are getting out of control, there are still options available to you. You could consider an IVA or Bankruptcy.

What is an IVA?

An IVA is a proposal to repay a portion of your debt, and is made to your creditors through an Insolvency Practitioner. The proposed payment will be less than the full amount of the debt owed, but if the IVA is agreed your creditors are legally bound to accept this as full and final settlement of their claim. An IVA will typically involve a monthly payment, a lump sum or a combination of the two, and can take account of irregular income such as overtime or bonuses.

How does an IVA work?

The process begins with a review of your financial situation with a debt advisor from the IVA company that is representing you. If the advisor believes that an IVA is right for you, a formal written proposal will be drafted. Your creditors will vote on this proposal, and as long as 75% (by value) of the responding creditors agree, the proposal becomes legally binding. You must then maintain your monthly payments for the length of time agreed (normally 5 years), but once these and any other terms of your arrangement have been fulfilled you will be debt-free, and any outstanding balance will be written off.

What is Bankruptcy?

Bankruptcy is a way of dealing with debts that you are unable to repay. It can free you from overwhelming debt, allowing you to make a fresh start, and ensure that your assets are shared fairly among your creditors.

How does Bankruptcy work?

The process begins with a petition which details your income, outgoings, debts and assets. Your petition will be examined by the local County Court, and the court will decide whether to make a Bankruptcy Order. You may be interviewed by the Official Receiver, a civil servant who will deal with the creditors and decide what to do with assets such as vehicles and property. Your assets are usually sold: the proceeds of the sale are used to pay your creditors, and any remaining shortfall will be written off. You will be subject to certain restrictions during and after the Bankruptcy proceedings.

How much does Bankruptcy cost?

Bankruptcy costs £495, including a court fee of £150 and the Official Receiver’s fee of £345. This fee is payable when you take your petition to the court.

The pros and cons: IVA or Bankruptcy?

If you have unsecured debts of more than £12,000, and can afford a monthly payment of at least £180, an IVA can help you to be debt-free within 5 years. All interest and late payment charges will be frozen, and telephone calls and payment demands from your creditors will stop.

An IVA requires you to repay a significant amount of your debt, whereas bankruptcy requires you to repay a minimum amount (or nothing at all), and an IVA will last longer than bankruptcy (typically 5 years compared to 3). However, an IVA has less impact on your credit rating than bankruptcy, your name will not appear in the local papers, and there will be no adverse consequences for your job, regardless of your professional position.

A sample letter to send to your creditors....

If you need to contact any of your creditors to let them know that you are having trouble meeting your repayments, you could use the following letter example and just adapt it to your own situation:



Dear Sirs.

Re: Account Number - xxxx

I regret that since entering into the above agreement with you, my circumstances have changed and I am now experiencing financial difficulties. Unfortunately, I am unable to meet the agreed monthly payment because (explain difficulty e.g. lost job).

I enclose a copy of my Financial Statement. As you can see, after my essential outgoings are deducted from my monthly income, I have

Choose one of the following options:

no funds left to pay my creditors. Under the circumstances, would you please accept a token offer of payment of £1.00 per month until my situation has changed?

Or

only (Insert total amount available to pay creditors) to pay my creditors of which the pro rata offer to you will be £(Insert monthly payment amount for this creditor).

I would be grateful if you could freeze the interest charges on my account during this difficult time. It would also assist me in making my payments to you if you could arrange to send me a paying in book.

I hope that you will accept my offer and I would like to reassure you that I am making every effort to increase my income and I will contact you again as soon as my circumstances improve.

I would like to thank you for your time in considering my offer of repayment and I look forward to hearing from you shortly,

Yours faithfully

What to do if you are in financial difficulty....

Almost everyone in the UK has some sort of debt, whether it's money owed on a credit card, a bank loan or overdraft, a mortgage, or even a loan from family or friends. If you are struggling to meet your monthly repayments, and if your completed budget sheet shows that your monthly expenditure exceeds your income then you need to take action - NOW.

You will need to send each company a copy of your budget sheet along with a list of any other creditors and the amounts owed to them.

To work out how much you can afford to pay each month, calculate how much you can afford to repay overall each month and pro rata that amount for each debt.

In my next blog post, I will show you a letter you can use to contact each of your creditors. This letter details how much you can afford to pay them and lets them know that you will increase your repayments if your situation changes.

As you are being open and honest, the majority of creditors will empathise with your situation and will accept your proposals. If they don't you need to take further advice from a nationally recognised debt counslling service. There are numerous companies that will do this for you but a lot of them charge a fee - don't waste your money as companies like the CCCS or the Citizens Advice Bureau offer you advice free of charge.

Tesco - £10 off a £50 shop...

Tesco have a brilliant offer at the moment whereby new customers will get £10 off their shopping if they spend more than £50 in a single grocery shop online.

All you need to do is enter the code XX-PD96 when you complete the online checkout process.

The offer code can be used on deliveries made up until Sunday 9 August, and even taking into account the delivery charge that they will add to your bill, it will still save you.

I am a big fan of online shopping as it avoids the temptation of impulse buy.... and I need all the help I can get to avoid the many supermarket ploys to part me from my money!

www.tesco.com

Calculate your monthly budget....

Before you know which area of your budget you need to cut back on, you need to actually work out what your monthly budget is, taking into account all your income and all of your outgoings.

To do this you need to spend a quiet half hour with you recent bank statements and your bills to fill in a budget sheet. This will show all of your income and expenditure details and will help you to understand any areas of improvement.

I have made up a budget sheet here, that you are more than welcome to print out and fill in or there are stacks of different versions on line if you would rather download one to save.

When you have worked out your budget you may be surprised at the amount it says that you have left over each month - I know I was as I never have anywhere near the amount I should have! This means that you are probably spending unnecessarily, l didn't factor in what I was spending at the shop on the way to work or the treats that I was buying the kids. If this sounds like you, you should write down everything that you spend in a month or even a week and you will soon see where your money is going.

If, when its all on paper you have more going out than you have coming in then you need to take action NOW. Don't ignore it because it won't go away, in fact it will get worse.

I will post some information about financial difficulties later on this afternoon.

You don't get if you don't ask....

Do you ever get the feeling that all special offers and reduced rates are for 'new customers only'?

This may be the case with some companies but a lot of firms have special retention departments that have the authority to give existing customers comparable if not better deals.

* Ring your cable provider and tell them that you are considering cancelling and switching to an alternate provider. Tell them its because you can't afford the current price or that you can get a better deal elsewhere and you should be offered something to tempt you to stay. When I called Sky to cancel, I was offered Sky half price for 6 months!

* Speak to your internet provider and tell them that you have been offered a similar service for cheaper. I contacted AOL and my monthly package was reduced by £7.00 a month.

* Tell your credit card provider that you are thinking of balance transferring your balance elsewhere and see if they will reduce your interest rate to keep your custom.

* Mobile Phone companies offer some fantastic deals to customers who are nearing the end of their contracts. Research the best offers available and then contact them to tell them you will be cancelling when your contract expires, if they try and retain you, tell them about the best offer you have seen elsewhere and ask if they can better it.

A couple of phone calls could do wonders for your monthly budget

RAC breakdown cover for just £8.00

At the moment Quidco have a special offer on of £20 cash back on an RAC brakdown policy. Their basis cover starts at £28.00 a year so that means that you will be gettings a years breakdown cover for just £8.00!

Surely you can't get a cheaper policy than that anywhere, let alone with a reputable company like the RAC.

Check out Quidco for this and other cashback offers.

For those of you that don't know about using cashback websites, have a look through my earlier posts about it....

Reduce your phone bills....

If you need to contact a large company to make a complaint or enquiry, you may find that you have to dial an expensive 0844 or 0870 number. But there are other options that could save you lots.

Check the 'alternative number' database on the http://www.saynoto0870.com/ website: you may find a number that will connect you to the same place more cheaply.

Sales lines tend to be cheaper than enquiry or complaint lines and may even be free. Call the sales number and ask to be put through to the relevant department.

Many companies list standard numbers as an alternative that maybe dialled when you're overseas. Use these numbers from the UK simply by replacing the 44 prefix with a 0 (eg 4420 7123 XXXX becomes 020 7123 XXXX).

Buy one get one free at Pizza Express

Between now and 19 July, you can use the voucher below to get one main meal free when you buy one. You can use it at any time so its even valid on weekends!

Voucher

Enjoy

Check your purse....

An error at the Royal Mint means that a batch of 20p coins being issued without a date on.

The new 20 pence pieces are now considered to be collectors' items, with one dealer, the London Mint Office, offering £50 to anyone who finds one of these coints in their spare change.

The mistake follows the introduction of new coins bearing a fragmented image of the royal coat of arms on the reverse - or "tails" - side and a new profile of the Queen on the front. In order to accommodate the new design the date had moved to the "heads" side on 20p pieces. But one batch was produced with the new back and the old front, meaning that there was no date on one batch of coins.

They probably won't be as rare as you might think as between 50,000 and 200,000 coins were issued.

The London Mint company are offering £50 per coin but if you have a look on e bay they are selling for loads more than that and I bet if you hung on to one for a while till the furor dies down, it will be worth even more!

Half price perfume

There are some things that I don't like to do without, even when I am on a budget and one of them is perfume.

I use a site where you can buy your favorite perfume at excellent prices. They sell the same brand designer fragrances that you will find in the retail department stores except not at the retail prices. A lot of their stock is unboxed or the box may be damaged items but it is only the outer packaging that is the difference between what you buy from them and what you buy from the shops and the savings can be huge.

I just got a 100ml bottle of Paul Smith for women for just £14.99 and this is a saving of about £27.00 as the RRP is £42.99. The reason for the reduction is that it is unboxed! Considering I would just throw the box away anyway, that makes no difference to me.

Even if it was a gift I would still get it unboxed and I would wrap it up myself with some nice ribbon or put it in a box with some coloured tissue paper.

Cheap perfume

Free Petrol....

Shell have a printable voucher on their website offering you £1.50 off their V-Power fuel.

All you need to do is print it and use it next time you fill up at your local Shell garage.

Click here for your voucher

As Tesco's say (or is it Asda?) - Every Little Helps.

Competition of the week

Winning this one will save you plenty of money - the prize is over £300 worth of free fuel. You need to guesss how far you think a Ford Galaxy will travel on a single litre of fuel.

http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/drive-smart/one-litre-challenge/competition.html

This one expires on 10 July and only takes about thirty seconds to enter so its worth a quick go.

Good Luck

Reduce your Shopping Bills.... Part 2

I know, I know another reduce your shopping bills post! Last one for a while, I promise.

I have just found this site where you can enter your shopping list and it will tell you which supermarket will be cheaper for you.

http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/

The site will also give you ideas on what items to swap or substitute so that you could save money. It will even help you to choose healthier options by advising you of the lower fat versions of the items you have chosen!

Follow me on Twitter

I have just registered with Twitter so if you want to follow me on there you look up my user name 'familybudgeting' or you can click on the link further down the page on the right hand side.

Competition of the week....

Following on from my previous free stuff posts, I have decided to add some competition posts on to the blog every now and then.... I will only add ones that can be entered on line and take little or no effort.

Todays competition post is to win a one day family of four pass to Alton Towers.

You can click here to enter it.

I have put Jenson Button as the answer and I am pretty sure that I am right.

Good Luck

Free Photos

At the moment Tescos have an offer on for 40 free prints if you register with them here:

http://www.tescophoto.com/wpp/tesco/welcome.jsp

I love freebies!

Reduce your Shopping Bills......

You need a notepad and pen for this one.... Go through all of your food cupboards, your fridge and your freezer and write a list of everything that you have in there.... even the old tins of things that you have at the back of the cupboard that you have no idea why you bought it!

Next sit down and write out a weeks worth of meals made from the things that you already have in. You will be surprised at the amount of things you can make without having to buy anything else.

Then write a shopping list for everything else that you need for the week. Make sure that you stick to your list when you go shopping and you should see a big reduction in your food bills. You may find it easier to shop online as will not make any impulse purchases this way and you will also be able to see any items on special offer and can adapt your meal plan to incorporate these offers. Supermarkets like Asda deliver to most areas in the UK and regularly offer their customers voucher codes for free delivery which will cut the cost even more.

I know that this is easier said than done but if you can find the time to cook from scratch you will save a fortune. Whenever you cook something, make double and freeze half. This means that you save on both electricity and time and you will be less tempted to pop to the take away if you can't be bothered to cook. Its also a lot healthier for you and you will know exactly whats in the food you are eating.

Be in the Audience of your favourite show.... For free

Have you ever heard of http://www.applausestore.com/, they are the company that all of the big TV shows use to fill their audience. At the moment they have free X factor tickets for the X factor auditions and loads of other popular TV shows. All the tickets are free so it is definately moneysaving as well as something fun to do.

I've just booked tickets for the live X factor auditions next month.

Snowball....

If you have any spare money left at the end of the month, it makes sense to pay a bit extra towards any debts. The best way to decide which of your cards to pay off first is to use the 'snowball' method.

Snowballing is all about paying off your debts in the most efficient and cost effective order: it makes good financial sense to pay off the debts with the highest interest rate first.

Check out the Snowball Calculator to determine the best way to prioritise your payments.

Save money on your water bills....

Do you have a water meter fitted at home? If not, this is something worth looking into as it has cut my bills from £32.00 a month to about £50.00 a quarter!

The general rule of thumb is that if you have more bedrooms in your house than people living there, a water meter will save you but that doesn't always apply as there are four of us and the savings have been massive. The link below helps you to work out in about 2 minutes if a water meter will save you.

Will I benefit from a water meter?


If you decide to get one fitted, there are ways that you can cut down on your water usage without any hassle, my water board give out free inflatable bags for your toilet cistern which mean less water is used every time you flush....

My daughters teacher at school taught her that 'If its Yellow, let it mellow.... If its brown, flush it down!!' Not sure about that but you get the point.

I have loads of other ways to save money on my website:

http://www.sortyourfinancesout.co.uk/

Cheap Days out....

With Summer approaching, the weather should be getting nicer (in theory) and the kids will need to be entertained while they are off school. If your kids are anything like mine, they will drive you mad by the end of the Summer holidays and you will end up counting the days until September rolls around again......

I always find it helps me to have a few days out planned. I try to space them out throughout the Summer I can bribe them both to be good. Does that make me a bad parent? To be fair, even if it does it also helps to keep me a sane parent so I guess I can live with that!

Seriously, I want my kids to grow up and be able to look back and remember all of the fun things that they did when they were younger. You should see me follow them around with a camera wherever we are. We didn't have a car when I was growing up but we did travel on the bus or train to visit loads of interesting places and now that my kids are 6 and 4, I love that we can just jump in the car and take them somewhere interesting.

I have found a great website that says it is the Number 1 place for discounted days out in the UK. After using the site when planning my day trip to London last week, I am happy to confirm that I agree with this..... You can actually search over 7,000 attractions, broken down by area within the UK and there are loads of printable vouchers for days out, attractions, theme parks, places to go and fun things to do across the UK.

We went to London by train last weekend and I wanted to fit in as much as possible without spending a fortune so I spent a while on this site and then armed with all of my vouchers, we had a fantastic money saving day.http://www.daysoutuk.com/

The money we saved meant that we could spend an hour in Hamleys Toy store and buy the kids plenty of treats.

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More Moneysaving Blogs....

I have been searching around the internet looking for blogs that are similar to mine as I don't think that you can ever read too much about making money :-)

I have come across one so far that has some excellent ideas and is definately worth checking out.
Have a look at http://workingathomenow.myblogsite.com/

I especially like the information about a website called Dooyoo. This is a website that asks people to write reviews on products or services and they pay you in Dooyoo miles. Strange name I know but it looks as though they accumulate and you can exchange them for vouchers or cash when you reach a certain threshold.

Each review has to be a minimum of 150 words and for that you recieve 500 Dooyoo miles! I think that the lowest threshold for redeeming you Dooyoo miles is 20,000 so its not easy money but you can review practically anything so I can see how you would quickly manage to build up your points balance. I registered the other day and reviewed some of the things that I have worte about on this blog such as, Quidco, Retail Eyes Mystery Shopping and Cineworld Kids Clubs. I have just checked and my Dooyoo miles balance is 1850 miles - not sure where the extra came from but I won't complain!


There are loads of ideas on http://workingathomenow.myblogsite.com/ and I will keep checking in as you can never have to many ways to make or save money can you?

.

Quidco..... Earn Cashback on everything you spend

About a year ago now, I signed up to a cashback website called Quidco and I have earned about £600 so far. I love Quidco and I am sure that you will too.

Basically, Quidco is a website who pay you cashback on your online spending. The amount that you will earn varies depending on how much you are spending, the product and the company.

They work with hundreds, if not thousands of different websites to give you the chance to earn extra money on your spending. If you have a look through their merchant directory and I guarantee you will be pleasantly surprised at the companies who you can use.

Heres what to do:

* Register for a free account at www.quidco.co.uk. It is completely free to register and Quidco only charge you their £5.00 membership fee when your earnings exceed £5.00 and even then they just claim the fee from your earnings before they pay you.

* When you find something that you want to buy online, go to www.quidco.co.uk and search through the merchant directory to find the merchant you want to use, then click the link through to your selected site.

* You will then be redirected to the merchant's website, everything will look exactly the same but the merchant will know that you have been sent to them by Quidco and will therefore arrange to pay them the relevant amount of cashback following your purchase.

* You can then go back to Quidco and track your cashback, it can take up to 7 days for any cashback to show in your Quidco account as tracked and it can take up to 3 months for the money to be paid to your bank account but it is well worth it for the amount that you can earn.

There are loads of ways that you can maximise your Quidco earnings:

* When you have joined, select the Quidclans tab in the top right corner and look down the list of Quidclans for one of the no spend clans. When you find one, have a look through their posts as all of the no spend offers will be listed in there. This will save you going through all of the merchant. I recently got paid £7.00 to look at my credit file and £4.00 to recieve a kitten pack from Whiskas. Neither of these cost me anything and there are loads more offers like it.

* Renew your car and home insurance through companies on Quidco. I always check on a website like www.moneysupermarket.com to find the cheapest price first and then look on Quidco to see if the cheapest few companies offer cashback. You tend to find that the cashback on insurance is higher than on purchased and is usually between £50 and £120. I have just renewed my home insurance with Halifax through Quidco and received £55 from Quidco and a further £55 directly from Halifax as you still qualify for any merchant offers if you use Quidco.

* Switch utilty companies through Quidco; again, use a comparison website to establish the cheapest company for your needs and then use Quidco to make the switch. I find that this means that I am getting paid to switch to a company who will work out cheaper for me. I do this about once a year and I review my gas and electric provider, my telephone provider and my internet provider.

**If you use a comparison website it is a good idea to clear the cookies on your computer before going back on to Quidco to click through to the merchant.**

I thought Quidco was too good to be true when I first joined but I have to say that I am a big, big fan now. The extra money that I have earned speaks for itself.

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Reduced Price Cinema Tickets

A few months ago we went to the pictures to see Bolt (the 3d version), by the time we had paid for the entry into the film and the 3d glasses that you had to buy, it cost £23 for the four of us. It was an ok film and the kids really enjoyed it but I begrudge paying that much to watch a film that was less than an hour and a half long. The problem is though, that the kids love going to the pictures so I don't want to stop taking them. I have two solutions:

* Anyone who has a Cineworld cinema near them can take the kids on a Saturday morning to see a film for £1.00 (adults and kids). There are usually three or four films to choose from and they all start at 10.00. This morning we went to see Madagascar 2 and loved it although I think I enjoyed it more because it only cost £4.00! The other films we could have chosen were Hotel for dogs or Happy feet.

* Buy an Orange Sim card if you haven't already got one and go on Orange Wednesdays, I am not sure but I think this is buy one get one free. You can get a Sim card from somewhere like Ebay for next to nothing and then you will be able to take advantage of this offer. Watch out though the queues are longer on a Wednesday so get there in plenty of time. We went to see Hannah Montana and the queue was out the door and down the road.

I can't help you out with the cost of everything while you are in there though. Its absolute extortion. My husband asked for a bag of Revels today and couldn't believe that they cost him £3.00. The kids got a pick and mix each and that came to a fiver, I wouldn't mind but they only got a few sweets each.

So the entrance to the pics was moneysaving but once we were in there we managed to spend it like water........

Have a look at my monthly budget...

I have spent the afternoon re-doing my monthly budget as I have been having real trouble sticking to it lately and we have ended up using most of our overdraft for the last few months! I have identified lots of areas where I know I can save money so I will go through these in the couple of days.

Income details
Salary (after tax) - £2160 (combined)
Child maintenance - £125
Child Tax Credits - £40
Total - £2325

Household details
Food Shopping - £250
Mortgage - £812
Council tax - £120
Gas / Electricity - £100
Phone / Internet - £40.00
Water - £25

Financial Products
Card payments- £170
Savings / Investments - £30
Home Insurance - £20
Life Insurance - £5

Leisure
TV licence / Satellite - £35
Love film subscription - £10

Children
Childcare - £160

Travel
Petrol - £160
Car maintenance / tax - £20
Public transport - £80


Budget Summary
Total Income - £2325
Total Spending - £ 2037
Total Left Over - £288

If you haven't already done your budget, you can get a template and some more tips on how to do it here.

Ebay...

I have just listed a load of my old clothes on e bay as I am trying to make some extra money this month. I didn't realise that they had changed their fee structure though or I would have listed them sooner.

If you list anything with a start price of 99p there is no listing fees. You will have to pay a final value fee when your items sell but at least you don't have to pay to list anymore.

I have listed them for 3 days so have left it until today to do as a 3 day listing that started on a Thursday will have the benefit of a full weekend on line and I think thats when most people are mooching about on e bay.

Fingers crossed they sell for loads.


EDIT : My items sold for £60 - Not bad for a pile of old clothes!

Birthday Party...

I have just been to take my little girl to a birthday party, it was in a church hall and had an all singing, all dancing, bubble blowing, light flashing disco there. When they played 'Is this the way to Amarillo' all 25 kids stopped running about like mad freaks, got into a line and started doing exactly the same dance. Very weird, like a scene out a body snatcher movie!!! Turns out that this is their new song for wake and shake on a morning at school!! Thats a relief.

The party was fantastic though, it was fancy dress and the parents had hired a church hall and a clown/magician/DJ. The kids all got two party bags each, one with the usual stuff in and another shop bought lucky bag - it must have cost them a small fortune.

My little girls last party was at the wacky warehouse and cost £5.99 a head for 20 kids. My sons party was at the local leisure centre with a big bouncy castle, even with us doing the food it was about £150 for 25 kids.

This made me start thinking about the ways that you can save money when planning a party, I have had a quick look around the internet and have found some tips that I will share on here:

* Don't feel guilty about limiting the size of the party. Experts recommend that the number of kids on your guest list should match your child's age.

* In most cases, the cheapest place to hold your party will be at home.

* The old games really do seem to be the most enjoyable, especially for the younger kids. Pass the parcel, musical statues and simple simon are all games that the children will love. Pinata's are really popular aswell.

* You don't need to spend a fortune on matching accessories. Instead of spending a fortune on themed plates, napkins and invitations, you could look for a few items with your child's theme, and fill in the rest with matching colors.

* Homemade invitations add a personal touch to your party. You could use a picture of your child or if its a themed party, print some pictures off the internet to match and get your child to colour them in. Then you can cut them out and stick them on to your invites.

* Add your mobile number to the invites so people can text you their RSVP.

I have found what looks like a really good website for birthday party ideas: http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/

1p Sale! ...

Apparently Marks and Spencers are having a penny bazaar sale on certain items between now and friday to celebrate their 125th anniversary..... So this morning I am off to see what bargains I can pick up.

You can't get much more moneysaving than a 1p sale and I am hoping that I'll be able to get some nice pressies to put to away for christmas.

Edit - The shop opened at 9.00 and I got there at 9.25 to find a sold out sign on the penny bazaar stand. I have just seen on the news that people were queueing from early this morning.

I don't think I'll bother trying again tomorrow.

Planning your monthly budget...

Right, this is the most important thing that you will do when you are sorting out your finances.

You need to work out what your monthly spending is and what your monthly income is.

I have set up a budget form at my website that you can print out and fill in, I think it is pretty detailed so should cover all areas of your monthly spending. If I were you I would sit down with your last three months bank statements so you can see everything that has come out of your account for the past few months and work from there.

You can find the budget form at www.sortyourfinancesout.co.uk

The completed budget form will show you how much money you have left over at the end of each month.

If you discover that you spend more than you earn, you need to take immediate action as this is unsustainable and will only result in you having debt that you struggle to pay off.

If you are one of the lucky ones who end the month with money left over, congratulations!

The problem that I had when I did my budget was that even though my budget showed that I had a surplus of £300 per month but at the end of each month I actually had nothing left. To find out where my money was going, I filled in a spending diary for a month. Every single thing that I spent was written down in my book (husbands too.... although he wasn't pleased to have to produce reciepts for everything!!!). At the end of the month I added up how much we had spent on everything and was shocked at the amount I had spent on crap.

£60.00 on work lunches
£34.00 on kids toys when we did our weekly shopping
£10.00 on chocolate for husband on the way to work
£50.00 on takeaways

So, now I take packed lunches, do my shopping on line and buy multi packs of chocolate for hubby to eat on a morning. I have also started Slimming World now so that cuts down on the Takeaways.

Make sure you are claiming everything you are entitled to.....

People across the country are missing out on over £8billion in unclaimed benefits.

Don't be one of them - check to see exactly what you are entitled to at Benefits Checker.

Make Money Now

We all have a stack of CD's, DVD's and games that we don't use anymore..... Why not convert them into cash using Music Magpie. Its so easy - just type in the bar code and they will tell you how much they will pay you.


MusicMagpie

Save on Petrol Costs

Petrol costs are a major part of my monthly budget as both me and my husband have a 25 mile round trip to get to work each day.

Last year I sold my car as it seemed like a good way to reduce our monthly costs and we didn't think we really needed two cars but I don't think we quite thought it through. I get the train to work each morning but my husband picks me up on a night which kind of defeats the object, doesn't it.

There are some strange people that get on my train every day. There is one woman who gets on with her shopping trolley every day, she once told me that she hated the hot weather as it made her bits itchy!!! Then there is the woman who wears stripy tights and flowery skirts everyday and I ended up spending the whole journey looking at pictures of her 'cute baby boy' - which turned out to be a BUDGIE!!!

The moral to this story is, when you're on a train keep your eyes down and your ipod on!

Back to the money saving part of this blog......

Even with soaring petrol costs you can still save some money. Fuel prices can vary considerably, so you need to make sure that you are using the cheapest local petrol station. This website will give you the five cheapest stations in your area.

I have signed up to this site and they send you e mails when the cheapest petrol station in your area changes. It only saves a few pence a litre but if you drive as much as we do its worth it.

Also, keep in mind that your driving style can have a big impact on your fuel costs. The average car uses 38% more fuel at 70mph than it does when travelling at 50mph. Studies have found that a car travelling at 90mph on a motorway will cost approximately £1.20 more on fuel every eight minutes than a car travelling at 70mph. So if you change your driving style a bit - you can reduce the amount of petrol you use.

Has your CREDIT been CRUNCHED

The Credit Crunch is affecting everyone in some way, and for many of us it's time to take an honest look at our finances. Whatever your situation, there are steps that you can take to maximise your income, reduce your expenditure and balance your personal budget.

As a mum of two, I know how important it is to make the most of every single penny. My kids are four and six and very demanding on our budget!

Over the past few years I have learned how to set a managable monthly budget although I must admit - I haven't quite mastered the are of sticking to it yet. I know loads of tips and ways to boost your monthly income so I thought I would set up a blog to share them with you. I am sure that there are plenty of financey websites on the internet but I hope that I can put everything into one place and make it interesting to read...... If its not interesting, at least I hope its helpful.

I have also set up a website with information in more detail as I don't want to bore you with details if you aren't interested in that part of the blog,

You can find my website here:

http://www.sortyourfinancesout.co.uk