Welcome to Monday Money, my weekly post sharing the highlights of my last money saving week. Another week of lockdown 2 passes, is anyone else feeling like me? Is it dragging and seeming like it is lasting forever. Its only been 2 1/2 weeks but it feel SO MUCH longer!
We had another lockdown birthday celebration this week with my youngest turning 8. We made the most of a lockdown birthday by taking his new remote control car to the park in St. Albans. It was packed, I don’t think I have ever seen it so busy, so much for lockdown. Despite it being November it was sunny and warmish, so warm that ice-cream was requested as a birthday treat!
Whilst we walked around the lake we spotted a group of people gathering by the river, there was a kingfisher! Incredible spot, I don’t remember ever seeing a kingfisher sat by the side of a river.
We spent the rest of the day watching Christmas films, we put of the Christmas decorations, ordered dominos and played the game of life. A great birthday packed with lockdown friendly fun.
The Game of Life and a Personal Finance Lesson
We love the game of life in this house and it is such a great lesson for the boys in personal finance and learning. You start off choosing a college or school career, there are pay days, you buy houses, have children, pets. You travel along the path of life spending and making money. There is a great maths lesson at the end adding up the money to work out the winner and reading of the cards chosen throughout the game. A fun game that helps the boys to learn without realising.
Idealo and Finding the best prices for Christmas Gifts
I wrote a article for Idealo this week sharing how useful this website is in finding the best prices for everything on your Christmas list. This week is black friday week so you may well be thinking now is the best time to buy those gifts. Have a search on Idealo for your gifts and it will tell you the BEST place to buy the product from and will give historical price information too. Perfect for checking if now is the best time to buy that gift!
Use Top Cash Back as well
Dont forget to use TopCashback for all your online shopping to save even more. Just search for the retailer on TopCashback, then click from TopCashback through to make the purchase as normal. Sometimes the extra extra savings are huge, maybe an extra 10%- 20% off. Sometimes its less but every little helps right? Your cashback builds up and you can transfer to your bank account when confirmed.
Sign up for an account and we both get a thank you reward.
Free Subway Sandwiches
The Subway app is really good for freebies. I bagged myself a free 6 inch sub on Saturday whilst the boys had their foot long meal deals. The boys LOVE subway, their favourite takeaway choice. Get the app and for every 500 points you collect you get a free 6 inch sub or salad. We have this offer every three ish visits. I love an app that gives great freebies.
Check those Direct Debits
I have gone through my direct debits this week and cancelled down those that I set up in the but are now really not needed. These include Zoom, Audible and premium link.tree (Instagram analytics tool). Stopping these has saved me £20 per month, or £240 per year.
It is really worth doing this every few months, to ensure that you are ONLY paying for things that you really need. What you needed in the summer might not be so relevant in the winter.
A New Credit Card with Added Control [ad]
I use a credit card for all of my every day purchases and pay the balance in full each month. I have trying out the new Zopa credit card (working with Zopa to do this) and used it for all the boys birthday gift spending and activities. The card is packed with unique features including a safety net, notifications of your spending and analysis. All to give you more information on your spending and allow great control.
