Monday Money #179- Pensions, All the Personal Finance Tips and my metabolic age is 35!!

Last week turned out not as expected. 2022 sees a new childcare pattern where I have my children for a week on, then they go their dads, a week off. (This will result in a lot of week long work trips, I promise!) Last week was my week on, and I ended up with J at home with me for home education. It did change up a few plans, which actually saved me money, and I just needed to work around the home learning with my deadlines. This is the wonderful thing about self employment, flexibility to change plans as and when needed.

We played tennis, went swimming, made burgers (OMG Gordon Ramsey burgers SO good), made waffles, went to cinema to see 355, walked to see the pot bellied piglets. We also did lots of reading, Geography, nature studies, and times tables rockstars. A week of balance.

Do You Understand Your Pension? DB or DC?

I worked with the Pension Protection Fund last week and shared a post on getting to grips with your pension this year. Do you have a DC or DB pension? Do you know how much it’s worth in the future and when you can access it? This post explains all the basics plus any questions you might have about your DB pension. A rather complicated pension beasts, also the most valuable.

Money saving tips on the BIG bills, energy, food and fuel.

This week saw the first of my 2022 personal finance articles to be published on the Zopa website, and its a great one. An article packed with money saving tips on the BIG bills, energy, food and fuel. At least 25 tips to help you save a small fortune. And no I do not recommend hugging your pet to keep warm, but I do recommend more sensible things like turning off lights, turning off the radiator in rooms not often used, showering for less time, using a slow cooker, plus MANY MORE.

Hugest Welcome to Rebecca Megson-Smith, guest writer for Mrs Mummypenny.

AKA Ridley Writes, writer and writing coach, Bec will be writing on all things healthy wealth, body and mind. Starting with booze. Her relationship with it and how she giving it up, for good! no more hangovers for Bec.

BBC Expert on all things Energy, Money saving and Debt

Last week I spoke to BBC Three Counties, my local BBC Radio station about money saving for the New year, along with a no spend month, realistic budgeting and debt repayment. This week I talk to BBC Five Live on Monday 17th at 5:30pm drive time and BIG News BBC Radio 4 Today program on Wednesday 19th January morning at 8am. Both are all about money savings with questions from listeners answered by me the personal finance expert!! I LOVE it.

Blue Monday – Wonderful Health News

I jumped on the health tracking machine at the gym today to discover that my metabolic age has gone from 58 down to 35 in six months. What a huge achievement with eating well, exercise, lots of fat loss and looking after my heart. A wonderful achievement on Blue Monday, which isn’t so blue after all.

Money Saving from Last week.

I saved a fortune at the cinema by using my Kidspass discount card. I pay £3 a month for this and it saves me at least £10 every time I go to the cinema. And we go alot!

I saved another £40 by doing a bowling mystery shop. We bowled, ate and drank for nothing on Saturday morning. Check out Pro Insight for mystery shopping. They have the best shops, I’m currently sat in a gym for free as I am mystery shopping them for four months. So not only had my health improved hugely over the past six months, the gym part of that has been free!

We saved on food by making treats at home. The burgers and waffles. So cheap to make and really tasty. We made these three times last week, using the Jamie Oliver recipe.

I also bought a heated clothes airer from Aldi for just £40. I’ve wanted one for ages and was waiting for the Aldi special buy. A brilliant alternative to the greedy tumble dryer and no more wet clothes hanging around the house for days on end.

I spent £400 last week, pretty good for me. Annoyingly there was £90 of fuel in this as I had ALOT of football miles, 2 trips to Newmarket and back 160miles and one trip to Canterbury 180 miles. No other unexpected spending shockers.