Its December, hurrah!! The month of festivities arrives. I am a bit shocked that suddenly December is here already, and to be honest I am feeling the pressure financially. November was an expensive month with all three of the boys birthdays. Plus three trips balances were paid towards, which was £300 on top of normal spending. A football tournament to Germany, another to Brighton and Dylan who is in year 6 goes on PGL in May.
Cash Back Credit Cards
I put all of our every day spending onto a credit card that gets paid off in full every month to avoid any interest charges. I use an American Express card as I get a wonderful cash back bonus every year, I am expecting £250 this April!! But that bill for November is steep at £1500. Ouch, lots of extra spending went on there this month. If you want an ace cash back credit car why not get an American Express card, before you say, it is taken in around 95% of the shops I shop at. You will get a boost of £25 cash back when you sign up.
Knebworth Christmas Lights Switch on
Friday night saw the BIG (read that as actually quite little) Christmas lights switch on. The village descended on the green in front of the church. The countdown began and lights switched on before we reached 1!! Timing! There were lots of stalls and food on the go, we did well to avoid much of it, although Josh was keen to do a lucky dip and hook a duck to win some cheap plastic tat for £3. Not exactly money saving, but it was fun and we were supporting the local community.
Switch your energy, get £50 and a chance to win a car!
I am a huge fan of Octopus energy and have been really happy with the value for money offered on my energy deal, customer service and top communication of energy usage and bills. Why not see if you could switch and save money? If you do switch you will get a £50 bonus, as do I, thank you, PLUS a chance to win one of four cars, a scooter and bike! The car competition is only running until 7th December so be quick, check to see if you can save money right now!
Don’t forget to check your Topcashback balance
Have you set up a Topcashback account? I just checked my balance today, there was £42 ready to claim. This has been converted into Amazon vouchers (and I got an extra 2.5% boost) and now have £43.05 sat in my Amazon account ready to spend on Christmas pressies. I use Topcashback for all of my online spending, I search for the retailer on here and then click through to the website via Topcashback ensuring that I receive cash back on my purchase. It is free money why not set up an account and see how much you can make! I would appreciate it if you used my referral link
The Christmas Tree is up
The 1st December marks the day we put up our Christmas tree and this year Josh did a fabulous effort and decorated the tree all by himself and he did a fabulous job. So we have a fake tree, but we are now starting to save money. We bought it around five years ago from John Lewis, so it is a really nice good quality tree. The branches are thick and there are no gaps to be seen. It cost around £100, so cost per year £20…cheaper than a real tree me thinks. I have never really gotten on with real trees in the past, they don’t seem to last for the whole month of December in the heat of a central heated house. I much prefer our beautiful John Lewis tree.
Asda Freshly Made Pizzas
Have you tried the pizzas from Asda where you order them at the deli counter and they make them freshly for you? They are so good, just like Dominos, and cost £3.50 each for a huge pizza. So much better value than Dominos! We had plenty of money left to get some Christmas tree chicken dippers and cheesy bites, plus a cheeky bottle of lovely elderflower gin. This was on roll back to £13. I figured it was better value to get the big bottle than lots of little tins as I normally buy!
Investing Event with Steps to Invest
On Tuesday I headed into London on stormy, rainy night to take part in a panel event with the Steps to Invest Team in London. I shared my experience with investing and my learnings and the importance of having a goal and something to aim for. It was a really great event and I loved sharing my experience with some beginners who were nervous to take the plunge into the exciting world of investing.
Don’t forget my Buyagift competition to win yourself a perfume creation experience, all the info is here.
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