Before going back through my spending dairy for this week, I was thinking it was a high spending week. But in reality I actually did pretty well. £200 was spent this week which included an Aldi shop which came to £63 (I do an Aldi shop every 10-12 days and spend around £100/£110 each time, this week was part funded with £50 in gift vouchers). There was also a £50 spend on dodgeball after-school fun for Jack for the next ten weeks and I paid £35 in a quarterly subscription to a rainbow soul, a beautiful box of joy that will arrive soon. There were no nights out or days in London which helped with the spending greatly.
Contributions have re-started to my Pension
I am very excited and feeling really proud of myself that I have re-started my contributions to my pension. This stopped back in 2015 after leaving full-time employment. I was keen to get to a stable position with the business before starting the payments again. That time is now and January 18th marked the day I re- started putting money into my pension.
I have written about three different strategies you might want to think about if you are self-employed, and how you can start contributing to your pension.
Cashing in My TopCashBack free money
Every few weeks I check the balance on my Topcashback account to see how much has cleared and if any money is payable. I had a nice surprise today with some money clearing over the past few weeks and transferred £42 straight into my bank account. Lovely. Do you have a Topcashback account? If not, why not, it will give you extra savings from anything you buy online. And it will give you a £5 bonus for sign up at the moment. I would appreciate it if you used my link and I will get a small commission for referring you as well. Thank you.
P.S. I have claimed £2,500 cash back since my account was opened six years ago. Its free money!
Swimming on a Sunday morning
Swimming is a great frugal activity to do with the boys. This past weekend Dylan was away in Manchester playing a football game against Man City so we took advantage of time without Dylan (who cant swim because of his ear) and went to Hitchin swimming pool. £8 for one adult and two children for as long as you want. A great price if you compare to maybe the trampoline park that would cost £18 for the hour.
Josh at nine will do lengths with me up and down the pool. And Jack at six is still learning. Today we got to around 4 metres of swimming, he is doing well with mummy teaching him.
Vegan Food at Aldi
As mentioned I did the big food shop this week and found some interesting Vegan bits that looked nice. I have been eating healthily this January and am always interested in finding new plant based food. The black bean spaghetti looks really interesting, which I am thinking I will knock up a tomato, garlic and olive sauce to go with. The almond butter is really lovely, in face I think I might like it more than regular butter!
Price wise the Almond milk was 89p, the almond butter was £1.99, the spaghetti was £1.99, Mayo was £1.79 and the burgers were £1.49. Vegan food can be affordable!
Chasing my overdue invoices
I have been having fun and games chasing a few late invoices these past few weeks. Finally they were all paid and all hit on one day! It was the best day I have ever had probably in my life for cash. I treated myself with a cake and coffee from Costa to celebrate and hastily moved the money off to my various pots to ensure that I didn’t spend any more money.
Blue Monday Free Event
Monday 21st January marks Blue Monday but its not going to be blue for me! I will be at an event that you can come to as well in London on Baker Street. Will you be near there? If so please do pop in for free food, massage and cuddles with puppies. Its an event with Staples and you can find out more details here.
Endless Supply of Drinks Bottles
Does your family go through loads of these things? Honestly I think I bought maybe ten drinks bottles last year and they forever go missing at football, or are dropped and smashed. I found some good ones in Tesco this week, just £3.50 each and they hold 1 litre of water. I bought a few, in the hope that the boys will look after them better.
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