Wednesday 2 April 2014

Money Saving!




One of the huge things that have changed in my life in the past two years is the arrival of my little bundle of joy, Emily. At 7 months old now she brings a lot of joy into our little household. We are embarking on many adventures that I had thought were long over and done with. New teeth, new foods, new experiences. I absolutely love being a mum in so many ways.

However babies are expensive! With me being at home full time and Mr T working as much as he can, I feel as though I need to contribute somehow.

Enter couponing.

Yes, yes, I know. Couponing has had a bad press in many ways. Either glamorized by shows such as extreme couponing or frowned upon by fellow shoppers and shop assistants alike for being time consuming. However I have had some good savings with coupons. Not on a massive scale but every little helps!

Believe me 10 years ago I would have laughed if someone told me I would be scanning papers, magazines and web sites for coupons or even contacting companies (ick!) but with the economy being as it is, I feel as though I have to do something to help our money stretch that little bit further....and this suits me. Plus, my dirty little secret is, I enjoy it. It's like a game.

I would like to keep track of my savings and current coupons here (and will be writing a post with all of the current UK coupons I have found). The idea is that you use your coupons where and when there is a deal on a particular item - therefore giving you bigger savings.




For example, I recently got my hands on quite a few Weight Watchers Love Fibre cereal £1.00 off coupons (now expired). When Tesco put this cereal on offer for £1.50 (normal price £2.69) I was able to bag four boxes for the price of one normal priced box. Lucky me and my kids like these cereals!


I have also become quite accustomed to freebie-ing. Same reason really, if I can try out different products for free, I don't want to waste money finding out whether I like something. I also now really look forward to my post! Samples make a change from bills ;)

Yesterday the goodies I received were...


His and Hers perfume samples from Boss. I was a little disappointed that these were the peel off sticker samples. However the mens sample smells great and I may consider it as a birthday pressie for Mr T. Not so keen on the womens but my daughter likes it - guess it's down to personal taste.


 Bepanthen Nappy ointment. I have to tell you I haven't paid for nappy cream since I had Little Em. With the freebies you get in the New Baby Bounty packs and with free samples through the post, we've been covered. I particularly like Bepanthen though, with the first sign of redness, a smidgen of this calms it very quickly. It's also great for tattoos I believe!



I also received two coupons from Hipp Organic baby food. I signed up to this company about a month or so ago and have received quite a bit from them. I liked the sound of this company as everything is organic (darrrrling) and although I try and cook Little Em's food from scratch as much as I can, these pouches are really useful to have for when we are out and about (or munching on pizza!). You don't even need a bowl if you are out, just squeeze the food out onto a spoon. They also send you weaning spoons when you join. The price varies quite a bit on these pouches mind you, the cheapest I have found them is in Tesco for 45p. Making them free with the 50p coupon ;)

Now my biggest advice for this kind of thing is set up an email account especially for coupons and freebies. Most of the time you have to sign up to some sort of news letter. Most of which I don't mind and will have a read. However if you don't like a product, you don't want to keep getting updates in your main inbox. I also recommend you don't rush to the shops as soon as a coupon hits your inbox/letterbox. Wait as long as you can if there are no current deals on the product. Mysupermarket is a great way of checking current prices in different supermarkets before you shop.

Right I am off to brace the April showers! I did have a thought though, I have actually finished two blankets that I haven't blogged about yet (shock!) so if it brightens up later I will take some pics to show you. One I luuuuurrrrrrrvvvvvvvveeeeee. All rainbowy and happy :)

Have a great day x



2 comments:

**Anne** said...

We don't have too much of the coupon thing happening in Australia but it sounds like it's helping you stretch those pennies further. Looking forward to seeing those blankets.
Anne xx

Terrie said...

I thought the same thing Anne, its only when I started looking for them that I found them. I'm not sure zi will keep it up forever, but it has taught me to be more savvy when it comes to how we spend our money. Which is only a good thing! X