Savings Now - Living a simple money saving life

Bouncing into Autumn

2011-10-04T06:12:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Many apologies again for the delay, things are getting into a rhythm of sorts now so I do hope to be able to chat to you more about what i am learning and how we are coming along.

Lately we have continued to save money by using washable nappies, just terry squares with good quality outer wraps. I have also bought 'pocket' nappies on ebay quite cheaply but these do not seem to have the absorbency of good old terries - if anyone has nay tips on the best inner boosters to use I would be most grateful as the pocket nappies are certainly easier to use.

Sainsburys have a third off baby stuff, so have bought some nappy rash cream and value wipes. I do use washable wipes but the disposable ones always come in handy.

I have been batch cooking things like Cottage pie - plus today have a lasagne ready to part cook and freeze (bit naughty as it was frozen mince but there you go). Also planning to cook some macaroni cheese, naughty but nice in this cooler weather...

We bought lots of clothes for little one at a Sunday bootfair, around £0.20p per item, some of which I will be able to resell on ebay as they are branded. Every penny counts!

I am now keeping an eye on freecycle for any items that we might use over the coming few months or even in Spring. Baby activity centres, garden tools, things like that.

We also want to sell our car for something more practical now the little one is here - first we need to find a new car, so that will be our next mission as I am getting fed up of getting into the back via folding the front seat to get his baby seat in.

Also have bought my first Christmas pressie, couldn't help myself, it was a bargain on Amazon and I know hubby will love it.

How is everyone, and what are your favourite money saving tips this month?

September update

2011-09-01T01:44:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Well our little bundle is now 7 weeks old and growing massively every day. Not to mention the changes in his personality and how much more alert he is!

I guess our money saving efforts have been slightly less, but, our focus has been on bulk cooking food, then also using washable nappies. These 2 things are the main ones I have time for right now and do save us some cash.

We buy things like mince meat, eggs, fish etc in bulk, then try to bulk out the meals. Jacket potatoes are easy, batch cooking soup then freezing it helps, plus making muffins that can be healthy snacks for example is useful. My last batch was 12 banana walnut ones, I should have made 24 though to make best use of the oven being on...

Enjoy the last rays of sunshine everyone, seems Autumn is already round the corner!

How to save money on Summer cooking!

2011-06-30T09:39:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Well I have started maternoty leave now! So this has inspired me to have a big week of cooking next week, and I am looking for inspiration from you folk and online generally.

What can I cook now that will be easy to freeze and make for easy meals once the baby arrives next month?
Of course there are things like spaghetti bolognaise, cottage pie etc but they are not very summery... I will make some as back up meals though.

Also on my mind recently has been saving money on bills even more than normal in preparation for the year ahead.

Here is what we have done so far:

- Paid our tv licence bill in advance until September 2011
- Paid our water bill in advance until March 2012
- Fixed our gas and electric tariff onto a fixed tariff that ends in 2013

That's about as much as we can do on bills, apart from save money on usage, food, petrol etc.

So as to the cooking, here are some of the items I have come up with:

- Quiche - could be frozen in portions - not as good as fresh but still nice
- Pasta sauces - can be put into sterilised jars, or frozen, either way super quick with pasta
- Macaroni cheese - can be half cooked then frozen, then popped in the oven to finish and crisp up
- Pizzas - buy basic bases then add our ingredients on top and freeze. Super easy to chuck in the oven, plus handy to eat with one hand if needed!

So over the next few days I hope to come up with some more food ideas - generally some light items that can be quickly heated up, any suggestions you have are much appreciated!

Money saving for Summer

2011-05-31T06:09:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the delay, baby is busily growing and my mind has been focused elsewhere... so much to prepare for, but I think we are nearly there!

Freecycle and Ebay have both been a godsend so far, so many products that you can easily use second hand and saves so much time and money. Not to mention recycling perfectly usable goods, and then either Freecycling or Ebaying them when done.

For now we are focusing on the main things... nursery is becoming a mess but I am sure in the next couple of months we will get sorted.

Aaaanyway, my thoughts for now for everyone, are to try not to overspend on BBQ food and drinks this Summer - a bit of a challenge but post your suggestions, as bulk cooking is so much harder now!

For me to save money on food I am considering growing tomatoes and courgette only this Summer, so that we only have 2 things to focus on, and they are items we would buy anyway. Also, bulk making things like Cous Cous and potato salad etc.

What about you?

Shabby Chic £15 TV unit and tiny steps approaching!

2011-04-05T10:38:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, hope April has started well for you!

Well lots has changed in our houehold over the past few months - hence the dip in my blog posts. The big news is... we are expecting the pitter patter of tiny money saving feet ;o)

That's right, so it means that money saving, money making, and home improvements are top priority on our list, even more so than before. So when energy permits, I have been undertaking various projects, to get the house ready for our little one.

I have shown below my latest project - revamping a £15 nasty orange pine tv unit.

Here is the 'Before' image:

The process I followed this this unit was to: Clean the unit with a damp cloth, you can also use sugar soap depending on how dirty it is.

Wipe down any sanding residue and allow to dry.Sand down the whole unit, taking care with any detailing.
Paint with an initial coat of primer, to tone down the colour and save on paint later.
Choose a good paint suitable for wood - here I have used Wimbourne White by Farrow & Ball - not cheap, but I was painting some other chairs with it (also shown on this blog) so in a way it was more money saving than buying a new tin.
Use a good brush that doesn't lose bristles and make sure you wash it after each coat. If you are unable to wash it and the coats dry quite quickly, wrap the brush in some wet cloth rag, so that when you come to use it again a few hours later it won't have dried out. Never leave the brush with paint on it overnight (new brushes are very expensive).
Paint around 3-4 coats depending on the item, you may wish to finely sand each coat before applying the next coat, and allow to dry after cleaning any sanding residue.

For this unit, I did not paint the top, instead I used Danish oil - this required around 6 hours between coats. I applied 6 coats in total. Once fully dried, you need to polish the surface with a clean, lint free cloth as it really brings out the shine. Our stairwell hand rail also got this treatment and looks great plus feels so smooth to the touch.

Once finished, I bought 2 new clear heart shaped handles from ebay to really add a finishing touch and these cost £3.50 for two plus postage. Here is the finished product:

All in all, I think this project took me around 4 hours but it saved us buying a new unit, as this one fits the spot perfectly size wise, I just didn't like the colour. I have seen similar in Laura Ashley that cost alot of money, so we are pleased with the outcome!

Do you have any makeover tiips or a blog showing some projects? Do drop me a comment so we cal all learn and share tips!

Quidco - Be Quids in with the biggest Cashback Site

2011-03-16T03:19:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all well and looking forward to Spring - it's nearly here!

Just a short note to remind you of one of the biggest cashback sites out there - Quidco. This is an essential site to be a member of, offering great tracking, excellent customer service and have been going for many years so I have no hesitation in recommending them as a must-join site.

This is the first site I check for any cashback and their advertised top benefits are:

The UK's no.1 discount site
Cashback, voucher codes and printable vouchers
2,000 retailers including Amazon, eBay, Tesco and Pizza Hut
UK exclusive - many of their vouchers also come with extra cashback
Over 1,000,000 members = biggest buying power

I recently used them for car insurance with the AA and earned £26, every little helps especially with car insurance constantly going up! Plus I got a free years worth of roadside assistance which was a bonus.

Join Quidco here

As always, it is best to compare various cashback sites before making your purchase, so you always get the best rates.

Plus always, always remember to clear your cookies just before you decide which cashback site to go with.

Also a chance for me to remind you of my new website focusing specifically on cashback - please visit Earn Cash 4 Clicks and keep up to date with the blog to have the latest info.

Enjoy cashbacking and check back soon for other updates!

Fantastically Filling Flapjacks - Frugal fun!

2011-02-25T07:35:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

Hope you are doing well and managing to cope in these cold Winter months! once March is here and the evenings get even longer I am sure we will all feel better... There are signs of Spring in our garden so lots of hope it won't take long now.

I wanted to share with you the idea of making your own flapjacks - maybe you already do, but to me this was a new idea and I am not much of a sweet tooth, but, I wanted to get something filling and not too expensive that would stop me spending in the shops. It's great to have as a snack at work or keep in a bag when travelling, or add to kids lunchboxes.

I have tried my own variations, and this is a good basic recipe to start with:
http://www.flapjackrecipe.com/healthy/

Porridge ensures you have slow release energy. It has less butter and less sugar than other recipes I have seen. What I tend to do is reduce the sugar a little more, and add raisins for example to increase sweetness more naturally. Also no need to use heavy maple syrup, honey is just fine.
To this I also add broken walnuts and also sunflower seeds, for added crunch (plus sunflower seeds are so inexpensive and very good for you.)

A tray that's low and square is best, mine happens to be rectangular from Sainsburys to I just pad out the mix.

They only take half an hour in our fan oven, and when you remove the tray you just need to score the mix lightly where you want to cut, allow to cool, then cut and place on a wire rack if you have one.

I do other variations like:

grated apple and cinnamon
mashed banana and walnut
cranberry and dessicated coconut
chocolate chips and hazelnut

Be warned, you can freeze them however they go down so quickly you may not have time to!
Experiment and have fun!

Cashback guide now online!

2011-01-28T04:06:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

Brr, is it cold or what? Just thought i would write a quick note to say that in cooperation with a knowledgeable web colleague, I have now uploaded the cashback guide to:

http://www.earncash4clicks.com/index.php

Please drop by as it's likely to have the latest changes etc, hopefully it wil hep you earn more money this year, even though the cashback sites are cutting back a little more. But there is still money to be had, particularly if you persevere with the daily clicks and also sign up to any offers that are relevant to you.

Cashback on new bank accounts, new credit cards, changing energy, broadband or tv supplier such as Sky always tend to have good cashback bonuses up to around £120 for example. Even applying for your credit rating can earn as much as £17.

As with this here blog, please support the sponsors of any articles you enjoy each time you visit, thank you and hope January has started well for you!

Happy 2011 - here's to a money saving start!

2011-01-05T05:31:00.000-08:00

Hi all and hope you had a lovely festive break and some wonderful pressies, without breaking the bank toooooo much!

This is a short but sweet post to say hello and to recommend my top 10 tips for saving money straight away in 2011, so you're set for the year ahead for some inspiration - please share your tips with us here too!

1 - Make a fixed budget for shopping each month. Take cash out of the ATM if you need to - just don't go over it or buy bad tempting (expensive!) foods.
2 - Cook in bulk, and when you do, pad out the meals with red lentils for example in spag bol and chilli, or pasta shapes in soups, cous cous and things like bulgur wheat and green lentils in stews.
3 - Make a personal budget for yourself, again take cash out of the ATM each payday and make sure it lasts til the next one...
4 - Call your energy / tv / broadband cuppliers and renegotiate. Also check price comparison websites for life, car, pet, travel insurance to see what cashback you can get. See the cashback section on the right for more info, you can make hundreds of extra pounds this year. If you change energy supplier, do it via a cashback site.
5 - Reduce car travel, less petrol, less expenses and walking more helps feel that little bit better about the fact we don't go to the gym...
6 - Reduce gym costs if you do go - are you going at least 3 times a week? If not, maybe take up running, walking or exercise at home maybe by buying a 2nd hand cross trainer or step machine if you have little space.
7 - Get your other half to agree to cut back, maybe have a goal you are both aiming for, and one person controls the finances and had a good overview of what's what.
8 - Use a cashabck credit card when you can, if you have no debts. Many offer at least 1% cashback on all your purchases, which is a great bonus each year.
9 - Spend those Boots / Nectar / Tesco points you aren't using and get the maximum value out of them - see each website for details. Often on Nectar's website they offer better deals than just spending the points at Sainsburys of Argos for example.
10 - Keep a spending diary at http://www.spendingdiary.com/ - easy and quick to log into, super easy to use. Then you can see what's being spent where of your personal monthly allowance, or shopping budget for example.
11 - A bonus one - sall stuff you no longer want or need - unwanted Christmas pressies? Ebay or Amazon them, or see musicmagpie.co.uk, or go to a boot fair. You may also want to Freecycle items if they are unsellable - someone's junk is almost always someone else's treasure. We got a free bathroom suite, ironing board, cd player, 12 magazines, books and much more that way in the past 12 months.

Any idead and tips you would like to share are most welcome - what's the most significant money saving tip for you?

Happy 2011 and thanks for supporting this blog - it inspires me to keep saving money and hopefully help others too along the way!

Heated White Christmas? 1st year in our new home

2010-12-01T08:02:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone and apologies for the delay - the reason being that we have finally finished out bathroom (and learnt alot about contractors and project management in the process) and I have also been learning to drive this Summer so am preparing for my test.

The bathroom has been done on as much shoestring as we could find... the flooring is black glittery industrial vinly, from ebay, the shower screen is glass and rounded on the top, also from ebay... bath and sink came from Freecycle, and tiles were cheapest we could find at B&Q. We also did our own tiling. Even so, this was soooo much more expensive than expected, so we were naiive in our hopes for costs! Even so, we are so pleased to have done it now and hope to have finally paid it off this month.

Last year around this time, we were 2 weeks away from moving in. When we moved in, it had snowed the day before so we had ice to content with, a massive hill, and freezing temperatures. This alongside the cleaning of our old (rented) property and the joys of dealing with the landlady to get our much needed deposit back. Plus when we finally did move in (after a second bout of snow, moving in one single box at a time as we slipped and slid up the hill), we had NO central heating.

So now, we are enjoying having heating, warm carpets and a bathroom we can be proud of. Year 1 has definately been expensive and testing, but we made it and we hope that year two will bring less DIY and more fun and enjoying adventures!

I will soon also update you all about my new cashback guide, it will be much easier to get the information and see which sites are best - please see the right hand side menu for now for the sites I have currently listed and the basic technique.

Stay warm and i will blog again soon when I have an update on the next stage!

Avocado be gone - sorry 1970's! Plus banishing bannister gloss...

2010-10-27T01:37:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Great to have your comments and as promised here is a little more about what we have been up to– my update today covers lots as you will see!

We have now completely sanded down the banister – the layers of gloss on there over the years were pure hell buut I am so pleased to have it fully stripped back now. Here are my suggestions for anyone looking to do a similar job!

1) Make sure that if you are trying to remove gloss, you use either a paint stripper or a mechanical sander with quite high abrasiveness. I used paint stripper then tried to sand the rest by hand – impossible with gloss! The paint stripper is a gel that can be brushed on, left for around 30 seconds, then scraped off. Cover the floor with newspaper and definately, definayely used gloves and cover all your skin, this is nasty stuff so open windows too. Make sure you use an old tin can, I washed out an old cat food tin, and an old brush for the gel. Once you have stripped all the goo of and it is dry, clean it down with white spirit.

2) Use a fine level of abrasiveness for the final sanding – I chose to do this by hand as the banister is pine, so needed a gentle touch not to dent the soft wood or remove too much.

3) You can stain the wood if you want to show the grain more. I may do this, though I am torn as I have also head that oiling it is good – I am not sure of the difference but I have stain, whereas I don’t have wood oil! Have also heard a lot about waxing, I have some beeswax at home which I have used for some other furniture. However have also heard that waxing is no good for areas that may get wet and as the bannister is near the bathroom it may be people have wet hands after washing, so I may have to oil the wood instead of waxing.

Any recommendations greatly received!

Our other project has been our bathroom, this started as a small job to simply replace the bathroom suite which was avocado… and has now turned into a full bathroom refit! Needless to say we were not expecting to pay for this level of work, these things just have a way of creeping up on you, each decision you make can lead to more expensive decisions. Be warned!

What we have learned from this is that:

1) Get at least 3 quotes from reputable traders from a site like checkatrade.co.uk. Try to use local companies, as they will charge less generally as there is less travel. Sometimes an out of town company may charge less if they have other jobs in the area the same week for example. Also worth getting contractor quotes for the whole job (they will do all the sub work too), then getting individual quotes for plubming, tiling, plastering etc and seeing which works out cheaper for you overall. Depends how much time you have as well because if you hire various different people for different jobs you will have to be more involved.

2) Once all quotes are in, don’t always go for the absolute cheapest – are they busy? Have they done this sort of work before? Just in chatting to them do you get the feeling they may take shortcuts? Of course it’s hard to foresee everything but some will charge little on the basis that they are in and out with little regard for details or your actual needs.

3) Always, always know the measurements and details of work before they arrive to quote. Give each person the same brief, so that when costs come back you are comparing like for like. We did not do this and with each contractor we learnt more, so by the end we had a better idea of what we actually needed, and so then called the first two to add more detail for a more comprehensive quote. Knowing the square footage for the tiling we wanted for example would have saved us time, and given us more accurate costs for the tiles.

4) Find out how long the job will take and when they will need access, how will you get keys to them, or will you take time off? If they are reliable they can perhaps collect keys from you the night before, and if you end up taking time off, factor this in as a cost, as you would surely have preferred to be having a nice day out instead!

5) Don’t walk into the big DIY warehouses and buy all your fittings and accessories. Take your time and plan ahead. We have bought only basic materials from there, flooring came from ebay, the bath panel came from another online company, taps came from another and the shower screen from ebay. A custom mirror and glass shelf will be bought locally for just £85, a fraction of ready made ones and these are custom size for our bathroom. We are also considering making our own bathroom cabinet, as these can be so expensive. If we make our own, it will fit our bathroom much better (we hope!) and make use of all available space, a premium in a small bathroom.

6) For finishes in a small bathroom, use mirrors, gloss furniture, pale colours and chrome if you can. This means not only light is reflected but also that the look can stay timeless, and you can just change towels/accessories to update it.

To save cash we are doing our own tiling, this saves around £240 in labour costs. Sure it may not be as perfect but we will have to live with that for the savings, and let’s face it, any improvement on the old bathroom is better than nothing! These will be plain white tiles, 40cm x 25cm, in a brick style layout.

So there you have it, I will hopefully add picks next time but as Flickr have changed how images can be used, I will have to find a new way to show you our latest adventures!

Please share your comments, thoughts and tips so we can all learn how to save cash and improve homes on a shoestring x

Autumn is here - time for chutney, roasts and saving money!

2010-10-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
Sorry for the delay - busy few weeks, more DIY and also work aplenty!
I promise to update soon and hope everyone is well - my latest project is the stair bannister and redoing the bathroom, which we are obviously trying to do as frugally as possible...

A £5 chair makeover in 60 minutes

2010-08-09T02:02:00.001-07:00

Latest project - reupholstering a £5 chair, ultimately cost £11.25 and I have 3 more to do - much cleaner and fresher in the new green colour which is subtle but fits in well with our furniture. Not to mention much more comfortable!

The old set of chairs was purchased second hand and had red coverings but the wadding is very worn which makes sitting in the chairs uncomfortable.

I bought the material, pad and wadding from Dunhelm Mill which is a large household and fabric store. It was lovely to choose the material ourselves rather than buy a modern and expensive chair where this had been decided for us. We chose a thick material which allows more wear and chose a colour which we felt added light to the room and also worked with our table.

It took me around 1 hour as I was unfamiliar with the process but I think now around 45 minutes per chair will do, I might even finish off the pads next weekend.

The next project after that will be to tone down the varnish on all the chairs as I feel it is currently too dark and that make them feel more natural which I think will finish them off nicely.

Some light sandpaper then wire wool and possibly a light varnish may do the trick - I will need to research thoroughly first!

So now not only do we have more comfortable chairs, we also have lighter and prettier chairs for around 4 hours work - roll on next weekend so I can finish them off!

A free find and instant mini bathroom makeover!

2010-08-01T01:20:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone - as promised I am posting images of the bathroom cabinet I found and the quick improvement I made. It was just a single mirrored cabinet which needed some cleaning up and TLC and will certainly do us well for now - this is the Before image:

I gave it a good wash and a scrub down, let it dry, then used white glue to use up some remnants of some Cath Kidston wallpaper to at least cover up the badly worn shelves.

I also had some spare satin finish knobs, from when we bought knobs from ebay for the kitchen, so I replaced the small pine knobs that were on the unit with new shiny satin ones which look much nicer.

It is a very basic makeover, but cost nothing whatsoever apart from carrying the unit home and spending some time on it.

The bathroom is now decluttered and brighter as the unit has a mirror and is white so I'm very pleased with the results!

Shabby Chic kitchen progress & clueless about apples!

2010-07-28T23:37:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Another post to show my latest progress! As you can see from my last post kitchen was mostly dark - I have now repainted most cupboard fronts, just 4 more to go.

The door fittings came from ebay, ex MFI stock, and by buying in bulk, we were able to get them very inexpensively compared to standard DIY store prices.

Other progress is that we have obtained a full bathroom suite from Freecycle, white and fairly modern, completely free. This will be our next project as soon as money allows, possibly late Autumn, as our current suite is avocado green. It has saved us at least £200 on the main fittings, so we'll now keep an eye out for tiles at our local stores that are not too expensive. Of course if something suitable crops up on Freecycle that would be amazing too!

We have obtained a bathroom mirrored single cabinet for free from a house that was gutting their bathroom, it was in fairly poor condition inside but after a wash was acceptable. I then covered the shelves with some nice Cath Kidston paper and for now it's certainly much better than it was, and better than having nowhere to put things in! This would have cost at least £15.

Left you can see our crab apples have started to blush - we have no idea what to do with them! They are edible so hubby has started to take them to work, saving us around £1.50 per week, but I will look online for recipes as to what we can make.

Any recommendations for recipes, and indeed care of a crab apple tree? We are learning so much this year, it's hard to keep up with ourselves!

My next (small) project will be to repaint a Welsh dresser we purchased for £40. I will post pictures soon to ask for your inspiration and advice. My ideal result would be something like this (on right), which I saw a very talented MSE member complete on the Shabby Chic thread!

It looks amazing and I can only hope for such a result - only thing is I worry about the cost of paint and varnish - I guess it may cost around £30 but then at least we will have something we love - right now the pine colour is not my favourite!

Thanks for reading and do post your thoughts and comments, I will post another update very soon with hopefully a finished kitchen!

Summer plans

2010-07-15T03:59:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone and sorry for the delay. With work and high rennovation costs, we've had a lot on, which I hope end of July and early August will finally calm down.

We have been able to do a lot in our new home these past few months, but not only is it a costly time but so tiring as well! You also learn how inadequate you can feel when DIY is daunting... however it's a great learning curve. My next project is to re-cover some £5 wooden chairs we bought second hand, then repaint a bathroom, all as inexpensively as we can to try and claw back some of what we have spent.

My next post will hopefully show some recovered chairs with before and after shots, and some re-painted bathroom - with before and after shots too! However I know I need to finish off the kitchen first - still a few doors to go, so some elbow grease and a final push needed.

Does anyone else here have some porojects on the go - or planned for the future?

The beginnings of a shabby chic kitchen

2010-04-22T23:35:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

I have been busy with our kitchen - so thought I would show you the work that has progressed so far. The kitchen has dark wood units and deep blood red walls which were not doing it for me, so we have started to repaint the units as well as the walls. I would say that right now it's 60% complete, take a peek at the photos to see what I mean. The photo to the right is very early on before we even moved in.

You can see the dark wood units, deep red walls, carpet tiles on the floor plus to the right and old Economy7 heater on the wall.

Once we moved in and the cold weather had become less frosty, we decided one Saturday to completely remove all the kitchen carpet tiles, not olny were they unsightly but I feel unhygeinic in a kitchen, they came up very easily but did leave traces of carpet glue which are very hard to remove. As we are planning to redo the kitchen floor, we have left the floor as is for now. Now we just have to think of colours and types of flooring to put down and assess how much this will cost and when to do it.

Then below you can see the start of repainting the cupboards - I bought 'champagne' colour cupboard paint from the Crown range of paints, and although it does say 1 coat, have learnt I should never have trusted that and although the results are ok, would use a primer next time. I washed each door, dried it, then sanded down and once sanded and cleaned, applied around 4 coats to the back panels and 5 coats to the fronts.

My next project was to find suitable handles, which i did by first checking the DIY shops, then seeing if I could get similar things online for less. Sure enough, ebay came through for me and I found some shabby chic handles which were ex-MFI stock.

You can see to the right what the handles look like once applied, they add more light to the dark kitchen and I do love how well they go with the cream. At this point the walls were still nagging me, as the colour was too dark for the kitchen and i didn't feel veryt relaxed when cooking, too sinister a shade of red I think!

So whilst we carried on painting the units and applying handles, I started to think about colours that might go with the style we wanted which ultimately was shabby chic. I looked at many colour charts and we did purchase some samples as well, painting them onto the dark red walls to see what the finish might be like.

I chose a sage green colour, as I have heard this works well in kitchens due to opening the appetite! However I was also aware our north facing kitchen might feel cooler with green, so I was careful to choose a relatively medium/warm shade rather than a bluish green or heavy green. As you can see more units have been painted and we have started on the walls, but the red is still showing in places!

So far we have spent around £70 on cupboard painting and brushes, another £15 on wall paint and around £35 on handles. I think that for £120, it's enabling us to live with the kitchen for quite some time yet without wanting a brand new one, plus we are learning alot along the way and living with it like this will allow us to discover in time what a kitchen really needs to be like when we do buy new.

Spring has sprung!

2010-04-13T06:27:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone sorry for the delay in keeping in touch. I have family emmigrating, work has been busy, and works starting on our home so things have been very hectic.

However, we have managed to start planting - so far we have some lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, chilli, potatoes, onions and sunflower seeds. This year though I really want the lettuce and carrots to survive - hopefully I will do it right this time! The sunflowers have already started to peek through so the first 2 leaves are showing now... Then we also got some Jasmine, which I need to figure out how to take care of as it is delicate, but I do love them so much.

The main thing I have learned this month is that a) budgeting has gone out the window, my finance management skills need severely reigning in, b) car insurance quotes are a nightmare and all seem to have differing standards and c) don't beleive it when cans of paint say 'one coat'! I have learned that primer is almost always needed when repainting - I will share a photo on here soon so you can see what I have been up to in the kitchen.

The other thing I have done is joined a site called FreebieGB, who give you a free prize if you register, select a prize, then refer a few people (amount of referrals depends on the prize you choose). It may not be for everyone, but it sounds to me that if you club together with friends and family to sign up, you will get an item you can all share. For our family we will be doing the TomTom Satnav and I have followed the sign up procedure with FreebieGB. Then all of us can use the TomTom amongst us and it saves everyone some cash. Anyone with any feedback on these guys feel free to share, but it looks good so far.

I will add some photos here soon of both the seedlings and plants, DIY work so far and also some lovely finds we have come across second hand, to maybe inspire folks who are looking to change decor or buy items cheaply. I love the idea of recycling items and giving them a second lease of life, plus furnishing a house with mostly second hand items.

Enjoy and do drop in any comments on what you are up to now the sun is out!

Websites that can save you money & time today

2010-03-13T03:27:00.000-08:00

Today I'd like to share some of the sites that I use to save some money, but the benefit is that they also save time too. Some you may already use and some may be new to you - either way share yours on here too:

- BidNip - This site saves me alot, it is a site that will bid for ebay auctions on your behalf. I am terrible for wanting to 'Buy Now' and this costs lots more money than waiting until a normal auction ends and bidding the normal way. So I do reecommend if you use ebay, sign up to BidNip. You place your maximum bid and let them remember to bid for you. It saves you waiting to the last minute and then getting carried away with bidding. Their 'snipe' can go in seconds before the auction ends. As an example, I was paying £1.70 for 1 door handle on normal Buy It Now auctions, but I used BidNip (and some patience in havoing to wait!) and reduced the handle cost to £0.80p - a 50% saving.

- Boffer.co.uk - A site that has a daily deal, listed at 11:59 every night and once sold out, that's usually it. They do run occasional special offers where they extend the deal.

- FirstDirect.com - Believe it or not, yes, your bank an save you time. Time equates to money, so that's why it's on this list. I can pay bills and never have to queue - I can call them at 3am, any day of the year. I can post cheques to pay in. It's rare to love a bank, but I do love mine.

- Amazon.co.uk - Associates programme - You can earn money from books or 2nd hand items through this programme, sometimes it is better than ebay as Amazon pay a fixed postage amount. I have sometimes bought 5 books for £2 for example at boot fairs, then listed each book on Amazon at £0.01, making some cash on the Amazon fixed postage. Not much if you always list at £0.01 but sometimes you will list a book for more, which is when it really counts. I did this alot for the Moneysavingexpert.com challenge "Make money from nothing" and it worked really well. You start off by selling items you have already got at home or were given and the money you make from that, you invest in other items, so you never spend 'real' money from your pocket. I made over £400 in that challenge and learnt alot. One Chanel book was £0.20p and sold for £9!

- Moneysavingexpert.com - This one goes without saying! The Wednesday e-mail is essential and will keep you updated on all sorts.

- Paypal - Most of us already have an account but if you don't, it can really change how you make payments and save alot of time. No more bank transfers, international payments, converting currency. Any time you can save converts to cash in other ways as you can focus on other moneysaving.

- Online Calculators & Time Savers:
Pleasures V Treasures
WhichBook - Can prevent you from that quick impulse book buy!
Mortgage Overpayment Calculator

FixtureFerrets.co.uk - This site can save you lots of cash on your supermarket shop. Find out who has the best deals before you even go there - well worth signing up for.

So there you have it - what sites do you recommend? See my other articles on moneysaving websites.

Also as Spring approaches, might be a good time to review my Spring Money Saving tips article

How much unappreciated cash is in your house right now?

2010-02-28T10:58:00.000-08:00

Ok, so you will probably look around and say 'none' or 'well I have £1.10p in my purse'... but what if you were to find out what's really in your home and imagine it like a little pile of cash?

I spent the day doing this and here are some examples:

- Thai money from an old holiday - £3 worth
- Dollars from an old holiday - £4 worth
- Books that I will try to sell on Amazon - £4 worth
- Books that I can't sell online as a bit tatty - £2 worth
- Collectible items I bought for selling on ebay but haven't done yet - £8 minimum or £16 max if they actually sell
- Clothes I keep meaning to put on E-bay - £6 worth
- Cash in an old savings account I keep meaning to draw down £0.90
- Small radio brand new that I need to sell - £4
- Old kitchen handles - selection - that I could sell - £2
- Next voucher I keep meaning to use but always forget to take into town - £10
- Kitten accessories we no longer need as our kitten is a teenager cat now - £5
- Old computer we could sell for spares - £10

So there you have it - around £61, and that's the things we *know* we have.
As Spring approaches - is there an empty box you can start filling for e-bay, or a car boot sale?
Maybe that cash could then be used to buy something in Spring at a discount that will come in handy for Winter for example. Anything bought now in the sales, or obtained free, could save money for the future. Question is - what to buy!
I think I will start to make a list so I can keep an eye out for things we will need later this year as our tule in the new home is to buy as much either cheap or second hand as we can... or even better - free! This week we got a free poster on Freecycle, so that's a start!

£0.15p recipe to save money on your pearly whites...

2010-02-23T08:21:00.000-08:00

Ok, so the best way to save money on your teeth is to not eat sweets, no wine, no coffee and no smoking. However, if you have no way of giving those up (most of us have little addictions that get us through the working week)... then how about making some toothpaste and saving a little money that way? On average a tube of the stuff costs £2 - I am pretty sure we could cost the recipe below at, ooooh - £0.15p max?

Even if we said £0.30 it's still a huge saving and it's freshly made compared to a tube of the stuff packed with preservatives and all sorts of other stuff.

The reality is, most toothpaste these days has a) sodium Laureth Sulphate which many people prefer to avoid, and b) Fluoride which can supposedly be toxic.

So making your own is not only better for health but also for your pocket, as you can make some from fresh for pennies. Will it have the same brand factor as Colgate? No. Will it look as exciting as stripy mint fresh? Probably not. However, next time I run out I am prepared to give it a go, as our current £2.99 Tom's of Maine toothpaste is fluoride free but it's also very expensive...

So here's the source website:
http://www.ehow.co.uk/way_5278502_recipe-natural-toothpaste.html

And here's their suggested recipe if anyone wants to test it our and report back with results:

Ingredients to make toothpaste

For this gentle toothpaste, you will need:

6 tsp. baking soda
1/3 tsp. salt
4 tsp. glycerin
15 drops of peppermint oil

The baking soda works to whiten and cleanse your teeth. The salt has the same effect as an antiseptic, cleaning the teeth. Glycerin is a base to help with flavoring and make the mixture thick and creamy. The peppermint is used for flavoring and to provide fresh breath.
Process

Combine the ingredients in a small storage container. Stir the mixture until it forms a thick consistency. This natural toothpaste can be used daily, just like other toothpastes. Store at room temperature in a plastic storage container or jar.
Use

Put a small amount of the toothpaste on your toothbrush. Begin at the back of your mouth and go forward. Brush your teeth for at least two minutes.

I still have a couple of tubes of om's toothpaste left, but the money saving bug is calling on me to try this recipe very soon as I like the fact that it would have no SLS.

Smells like… Coconuts!

2010-02-11T07:04:00.001-08:00

OK so we've all been through the January 'must get fitter' phase, which includes the 'I will eat so much more fruit and veg' and 'definitely no chocolates'. Well, this week I have been reading up about, of all things, coconut oil.

Strange but true – this seems to be one of the latest super foods that does wonders for the body. Apparently, the structure of coconut oil is very different to the other oils we cook with, making it much easier to digest. This means that as your body is working less to digest it, you digest food quicker, which helps metabolise faster thus losing weight for some people. I won't go into the technicalities, but the suggestion seems to be to consume between 1-3 tablespoons a day in varying ways – cooking with it being the easiest, followed by shakes and spreads on toast (ok but my main preference).

The other great thing is that it is meant to do wonders for anyone with a sluggish thyroid, as anything that speeds up metabolism helps. So cutting out the other types of fats (vegetable oil, soya oil, corn oil etc) and replacing them with coconut oil overall is a great change apparently. Supposedly soya oil has now been found to be one of the least beneficial, and indeed suppresses some of the body functions, sometimes on ingredient lists it is merely shown as 'vegetable oil'.

You can still enjoy extra virgin olive oil and organic butter in moderation, but all other fats seem to have had 'human involvement' and extremely high temperatures rather than someone pressing the oil out of them. Supposedly once the fats get into the body, the oxidise (rust) in your cells, wheareas a more natural fat like coconut doesn't and in fact helps the body along with lots of processes (the liver benefits a lot).

It is a natural antibacterial product and can also help with digestive products.

Beauty Regimes

It goes without saying that you can then use the coconut oil in beauty regimes – it works really well as a make-up remover (rub some between hands and once melted delicately apply to eye area, then remove with a damp warm cloth). Also for full beauty treatments, melt some in hands, massage on face and leave for 2-30 minutes depending on skin condition, then remove with a damp warm cloth. In the shower you might also use it as a body treat for soft skin,

A small amount can also be applied to lips as a lip balm.

Hair Treatment

Apply to hands and once melted apply to ends of hair and work up to around half the length of the hair. Wrap hair up in a towel and leave for an hour or overnight, then rinse out with some shampoo.

Soap Making

I imagine it could also be used to make soap, perhaps combining it with dessicated coconut or ground almonds for an exfoliating treat. It is so natural and so good for skin, plus would add a scent of the tropics to your shower. A few drops of lime might add a nice zing…

Buying coconut oil

If you buy some, a large jar will cost around £7 but can of course serve more than 1 purpose. I would also recommend you buy it in a glass jar rather than plastic. It should keep well for 2-3 years if kept cool and in the dark.

Make sure you buy Extra Virgin/Raw or cold pressed – this means that no bleaching / high temperatures were applied to extract the good stuff.

Whilst some may be skeptic, I am going to give it a go – have had some for a few days now and my energy is up but this may just be because the sun is out and Valentines is coming!

Lots of people on Youtube swear by it so see these links for more information to make up your own mind or type 'coconut oil benefits' for example into Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMJUdAyaVBY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wpsik0W4NU

http://www.sharonmaas.co.uk/html/coconut_oil__why_it_is_good_fo.html

A study on coconut vs Soya oil:

http://cogprints.org/6565/

Cheesy Goodness - Another Cashback Site to click!

2010-02-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

As you know, I love cashback clicking - it's a free way to earn a few pennies regularly, for free, that at the end of the year you can use towards something nice. For me, it's almost always free food and booze at Christmas.

Well I now have a new site for you to click on and add to your daily routine - do see the Cashback menu on the right for other sites you might like to look at and consider using.

Thin Cheese Cashback Site
Link: Click here to join

This is a sister site to the great FatCheese Clicking Site and both of them offer great ways to earn cash for free (by clicking), or for buying things you were going to buy anyway. Examples of these are below:

- Sky+ gets you £100 cashback!
- Hastings Direct Car Insurance £46.50 + FREE £30 Fuel vouchers + half price MOT
- T-Mobile £35.00 for phone contract
- Synovate. £1.50 cashback when you register.
- Coral - if you sign up to Coral, get £10 cashback instead of £5 by following my link above.
- Bingo Day - £45 Cashback - sealed with the FatCheese Guarantee!

These offers change, but ised in combination with Daily Clicks as shown on my Routine, van earn a tidy sum over a year.
My recommendation though would be to only join 2 or 3 sites to start, until you get a feel for it.
As an example, I have earned £6.50 cashback for free from a Vistaprint order I wanted to place anyway, and in a few months will earn roughly £30 for changing gas and electric to a new supplier, something we had in mind already.

I hope thi shelps you save some cash in 2010 towards a treat, debt reduction, or Christmas - enjoy!

Home - How To Start Anew

2010-01-10T08:55:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

I do hope you had fantastic Christmas and new year. 2010 is truly upon us now!

I have had no time to write really as we are still settling in, and with no furniture and no gas heating, the cold and needing household items have taken priority. However, we are not going to rush.

The rule for our new home is - unless we love it, it won't be brought into the house. So we'd rather wait and take time to buy than rush on grabbing things this month. It means we will have to do without for a while but also means we will be more careful. No more buying something that 'will do for now', as we'll have a home full of things that are just 'OK' and we will end up giving away.

The garden will need some attention soon, and it will be an amazing feeling when I have time to actually look out there and learn what needs to be done.

Any tips from folk on here as to what I can do in January/February garden wise would be awesome, and of course any other tips for a new home.

So my next post will no doubt be on some of our new experiences as we start to furnish the place, get bargains and start to hopefully cook more and utilise the space better (as currently it's a mess!).

Have a great end of weekend and hopefully I can do some blog reading and drop by your blogs soon, now the whole move is over!

First Home Sweet Home

2009-12-14T02:08:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone,

Sorry for the delay in writing - but there is good reason! We have purchased a new home and should receive our keys this week, so we are very excited.

I think what we have learned is that in the current economy, first time buyers are definately priced out, unless like us they have been saving for years and years, or alternatively have generous help from family members. Banks have been keen to receive money from governments but have not passed this on in terms of favourable rates to new borrowers, despite the base rate being close to zero.

We are however very happy and excited to be finally moving into a place we can call our own. We will be making a very money saving start, as all our money has been used for a deposit and legal fees, so it will certainly be a case of 'Make Do and Mend'. Visits to charity shops, requests from willing family members, and some very 'house themed' Christmas gifts for eachother will be the theme this month. Family are of course happy for us and no doubt we'll have our share of DIY almost immediately after Christmas. I will try to resand, repaint and bring back to life any quality second hand furniture we can get, so you will see more ideas and hopefully can make suggestions as we go along.

Our new bills will hopefully be earning us a penny or two via cashback sites eventually, such as gas/elec, broadband etc.

I will update the blog as soon as I can, and it's safe that after the move to say we'll allow ourselves a much needed break for the holidays.

I wish everyone here a really lovely time and hope you have had a great year, and we are all are able to achieve even more amazing things in 2010.