MUMMY TO THE MAX

We are near the end of October and less than 65 days away from Christmas. I have seen so many people complain they do not have enough money for Christmas this year and they are facing putting themselves in debt for the sake of a few presents HOWEVER there are ways you are able to make money just in time for Christmas.

As many of my readers know, I love seeking out a bargain. As a parent, I often go out of my way to head to the high-street and stock up on any bargains that I am able to find. I have loved my local high street in Southampton for many years but recently I have been visiting other local high streets. One of my favourite high streets to head to is Portsmouth.

This year I have been scouring the supermarkets for "try me free products". I have managed to save around £50 doing the try me free hunts. Although this is not a huge amount of money, I have put very little effort into looking for try me free products, and although £50 does not seem a lot £50 is a whole week's food shopping for our household.

The way that try me free products work is that the products act as a Money Back Guarantee promotion, meaning you pay for the product but later receive the money back. You are normally sent a cheque or a postal order in the post for the value of the product which you tried for free. To redeem a "try me free promotion" you often need to send a little letter to the brand and let them know your thoughts on the product that you have tried . You then send this letter along with the receipt that includes the try me for free product on to a promotion address which is identified on the "try me free" product/sticker

Try me free products can often be found in supermarkets however they can sometimes be found in discount stores. I often find the try me free products easy to identify thanks to a bold sticker on the front of the product or a bright tag hung around the product's neck.

Try me free products of course include terms. It is essential that you buy the product and send off your claim before the closing date, some items can be pricey and it would be a shame not to receive your cashback due to missing the closing date. Terms also often include that one product can be purchased per household however if the terms do not state one per person why not use another family member's address to get the money back guarantee so you can take advantage of the promotion?

My favourite try me free product this year was Bernard Matthew Turkey pieces. Although they are not something I enjoy, Ben loves them and we managed to get a few packs free with the "try me free" money back guarantee. The money that we earned included the price of the product, the stamp price and came as a form of cheque which was easy for me to cash in at the bank.

Although picking up "try me free products" is not a fast money maker, it is a money maker that can save you money and it is something which can still be done ahead of Christmas. Below are a few of my favourite "try me free products" which you may still be able to get your hands on:

1. Recently our water bill has gone up. I believe it has gone up due to the fact we have been watering our plants a lot in the summer. The sun has been out, the weather has been hot and my plants have been dying. I have watered my plants most nights and I dread to think how much water I have managed to waste. To improve our water bill, I would love to install a water system in our garden so we are able to save our own water which is free when it falls from the sky. If we managed to collect our own rainwater, we would waste less money as we would not be using a large amount of tap water.

Recently I worked out the budget that we live on yearly and was surprised at our income, it was a lot lower than I ever thought. Although Ben work's full time and provides for Maxwell and I, we do not have a lot of disposable income. Luckily I am very budget savvy and I have the time to budget and we tend to use our money wisely which means that we rarely every go without however, things could always change in a blink of a eye.

Legal & General recently shared a campaign which made me realise that we will may not always be fortunate to be in a good place with money. They recently conducted research which showed that if the main breadwinner of a household died or if they had a long term sickness, managed to get a injury or had a critical illness, on average working age families like Ben and I would be on the breadline within 14 days.
What luxuries would you give up if you were close to the breadline?
This is a collaborative post

Over the past few months I have managed to get £60 on my Boots Advantage Card. I am saving my points up for a rainy day, either when Maxwell needs nappies/toiletries or for Christmas. You can use a Boots Advantage Card in-store/online and you are able to collect points on everything except for infant's milk, prescriptions, stamps, mobile top ups and gift vouchers. You can earn up to 4 points per £1 which is worth 4p. To get the most out of your Boots Card, here are a few ideas with how you are able to gain more points: Use the Boots ATM
In the larger boots stores you will be able to find 'Extra offers kiosk'. Before shopping visit it with your Boots Advantage card and you will be able to see lots of offers which are catered to you. You are immediately able to print out the discount vouchers and use them when you go to pay for your shopping.

Mega Points Weekends
Boots sometimes has 'mega weekends', either online or in-store where if you spend £50, you get 1,000 extra points (worth £10). If you are doing a big shop for example £150 worth split your shop into 3 so you are able to get the best deal.
I wait for these deals to stock up on things. I always have a stock pile of nappies and wipes which I manage to buy cheaper than the normal RRP.

Check the Advantage card magazine
Always look in the in-store Advantage magazine for points coupons or money off products. Recently I used a coupon to get a mascara for £2 yet it was worth £6 which saved me £4. The magazine is free if you have a boots card.

Join a club
Both the Boots Parenting Club and Healthclub For Over 60s send mail outs or give special offers for relevant goods. We are often sent deals to use against nappies, wipes and toiletries. The parenting club also gives 10 points for every £1 spent on baby products

This week Monsters Inc arrived free on DVD for Maxwell. Maxwell was of course pleased that he had a new DVD but I was also pleased that he had a new DVD which would have cost me around £8 for free. How did we get it for free? We signed up to Disney Movie Rewards, bought Disney products and saved enough points up to get our free DVD.. Is it worthwhile? YES!

From time to time you may find yourself visiting London. Whether you are on a shopping trip, visiting family, sightseeing or even going to work, many people end up using the tube to get around. One thing many people do not know is that you may be owed money in refunds.

Sadly we live in a world where not everything runs on time or goes to plan. However if you use the Tube in London frequently and your tube is delayed you can claim your money back for the full cost of the journey that you have encountered issues with.

If your tube is delayed by more than 15 minutes, you can get a refund for the full cost of the journey as long as you keep your ticket to prove that you tried to make this journey. If you are looking to try and get a refund for a tube journey all you need to do is download or fill in an application form from the Transport for London website within 14 days.

In 2011 over 10 million people did not claim refunds on there tube tickets although they were entitled to refunds. If your tube was delayed once every week and the travel ticket you purchased was £5 you would be down £20 a month which is over £240 a year. Please make sure you are claiming what you are owed. As frustrating as it may be to fill out simple paper work, you could end up being that little bit richer and being able to afford that extra little treat at the end of the year.

Do you use the tube? Have you ever got a refund for a tube journey?

Take your change to the bank
Many people hate sorting out change and taking it to the bank however did you know some banks now offer a service which counts your change for you and adds it straight into your account? HSBC and RBS offer this service and it is extremely easy to use. All you simply need to do is visit your local bank and see if there is a coin deposit machine. If there is this will enable you to pay your loose coins into your bank account without the need for a paying-in slip or individual coin bags and get a detailed receipt of your transaction. This is a free service in many branches.

Doing it the old fashioned way
This is the longest process in cashing in your change however it ensures you get every penny of your money back. You need to visit your local bank and ask for money bags at the counter, once you have received your money bags you need to go home and sort the change you have saved up. You’ll have to collect at least £1 in coppers and £5 in silver and the selected coins in each bag MUST be the same e.g 100 x 1p's to get £1 in coppers back. Once you have sorted the change all you need to do is take the bags into the bank and the cashier will be able to weigh them to check you have the right number of coins. The cashier can then either credit your account or give you money back for your efforts.

Use your change on self service machines
Most supermarkets now have self service machines. These self service machines are quite efficient and allow you to pay via cash, notes or cards. If you are planning on buying something small why not take your coin jar along to your local supermarket and use your coins in the self service machine, this way you are getting rid of the annoying change, whilst loosing nothing and buying that little treat you need. Warning on this idea - Be considerate to others! It may not be best to pay for £50's worth of shopping in 2p's.

Pay that extra pence in change
Often when we are out in the car we go to the petrol station to pay for fuel. Often the petrol can end up on a odd amount like £31.53. Instead of adding that full uneven amount to your card why not pay £30 on your card and then pay for the remaining £1.53 in change. Not only does this withdraw a even amount on your card, but it is using that loose change up.

Maxwell is now coming up to the age of 3 years old and I will soon be hitting the age of 23. I have managed to make it through the "hard years" of bringing up a baby with Ben by my side, on one minimum wage. Along the way  I have been comping my heart out for treats, blogging my way for some sort of future and learning how to make the most out of vouchers, glitches and imported bargains.

I strongly believe these 3 years would have been hard if Ben and I had not managed money as well as we have done. Every month we have always made sure our bills are paid, we have made sure there is food on the table for us to eat and more importantly we have always ensured we have had a roof over our heads, which provides warmth and shelter for Maxwell.

We have struggled, but not struggled with the daily essentials. Instead we choose to miss out on the luxuries in life. We have missed going to Peppa Pig world at Christmas because the entrance fee was more than 2 weeks worth of food shopping, we have missed out on holidays, choosing not to get into debt for a week in the sun, we have missed out on getting the latest "in trend" clothes and have ended up buying the £2 reduced stickered T shirt in Tesco, Next and Gap because frankly £15 for a T shirt with a brand name is a rip off and more importantly we have had budget Birthdays and Christmas's.

At the present moment I am in the frame of mind where I want more than what I have been given in life. I want my life to be a success, not one where I am scrapping along with holes in my leggings due to the fact I can wear holey leggings in the house and no-one will notice.  I want to be able to fulfill the dream of going on a plane just once because I have never been one in my life. I want to eventually own my own home and be able to leave this earth knowing I have left my son a large bit of security in life.

In the last 3 years I have learnt so many lessons when it comes to money. Lessons which I would love to go on to share with you. My motto in life is to never pay full price and when buying items, shop around or wait for the best deals.

Starting from today, maybe it is the year where my life changes.....

Over the last few weeks I have been working hard on a new project. As many of my readers know I love saving money, so it felt right I dedicated some of my time to showing people how to save money. I decided to create a new blog called Saving To The Max and I am hoping it will act as Mummy To The Max sister site.

I get asked all the time, questions on how to save money so I am hoping I can show people over there how you can. I have already written a few posts which will help new Mums, give you ideas on how to have a free weekend with the family and how to save money at the gym. The blog will be family and lifestyle orientated just like Mummy To The Max. There is also a £10 Amazon voucher competition running which I am hoping you will all take part in.

I really hope you can join me over on Saving To The Max and follow its journey as you have done with Mummy To The Max. It would be lovely to see you all over there.

This February I'm taking part in a campaign to help people take charge of their money.  The campaign is called The Great British Budget and the aim of it is simple, it wants to help you save money. I have always been keen on saving money and have always tried to deliver my readers on here money saving tips and special deals. When I was asked to take part in this campaign I knew it was right up my street. The challenge for February is to set yourself a budgeting goal, no matter how little or how large it is it must be relevant to you. It could mean you are wanting to save up for a holiday, manage your bills better or cut money on your weekly food shop.

Today saw us hit the shops, Ben had a rare day off so I thought it would be fun to spend some of our Christmas money. I had a good feeling shops had started to reduce some Christmas stock further from there early Boxing Day prices, although this is not my sale haul  it is Maxwell's which shows quite a few essentials for him reduced.

Our first stop was Boots.  I adore Boots and I already managed to buy a few bargains for peoples Birthdays/Christmas in there Boxing day sales. Whilst browsing today, I found most of there shelves to be empty however I was drawn to the back of the store where I managed to pick up a lot of essentials for Maxwell at a cheap price.

I managed to get:
4 packs of Boots own brand nappies size 5 RRP £20 - Reduced to £10 - £2.50 per pack
2 packs of Boots Organic Rice Cakes - RRP £1.98 - Reduced to £1
2 packs of Organix Fruit Gummies - RRP £1.18 - Reduced to 60p
1 Pack Of Boots Carrot Puffs -  RRP 50P - Reduced to 25p

RRP £23.66 - Payed £11.85 - I also got £1.66 worth of boots points added to my card for this shop so the price came down to £10.19.


We then headed to Tesco. A family member actually works at Tesco which entitles us to staff discount and we had a few vouchers that enabled us to get £1 off per £5 we spent.
We bought:
Disney PJ's RRP £5 - Reduced to £3
Hoodie RRP £7 - Reduced to £4

RRP £12 - Total £7 - We got 10% off thanks to staff discount, and a further £1 thanks to vouchers which equals £1.70 so we payed - £5.30


Finally we popped into Mothercare. I am a huge fan of Mothercare and I have been buying Maxwell a lot of clothes from there. I find there quality amazing and the prices are very reasonable.
We bought:
Sheep Pjs RRP £11 - Reduced to £5.50

RRP £11 - Payed £5.50


My total haul was worth £46.66 however we payed £20.99 which means we saved over half price. Overall I thought this was a amazing shopping trip. We have stocked up on some essentials and treated Maxwell to a few new clothes.

Try cheaper cuts of meat - Choosing a cheaper cut of meat, such as braising steak over fillet steak can work this winter. You can use a slow cooker to make meals and this will gradually break down the fibres in cheaper meat, giving great taste at a lower cost. You can also visit local butchers as often they can do a better deal on meat than your local supermarkets.

Its that time of year where it gets dark at 4pm, the nights and days are cold and bills can get expensive because you are trying to keep warm, however I have some money saving tips this week to keep the bills low.

Keep the thermostat down
Last year we managed to run up a large heating bill because we left the heating on day and night. This year we are going to be a lot more money savvy. This year we have decided we will keep rooms like the lounge warm in the day time and turn the radiators off in the bedrooms and at night not put the heating on at all unless it is very cold. We will also leave the thermostat on at 20 degrees instead of putting it up high. If you turn your thermostat down by just 1 degree you could slash your heating bills by 10%. 

Permanent laser hair removal -  Switch to longer-lasting treatments and you’ll save yourself tons of money and time on beauty. Not only do I spend hours shaving my legs but I also spend a lot of money on using razors and hair removal cream to keep my body hair free which is not great when you are a busy Mum. One of the best ways to save money is to get laser hair treatment. Laser hair removal is a simple and effective way to keep your body free from hair.
Buy on sale and in bulk - I often visit my local supermarket or chemist and find beauty products on sale. If I am after something particular I often check on websites to see the best price and even wait for it to go on offer.  When on offer or in the sale I like to stock up, this saves not only money but time as it means I do not have to go to a shop regularly to buy products.
Skip the salon - I have saved a lot of money over time by skipping the salon and going to places like collages where they do beauty and hairdressing courses and getting a free/cheap treatment. Many collage students need people to experiment on and complete there portfolio work, Most people doing this are just as qualified as any one working in a salon and if something is to go wrong there is someone always on hand to fix it for you.

We are getting on well with our packing for our move and we move to our new house next month It has been stressful and tiring work however the whole way through I have found ways to save money which has helped us be able to buy some nice things when we move into our new place.