Council Tax makes up a large part of your monthly expenditure so wouldn't it be great if you could reduce the amount you pay, and even better if you could get a nice fat cheque at the same time?Well, maybe you can. Apparently up to 400,000 houses in the UK have been assigned to the wrong council tax band and it's really easy to check if your house is one of them. If it is, you could have your future Council Tax payments reduced and get a rebate for any past overpayments.It's basically due to the fact that when Council Tax was first introduced, the government needed every house in the … [Read more...]
Family Friendly Frugal Meals – Cheats Naan Bread Pizza
Guess what? After more than two months of being ill and four (possibly 5) courses of antibiotics and steroids, I think I actually feel better! I have gone a whole day without having a mad coughing fit and I have my voice back enough that I can actually hold a conversation without squeaking at some point.This weeks meal plan reflects the fact that I finally feel able to cook properly again - we've had lots of slips up recently where I have been too tired/ill/miserable to cook so we've had more ready meals and takeaways lately than I would like to admit but in my defence, I just haven't … [Read more...]
Family Friendly Frugal Meals – Homemade Fishcakes….
I went to the supermarket this afternoon with my little shopping list having planned our meals for this coming week but when I saw the overflowing reduced section I had a complete rethink and changed my plan completely based on the bargains I got. I'm really pleased as we have some lovely meals coming that we wouldn't normally eat due to the prices they usually are....Sunday - Homemade Fishcakes, chips and mushy peas (see below) I managed to pick up some Haddock for 59p for two fillets which made enough for us all- Bargain!Monday - Homemade chicken nuggets and potato wedges for the … [Read more...]
Change the way you shop – savings at the supermarket….
Tonight I got some very odd looks while I was doing my shopping - It may have been because my trolley was filled with this little lot:It's for a community project at work where we're donating toiletries to some local homeless charities. We've all been asked to take in a few things and encouraged to buy value products so we get more for our money, which ultimately means that we're donating more to the charities. I bought 5 cans of shaving foam, 10 tubes of toothpaste, 5 packs of 4 toothbrushes, 8 bottles of deodorant and 8 packs of 10 razors - all things we've been told are … [Read more...]
Earn money while you spend….
To me, being frugal isn't all about saving money (although that's a definite plus ;-)), it's about maximising what we already have and increasing our income by making a bit of extra money wherever we can. There are lots of ways to do this but one of my favourite ways, and quite possibly the easiest is by earning cashback on a website called Quidco. Quidco is an online company who work with over 3000 retailers to give you the opportunity to earn cashback on your spending. It works because when you click through to a retailers website from Quidco, they earn a commission, based on the amount … [Read more...]
I know it’s only October, but….
There's only 78 Sleeps to go which is just 3 pay days. I now it's only October but I'm going to start my 'How to have a Frugal Christmas' series now because if I wouldn't be a good Frugal blogger if I didn't tell you that you should have started shopping (or at least planning) by now. Christmas happens at the same time every year so there's no excuse - it's not like we don't know it's coming or anything. The first of my 'How to have a Frugal Christmas' is all about presents - don't panic though I'm not about to send you all out shopping or anything but I hope that I can help you plan what … [Read more...]