And here we go again into another lockdown. I hope you are doing okay and all have a plan to deal with the next month. Thankfully schools remain open, the government could not delay our childrens education any more then they have done already. We are yet to know the full impact of missing six months of school on our children, this scares me the most.
I live in a tier 1 area at the moment so absolutely will make the most of freedom before Thursday 5th. Dinner is booked with a friend and I will be taking the boys out for an early birthday dinner, as both their birthday fall within the next four weeks of lockdown.
Giving Back
Every year the UK money bloggers come together to champion the reverse advent calendar to provide 30 items of food to our local foodbanks. You can read all about the what and the how in this post I have just shared.
For every day in November I add a food item to a box and then drop it off to the food bank collection point early December. This is perfect timing for the food bank to receive it early Dec in preparation for Christmas, one of the hardest most challenging Christmas’s ever.
I will be collecting grocery item, sanitary items, pet food, some Christmas bits all for my local food bank.
A weekend in Bristol
I am SO glad that I had this past weekend booked in the diary. A trip to Bristol for two nights to see my niece and nephew (more like brother and sister as we are similar ages) and my bestest friend Bec.
It was Halloween weekend so the highlight was a trip to the cinema, actual cinema! to see Halloween on Halloween. We laughed and we jumped. It has definitely aged as a film, first released in 1978, but it was fun, and had all the classic scenes of a horror movie. We laughed as Michael Myers kept being killed, and getting up again!
We went to the Everyman cinema with sofas and drinks brought to your seats, I was lovely and such a cool thing to do just before the next lockdown.
Longest Walk Ever
The sun shone in Bristol on Saturday afternoon and we did the longest 8 mile, 20,000 step walk around Ashton Park with the deer and walked to the Suspension bridge and walked over it. It was glorius. We went to the viewing platform and took some amazing pictures.
And then on Sunday before driving home I met my bestest friend Bec for brunch. We devoured American pancakes and chatted about everything in our lives since we last saw each other. It was so exciting to hear more about her growing writing coaching business- Ridley Writes. She coached me and edited my book making it just the best read ever. I highly recommend her if you are thinking that you would like to write a book.
Winning £250 in a competition
I remember talking to competition expert Super Lucky Di about competitions that are effort to enter. When they require effort not many people enter. Di wins so much from entering these competitions and supplements her income with amazing prizes, go check out her YouTube here where she unboxes her prizes in a brilliant video every month.
Back in lockdown I saw a competition with Interactive Investor where they were looking for people sharing personal finance lessons with their children. I had already written one based on my lockdown spending diaries, submitted my lessons. I heard back last week that I was one of the winners, £250 in cash winging its way to my bank account! Wonderful.
Its always worth entering!
Mrs Mummypenny Radio Days
I did lots of radio press talks last week, as part of campaigns with Music Magpie and Studio.co.uk. I was talking about side hustles and making extra money for Christmas for Music Magpie. Then I was talking about how we have become a nation of more savvy spenders since lockdown for Studio.co.uk. On Friday I did around 12 radio interviews, it was hard-core!
Energy Bills are going up
My October energy bill was slightly higher than September as I switched on the heating. I have gone up to £65 per month. My direct debit is set at £92 which is far too high. A quick Facebook message or email to Octopus will get that direct debit brought down to save me money each month. Lots of you have been switching your energy this past month as well, using my referral code. hugest thank you. Five of you readers switched meaning you each got £50 credit to your bill and I got £50 for each person.
If you want to check your energy bill to see if you can switch to Octopus and save use this link and we both get £50 if you switch. I really hope you can save as this is definitely one of the bigger bills to pay each month and every pound savings matters at the moment.
Thank You
Thank you for reading Monday Money, see you again next week where YES The Lockdown Spending diaries return. I will be sharing my detailed spending from today onwards. Bills, every day spending, direct debits, everything. Including my mortgage where my mortgage holiday has now ended.
