Wow I am super surprised at the level of spending in the last week. Its been possibly one of the longest weeks of my life, with a lot of stress. But I manage it by not spending. I must admit though that I did manage it with some baking and made something very luxurious to eat, packed full of so much sugar and calories.
My Spending Diary Week 3 £100 Spent
I’ll just include my spending in this one section as hurrah, I spent JUST £100. I have checked back over my lockdown diaries from last year and this is officially my lowest spending week, possibly ever! I had four, count them, four no spend days!
The £100 even included £30 of a transfer to my Plum savings so in reality I only spent £70! I spent £30 at the Co-op for two mini shops, one of which included me buying the ingredients for homemade salted caramel fudge, more on that below!
Saturday night was deliveroo takeaway treat night and I ordered a very lovely burger from FireJacks spending £22. I also spent £10 on app game credits, it was a weekend without the boys and I was bored. Just the one bill this week, £7.99 to Amazon Prime. I am going to cancel this. I had a free month for January to help with lockdown boredom, and it auto-renewed. See how they get you!
I made Salted Caramel Fudge!!
I was all ready to buy some posh fudge on Friday and went to pay online and the total cost was £25, I wondered if I could make this myself. A recipe claiming easy to make salted caramel fudge was researched and I went for it.
Be prepared for the most calorific recipe ever! I needed a tin of condensed milk, brown sugar, unsalted butter, white chocolate and golden syrup. Each of those things alone is laced with calories, but all together. My oh My!
Here are the measurements of the ingredients; 240ml can of condensed milk, 180g brown sugar, 115g of unsalted butter, 2 tbsp golden syrup, 200g white chocolate plus sea salt.
In a pan warm up everything except the white chocolate and sea salt. Keep it stirring on a low heat for 5-6 minutes, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture thickens.
Then take it off the heat and stir in the broken up white chocolate. Pour into a tin, sprinkle the sea salt over the top and pop in the fridge for 4 hours to set. Easy.
I can confirm it 100% works and tastes amazing!! I spent around £7 on the ingredients and it made ALOT of fudge!
It’s my time to compare and maybe Switch Energy
I have lots of bills coming in the next few months where my fixed deals are ending and I need to check if I am still getting a great deal with any renewals. Mostly to get a better deal you need to switch to a different company.
My energy bill is an exception to this rule. My fixed tariff with Octopus ends on 28th Feb. I currently pay £92 a month and this goes up to £102 per month with my new tariff. I immediately hopped over to Uswitch to run a comparison with my actual annual usage taken from my last bill.
There are only two other companies who could beat this, and the saving was tiny at £3 a month. So once again I am sticking with Octopus Energy who prove to be great value for money even when I stay with them as a long term customer with great customer service and a green tariff too. For four years now their energy has been brilliant value for money.
It’s worth comparing your energy bill to Octopus to see if you can save. Energy bills are surging at the moment and I am seeing a lot of people complain about energy price hikes, maybe Octopus can save you money. If you switch we both get a £50 credit to out bills. Click here to compare your bill!
Podcast Interview With Jordon Cox
My podcast this week saw me interview the wonderful Jordon Cox, AKA Britain’s Coupon Kid. We had such a great chat about Jordon’s early obsession with coupons leading to him starting his first blog and social media group at 15 year old, yes 15!! After a shopping trip went viral, a trolley load of products for 6p with coupons, he suddenly was everywhere, with a 100k membership of his Facebook community!
We talk about his battle with Crohn’s disease. Plus some time at Money Saving Expert gaining valuable money saving experience, then in January 2020 he launches his new website. Packed full of money saving and some great money making tips too, well worth a listen or watch! You can chose as I share podcast and YouTube video.
PensionBee introduce a new Flexible Self Employed Pension
This is a product that so many people have asked me about and PensionBee have now launched it. A product specifically for the self employed to start their Pension savings.
It is flexible, so you can save what you want, as and when cash flow allows. And you can start from scratch. a simple pensions product that you align with your ethical beliefs. I have just switched my PensionBee money over to their fossil fuel free fund.
Read more about the new pension for the self employed here with this collaborative post.
Live Q&A with Lauren Pope & The Mum Space Facebook Community
Lauren of TOWIE fame has asked me to do a Q&A in her Mums Space Facebook group this Thursday at 1pm. I’ll be there for an hour to answer all your pregnancy and early mum life money questions. Here is a link to the Facebook community so you can join up.
Thanks for reading see you next week for my next lockdown diaries. Most likely spending more as I have my boys this week!
