Monday Money #153 Saving Money on White Goods & Holiday time

I thought I had been really good with my spending for the last week of the month. Turns out not so much. I managed to spent £823 and that isn’t even including the said mentioned white good that I need to buy.

I definitely need to look at my budget and tweak some of the spending levels and have a good look at certain areas of spending. The overspends are on food spend, both groceries and eating out. But I sort of feel that I don’t want to stop this for the moment. I want to enjoy post lockdown life and food and drinks in the sunshine.

Anyways so I have had lots of big thing break on me in the past few weeks. My sons bike broke, and the lovely team at Halfords are fixing it for us at a cost of £35, not too bad, for totally trashed gears. This bill will hit next week though. Then my dishwasher properly died, it shorted the electricity in the house and after two engineer visits at £65 a pop, I’m giving up and getting a new one. And then my phone totally shut down after a good life of 3 yrs and 2 months, but now it shows a green screen. Off to get it upgraded tomorrow with a new phone.

These breakages always happen at the same time, hence the importance of my emergency fund that will cover all of these extra costs.

Saving Money on White Goods

Replacing the dishwasher is an annoying expense, but I have found a few ways to save as much money as possible, follow these tips for saving money on white goods. Firstly search on Idealo to compare prices and find the cheapest retailer. Then head over to TopCashBack and click through on your chosen retailer say AO.com or Currys or John Lewis and get some cashback on your purchase.

As I type AO is offering 5% cash back on large kitchen white goods over £399. Currys is offering 1%, hmmm not so great. John Lewis is offering 2% cash back via Avios points (which can be turned into Nectar points for shopping spend).

Also a great idea as pointed out to me by friend and queen of comping Super Lucky Di is to look for competitions. Hi-Sense for example are running a Euro 21 competition to win lots of prizes, 100 fancy TVs, 50 sound bars, 10 fridge freezers and loads of footballs.

So I have plumped for a super efficient (rated C) white freestanding dishwasher from AO.com. Price of £400, this will hit my budget next week. I have a TopCashBack browser extension on my computer which found me a 10% code, saving me £40, plus I get 5% cash anyways via clicking to the Topcashback website so that is another saving of £20. The price of the dishwasher goes down to £340!!!

AO also offer an installation service, plus removal of the old dishwasher and disposal so I have ticked that box for £50. I know that I could get this cheaper from my local dishwasher repair man and I have no idea how to fit a dishwasher myself;-). Total cost on the day £410 with a further £20 cash back to come after a few weeks from Top Cashback

Result. It really does pay to search for vouchers and cash back savings online. And I have a high chance of winning something in the competition, as Di Coke tells me hardly anyone will enter this competition as its such a high value purchase to enter and there are extra forms to complete to enter the comp so extra complexity means less people enter. Fingers crossed for one of the 100 fancy new TV’s!!

The Curious Cat Survey App

I did some work with this company Curious Cat last week and tested out their survey app to see how long it really takes to make money. I’ve always been pretty dismissive of these type of money making schemes, but I gave it a go. I made £1.52 in a hour on the app. Its not amazing but you know what if you are sat there watching TV, doing very little else then why not fill in a few survey and earn some cash.

Mrs Mummypenny Talks with Ridley Writes Podcast – Women and Alcohol

Listen to us talk about the rise of the socially acceptable coping mechanism, the marketing around it and the rise of the non-drinkers. Plus some stories of alcohol in our life, embarrassing ones.

How Much Is Enough?

I wrote this rather wonderful article for the PensionBee blog on how much is enough to save for your retirement? I spoke to people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s to find out their plans or what they have achieved so far. Its a fascinating read that everyone should think about.

Back to the Spending Diary

One Offs

I’ll begin with the one-offs last week that busted my budget. Firstly £326 to Air BNB for a little last minute min break to Norfolk over half term with the boys. The tiny house fits three of us perfectly and is RIGHT NEXT TO THE BEACH!! I cannot wait.

More holiday spend but this time school trips and £140 was paid towards my eldest trip to Paris next Easter. That makes me feel better £476 of the weeks spend of £826 is on holidays!!

I also bought some contact lenses for £65, six months worth from Vision Direct. Always the best value for six months worth of lenses, but I realised once they had arrived I still had five months supply left. Whoops. But I did get a free LED mirror. Grrr ignore those marketing emails to make you buy, buy, buy:-(

Food Spend

Considerably less this week with more self control in place. Grocery spend was £101 and eating out spend was £60, mostly from dinner at Coast To Coast, one of the boys and my favourite restaurants to eat out at. Just check out these amazing nachos. No, hear that zero takeaways ordered this week. I did also go out on a little date, but my date paid like a gentleman.

Other Spends for the week

Just a couple of bills, £16 on life insurance and an annual charge from Farewill for my online will. My cleaner made the house beautiful for £25. I spent £40 at Timpsons on a zip repair to my classic Louis Vuitton pouchette, money well spent on my 22 year old vintage bag, still looking good as new.

I also order some flowers from Freddies Flowers on a half price offer, so £12.50 spent. Plus I bought some lilies for £12 from Aldi to make Henry Hoover look pretty again.

Then £23 to Plum savings I’m up to nearly £1200 in this account now, this is money that I am saving for our family holiday in summer holidays and for Christmas.

Summary of Spend

£823 in total, but as you can see, lots of exceptional spending here, mainly for fun things coming up holiday wise.

Enjoy the sunshine peeps, Ill be mainly floating around in this.