Last week was my week after having a no spend week, so did I go mad and spend a fortune the week after? A little bit. But mainly because we decided it was time to buy the new sofa that has been on my shopping list for two years.
Two years ago I got divorced and there are certain things that I have wanted to replace in the house. The first thing was the bed, obviously. I got a new bed frame and mattress straight away and I did spend a hefty chunk on a very comfortable mattress from John Lewis.
A new sofa
This has also been on the list for two years and I finally ordered on the one we chose last week. It was from Habitat, owned by Argos which meant I could use Argos gift vouchers and Nectar points.
The total cost of the sofa was £1070 for a sofa and a footstool. I had a £200 gift voucher that I got from Trussle from a friend who has just had their new mortgage accepted. PS If you are needing a new mortgage and think you can save by going to a different mortgage provider (a lot of people can!), check out independent broker Trussle. If you use my code and the mortgage all goes though we BOTH get £200 in vouchers from a shop of your choice. Trussle do not charge for their mortgage service.
I also had £280 in Nectar points, that I had found when I checked my Avios balance and switched into Nectar points, as per this article I wrote for The Mirror a few weeks ago. One last saving was that I bought the sofa through Top Cashback so have saved another £20 in cashback that will be credited to my cash back account in a few weeks. I LOVE a multiple discount.
Money Flows
So I say this to my children, that money flows in karma way. If you pay things forward and are kind, good things then come back to you. I mentioned last week that I got an unexpected £350 from my solicitors, a credit that had been sat on my account for a year! So I paid some of it forward and gave £35 to my favourite charity Grief Encounter.
You may call it a coincidence, but then last week I got a letter from the Dart Charge people. I had disputed a £105 fine, I was 100% honest and said it was my fault I forgot whilst rushing to a football tournament and they cancelled my fine in its entirety. Just had to pay the original £7.50 dart charge.
Plus BBC Wales messaged me and said they had forgotten to pay me for a radio Q&A and were going to transfer me an expert fee.
See, money flows.
Food Spends
Last week was my turn to cover dinner on a night out, so £75 was spent on dinner, made a little more expensive with me having a couple of drinks. My no booze has ended, although I only actually had those 2 drinks last week. I also splashed the cash £60 on a Five Guy delivery for four on Friday night, amazing burgers and we all know that Five Guys is expensive for burgers. but you get what you pay for. Do you know the Five Guys hack by the way?
Other Spends
Other spends for the week was nothing exciting. We went to the cinema on Saturday to see Jurassic World Dominion, great film, and saved £10 using my kidspass membership. We also ordered a few things from Amazon, chemicals for the pool as it was so hot last week and new footballs.
Exercise Week
Last week was a week with the boys which involved a lot of exercise. DJ is on break week from academy football, which means he has a rather extreme training program to do at home instead. Twice we were doing shuttle runs at the park whilst J did his football training with his local grassroots team. We also did a core and lower body circuits work out in the garden. It was really lovely to have my 14 year old acting a PT, telling me what to do. He is SO much fitter than me!
All of this training meant that I did 78 km over the course of the week, a huge total of 108k steps….BOOM. Summer fitness is going really well. And its FREE!
In the media
My article last week for The Mirror was on ID fraud where I shared how I was scammed and steps you take to reduce the chances of it affecting you. I was also featured on BBC Dirty Rotten Scammers sharing my story as well!
I also made an appearance on BBC Scotland TV last week talking about the cost of living crisis, offering real life tips on how people can save money in a simple way. I thought it was radio, turned out it was TV and had 4 minutes to get ready, I think I did pretty well. The flushed cheeks added to the look.
