A rant about bad money admin
I start with a rant about the my admin and money mistakes. Firstly I swapped broadband from TalkTalk to Virgin in July. I assumed that moving over to Virgin would trigger a cancellation of TalkTalk. Um no I have been paying for it still since July. I just called TalkTalk, who claim no knowledge, £65 down the drain.
I was also paying for paper billing with Virgin, when not needed for £2 per month. Now cancelled, £6 wasted. And I got another parking fine. OH MY GOSH, it has been my worst year in my life for parking tickets. This one because I spent 4 hours working in Debenhams and overstayed the parking limit. £120 of money wasted.
We all make these mistakes, rant over, I felt bad. Now I don’t feel so bad after ranting.
On to money saving for last week.
Preparing for the boys birthdays
All three boys have asked for bikes for their birthdays, and its perfect timing with the trade in offer currently available in Halfords. If you take in any old bike or scooter you can get 20% off a new bike. See keeping hold of stuff can have some value! Also I have been switching my Topcashback payment into Halfords vouchers (where I get a 5% boost to the value) for a few months so have built up £70 in vouchers to help cover the cost of the bikes as well. This means bikes with a full price of £500 will actually cost me just £330. A great saving and happy boys with new bikes.
If you are not signed up to Topcashback, why not?? Its free money! I get a chunk of cash back on every online transaction I make. Here is a refer a friend link to sign up.
A weekend away
This weekend gone was my turn to be away for the weekend and I really wanted a trip to the sea. I find that a last minute Air BNB trip normally works out well. Why not set up an account and take a look, I always find great places for a bargain price. This time I found the cutest tiny cottage near the coast in Norfolk and spent a quiet 48 hours with nature. I did 3 longs walks along the beach, including one mammoth 10 mile walk on the Saturday.
I spotted so many animals. A huge number of seals, more than 10. Including this baby on the beach. I saw a barn owl from the back of my cottage, a swan in the field next to me and the most wonderful sight, of a kingfisher! I have only ever seen one of these before in my life. I was so lucky to see it.
The cottage cost £150 for two nights, and I spent a grand total of £20 whilst there in Norfolk on farm shop cheese and chutney and a coffee after my 10 mile walk.
Tuesday in London Milk Train
I spent Tuesday of last week in London and whilst in Covent Garden I paid Milk Train a visit. This place has AMAZING ice creams! I have tried to visit before with the boys, but managed to get there when shut. Not on Tuesday. I spent a substantial £7 on this incredible ice cream. It was worth every penny!
Champagne Lifestyle on a Lemonade Budget
And then later in the day I headed over to Aldgate to meet up with the Money to The Masses guys for their very first event where I was a guest on their panel. It was packed out with so every seat taken and people standing around the edges. My nerves disappeared when I got to the event and had a great night answering questions and sharing my story of debt repayment and setting up my own business.
I had the most amazing conversations with people afterwards and have had some amazing messages sent to me. I REALLY loved doing this event. And am hugely grateful to Damien and Justin from the Money to The Masses team who invited me to speak. This is going to be a great series of events.
Getting a Self-Employed Mortgage
I wrote about my struggles with getting a Self-Employed Mortgage. A post packed full of top tips that is really worth reading, particularly if you are thinking of getting a new mortgage soon.
Podcast Series 2 is now on YouTube
A reminder that I am doing things slightly differently for my podcast. I am now recording it using my own space and equipment, with my own rules. I can say what I want and share the podcast as I see fit (I wasnt able to do this with the radio show podcast before). You can still access series 1 of Mrs Mummypenny Talks here, but from now on I have new channels.
My shows go out every week, normally Tuesday at 11am on Facebook Live (unless I am in London!). I also put this video onto YouTube, catch my episodes here. Packed full of money saving tips and fun stuff that I have been up to.
This post contains affiliate links, where I will receive a fee if you sign up, but this in no way affects the price that you pay.
