Couponing, freebies & being savvy

I'm Back!!,

So its been what seems like ages since my last blog post! I'm not sure if I explained in my last post but we had to move house at very short notice as we found out that our landlord was trying to sell the house we were living in behind our back so we had to move quite sharpish and stay within the area because of munchkins school. We managed to find a lovely house however it is more expensive but we couldn't hang around any longer as we were running out of time so because of the extra rent, council tax, etc as well as saving for the wedding something had to be done!

I decided to take control of the finances and to start being more savvy. I started to look at coupons and also began watching the popular US extreme couponing program on sky.It amazed me at how people can buy hundreds of pounds of shopping and pay nearly nothing.

After alot of research Ive come to realise that in the UK its not possible to do it to the extreme that they do in the US due to the conditions of the coupons or the supermarkets policy. (e.g one per transaction, cannot be used in conjunction with any offer). However it is possible in some sorts!

I have been getting coupons from magazines, newspapers, companies facebook pages etc.... (before anyone says 'ahhh your using coupons to buy things that you never normally buy' this isn't the case!

Ive also began using cash back apps which I'm in love with! and have had some amazing deals and even some amazing freebies!

Ive also started looking more carefully about what comes in and goes out of our bank as we are often guilty of splashing out on payday and then being on our backside at the end of the month.

Another thing I'm doing is planning every meal so that we don't trip up and end up going out for food or having take away!

I wont go into too much detail at the moment but if this is something you would like to see on my blog please comment below and if i get enough people who are interested i will post more details on the apps i use etc.

Also if you are a couponer let me know!

xx

Organised mum! My agendas & top tips

Yey! I'm way back into the swing of things when it comes to blogging....lets say..I have my mojo back! I'm not sure if anyone actually reads my babble but hey ho! its good to jot things down too!

First of all let me say that I'm no where near the most organised person!.....(I like to think i am though) Hence the reason I'm writing this post! About a week ago it was like something in my head clicked!

I'm a SAHM (stay at home mum) to munchkin and my Fiance works shifts. I began thinking....what am i going to do with my time when Munchkin is in nursery in the mornings?!? obviously the natural answer is to catch up on cleaning etc.
My house isn't dirty but its very lived in and I'll hold my hands up and say that i often slack on the washing and especially the ironing (don't we all?!?). I often throw things into draws and cupboards and taaa daaa!!! its tidy (ish).

Munchkins toys are slowly taking over our house! so as Ive said a week ago something clicked and i got my butt into gear! I knuckled down and cleaned the house top to bottom and Ive got to say it felt amazing to have a clean house with all the washing and ironing done! yep!!! you heard me right! Its been a hell of a long time since I had both all of the washing and ironing done. I sat there and thought....ahhhh this is nice but how am i going to maintain it??? So i thought i would create a weekly cleaning agenda! I took majority of things that needed doing and just broke it down into bite size chunks. 

I haven't put the kitchen on my agenda because i clean it daily! for example after lunch I wash the dishes and clean the worktops then after tea I wash the dishes, wipe the sides, sweep and mop. I haven't put this on my agenda because i want this to be something that comes naturally to me and i didn't want it do make the agenda look too daunting.

There are a few things that aren't on the agenda but these are things that don't necessarily have to be done every day/week.

Here are my top tips!

1. Make your bed as soon as you get up
2. Get yourself a flash mop! its so convenient 
3. Clean the sink and toilet while your waiting for your bath to fill or your shouwer to heat up
4. Fold your washing as soon as its dry
5. Try to iron the day that your washing dries - try not to let it build up!
6. make yourself a cleaning agenda and break it down and do it on days/ times that are best for you
7. Wash dishes twice a day (this works for me but depending on your family size this may differ)
8. Pop the music on while you clean! Go on!! have a boogie! your burning more calories too!
9. Dont sit down with a cuppa until your done! if you are anything like me you wont get back up to finish.
10. Get your children involved! (if they are old enough that is)

So While my agenda pad was out i thought i would create more things to keep me organised. so I decided to do one for Munchkins snacks so that he wasn't having too many biscuits for snack time. Obviously come September i will drop the morning snack because Munchkin will be in nursery and have his morning snack there.

Munchkin is also behaving allot better with some structured activity's throughout this day. So this agenda is something to let me make sure he has a variety of activities.

I'm also in the middle of doing a weekly planner of meals! so keep your eyes peeled for that!
In the mean time i hope that you have taken something away from my blog post! Oh and the Funky weekly planners that i use are from 'The Range' and I love them! Oh just reminded myself that i need to pop in a buy some more!

Thank you for reading x