Meal Planning Monday - 20th October 2014

I'm back.

I've been too busy with work to blog over the last few months, but now I'm more organised and back on the couponing trail!!

I signed up to the Morrisions and More card last week and although I think their price matching with Aldi and Lidl is a little dubious (that's another post I think) I'm already halfway to a £5 voucher by doing a small weekly shop and buying £50 of fuel.

So, food. I've not been meal planning and it's caused me so much stress. I can spend hours wondering what to cook and get nowhere so meal planning must be done from now on.

So here's this week, mainly planned to use up what's in the fridge.

Monday - Quiche Lorraine and Potatoes

Tuesday - Roast Chicken Dinner - Possibly done in the slow cooker

Wednesday - Brinner!!! (YAY! Winters back and so is Brinner!)

Thursday - Nasi Goreng (out of an Amoy Box)

Friday - Bangers, mash, peas and onion gravy

Saturday - Take away

Sunday - Spag bol out of the freezer.

There's loads more meal plans on At Home With Mrs M and I'm an Organising Junkie - Please, be inspired!

Morrisons and More Card

So, my nearest supermarket is Morrisons and I was delighted to hear that they have finally got some sort of reward card thing going on.

Except they haven't.

The card accumulates points, in a rather complicated way, I think when your comparable shop is cheaper elsewhere.  So if it's 79p cheaper somewhere else then you'll get 790 points.  You need to get to 5000 points to get a £5 voucher.  There is no reward for the amount you spend in there like Tesco Clubcard do.  

The fuel reward card has now been moved to be the same account as your price matching points.  So you get 10 points for every litre of fuel purchased.  However, I think you used to get 15 points for each litre before the switch and there is a cap on points you can only earn points on 80 litres of fuel per week.  So you can only get a maximum of 800 points per week on fuel.  That I'm not happy about at all as some weeks I can go through 100 litres of petrol so will probably use Tesco for fuel to get the points there.  (I haven't checked if they have a limit, but I will do!!)

There's also bonus points around the store to be had.  These are highlighted on the front of the shelf so it's clear to see where you can boost your points balance.  

My opinion of the card is that its ok.  It wouldn't make me shop there as I didn't see a reduction in the price of my last two weekly shops and its no incentive to me to put my price matching difference "in a bank" to get £5.  I'd rather go to Tesco for the price promise voucher that feels more like actual money to me.

By far the best thing about the change is the smartphone App.  It tells you where the bonuses are and the items that are reduced that week.  It's a dream app for the couponer!  I cross checked the app with Clicksnap and Shopitise on Saturday and I made £3.05 from Shopitize from buying just 8 items.  It also meant the price of Original Source shower gel was 45p.  Not something I usually buy, buy hey, it's nice, does the job and was cheaper than the rest!!

So I've not got much of an opinion on the Morrisons and More card yet.  Being cynical I think it may have loads of boosts on at the moment to get it going and off the ground but I think around Christmas these will be few and far between.

You can read the FAQ's on the Morrisons and More Scheme here.

Let me know in the comments what you think and which reward/price match schemes you feel are the best.  

Stop Nuisance Calls

I am absolutely sick to the back teeth of stopping working to answer the phone to a call centres. I'm more sick of hearing my next door neighbour's phone ringing throughout the day. Why does that bother me? Because they have dementia and I know they are call centre calls.

Most are recorded messages that clog up the answerphone. The rest are hard to understand foreign call centres. All calls are hard to understand when you have dementia.

The number of calls have increased over the year. I would say the phone rings at least hourly. The number is registered with TPS (the telephone preference service) and when I have taken the caller to task about this, I am informed that companies do not have to use TPS. So I politely (it pains me) request the number is not called again and they either hang up or agree. More often that not though, they call back.

So I've done a bit of research on the Alzheimer's Society Website and come across this product. The device plugs in between the phone socket and the actual phone. It can be set up to block up to 1200 numbers and can be used remotely, which means I can take the cordless phone next door for a week and just press #2 to block the calls and immediately reduce the distress of my Mother in Law.

Secretly, I am loving this because of the satisfaction I will get from hitting that big red button!!

I can see me buying one of these for our phone and even as christmas gifts as who wouldn't want to send the call centres a big fat unobtainable code?!

This post contains an affiliate link.

Quidco - Seriously...Free Cash!!

I used to use Quidco all the time and was really successful in getting bags of cashback but also free stuff.  My laptop was free via a Quidco deal and I got £150 back on a mobile phone contract which was only £9.99 per month (remember those days?!!

Then I just forgot to use it.  Nothing happened to put me off, I just didn't use it.


Then I heard you could get cashback for checking in to shops.  So I installed the app, did it a couple of times, then again, just didn't use it.







Until I was in Debenhams the other month and I thought "ooh - I wonder if I can check in?"  Well - better than that I can get cashback in shops now!!!  So I registered my card whilst in the queue and low and behold got about £3 back!

So, in my attempt at boosting the savings account, I thought I'll see how much is in my Quidco account which is when I discovered how much the site has changed over the years.

There are many, many more companies signed up to Quidco that last time I had a proper look and there's cashback galore for simply enquiring about produts!

They are in the "No Brainer" section.

I have just earnt £6 by signing up for my credit report from Equifax and I've got about another 12 quid by requesting quotes for various types of insurance.  There are limits on the number of quotes you can request from a company and the information put in has to be genuine.  Of course the generous offers are basically buying you as a marketing prospect but I am genuinely interested in about half of the products.  I need to compare my car insurance, I'm looking to take out medical insurance and I'm nosey enough to want to see I've paid my credit bills each month.  The higher paying offers do require a subscription, but all have a free trial period, just remember to cancel the subscription!!  It's also a must that the email address is your "form filler" email (ie an email address set up just for competitions and marketing communications)

So Quidco - I'm Back!

I've set you as my homepage, I'll be checking your offers daily and I won't leave you again!!

Seriously, if you are shopping online, this is money for nothing!!  If you're not signed up, click here and do it now!!  (This is my referral link - but you'll also get £5 when you start using your Quidco Account - use that link though, not the badge on the right)
 
Claire :)

Meal Planning Monday - Cooking What I've Got

This week is yet another, busy manic week with lining up new tenants, more work coming in online and of course a house to clean following the half term.

So this week, there's stuff in the fridge and freezer that needs to be used, namely a packet of chicken, bacon and fish.

Here's how it's looking...

Monday: Pasta with homemade tomato and cheese sauce with olives (it won't be on the menu again!)

Tuesday: Fish, chips and mushy peas

Wednesday: Thai Red Chicken Curry and Rice

Thursday: Chicken Stir Fry 

Friday: Steak and Kidney and Mash (homemade ready meal)

Saturday: Takeaway

I'm just watching Jamie Olivers Money Saving Meals and I think I'll be trying his hangover noodles for sure!

Back to the post...Hopefully I can save a few pennies this week by using what's in.

This post is linked up to Meal Planning Monday on at Home With Mrs M where I guarantee there will be much more adventurous meal plans!!

Thanks for reading!

Claire :)

So That Way May 2014

So after my declaration of this year will be my best financial year ever...I've not stopped working.  Literally, even over the second Bank Holiday Weekend.

I was bragging on the April round up that I was on my longest blogging run and that abruptly came to an end when I decided to follow the money rather than the blogging!

So, what happened to of May 2014?

I sponsored my own blog with the launch of

The Lion King - Liverpool Empire

I bought tickets for The Lion King as soon as they went on sale for the touring production at the Liverpool Empire.

We had amazing seats.  Front row of the Circle in the middle next to the centre aisle.  The seats offer a fantastic view bit we did have to sit forward.  That said, the kids leaned on the wide barrier and loved looking down into the music pit and into the side bays full of African drums and instruments.

When the show starts, the