Family Money Saving Tips - Meal Planning, Cutting Back & Saving For Summer

**Collaborative post**

Now, more than ever, I am conscious of how much money we spend and just how much is wasted on non-essentials.

Being self-employed during a pandemic has forced me to take stock of just what we actually do need and what items are thrown into the shopping trolley just because we fancy them. Things that may not have seemed a lot of money a year ago, suddenly have to be carefully considered and thought twice about.

With the children at home, it limited the hours I could work and therefore meant I was earning less as the time I would usually dedicate to answering emails, writing and taking calls etc. was spent over-seeing homeschooling. Don’t get me wrong, I loved having them at home but it is an eye-opener to how much they eat and how much is spent on things we didn’t really need, and needing about 30 million snacks a week makes you realise that making and baking items can be a fun way to spend as a family and also to save money – muffins can be batch cooked and frozen, old bananas are great for making banana bread and leftovers used to make frittatas or blended into a pasta sauce.

We may all be celebrating the kids returning to school again after such a long time but the countdown is now on until we have 6 weeks off with the kids for the Summer holidays. Those 6 weeks can certainly be expensive whether you are heading off on holiday (if we are allowed to do that by then) or just entertaining the children at home/with days out or even having to pay out for childcare so you can still work – not many can take 6 weeks off to look after the kids.

I guess this is where I am extremely lucky in that being self employed and working from home that I don’t have to pay out for childcare but working to a set routine is impossible when the kids are around, in fact working while they are awake is near-on impossible too so I do find myself burning the midnight oil and answer emails during the day when I can and writing/working in the evenings when they are in bed.

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My tips on how to save money for Summer are:

Make birthday cards with the kids instead of buying them – there are a LOT of birthday’s and anniversaries coming up and while cards are only a few pounds a time we can get a pack of coloured card for the price of one card, and homemade cards are so much nicer anyway.
Shop in the sales – as above presents may need to be purchased for these occasions but you don’t have to pay full price. Keep an eye on the sales, pop items into your Amazon wishlist, so you are alerted when the prices changes (we love to give craft products – ideally mess-free ones), take advantage of 3 for 2 offers etc.

Enter competitions – it is a fantastic time of year to find some amazing competitions – you’ll find lots on MSE or even on Facebook and Twitter, search the social media sites for hashtags #Win, #Giveaway, #Competition or even search for that toy which is on the kids wish list #Hatchimals Giveaway or similar. You may not be lucky with competitions BUT you’ll NEVER win unless you at least enter and there has to be a winner – it could be you. I’m currently searching for washing machine competitions as mine is on the way out.
Meal plan – by planning which meals you will eat for every day of the week you will not only reduce your food waste but save money as you won’t be buying extras just because you see them in the supermarket.
I love to meal plan, but sometimes I get stuck in a rut and can’t think of what to cook and a helping hand is needed – this is where Hello Fresh comes into play – you can choose the meals you want to cook and for how many people, put them in your online basket and checkout. All the ingredients are then sent to you directly for you to cook at home. This is a wonderful way of mixing up your weekly meals, trying something new and discovering new and easy-to-cook recipes. All ingredients are freshly delivered to your door and measured out all ready to cook. There are so many recipes to choose from – you can find the most popular here. My favourite meals from the Hello Fresh selection are currently Fragrant Chicken & Prawn Laska, Colcannon Cottage Pie, and Aubergine Massaman Curry. The kids current favourite is Penne Pasta Ragu Alforno.
If you fancy trying something different from the norm then take a look at this spaghetti with peanut butter tomato sauce recipe.
Collect coupons – cereal boxes are a great place to start, they have money off vouchers for theme parks etc which are great to use over the summer holidays, newspapers, local what’s on guides or just search online are other ways to find discount codes – also follow company social media pages as they often promote offers/cheap days etc.

Search around for phone deals for your children. If they are about to start secondary school, this is usually the time you will look at getting them their own phones, especially if they are to walk to and from school on their own now. A few tips include, shopping around for the best deals, looking at an older phone to reduce the costs a little or perhaps a sim only package. Take a look at foned for iPhone 12 deals.
Using Tesco Clubcard points for days out/meals etc and NOT to take money off of your food shop – we have all been tempted in the past to use those vouchers to reduce the food bill however while that £10 voucher may take £10 off of the shop it could be used in the Clubcard boost instead giving you 3 times the voucher value. I always exchange mine for Pizza Express voucher codes and my £10 then turns into £30 to spend in Pizza Express, I also exchange them for days out.
Open a bank account or even better a savings account and regularly add a little into it, there are loads to choose from such as Lloyds bank and many others.

Check you are on the correct energy/gas tariffs, you can compare prices online – also make sure you are sending through your correct usage instead of allowing the companies to estimate your usage, remember you’ll not have the heating on over the summer so your bills won’t be the same as during winter. I switched over to Octupus Energ and saved around £320 – I have a referral link here which if used will give you £50 back (and I also get the same)
Also, take some time to shop around when your insurance renewal quotes come in – it’s so easy to just let them auto-renew for ease but it’s not always the easiest option.
Answer surveys, watch videos and shop online – I do all of these on a daily basis but do them through Swagbucks. Swagbucks is a rewards site where you earn points (SB – Swagbucks), for things you often do online anyway. You can then exchange these points for gift cards for Amazon, Paypal cash, MasterCard and many other places – I save my gift cards up and use them for birthday presents etc. – You can sign up here.