Time - The Most Valuable Commodity

 In the last year I have had more time because I gave up my paid three day a week post to change to one day of volunteering. Which has made me very happy in many ways.

As you know dear reader I am a thrifty soul, but I do have in the main, expensive taste. So my answer to less income is making the money I have s-t-r-e-t-c-h.

Managing one's money and getting the best from your spend is going to be a lot more difficult going forward. No shit Sherlock I hear you say. Having time to consider the best way of spending or not spending is invaluable. So I thought I would pass on a few tips that I think are helpful and maybe a few of you might want to comment on my blog with your own ideas. Let's see where this might go.

The Martin Lewis Money Saving Expert Newsletter provides a good overview on current costs and economies and has saved us money a few times. It's a cost free way of getting advice from a team of experts who search the web for helpful tit bits.

When money is tight it's normally the extras and niceties that go out of the window. It's easy enough to google free days out and take a picnic etc but going out for a decent meal that delivers on taste, quality and ambience at a good price is more difficult to find. Signing up to receive emails from your favourite restaurants can keep you abreast of special offers and yes, freebees. I'm a huge fan of the Cote Brasserie chain, who thankfully have many branches nationwide. They regularly send me restaurant news and very often offer me free drinks when I dine with them or in my birthday month offer a complimentary bottle of wine.

One of our local eateries has a Fish and Fizz Friday once a month, reasonably priced and the food is excellent. if you order two courses you get a free glass of bubbles each. That can knock about £15.00 off the bill.

With my vodaphone package there is an Eat Local 'Card', which offers two for one meals and discounts of 25% at selected places. I admit there aren't that many places listed but we did find a rather nice fish restaurant recently and used it to take 25% off our bill. 

I also won a £5.00 Sainsbury's voucher in Vodaphone's Very Me Rewards section last week. I teamed that up with £10.00 worth of Nectar points and just under £13.00 discount on their buy 6 bottles of wine and get a 25% discount. So that saved me £28.00 on that shop, with no impact on quality. 

I now mainly shop at Aldis but when I go to Sainsbury's I use their Smartshop system which can save quite a lot if you check the offers when you're actually in store.

My last tip about eating out is, if you do not have a good experience let the staff know. See what they can offer you. Money is hard earned and paying for a sub standard meal is not on. If you don't get any joy from the staff take it further. We had an absolutely disasterous meal at a restaurant in Bath a few months ago and I mean terrible. In the end we were sent a substantial gift voucher, quite rightly.

I hasten to add we do also praise staff and food when we've had a good time.