Friday 14 June 2013

The cinema is so expensive when you have kids.....or is it?

Hi all, the weather here is just awful and now it's the weekend I'm thinking of how to keep the kids busy. Now the thought of taking a family of 5 to the cinema makes most people cringe but my kids love the cinema and we go regularly heres how i keep the prices down.

Kids club/happy hour- Several cinemas here do a deal in a saturday morning where it costs £2 per child and we get an adult free so we will bring a friend if they want to aswell all for just £6! We are going to see the croods and we will go see epic in the summer holidays so these are pretty new releases (usually about 6-8 weeks from release, the croods have been on offer for ages we've just been too busy to take them)

Popcorn is really dear in the cinema so i use this


These are 4 for £1 in homebargains so just 25p this makes loads I'll bag half of it up into 3 bags each for the kids so total cost of popcorn 12p! The kids will prob eat the other half of teh bag on sunday.

Drinks in the cinema are also really dear and massive, so we will be going for the cheaper option and bringing our own.


3 for £1 cokes for me and hubby and the kids will have squash made with value squash, total cost of drinks 80p!

And finally some sweets


We picked these up on poundland last week, theres about half the bag left so say 50p the kids will get about 5 of those wee chew bars each.

Me and hubby are dieting so nothing other than coke for us, i usually get us a box of malteasers or a big toblerone from poundland to share when we go to the cinema.



Tickets= £6
Popcorn= 12p
Drinks= 80p
Sweets=50p

Total cost= £7.42

This just proves that with the right mindframe and planning trips like the cinema can be squeezed into most peoples budget.

I hope you all have a great weeked, I'm working all weekend, going to go to the gym (need to get my moneys worth) then the cinema ofcourse and on sunday we plan a lazy day or a walk and dinner at the inlaws. Whats everyones plans?


Tuesday 11 June 2013

Opps! How to use creditcards correctly.

I forgot to take pictures of my shopping to show you all, not much anyway just some milk, bread, fruit, salad and veggies. I will try again next month to show you my shopping for a month.

Well i've been MIA for abit and the main reason is i havent felt like posting as i've been spending money like no-ones business....new clothes....home gym equipment....weddings.....birthdays. You name it, I've spent it and yesterday i got a shock when for the first time even my creditcard is over £1k.




Now i know many blogs you read will say cut your creditcard up and never use it, however this is not one of them.

A few years ago dispite having no bad credit, a regular income and savings we got declined for a phone contract, when we looked into it the reason wasn't that we had bad credit it was that we had none at all, proving you can use credit wisely goes in your favor. So we now have a capital one creditcard and a next account.

Next account is only used for sale items for the kids usually stuff that ends up being birthday or xmas pressies.

Our creditcard is used for everywhere that will take it then paid in full every month. I refuse to pay interest on my creditcard but thankfully i only need to pay around £550 this month and the rest next month.

We both now have good credit ratings, when we decided to get a creditcard we were still considering a mortgage or a loan, we now know thats not an option but it is good to have a good credit rating anyway.

Another good use of a creditcard is spending money on holiday (check your provider doesn't charge you to use your card abroad or for different currency) it means your not paying for a preloaded cards or carrying money around with you.

Now heres the golden rule of creditcards...

Don't spend more than you have.

If you can't pay your creditcard in full each month you will have interest added, only spend what you already have in the bank to cover it, don't spend on your creditcard thinking you'll have x amount in next week because until it's in your hand you might not have it. Sometimes companys go bust and staff aren't paid or benefits make mistakes or suspend payments. If this happens don't reach for your creditcard straight away, go dig down the back of your sofa for money for electric and make a list of all food you have in and eat that rather than buying stuff in. Over the next few weeks i won't be spending much on food however i will have the £550 my creditcard wants for the 25th and i will have the other £500 for the end of the month to pay next months balance in advance without touching my savings. We won't starve and will still stick to our diet. I will still pay me rent and get desil but every penny leaving my purse will be carefully watched.

Remeber if you can't afford to pay the bill you can't afford the item.

So over to you, does anyone have any advice about creditcards or any good or bad experiences? Do you like or loath them?