So when Tesco Mobile got in contact and introduced me to their newly launched Capped Mobile Phone Tariffs I was eager to learn more. Basically as the parent of a child/teen with a mobile you can keep the bills under control by....
* Fixing the tariff so you can only use the inclusive minutes, texts and data.
* Therefore one's monthly bill would never be more than the cost of the monthly tariff.
* If you run out during the month, you can just top-up your account using a pay as you go top-up.
* Tesco mobile are the only network to offer this scheme across all handsets, and all price plans.
I have to let you into a little secret here, before Tesco contacted me to introduce me to their new tariffs, and also to offer a fantastic giveaway, I had already known a little about their newly launched capped tariffs. This was all due to this Tesco Mobile Capped Contracts television advert I had watched like a million times. And the reason I watched it so many times was I just loved to see again and again a lovely friend of mine's daughter who is in it. She looks just so cool and trendy, speaks with such a lovely clear and articulate voice and I just love her little giggle at the end when she speaks.
So, to celebrate Tesco Mobile's capped tariff launch, they have very generously offered a fantastic sim free Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Phone with an rrp of around £350 for me to offer as a giveaway on here and which I have to say looks especially FAN-DABY-DOSY!! A wonderful phone, especially for the gamer in you, and with so many features, it looks fabulous too....
As you may know I am a keen bargain hunter and with all this talk of money saving, to be in with the opportunity of winning this magnificent phone, I would like to know what is the best money saving tip, big or small that you have learn't down the years from your own family, something that you shall indeed pass down to your own children one day. I often find the best money saving tips come from years gone by, what our grandparents and great grandparents did to save on those hard earned pennies. I would really love you to share any of your money saving tips with me, and in a weeks time I shall ask the man of the house ( to make things all fair and equal ) to have a read of them and choose the most original/funniest etc to be the winner. I shall contact you for an address, forward onto Tesco Mobile and they shall then send you out your phone. It would indeed make a fantastic Christmas present too, if you could bare to part with it.
Closing Date is Friday 4th November
Terms & conditions: Open to UK residents only. There is no cash alternative, and only one entry per person.
Good Luck....
Well done to Helen whose old fashioned, seasonal, money saving tips, including not writing recipients names on envelopes, and carefully unwrapping presents at Christmas to re-use wrapping paper inspired my husband so much. So, well done Helen, and hope you enjoy your new mobile phone.
X
Disclosure: In way of thanks for highlighting tesco mobile's new capped tariff I received a Tesco voucher for publishing this post.
What a lovely phone, not sure I'm clever enough to work it though!
ReplyDeleteMoney saving tip? I cut the ends off tubes, i.e. toothpaste, wrinkle creams etc and usually there's another week's worth in there.
My tip is to plan your meals for the week and write a shopping list based on what you actually need to cook those meals. You will waste much less food, which will save you money, but it should also prevent extra trips midweek to the supermarket, thus saving more on impulse buys and also on the extra costs of getting to and from the supermarket, be that by car, bus or train!
ReplyDeleteUse small tins for paint instead of dipping your brush into the big tin. You will waste less paint on the small tin than you will by letting the big tin dry out or get dirty. Also, if you drop the wretched tin, it is not quite such a disaster
ReplyDeleteObviously I am not taking part LOL I also ordered the new iPhone last week, so I am already set.
ReplyDeleteBut I'd like to know what a great give away this is. Good luck to all the participants.
Recycle, recycle....making new things out of old. Most things can be turned into something new and useful or just something that looks pretty. Particularly old quilt covers or clothes into cushions, quilts or new clothing.
ReplyDelete-x-
Wow what a fab phone - I've heard about this via the teenagers - who would be the recipient if I was the lucky winner.
ReplyDeleteMoney saving tip via my Grandma - don't waste anything. Every piece of food however small (half an onion, a stray carrot) can be used - hence the family favourite of surprise soup - never know quite whats in it ;)
What a fab giveaway, I would love the chance to win. My tip is this:
ReplyDeleteNever go shopping when you are hungry. Always eat before you go, this way when you are picking up the items you need for the week you are not picking up 20 different 'I could just eat that now' foods. It will save you a fortune! Sue x
What a lovely phone and, eeek, is your little girl really going to be 10?!!! You don't look old enough to be the mother of a 10-yr old!
ReplyDeleteMy best money-saving tip: grow as much of your own fruit, veggies, herbs as you can, even if it is only a pot or two on an already crowed windowsill or balcony. It will quite literally 'ground' you, give you a taste and appreciation for the simplest and best things in life, and tending your little plants will become a valuable and thrifty hobby that you can pass on to the next generation.
I had the first proper harvest from my fruit canes this summer, and picking fresh raspberries in my tiny garden took me right back to my childhood summer days in the 1970s, shelling peas in my dad's allotment, and picking gooseberries in my Great Aunty Flo's back garden. We were much poorer then and the fruit was destined for the dinner table (not for making fruit liqueuers for Christmas, as I do these days!) but those were very sweet days and the memories have lasted a lifetime. In fact, I shall raise a glass of Raspberry vodka to the memory of Aunty Flo, on Christmas Day - she would have been very proud to see that the gardening skills she taught me put to such good use. :)
What a lovely phone and, eeek, is your little girl really going to be 10?!!! You don't look old enough to be the mother of a 10-yr old!
ReplyDeleteMy best money-saving tip: grow as much of your own fruit, veggies, herbs as you can, even if it is only a pot or two on an already crowed windowsill or balcony. It will quite literally 'ground' you, give you a taste and appreciation for the simplest and best things in life, and tending your little plants will become a valuable and thrifty hobby that you can pass on to the next generation.
I had the first proper harvest from my fruit canes this summer, and picking fresh raspberries in my tiny garden took me right back to my childhood summer days in the 1970s, shelling peas in my dad's allotment, and picking gooseberries in my Great Aunty Flo's back garden. We were much poorer then and the fruit was destined for the dinner table (not for making fruit liqueuers for Christmas, as I do these days!) but those were very sweet days and the memories have lasted a lifetime. In fact, I shall raise a glass of Raspberry vodka to the memory of Aunty Flo, on Christmas Day - she would have been very proud to see that the gardening skills she taught me put to such good use. :)
PS this is annie-c at scc - we miss you over there, don't be a stranger! :D xx
my money saving tip is only buy things as and when you need them.
ReplyDeletewhen we used to do the weekly shop we used to spend a fortune-think we were all set for the week then have to have little top up shops throughout the week of things we have forgotten!
lovely phone and hope miss poppins has a lovely birthday
This looks a great phone!!
ReplyDeleteI would suggest doing your grocery shopping online - I find it so much cheaper because I'm not tempted by all the offers, I save on fuel and I can spend time on me rather than pushing a trolley round a supermarket, which I hate!!
Wow, what a very generous giveaway. My moneysaving tip is to encourage your children to make their own cards, gift tags and wrapping paper. We spend many lovely afternoons (usually cold and wet ones) making cards and gift tags - we use scraps of card, paper, stickers and whatever else we find lying around the home.
ReplyDeleteMy husband keeps telling me I should put the washing machine and dish washer on at night when the electricity is cheaper. However the washing basket is always full and the dishwasher needs to go on twice a day!
ReplyDeleteMy Nan always told me that a bargain is only a bargain if you really need or really want something. Don't be dazzled by a cheap price if it doesn't fulfil this criteria!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the ear piercing!
ReplyDeleteI buy in bulk and store things in the garage where I have a freezer and a second larder. I buy mince, steaks and chicken breast from Costco in bulk sizes. I then get home and break it all down to "family" size... 400g mince, 2 chicken breasts that sort of thing. That way I always have staples in the house and I just pop out to buy perishables. It works a treat for us and saves us loads of money. If something is on offer I'll buy 3 or 4 and put them away.
Here are my top tips for saving those pennies...
ReplyDeleteMake gifts rather than buy them (although I have never seen my in-laws wear those finely crafted hand made bobble hats and slipper socks!)
Spread out the cost of Christmas and buy (or make!) things throughout the year - I will so do that next year!
Bring and share meals between friends are great for keeping costs down and you know there will be at least one thing you are going to eat! - you may even come home with a new recipe or two.
Use your imagination - when we were kids, a bit of sugar sprinkled on a cucumber tasted like costly melon. I reckon a bit of grape juice and lemonade could pass for wine?! No,sorry, there are limits! Treats every now and again do you the world of good.
xx
Make do and mend. As a kid I had hand-me downs from my sister. As a kid I hated it, but now I love browsing the charity shops for bargains, you never know what you might come across. Amanda....x
ReplyDeleteamandakirby10@btinternet.com
What a fabulous treat for someone! I will enjoy popping back to see all the thrifty tips. My own best tip I think is to save old broken necklaces of beads and snap them up at car boot sales ... and fill a big clear glass vase with them (Ikea do these for under £1), when you either put tea lights in the vase or fill with water and just a few flowers and leaves, it makes a really expensive looking display of 'jewels' that catches the light, for peanuts.
ReplyDeleteHi - my mum was from the wartime generation - so her thrifty habits were sometimes quite extreme. In fact one of the best bits about being grown-up - I think(!) is not having to eat the dust at the bottom of the cornflake packet - you know those ground to pieces bits that linger at the bottom - and float horridly on the top of your bowl when you add milk. But I digress .....
ReplyDeleteThrifty tip.... here are a couple of seasonal ones that may or may not go down very well in December!!We had the same advent calendar every year as children - one of those basic cardboard ones, mum would carefully press the doors closed and store it under a heavy book for reuse the following year...
Wrapping paper - never tear it off your parcel, but carefully unpeel the sellotape and fold carefully for reuse.
And finally - giving and receiving cards was always a bit of a lottery in our house - you see we weren't allowed to write on or stick down the flap of the envelope, so you had to identify the intended recipient by the size, shape and colour of the envelope! But this did mean enevelopes could be reused - have often wondered what utilities such as electricity board thought when they received their cheque in a pink sparkly scented envelope?!?!
Love your blog, though am not a great commenter ... would love the phone too - and I could recycle my old one!!
Id love to enter please! What a cool phone!! My money saving tip is to grow you own herbs. Fairly easy to do (apart from basil) and mega money saver. Also, Once the season is over pick the herbs you have left and put them in ice cube trays with a bit of water. Freeze and use in soups throughout the year. That way nothing gets wasted. x
ReplyDeleteA great phone and I also have a little girl about to turn 10 who is desperate for a mobile phone!
ReplyDeleteMy money saving tip is to not buy on impulse. If you want something save for it. Put a little away each week / month and when you hit your target you will love it all the more knowing what it took to get there.
oohh I know what you mean, my little man (now 11) has a mobile and has used it when he broke his wrist out playing so they are very handy! I would love enter your comp as my phone doesn't even do smiley faces lol. I have have text my mates retro smiley face if I want to add a smiley :-)
ReplyDeletehhmm money saving tip. Never replace an item unless the original one you have is well and truly caffunct (is that a word - not sure :-)). It is so easy to get drawn into buying new all the time but it isn't fab for the environment or your wallet - hence why I have a phone that doesn't even do smiley faces :-) x
My tip which was passed onto me by a friend (who isn't my granny but acts like one!)
ReplyDeleteWhen we moved into our cottage the bath had those horrible stains that streak down the bath under the taps. It looked like a new bath was in order, but she took one look, got out her tile grout, gave the bath a good going over with it then rubbed hard, rinsed...viola everyone of those stains went. (leave for a few days to set properly)
4 years later it's still as good as new. The only cost was elbow grease and the grout which we had anyway.
So don't despair if you got a manky looking bath it can be rejuvinated.
Lovely giveaway by the way :0)
Ohhhhh what a lovely giveaway...My 11 yr old would love it for christmas.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest money saving tip is palet wood. We use it for so much. Its good strong wood and we have built garden tables, a tree house, a hen house, plant boxes, decking, picket fences and sheves in my lounge. Hubby even pulls out every nail from the palets and re-uses them. We have saved ourselves a fortune.
I have a few we;ve had to stick to to cut back/make money:
ReplyDeleteDo your food shopping online, saves on impulse/bargain buying in store.
Make a meal planner so you only order what you need without wasting food.
When it comes to Christmas sell unused toys/cd's/dvd's to clear space and make money for the new presents at christmas
The best advice I would give would be to read the forums of moneysavingexpert.com there is so much useful advice on money saving in all aspects of your life. Almost every subject you can think of has a section and if you don't see what you are looking for ask the question yourself. Someone will come along and help you out and the best thing? It's free!
ReplyDeleteI love the look of this phone! What a cool prize!
ReplyDeleteMy tip is to stop wasting bread, as I find on a very regular basis that I can never finish a loaf (or a whole french stick etc) before it goes stale, which resulted in throwing away alot of bread! However I found that blasting the stale bread for 30secs in the microwave makes it lovely and soft again (and warm yum!), so I dont have to throw it away! Yay!
What a brilliant giveaway, my kids would be fighting over it so I'd have to keep it for myself.
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed reading all the money saving tips, seeing which ones I already do and making a note of those which I don't.
My money saving tip is to compare the prices you pay for gas, electric, broadband, telephone etc. It's easy to do now on price comparison websites and it really can save you alot of money. I'm just in the process of changing my gas and electric which is saving me £24 per month and it was so easy to do online. I've got a fixed deal too which means that the price won't increase for a set period of time which can only be good in these times of rising fuel costs. The new company usually handle everything for you so you don't even have to inform your existing supplier. If you go through a website such as moneysavingexpert, quidco or topcashback, you can often get a cashback deal too.
Many happy returns to your daughter for Saturday (I had the ear piercing dilemma too and ended up giving in).