Easter daffodils
With Easter almost upon us, the children have been off school for nearly two weeks now. We’ve headed out on assorted trips, pottered at home and my mother came to stay. I’ve managed to juggle some work, but blogging has taken a bit of a back seat. I’ve also been trying to juggle our budget, so here are our five frugal things for Easter!
Delayed buying Easter eggs
No, I wasn’t waiting for a sale, or trying to track down the perfect egg at the perfect price.
I delayed buying Easter eggs because based on past experience, if I bought them too early, I might eat them myself and have to buy them all over again! A bargain price doesn’t save money if I end up forking out twice. It’s just like Christmas, when the shelves are piled high with boxes of mince pies and tubs of chocolate for months beforehand, relying on people stocking up, eating the lot, and coming back for more.
Claimed cashback on an Easter egg
When I did get round to buying eggs, I mourned the days when my kids were delighted with £1 a pop chocolate button eggs.
Thankfully TopCashback Snap & Save offers money off more expensive eggs.
You can get £1.50 cashback* on any egg costing more than £1.50. All you have to do is buy an egg, snap a photo of your receipt and submit it. It applies for eggs bought between 11 April up to today, 19 April, so you’ve still got time to benefit.
I submitted a receipt yesterday, and it’s already showing as payable in my TopCashback account. Do love saving money on something I’d buy anyway.
Successful egg hunt
Made the most of our National Trust membership
Every year I look forward to the Cadbury’s Easter egg hunts. (Previous posts here and here)
Chocolate is a great way to make my kids enthusiastic about returning to a National Trust property we’ve visited before, so we can make the most of our membership. Last week we headed back to Ickworth, spotted clues round the Easter trail, enjoyed the gardens and let the kids loose on the playground. The Easter egg hunt costs £2.50 each, but you do get a reasonable sized egg at the end.
My daughter was delighted to find one of the Love on the Rocks painted stones and has started painting more of her own (previous post including Love on the Rocks). It all made me want to stay at the Ickworth Hotel again, and now the children have seen the bike shed and swimming pool they’re clamouring to go too!
Buyagift* are offering a 15% discount until 21st April, using the code EASTER2019, if you fancy booking a stay for less, whether at the Ickworth Hotel* or elsewhere.
Great card if you like gardens
Nabbed a 2 for 1 garden entry card
Even if you don’t have National Trust membership, you can cut the cost of visiting Ickworth by buying a copy of this month’s BBC Gardeners’ World magazine. The May 2019 issue includes the 2 for 1 garden entry card, which lasts for a year, and covers 447 gardens including Kew Gardens, Leeds Castle, the Eden Project and Alnwick as well as Ickworth. You can check the website to see if there’s anything you’re likely to visit.
The magazine costs £5.25, but with many gardens you’ll save more than that with one free adult ticket. This year, I remembered to sign up for a ‘5 issues for £5 offer’ in January, so the May magazine was delivered straight to my door. Even better, I’ve remembered to cancel the subscription so I won’t get charged full price afterwards.
If you do want to save on subscriptions, Magazines Direct* are offering 10% off subscriptions for 40 titles using the code EGG10. They don’t include BBC Gardners’ World, but do have Woman&Home, including my column, which ends up as £28.79 for 12 issues.
Morrisons Easter veg offer
Stocked up on cut price Easter veg
Great to see special offers on veg flooding the shops before the Easter weekend. I snapped up leeks, carrots and broccoli at £1 for 3 in Morrisons, and intend heading back for more while prices are so low. Morrisons are also offering potatoes, swede and parsnips in the ‘3 for £1’ offer.
Elsewhere, looks like Aldi have carrots and parsnips for 19p a bag, with potatoes, cauliflower and spring onions for 29p, as part of the current Super 6. I spotted carrots, parsnips, swede and spring greens for 20p each in ASDA. Tesco is also running ‘3 for £1’ on carrots, parsnips, cauliflower, cabbage and onions.
Stocking up while prices are low should keep us in soups, stews and roasted veg for ages. I’ve stashed a bargain leg of lamb in the freezer for Easter Sunday, and am hoping for yellow sticker savings afterwards.
Much More With Less #MoneySavingYear Facebook group
Even when I’m AWOL on the blog, I do try to post a money saving tip each day in the Much More With Less #MoneySaving Year Facebook group. Do come over and join us, to share tips and support – would be great to see you on Facebook! It’s a closed group, which means any posts and replies are only seen by members of the group, and not splashed all over your normal feed.
So now, over to you. Any thrifty successes to share? Tips for surviving Easter without breaking the bank? I’d love to hear, so do comment below.
I’m linking up with Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Five fabulously frugal things I’ve done this week’ linky.
*indicates an affiliate link, so anything you buy through it will help support the blog, as I will get a small commission at no cost to you. Many thanks!
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Hello
Great reading. Not sure I can get up to 5 but at the end of last week when I had FINALLY finished forking out for all the 5 birthday outings, presents etc including BOTH my children that take place 24 March – 3 April PLUS Mother’s Day (3 people there so 3 more to add), it got to Saturday and I needed a NO SPEND day.
So I had paid in advance for Slimming World and I had a voucher for a free hot drink courtesy of McDonalds monopoly so I still met my friend at McD at breakfast time. I spent the rest of the day tidying the house.
I did discover that Adam’s old trainers that he has grown out of fit me so I finally have some trainers, so a saving there.
I didn’t think I had done very well with the birthdays but I had won a few free Vue cinema tickets on that Co-op Oasis comp and my friend also gave me some so I had enough for Rachel, her 3 friends, Adam and I all to go and see Dumbo for free. However, she also went to Yo Sushi AND got a new bike as she had grown out of her old one so still expensive.
Easter Eggs – well, we all still like Buttons best so that’s what we get and I would have ended up buying them twice – but I won a competition and the first prize was a hamper of Thorntons Easter Eggs so they have those for Easter. Saved buying them twice but not really a saving as I still bought them, I suppose. Happy Easter to you all.
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