The Frugal Home

I love a loyalty card and these little gems of plastic are a fantastic way to earn freebies, coupons, discounts and of course points. My purse is bursting at the seams from loyalty cards and I wouldn't be without a single one of them. So lets talk loyalty. The first loyalty card I picked up was a Boots Advantage card when I was about sixteen and so my love for loyalty began. I'll talk about the cards I have and the perks of them living in your purse. Health & Beauty Boots Advantage Card The advantage card rewards you four points for every pound you spend in store and online. One point equates to a penny which I know doesn't sound like very much but all those pennies soon add up. If you have an Advantage Card, Boots regularly send coupons through the post for extra points, money off and sometimes a coupon for a free product. I don't typically spend a vast amount in Boots but believe me the points certainly add up over the year which I save...

It's that time of year again, Christmas is creeping up on us so of course the world of retail reel us in with the promise of amazing deals. Love it or hate it, Black Friday is coming.  Organisation is key and a strong will is essential to navigate through the mayhem of what Black Friday can bring. Hopefully these tips will save you time, money and arguably most importantly, your sanity.  If you know your going to be purchasing items during Black Friday, the first and possibly the most important step to do is make a list of everything you plan on buying. Then research the current prices of each item and compare them across 4 or 5 retailers. So when Black Friday hits you know exactly what the prices were beforehand and who is offering the best price during the event. That way you aren't been sold a false economy and parting with more of your hard earned money than you need too. Only buy the items you have planned for. Don't be lead to believe you need that...

Product testing is a great way to try new products and save money at the same time. I have had everything from health & beauty, household, food and pet food products to test. There are a number of product testing sites I use and can highly recommend. There are also opportunities to test products through survey sites. Ninety per cent of the time you don't know what brand the product is which I found gives a very honest opinion of the product because you aren't influenced by a brands reputation. However there will be products you are sent to try where the brand name will either be visible on the packaging or the researcher will have informed you of the brand. The sites I use are: Glamour Beauty Club Clicks Research Alba Science Savvy Circle Boots When you sign up to the sites you will have a pre-screening survey to match you with appropriate products. When there is a product that fits your criteria you will be sent an email to invite you to t...

The lovely people at Childs Farm were kind enough to send a selection of samples for my daughter to try. These products are free from parabens, SLSs mineral oils and artificial colours. Perfect for her eczema prone skin. The packaging is original, fun and colourful. Even before using these products we already love them just for the scents alone. They smell amazing. The bubble bath produces a tub full of bubbles much to my daughters delight. Most bubble baths dry her skin out but not so with the Childs Farm bubbles. The moisturiser hydrates perfectly without been greasy and again smells amazing. The shampoo and conditioner leave hair tangle free which in our house is a relief, no more fighting through knots. Childs Farm looks like you have a new fan. Tempted to use the products myself. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to try your wonderful products. You can purchase Childs Farm from  https://www.childsfarm.com/  or most supermarke...

Swagbucks is a little like Marmite, you either love it or hate it. However, unlike Marmite you can learn to love it. When I first started using Swagbucks a couple of years ago, I lasted only a couple of months on it. It just seemed very chaotic and hard work, not what I was looking for from a survey site so I gave up on it. Fast forward to this year and I kept hearing people say Swagbucks is amazing, by far my best earner and so on. So with a new determination I gave Swagbucks a second chance. Now don't get me wrong the site it's self is still crammed with information and different ways to earn but I took some time to look around the site and familiarise myself with it. The first thing I do each day is complete the To Do List which can be found on the left hand side of the home page. You get SBs for the activities on the list plus a bonus if you complete all the activities. At the top of the page you will find your Daily Goal which I recommend tr...

Receipt apps are new to the money saving world and are one of my favourite ways to earn. You simply download the app to your phone or tablet and take pictures of your receipts.  You earn points for each receipt which you save up and cash out for either Amazon gift cards or to Pay Pal. It really is as easy as that. The apps I use are: Shopprize Shoppix Receipt Hog Shopprize Shopprize offer you a £5 Amazon gift card once you reach 10,000 coins. You receive coins by uploading your receipts and bonus coins for logging in each day. Shoppix Not only can you upload receipts but there are surveys to take part in. These usually only consist of a couple of questions. Once you reach 3,200 tokens you can cash out either to Pay Pal, Amazon, iTunes or Love 2 Shop vouchers. You can sign up to Shoppix using my referral code: 7CXAHJLD Receipt Hog Receipt Hog is a slow burner as you need more coins to cash out but if your already snapping pictures of your receipt...

Survey apps are another way to earn a little extra. What I like about survey apps is how convenient they are.  Download them onto your phone or tablet and there available at your finger tips. The surveys are usually very quick and easy to complete and most pay out instantly.  The apps I use are: Citizen Me One Pulse Street Bees Survey Bods Citizen Me Citizen Me surveys take literally seconds to answer and they pay out to Pay Pal immediately.  The surveys are usually 10p but for a couple of seconds of questions you really can not go wrong with this one. All those 10 pence add up quicker than you think. One Pulse  One Pulse are very quick surveys, usually consisting of a just two or three questions. You can cash out to Pay Pal when you reach the £5 mark. Street Bees Street Bees offer surveys which they call tasks or stories and each one pays a different amount. This will be clear on the survey before you start.  Sometimes you will be ...

Survey sites are great earning opportunity. I particularly enjoy completing surveys as you are providing feedback on a range of subjects and sometimes a survey can lead to a product test. I use a number of different sites and I suggest signing up to a few different ones to see which ones work for you. Swagbucks To start with I use a site called Swagbucks. You can complete surveys, watch videos and earn bonuses from a range of different activities. One thing I would say about Sawgbucks is, spend time on the site exploring all the different ways of earning points as it can be a little overwhelming if not.  You can cash out the points for various gift cards, PayPal or even donate to charity. You can sign up to Swagbucks using my referral below: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/bg06 Prolific Prolific is a very interesting survey site as the studies are from universities so the studies do not follow your typical survey questions. Places on the studies fill up...

Cashback apps are a great way to save on your weekly shop and pick up a few freebies along the way. Download the app to your phone or tablet and get ready to earn cashback on your grocery shopping. So the way it works is you buy the product listed, upload your receipt to the app and are then rewarded your cashback. The amount of cashback is different for each item. It could be anything from 30p to the full amount. These are updated regularly with new products so check them often. My advice would be don't buy something just because you can get cashback on it because then it becomes a false economy - I have been there so I know. Buy the products you know you will use and that you or your family like. The only exception I have to this is, if there is a free product where I am getting 100% cashback that me and my family won't use I purchase it and then donate it to a food bank. The apps available are: CheckoutSmart Clicksnap GreenJinn Shopmium Yo...

A great way to save money is through freebies. This is where a company or brand offer a product completely free.  This can be done through subscribing to their newsletters or through a promotion when there is a product they want to push which could be an existing product or something brand new to the market. Freebies are usually sample size but sometimes if we are really lucky they can be full size products. Sometimes brands also include a money off coupon with the freebie, another way to maximise savings. Freebie pages on Facebook are an invaluable source of all the latest free products. My favourite Facebook pages are Latest Free Stuff, Wow Free Stuff and Gratisfaction UK. These pages also have websites, which I will link below: www.latestfreestuff.co.uk www.wowfreestuff.co.uk www.gratisfaction.co.uk These sites are updated daily with all the new and latest freebies. I suggest subscribing to their newsletters and following their Fa...

Hi, I'm Natasha a single mum of two beautiful girls. I have been struggling with debts and generally struggling to meet everyday living costs. I decided I had to do something about this to make a positive change. So as a result I invite you on this journey of saving and making money online.