Welcome back to Broke in Bristol – the blog that helps you save money, make money and live life to the full on a budget. I’m Ms Broke in Bristol and I’ve got 10 tips that will save you money this week!
This week I’ll be taking Little Miss Diva to a free My PetPals workshop at Pets at Home in Brislington. This is a free 30 minute workshop, which will teach kids how to look after their pets and they can choose from two sessions: Small Furries or Scales and Fins. There’s still some availability, click here to find your nearest workshop, you could even win a trip to New York!
There are also free bike workshops at Halfords this summer and, when I booked Little Miss Diva in yesterday, there were still spaces at its store in Brislington but the ones at Eastgate had all gone. These free bike maintenance workshops teach 7 to 11 year olds basic bike maintenance such as how to fix a puncture, how to adjust a saddle, how to put a chain back on and basic bike safety. Soon she’ll be showing me what to do!
Free cinema ticket
I’m a little too late for this deal because I’ve already signed up with cashback site TopCahback, but if you haven’t signed up yet it has an added incentive to entice you in. Buy a cinema ticket before August 14, sign up to Topcashback for free and download the app. Click ‘in-store’ cashback followed by ‘Snap & Save’ and look for the ‘Free Cinema Ticket New Member Deal’. You’ll need to take a picture of your receipt, showing the time and date of purchase along with the cinema name – but then you’ll be given £10 back – not bad for a few minutes work!
Kids go free hotel rooms
If we hadn’t already booked our holiday, I’d be tempted to take advantage of Novotel’s latest deal. It’s letting two kids under 16 stay for free if they’re staying in your room ‘til 11 September and they’ll throw in a free kid’s breakfast too! You can also use your Tesco vouchers, for every £10 in Clubcard vouchers you exchange you’ll get £30 to put towards your stay at Novotel.
Get fit for less
Ms Skint Single Mum told me about a great fitness deal that she’s managed to bag. She’s signed up to Workout Bristol in Southville for just £9.99 a month. She has a daytime membership so it means she has to go between 8-4pm weekdays and 8-8pm on weekends, but she also gets free classes during the week and access to the sauna. There’s no contract, so she can cancel at any time, and there’s a ladies only gym too. Or you can work out for free, check out Ms Skint Single Mum’s five free fitness apps review by clicking here.
Budget
If things are really tough and there’s more money going out than coming in, I’d suggest sitting down and working out your monthly budget. Most of the time when we do this we forget to include things like holidays and summer days out with the kids, but we’ve come across what we think is the best tool out there. Try Money Saving Expert, Martin Lewis’, Budget Brain tool because this will really help you to account for every household expenditure.
Sales, sales, sales…
This time of year is great for sales and I’ve managed to pick up a few bargain bits for summer. Tesco has an up to 50% sale on at the moment and if you’re in-store, you can also treat the kids to free apples, citrus fruit and bananas. These should be available for parents at the beginning of their shop in over 800 stores (more likely to be the bigger stores!)
Back to school
I’m sure the summer holidays will fly by so I’m already starting to pick up odd bits for Little Miss Diva’s return to school in September. The good news is that School uniforms have never been so cheap, with Aldi and Lidl both selling full school uniforms for less than £4! Morrisons is the latest supermarket to jump on the bandwagon and it’s now selling new school uniforms, such as a pack of two polo shirts, for just £2. It also has a 200 day money back guarantee, so if you think the quality is compromised because it’s cheap you can always take it back!
There are still five weeks of the school holidays to get through so if you’re stuck for ideas of what to do – check out my 25 free & cheap things to do in and around Bristol. If you hear of a cheap local deal or event feel free to leave a comment on our Facebook Page and we’ll do our best to spread the word. Don’t forget to like our Facebook page, so that you never miss an update!
