Mumsclub.co.uk - a business site for mummies

I have found a superb website for business mums, it's run by Jane Hopkins and openly allows you to promote your business without fear of abusing forum guidelines and getting yourself kicked off.

There is a marketplace section for you to promote your products or services and also a forum which covers marketing & pr, business networking, green issues and other interesting business related topics.

You can pick up some great tips, post for help and also bag a few discounts and bargains from other mummy-run businesses.

Perhaps you are a stay-at-home mum and would like to use the other members as a sounding board for setting up your own home-based business, it really is a useful and supportive site so check it out www.mumsclub.co.uk

The London Dungeon and cherryade...a disturbing day out for all the family!

I remember when I was 11-12 years old and our local kids club took us on a day trip to the London Dungeons, on the coach journey I drank 2 small bottles of cherryade and stuffed my little cheeks full of sweets.

We got to the gates of the dungeon and I was so scared to go in I was sick all over the place, they literally had to drag me in....even today, years and years later I am still too scared to go back into The London Dugeons, what a baby!!! but then again, I get scared going downstairs on my own in the dark....no help for me is there?!

BaBeeCard get's you up to a 50% discount for 2 adults and 2 children (if you are brave enough to go that is).

Original price: £63.80
BaBeeCard price: £31.92
Total saving of: £31.88

The Best way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it once. - H. V. Prochnow

Well I am pleased to say my fiance didn't forget mine but my dad and 2 brothers did!!! must be a man thing, although my cousin and at least a handful of female friends did also, perhaps I confused them as my birthday is today but I am having a dinner party on Saturday (well it better be because of that or there really will be trouble.)

The birthday this year I am most looking forward to is my sons, it will be his first and he just adores Iggle Piggle (bizarre blue character with a red blanket habit) so am looking into themes to keep not only my son entertained but all his cousins and little ankle biter friends amuzed too!

http://www.partybox.co.uk/ is a fab site offering themed party supplies. From In the night garden to Dora the explorer, vicars and tarts (for the adults of course!!) to Bratz, Bob the builder and even....a lifesize cutout of Elvis??? Hilarious!

BaBeeCard will get you a 10% discount on all your party supplies so you can make it a day to remember.

Do you brush your teeth before 12pm? Ocado.com

Running a business and looking after a baby are full-time jobs in themselves, which is why my days seem to fly by, before I know it the cupboards are empty again and it's time to go grocery shopping. (Bah humbug!)

I read somewhere recently in a survey that some mothers don't brush their teeth until around 12pm each day due to the crazy demands on their time. Well, I wouldn't like to agree that that is true in my case (I may get myself an unwanted nickname) but I would agree that time just seems to slip through your fingers from the moment you wake up (or baby wakes you) until you crawl up the stairs praying for a full nights sleep.

It's common knowledge that I tend to over complicate things in my mind but the truth is even a simple trip to the supermarket becomes a serious mission to not only get myself and my son ready but to also keep a lid on my bubbling temper. (Trolly rage).

I live in a little hamlet of 8 houses, which requires me to get us both ready (making sure he has been fed and changed before so we don't get caught short) then bend at an unnatural angle to get him into his car seat via a 3 door car! one leg in, back bent and one leg out (oh the hockey cokey), I then have to hold my keys between clenched teeth as my son arches his back to reach them making it almost impossible to lock him into his seat. I usually bang my head as I try and climb backwards out of the car.

A 6 mile drive lays ahead to the nearest supermarket and then when the joys of supermarket shopping with an 8 month old baby who likes to try and grab all and sundry fromt he shelves is over we then have to repeat the entire hockey cokey process backwards to get home.

To say I dread the weekly supermarket run is an understatement!

Last night my life changed, something as simple as using my Waitrose vouchers online to pay at ocado.com and have the shopping delivered to my door has left me with a big, fat smile on my face and has freed up some valuable time to do something else, like steam the bottles, get dinner on, clean the house, iron the shirts, do the laundry etc (demands on a modern day woman!)

I ordered my shopping last night and the goods arrived about 30 mins ago, so I got an 8% discount on the vouchers, Ocado delivered to my door, they gave me a voucher code for a free bottle of wine with my next order and, get this, they colour coded my shopping bags :-) so I don't have to hunt through the bags to put the items away.

Genius!

TOMS shoes now on sale in UK

Let's give something back!

TOMS shoes are now available to buy in the UK through The Shoe Studio which has outlets in major department stores, see my previous post below for more about the cause.

I am getting the purple polka dot pair for Summer and love the idea of a child in the third world getting a pair for free purely from my purchase.

Credit card & debit card fraud on the news today

Up at 6.30am (trying to get my son into a new earlier routine to
tire him out so he has more naps in the day so mummy can work) and I caught the breakfast news.

Credit and debit card fraud is up by 25% which is not only staggering but also pretty scary when you think about how many families use credit cards as a means to purchase their essentials before baby is born and also during the childs growing years.

I had no idea when I was pregnant just how much all the little bits and pieces would set me back financially, let alone the big purchases such as a nursery items, pram, car seat, feeding equipment etc .The thought of going to pay for them all and the card being declined due to the credit on the card being stolen just doesn't bear thinking about, does it? I am sure many families pay via credit credit card even for grocery shopping so the rise in fraud can have a serious impact on a families survival day-to-day.

BaBeeCard has a feature that allows you to lock / unlock your card vie SMS text message. So say for example, you were worried about your card being cloned in a shop, restaurant or via the Internet you could send a text enabling the card to be locked immediately after the transaction, then when you were ready to use the card again you would just need to send another text to unlock it and hey presto! it's ready to use.

This is a very handy feature if you misplace or lose the card. If you are anything like me, I leave my debit card in the most bizarre places (like underneath the kettle??!) I had to cancel the debit card due to it being lost, got a new one through the post and then found it when I moved the kettle.

It costs 20p to unlock or lock the card but if security is a big issue for you then 20p here and there is a small price to pay for peace of mind and in times of doubt.

For family holidays abroad it could come in very useful indeed!

Another big purchase at MotherCare

MotherCare have now become a disount partner - offering a 5% discount on their vouchers.

Back when I was 6 months pregnant I fell in love with the Quinny range which came in the most amazing colour, as a huge SHREK fan the colours reminded me of him (I just had to have it)



Infant carrier / car seat: £104.99
Carry cot: £134.99
Buggy with wheel frame: £329.99

Original price: £569.97
BaBeeCard price: £541.47
Total saving of: £28.49

My son is now nearly 8 months old and I will be needing to buy a new car seat (I think) as the one I have is birth up to 12 months. So I am due another purchase of at least £100.00 and I also can't be trusted once inside MotherCare as I always find cute things to buy or practical things I never use :-)

So on the travel system (which I highly recommend if you are pregnant or just given birth) you could save £28.49 which may not sound like a huge amount but it does equate to any of the following:

A MotherCare newborn starter bag: £24.99
An infant first aid kit: £16.99
A 10 piece unisex starter kit (babygrows etc) £14.00

Or

A nice bottle of pink champers and some candles for mummy's bathtime (Waitrose / John Lewis vouchers 8% off, so for £28.41 you are actually getting £30.76 worth!)

So you can see, even with a small saving you can make it work for you in other ways. The thing is when you have kids is that alot of purchases are a neccessity rather than a luxury so using your discounts to cover other child costs helps to alleviate some financial stress.