Mum saves £70 a month using BaBeeCard

I could pay for a family holiday with the savings I make!

Mum saves £70 a month using BaBeeCard

Thirty one year old Linda Allen from Leighton Buzzard stopped working after the birth of her first child Dylan (now 19 months old). She’s expecting her second baby in May 2009. The Allen family are fortunate to be able to live off husband Howie’s salary, but like most families relying on one income, money has gotten tighter.

Linda heard about the BaBeeCard from a friend in summer 2008 and decided to give it a try. “Initially I was a slightly confused as to how it worked but after a very helpful chat with the customer service team, I could see the benefits and started to use it,” she explains.

“I use the card mostly for buying vouchers for my monthly groceries at Waitrose. I buy £550 worth of vouchers off the BaBeeCard site and within 3 days they arrive at my door. Because Waitrose offers BaBeeCard members an 8% discount, I get £550 worth of groceries for just £506. That’s a saving of £44 every month! I love the quality of the food from Waitrose so it’s great that I can continue to buy the things I want as the savings make it affordable. The other stores like M&S, ASDA and Sainsburys also offer vouchers with 5% off, so there are savings no matter which supermarket you regularly use.”

She continues: “I can use the vouchers in store or online with Ocado. All it takes is a little bit of forward planning to buy the vouchers in advance, but once you’re in the habit, it’s simple. Now when my husband gets paid, I immediately buy our grocery vouchers and know that the food for the month is taken care of. By setting a monthly grocery budget and buying vouchers for that amount, I’ve become far better at sticking to my budget and not overspending on unnecessary things,” she says.

Linda also uses her BaBeeCard for clothes for herself and her children. “I mainly use the card with JoJo Maman Bebe, The White Company and John Lewis but there are many other shops that are included in the BaBeeCard discount club.

“It really does save you money. For example, I bought a top from The White Company recently. It cost £40. Using the card, I got 10% off plus I didn’t have to pay the £4.95 delivery fee, which meant I ended up paying £31 instead – a saving of £9.”

The family have also used their BaBeeCard for some big ticket items. “We were in need of a new TV and were hunting around for a good deal at Christmas time. After receiving an email from BaBeeCard alerting us to a great 13% off offer from Comet, we found a big screen TV that had been reduced from £1000 to just over £800 and once we applied our BaBeeCard discount, paid only £720.”

"It really does save you money"Linda Allen

Linda estimates that with her monthly £40 grocery bill saving plus the combined discounts off other purchases, she saves in the region of £70 per month or £840 per year. “If I was more diligent I could put those savings away and use it to pay for a family holiday. Instead I use the money I save for those little extras that I don’t plan on or treats. Just this month my son needed a new pair of shoes. My grocery saving alone meant I could buy him two pairs without feeling the pinch!”

Like most second time mums, Linda is spending less on her new baby as she can reuse much of the baby equipment and clothes she’s already got. But she wishes she’d had a BaBeeCard the first time she had a baby. “We went into Mothercare and easily spent £1200. As first time parents you want everything and you want it all new because it’s so much fun picking the stuff out. Had I had a BaBeeCard then, I could have saved myself £60 – or in effect, the cost of a travel cot!”

Linda’s tips to other mums:

• Work out what you spend on groceries a month and buy vouchers with your BaBeeCard to pay for them.
• Everytime you need a big ticket item, check the BaBeeCard discount club first to see if you can get a deal on what you need.
• First time mums, don’t set foot into a baby shop without getting a BaBeeCard. It will save you a fortune!
• Get a BaBeeCard. It’s a no brainer. Why pay more for something if you don’t have to?