 Our new little lady has kindly cost us very little since she was born.Wearing her big brother's cosy boy clothes and using every piece of equipment that we bought for little lad, the only real outlay has been four Emma Jane nursing bras when I first came out of hospital.However, I've been a bit unhappy with the Baby Bjorn Miracle carrier that we've been using. As she has grown to become the strapping 5 month old girl that she is now, the Baby Bjorn carrier seems to less carry her, but dangle her from her crotch. This cannot be good for a girl of any age.A bit of digging later, and I found out about the Ergobaby carrier - essentially a rucksack-style Mei Tai carrier, which can be used with baby facing in, on your hip or on your back.Crucially, your baby's legs are positioned nice and high up around your waist, rather than dangling down. Of course you could make your own cloth version, but as little lady naps in the carrier, I need as much padding around the shoulders and support around the middle as I can get.They don't come cheap though - Amazon list the Performance Carrier at £104. However, go directly to their UK Site, and you can buy exactly the same carrier in Euro, instead of GBP. Simply by keeping an eye on the exchange rate, you can potentially save a bit of money.As for the Ergobaby Performance carrier? So far, so good.
Best of all, noone's being dangled by their crotch.
 Recently, our 2 year old boy has made the leap into his own room - complete with bed (gulp) hazards (ooft) and of course, a means of escape. I never thought that I'd miss a cot so much. However, since he broke his collar bone, our son even considering sleeping in his cot has been a non-starter. Since then, we have moved out of our one bedroom flat and in with Granny and Grandpa until we are able to find a larger place of our own. Anyway - the move has resulted in our son moving into his own room - not an easy transition (he's been used to sharing a room since birth), but it also resulted in a trip to Mothercare to buy a bit of safety equipment.A safety gate and baby monitor were on our shopping list, after finding the best online deal. However, what we discovered to our joy that was that Mothercare actually have a 'reduced section' of returned goods - baby monitors, safety gates and more besides. Even a ridiculously expensive video monitor was slashed to half price.It goes to show not always to rely on online outlets for the best prices.As for the quality of the safety gate and monitor - they're absolutely fine. As for how our little boy is getting on in his own room for the first time - well, we'll get there. At least he's contained.
 New bras and pants can maketh the woman, especially if she is in need of something new post nursing or pregnancy.
With this in mind, here's a discount code for Figleaves that gives you £5 off your total bill: FIGFIVER (expires 30th April 2012).
Figleaves have a very wide range of sizes to choose from, from the smallest to the largest sizes.
They stock a lot of different brands (including nursing/maternity options), and have a range of different delivery options available.
This can come in handy, if like me, you manage to haul yourself and child to an actual shop, only to find said shop doesn't stock your size. Ah.
Happy shopping!
 It is with great interest that I heard about the launch of Marks & Spencer's Online Outlet Store today. I've never been too well aquainted with outlet stores, as they tend to be in rather inaccessible locations off motorways. What's more, I don't really want to have a 'daytrip' spent shopping on our small budget (it would be a rather short day out, shall we say). However, the online M&S Outlet Store holds great promise. We wouldn't have to spend any money on petrol getting there, and we wouldn't have to stop for tea and cake refreshments either (we have some lovely biscuits here already). I have had a proper mooch about, and can faithfully report that they offer a reasonable selection of baby and children's wear, averaging 30% below the original RRP.Free delivery is available when you spend £30 or more, and orders are taken and despatched by Amazon (is there nothing Amazon don't do now?). Be warned though - any returns are paid for by the customer, not by a regular free-returns system. Happy shopping!
 Travelling with children on motorways this Christmas holiday presents many parents with a few challenges: - entertainment
- loo stops
- feeding
- maintaining sanity in the face of seat kicking/are-we-nearly-there-yet/he's hitting me mummy...
Before having our little lad, motorway journeys were often punctuated with breaks in little villages just off the motorway. We'd find a lovely local pub, gorge on scampi, hearty meat pies and savour the homely smell of Britvic and Beer stained carpets. Ah. However, now as the Proud Parents of Little Lad, we are more prisoners to convenience than to our palettes. With a toddler in the car, moseying down an A road in anticipation of finding a friendly hostelry is most unlikely. What fulfils that requirement however, is the (groan) service station. Ones with predictable nappy changing facilities, high chairs and some form of caffeine. Such places are expensive. Ever so, in fact. Why they should be anything other than dear would be sheer folly, in the face of armies of frazzled parents and hungry children. Is there a way to cut down on the cost of using these service stations? Oddly enough, there is, and you might not even realise you can do it. On a recent motorway schlep along the M6, Little Lad's beloved Grandpa discovered that by flashing his AA member card, you can receive a 20% discount on food and drink at MOTO Service Stations. Considering how quickly the costs of such a break mount up, this discount can give you a considerable saving. The thing is, this discount is not advertised within the service station. What's more, a lot of people (ie me) completely forget about any associated discounts that come with membership to the AA. The next time you're planning a motorway trip, check your roadside benefits. They may just save you a small fortune. Do you have a motorway moneysaver? Please comment below!
 "Ireland." "Nyaaa" "Ireland. "Nyaaaaa." Thus began mammasaver's Christmas travelling plans with our little lad. Although as yet unable to say the name of the land of saints, scholars, his granny and grandpa's (ham sandwiches and extraordinarily strong tea), we will be travelling there over Christmas. This is a big challenge to the mammasaver budget. Travelling with our toddler in tow means that any super cheap, frugal options are just not feasible for us. That is not to say however, that I shrank from the challenge of shrinking our travelling costs. The first challenge was The Flight. Did you know that by avoiding Ryanair (HUZZAH!), you can in fact travel for a similar cost on a different carrier? We used Topcashback.com, and discovered that Flybe are listed there, giving 3% cashback on flights booked. Flybe's luggage allowance is generous, as is their child equipment policy, meaning that we didn't have to pay for additional luggage. Huzzah again. All in, Flybe's flights came in a little less than Ryanair's, and will deliver us to more convenient airport, saving us money on car fuel. This leads me on to the next challenge: The Car. I am almost certain that as a result of writing this, that Michael O'Leary will come over to our flat overnight and paint our windows in Ryanair's branded colours. However, it is most definitely worth sharing. Did you know, that by clicking through from the Ryanair website to the Hertz Ryanair booking page, that you can save 25% on their car hire costs, without even having a Ryanair booking? With this discount, the car hire is cheaper than anything found on a car hire comparison site. Click here for the link, if you want to avoid going through the Ryanair website. All in, we have saved enough money through these little tricks to pay for two nice Christmas presents - about £50. Not bad!
 As you may have picked up from previous posts, the mammasaver household has made a small fortune using Topcashback.co.uk, a site which gives you cashback on your online purchases. Most retailers (large and small) are listed, and it's a very quick and easy way of securing a discount online. One such retailer is the mighty Marks and Spencer, who are offering 9% cashback on purchases until midnight today. Combined with their 50% off women's and children's-wear sale, you could save a pretty penny on expensive winter clothes. For a run down of how to sign up to Topcashback, click here.Get your skates on though - the offer ends tonight!
 Just in time for a spot of Christmas shopping, Mothercare published this 10% discount code to Twitter. In case anyone doesn't have it, here it is for you to use! You can print off and use in store, or use the code 4QF6 online. Used in conjunction with Topcashback, you could receive a discount totalling 15%. Not bad!
 Last week, a chunky letter from the AA dropped through our letterbox.
Containing new membership cards and a wealth of corporate information, our breakdown service gleefully announced that we had to do nothing to renew our car breakdown cover. Helpfully, they would simply withdraw more than £120 from our account at the end of the month.
"Just try it, Johnny AA" I thought. Nobody 'simply withdraws' plentiful sums from the household bank account under the guise of being helpful.
My plan was to phone them and cancel our membership, and go through the rigmarole of price comparison sites, cashback sites and so on.
However, when I called them, something rather extraordinary happened.
"You're through to the UK's fourth emergency service. My name is Darius: how may I help you?"
Two things leapt out at me. What would the coastguard think of being denigrated to the country's fifth emergency service? Secondly, it's a long way to fall from X Factor to a call centre for our friend Darius.
"May I ask why you're leaving us?" he asked, chirpily.
"Tightening the belt" I replied, trying to body-swerve a sales schpeel.
"Let's see what I can do. £60. Is that tight enough for you?" asked Darius, mini microphone spouting the deal through the phone line.
Within the time it took little lad to inspect two crayons, a great saving had been made with minimal hassle. I'm sure there are cheaper deals out there to be had, but the discounts on car hire that the AA offer tend to level things up for us.
Heaven forfend the AA ever need to be rescued by the coastguard...
 stock up now on autumn winter for less! Hot off the press, we have received a discount code for Verbaudet! It offers 30% of your first item and 10% off thereafter. Not bad, if you're stocking up on autumn/winter clothes now. Order Code 0187Wherever there is a sale or discount, buying a season in advance can save you a great deal of money. If I had the ability to get up at 5am for anything other than a crying toddler, I would have hot footed it down to the Next sale for just that same thing. However, a bit of sleep does come in handy sometimes, too. As for Verbaudet, the quality is very good and offers something a little different from our high street stores. On occasion, they also have weirdly translated English slogans on their funky t shirts - always worth checking out for a giggle!
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