Meet the "Scrimpers" - Felicia

I'm interviewing the lovely Felicia from felis_freebies with questions on the subject of her money-saving hobby.

Felicia will be the first money-saver that I will be interviewing as part of my new series of inspiring stories and people.

Hello Felicia and thank you for joining me on The Frugal Teen for a Q&A session!

So what made you start saving money?

I started actively money saving as I thought it would be a fun hobby. Saving money can be pretty boring, but couponing & freebies looked like a good way to add to my savings.

I first got into freebies in 2011 and then a few months later I got into couponing but at a very basic level. I had a few coupons & freebies now and again but nothing serious.

It's only this year that I have decided to step up my couponing and freebie game as I have more free time so I can fully indulge in my hobby!

Aw that's great to hear! But to date what's your proudest money-saving achievement?

My two main

achievements

regarding freebies have come from emailing companies.

I emailed Colgate a compliment and they sent £5 worth of coupons and Seabrook sent me a box of 48 crisps!

Oh wow that's very impressive, I'm guessing this is a very successful method for you. Do you have any other tips for saving money?

Yes I do in fact.

My first tip would be to always use cashback websites for online shopping. I know a lot of people are unaware of all the companies you can receive cashback from but there are hundreds! From insurance companies to travel & days out.

E.g I used Topcashback to book theatre tickets and got £3.23 cashback from a £40 spend. I also booked a hotel stay via Quidco and got £9.64 cashback.

>> Check my cashback app guide here

Another tip would be regarding clothing: wait for that full priced item you love to go on offer or sale. The item will eventually go on sale or a discount code will pop up.

Another clothing tip is to buy your clothes a season ahead. A lot of summer clothes will be on sale in winter as stores try to clear old stock and vice versa.

Something I always do and which I advise is to use the price comparison app called 'MySupermarket' to keep a track of particular prices. You can set up price drop notifications so you will get an alert when a product goes on sale.

Thank you very much for these tips Felicia. What's your favourite thing about money-saving?

My favourite part of money saving is the social aspect. I've met some lovely people in the community and we're all here to help each other.

My favourite method of saving money is via cashback apps/sites. I've saved well over £200 with cashback apps/sites such as Topcashback, Quidco, Shopmium, Checkoutsmart and Clicksnap in just over a year.

It's great that you've met others with the same passion. Do you spend a long time couponing and hunting freebies etc.?

Actually contrary to what many people think, you don't need to spend a lot time couponing. I spend no more than 20 mins emailing companies a week and around an 2-3 hours couponing a week.

So would you say money-saving has impacted your life then?

Yes it has impacted me very much so! Actively money saving has enabled me to actually put money away easily every month.

I also love saving my family money as well and I've become the 'go-to' person when it comes to booking anything or buying anything!

Thank you for answering my questions today and I wish you lots of freebies and savings in the future!

Thank you, and for all those reading, I hope you can save money with my tips as well!