I’m judging the Nectar Savvy Family competition on Friday.

There are amazing prizes on offer -

• Four easyJet flights
• £500 Sainsbury’s gift card
• A year’s Home Care policy from British Gas
• £500 from BP to spend on fuel
• A week’s car hire in Europe from Hertz
• £500 Vision Express gift card
• A Wii console package from American Express
• 50,000 Nectar points

…so it’s worth it for the 8 families involved. I wouldn’t mind those prizes myself!

So the families are busy filling their blogs with loads of money-saving ideas.

For example, the Yates family from Cumbria has been gathering free food from the hedgerows and having a great family day out doing it (for free of course!).

The Augrandjean family also get free food, this time by mystery shopping. You know how much of an advocate I am of mystery shopping because it’s such a great way of getting food for free. We even have a mystery shopping ebook, we’re that into it!

The Dingwall family very sensibly share childcare and entertainment with friends and family. This is so helpful in so many areas of our lives. If we can share and help each other out, everyone wins!

The Cumbo family’s nan is a source of money-saving wisdom – this time about cleaning and cleaning products – and so many older people have great, thrifty wisdom we should be asking them for help in these tough times.

So that’s just a few tips from just four of the families taking part. They’re all coming up with great ideas, showing us all how any family can save money and have genuine fun at the same time. One of them is going to get a fabulous prize soon so take a look and see which one you think is the best!