To counteract the credit crunch hitting our household any further then it already is I’ve now cut my Virgin Media package to the bear minimum, reduced Mel’s phone to the cheapest best package we could get out of Vodafone, which was 600 mins and unlimited texts for £14.99 a month, no extra charges on top, so straight away I’ve saved £55 a month on bills.

I’ve also asked my mum for a % free loan to clear off 2 credit cards and a bank loan, which will be paid back at £350 a month, but will save us about £50-70 a month in payments and interest fees, so not doing to badly there, whats that total in all ? about £100 a month saved at the Its’ a blog household.

Also cancelled my subscription to 2000AD and Judge Dredd the Megazine, thats saved about £8 a month, its all adding up . . . the next thing is to try giving up smoking again, which by far will be the hardest thing to do, but got to give it a go if I want to start saving money again.

So if I’ve tried stopping smoking before, what makes me think that this time I might succedd, well my sisters been smoking for probably as long as me and she’s managed to stop, ok its only been 3-4 months, but its certainly much longer then I’ve ever managed and how has she managed this, well she’s been prescribed a drug called “Champix” the drug works by binding to nicotine receptors in the brain. Nicotine stimulates the production of dopamine, which is the “pleasure” chemical in the brain.

By attaching itself to the receptors normally used by nicotine, Champix fools the brain into thinking it’s had nicotine – so satisying the craving for a cigarette or so the info informs us, easiest way to find out if it works I suppose is to give it a try.