May 21, 2014 9.24 am This story is over 118 months old

Saving-savvy Lincoln couple runners up in national contest

Thrifty credentials: A prison officer and an engineer from Lincoln have been named as runners up in a national ‘savvy family’ competition after blogging their money-saving tips.
Lincoln couple Karen O’Callaghan and Matthew Bowskill were named as runners up in a national 'savviest family' competition.

A prison officer and an engineer from Lincoln have been named as runners up in a national “savvy family” competition after blogging their money-saving tips.

The O’Callaghan-Bowskill family were originally selected to go head-to-head with seven other frugal families in the Nectar Savvy Family Competition in April.

After pitting their thrifty credentials against almost 2,000 entrants, prison officer Karen and her fiance Matthew have been updating blog readers with tips on how they can save money.

Karen and Matthew wrote advice on everything from shopping and days out to holidays and household bills.

Among their list of tips, the couple blogged suggestions such as savvy grocery shopping and even growing your own wedding flowers.

The blogs were judged by a panel that included TV property presenter, Sarah Beeny, Money-Saving Champion and founder of LetsSaveMoney.com, Sarah Willingham and Nectar Managing Director, Will Shuckburgh.

Karen said: “Whilst we’re disappointed to have lost out on the top spot, the entire competition has been really fun and we’ve learnt lots from the other finalists’ blogs.

“Reading their tips has encouraged us to find new and innovative ways to save money so the whole experience has been really inspiring.”

TV property presenter Sarah Beeny said: “All of the finalists wrote excellent blogs and choosing a winner was a tough decision. The O’Callaghan-Bowskill family shared really inspiring tips and I’ll definitely be using some of them myself.

“It’s fantastic to see so many families that are passionate about saving money and it’s spurred my family on to be the same!”