Never in my life did I think I’d become one of these money savvy coupon queens. Dan’s always been good with money, but quite honestly, I’ve been dreadful. Credit cards can be devilish if you let them be. Once we started saving for the trip, however, that all changed very quickly .

So how did we make £1,181.94? First we opened a joint account that offered monthly interest on our balance, plus cashback on most of our household bills. We only used this account for savings and bills. This made us £192.63 over 18-months.

Then, knowing we’d be buying kit, we got a rewards credit card. It happened to be a Nectar one, which over the course of a year gave us £315 in free shopping at Sainsbury's. We also joined the cashback website, QuidCo (shout out to Kellie for the recommendation), which offered anything from 1% to 15% on a surprising number of our online and in-store kit purchases. At the time of writing, we’ve earned £253.31 through the scheme, with retailers like Wiggle, Evans Cycles and Cotswolds Outdoors – even eBay.

Next we both switched banks to ones that were offering switching incentives. This earned us £225 and was a lot easier to do than it sounds. Money Saving Expert always has the most up-to-date offers and information about switching. And finally, we both opened a fixed-rate savings account, which after 12-months, will earn us £196.

And that’s it. A few small changes in our spending habits earned us a big boost in our kitty.