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yeah - more pin money! (but sadly not for three years)

johnwhitfield

johnwhitfield

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10 Years
Joined
Jul 21, 2011
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I'll admit I'm a lazy ****er a lot of the time but this years resolution was to try and sort my finances out a bit as I want to become mortgage free in the near future (I think we can achieve this in just over three years if I cut back enough on my spending). As such I'm on a pin embargo for a while which is killing me:(. I might need to hand my pin fund over to Anna so I don't try and buy something on the sly but so far I'm keeping the value of the collection at the same level (even sold a couple so I'm in credit).

Anyway so far I've managed to get off my **** and...

1) Changed to two credit cards that have a 18 month interest free period so rather than paying them in full each month I'm just going to pay them off at the end of the period instead - think that's going to save me about £750 in total this way (I've got an offset mortgage so can sling the cash at that instead for 18 months)
2) Finally got ****d off with Npower and shifted my utilities to Sainsburys of all people. Allegedly this will save me another £600 a year but I'll believe that when I see it
3) Tackled the big one and just had confirmation that my mortgage will be changing in the next couple of weeks. Now this was the one I've been putting off for years as it seemed a real PITA. ****ing hell, it's going to save me over £3000 a year in interest:eek: I've not even got a huge mortgage. So by being lazy for the last 5 years and not wanting to fill out a form it's cost me three maybe four NIB games - doh! Ended up using a broker for the first time to get this arranged, so much easier (and free) than talking to the idiot companies direct (PM me if you fancy their details - they were really easy to deal with)
4) Still using Quidco for anything that I buy over the net. Probably not worth a bucket load but I still get £5-£10 or so back each month on purchases. If only Pinball Heaven used their service. Gives me about 3% back on a lot of the companies my wife uses though.

Without sounding like a total miser what else should I be looking to trim from my spending? Making lunch rather than buying it each day at work works out at about another £500-1000 saved a year. Not sure how sustainable that one will be in the longer term though.

Trying to cut back on the food we waste and only buying beer when it's on offer are two other areas which should save me a bit. Not sure how much I'm wasting on insurance etc but probably should look into that.

Anyway, any tricks that I'm missing? Really not looking to drastically change my lifestyle and don't want to rent out a room or anything similar.


Cheers

John (toying with changing my name to Scrooge)
 
You coud paint yourself completely gold and dress up as Charlie Chaplin and walk to work in an animated fashion, I'm sure at least a couple of people will throw a quid at you, what being in London n' all. :rofl:

But serious suggestions. Not really, sorry John. Sounds like you're doing well as it is mate
 
Drive more sensibly / like your grandpa. I did this for a month or two when I first got ACDC and reckon I was saving myself about £20 a month

Didn't take though :p
 
The driving slowly thing to save petrol thing is good but I haven't filled the car up since mid December. Living in London means it's almost always cheaper and quicker to use public transport. Mentioned using Aldi rather than Tesco to my other half this morning and it didn't go down well. If Morrisons' sort their delivery service out then maybe I'll see if that would cut the food bill. Asda won't deliver to this area for some reason.
Toying with becoming an examiner to get some more cash in as they are always soliciting teachers to do it but it's really intensive work for June/July and means I'd spend a lot less time with the family.
 
johnwhitfield said:
Mentioned using Aldi rather than Tesco to my other half this morning and it didn't go down well. If Morrisons' sort their delivery service out then maybe I'll see if that would cut the food bill.
Click to expand...

I thought exactly that.... however i think you'd be surprised in how good some of the aldi stuff is.... Get your heinz etc from morrisons, get veg from Aldi... Also depends on how far they are away!

Good work tho Mr W :)
 
Aldi food is generally WAY nicer than Tesco, Sainsburies and defo Morrisons. It's just a pita, 'cos you can't buy everything from them, so you end up having to buy some stuff from another supermarket...and they don't deliver. But it will save you between a 1/3 to 1/2 off your grocery bill if you can be ****d with the hassle of actually going to a shop once a week, for nicer food.
 
You could sell up and move up to the grim north - buy the same type of property for a third of the price :thumbs:
 
Change car and home insurance providers on every renewal for sure. Don't let existing insurers auto renew at their inflated "loyalty is for suckers" rates.

Comparison site such as Compare the market/ money supermarket are quick and easy to use.
 
RGV said:
Change car and home insurance providers on every renewal for sure. Don't let existing insurers auto renew at their inflated "loyalty is for suckers" rates.

Comparison site such as Compare the market/ money supermarket are quick and easy to use.
Click to expand...

Thankfully, the days of working your way through the yellow pages ringing every insurance company to find the best days are long gone.


I wouldn't pay off the mortgage if you're on a good rate - not sure about other banks but with mine the standard variable rate is 2.5% - you'd be better off putting the money in a Stocks & Shares NISA, 30K a year tax free for a couple, it's easy to get 4 - 5% in dividends if you don't mind a bit of risk.
 
Paul said:
And also rigged so they make maximum profit, according to here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31661858
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Never tried 'em for energy shopping which is a damn nightmare anyway. How something so simple as "How much would this amount of your product cost me?" can be made as complex as it is baffles me.

On the insurance side I at least get 2 numbers to compare (quote vs comparison search) and a one off bill thats usually a hundred or two cheaper than the renewal quote.
 
RGV said:
Never tried 'em for energy shopping which is a damn nightmare anyway. How something so simple as "How much would this amount of your product cost me?" can be made as complex as it is baffles me.

On the insurance side I at least get 2 numbers to compare (quote vs comparison search) and a one off bill thats usually a hundred or two cheaper than the renewal quote.
Click to expand...

Over the last few years I have begrudgingly accepted the fact that in this world if you have an a*hole , you are gonna get royally f*cked in it by anyone providing a 'service' or selling a 'product'. They are all the same - I do a quick bit of reconnaisance, make my choice, bend over and take it ......then move on and waste no more of my precious time on this beautiful rock worrying about it all. We're here, and then we're gone. Just like that. :cool:
 
johnwhitfield said:
Anyway, any tricks that I'm missing? Really not looking to drastically change my lifestyle and don't want to rent out a room or anything similar.


Cheers

John (toying with changing my name to Scrooge)
Click to expand...

If you have Sky, ring up and cancel it, preferably on a Tuesday (they have most budget then), they will always haggle with you when you try to leave but tell them you just want to cancel. They will normally ring back before the end of the 30 days notice with an even better deal than the initial offer - I got it 1/2 price for 12 months last time. I've only just cancelled again so I'm expecting a call in about 10 days, if they don't call, I'll save a crapload from not paying for it and I probably wont miss it
 
Cheers for some of the suggestions guys. Not got Sky but my broadband is £45 a month so I really should look into moving that away from Virgin to a cheaper competitor. I hate dealing with the energy companies as it's virtually impossible to actually calculate how much they are charging you.

My worst ever bugbear was trying to work out the family tax credit system. At one time they overpaid us by almost 9 grand as I was training at the time my first child was born and they managed to ignore the figures we sent in for Anna's income. Then unsurprisingly her income dropped as she was on maternity leave and yet they insisted on using the income from the previous year and then making it up again the following year:confused:

At the time there was no system to query it (stupidly I actually contacted them to say that they had made a major error) and it took almost 2 years to sort it out through a series of repayments. The government have neatly solved that issue though by ensuring we are now no longer eligible for any of it. :(

I've virtually given up on the salary sacrifice system for after school care as well as that has to come out of your salary on a monthly basis where as our provider gets paid only for 8 months of the year, as such it never tallied..:mad:

The students loan company wasn't much better. I ended up cancelling my direct debit as they couldn't tell me if I was in debit or credit, such an inefficient system. Probably only about £50 either way but how on earth can they not have an up to date record?

Think I just need to play a few games of pinball and chill out about it for a while.:thumbs:
 
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