photo credit: Tom Anderson
I’ve been in ultra money geek mode today.
I’ve bought postage stamps on my Utility Warehouse cashback card through Viking Direct.
I get a 5% discount on my purchase – but that’s not all!
For added geekiness I bought about a years supply of stamps because there is a postage price rise in April as well, they go up from 41p to 46p for 1st class stamps….if you are buying several hundred, that is a big saving to bank!
When I was married I wasn’t allowed to to the weekly supermarket shop.
This was because I’m a sucker for packaging and ‘the good things in life’ and my weekly bills could be easily double the normal ones.
Anyway, last year I had to learn to shop properly, because I was living on my own, and there was a recession on so money became ‘finite’. I have become quite geeky about shopping now and sometimes I am proud of my adjustment to being sensible…and sometimes I wonder if I’m a little bit sad and go and buy some of those olives stuffed with almonds just to show that I haven’t lost it completely!
Anyway, the big ‘thing’ for me was to do with Cheese and Coffee. This was where I started to learn there is a ‘True Cost’ of an item.
For cheese, the “true cost” is £5 per kilo
For Coffee the “True Cost” is £2 per 100g
Cheese is amazing…not just the flavour…I mean the cost. Mostly it is sold at around £9 – £14 per kilo, but over a period of time almost every brand will have an offer that brings the cost in at around £5 per kilo. This week it was Leerdammer, mostly it’s cheddar, sometimes it’s emmental. I don’t mean the ‘basics’ or blue stripe options, I mean the nice options. So, when I see nice cheese at £5 per kilo, I buy it.
A couple of weeks ago there was no ‘true cost’ cheese. This was a test, but I am more shrewd these days. I went without. See me, all smug!
Coffee is similar. The main ‘nice’ brands – Kenco etc are about £3 pre 100g – that’s the small jars, and £6 for the large. Except there is hardly a time when one of the nice brands isn’t being sold at £4 for a large jar. This week it was Cafe Noir, sometimes it’s Kenco and sometimes it’s Doewe Egberts.
Again, I’m not compromising on my taste, but I have got a better idea of what the True Cost is.
Oh and ‘Taste the Difference’ tinned tomatoes – priced cheaper than standard Neopolitana ones and way nicer!
In the September issue of … one of the leading consumer magazine’s… they have reviewed Broadband providers this month and awarded 4 of them ‘Recommended Provider’ status.
Utility Warehouse, Zen, Be and O2 were the 4 to recieve the award.
The criteria assessed were value for money, connection speed and reliability, and customer service.
Apart from great service, reliability, value for money and speed, Utility Warehouse Discount Club can also save you money on your household shopping and petrol, as well as on their gas, electricity, landlines and mobiles.
Dentists always tell you to floss, but flossing has to be the least enjoyable experience on earth. I’d rather rub my eyes shortly after chopping a chili (which I did yesterday).
However, my dentist suggested I try tepe sticks instead of the fishing wire flossing stuff – these are like tiny pixie bottle brushes that you use between your teeth and they are excellent. For me, it’s a huge relief that they exist, given my antipathy towards floss.
I recommend them, in my expert capacity as a daily tooth user.
They are available from most chemists – but I suggest ebay…if you want to save some cash…
Sorry, couldn’t find a photo of a tepe stick that was royalty free, so I thought a stuffed moose would be a good substitute.
I’ve just heard on Radio 5live that EDF are putting their electricity prices up by 2.6%
This seems a bit out of the blue, I wonder if they are the 1st in a trend?
2.6% isn’t a very big increase – although I guess that may depend on which of their tariffs you are on. You choose, out of this lot:
Annual fix version 1
Annual fix version 2
Annual fix version 2 (original)
Annual fix version 3
Annual fix version 3 (up until Jul 2010)
Annual fix version 4
Climate Balance
Eco 20:20
Eco Manager
Energy Assist
Energy Discount Plan
Energy Discount Plan Version 2
Energy Discount Plan version 3
Energy Saver
Fixed Price 2015
Fixed Price until 31/7/2010
Green
Online s@ver version 1
Online s@ver version 2
Online s@ver version 3
Online s@ver version 4
Online s@ver version 5
Online s@ver version 6
Online s@ver version 7
Online Version 1
Online Version 2
Online Version 3
Online Version 4
Online Version 5
Online Version 6
Price Guarantee 2010
Price Protection 2010
Standard
That’s just their electricity tariffs…
If you are with EDF and have been for more than 6 months, what are the chances that you are on their cheapest rate? And if you are on their cheapest rate, how long do you think that will remain the case? And, don’t think I’m picking on EDF, they are not the worst.
Wouldn’t you prefer to be with a provider who’s old customers are on the same tariff as the ones that join this week?
Contact me, I may be able to save you 2 things – money (obviously), and the headache of swapping provider every 6 months.
One of the partners called 118118 twice last month – both calls cost £4.50.
That’s a lesson learnt then! It turns out they charge £2pm.
One of the cheapest, if not the cheapest is 118888 – it does the same service at less than half the price – 95p per minute. Hang on – are you with me on this – that is still ridiculously expensive. In fact, as far as I can tell, all the directory enquiry services cost this kind of money
There is a free service – 0800 118 3733 – you have to put up with some adverts, and it’s a robot you talk to, not an human, but I can put up with that compared with the knowledge that it costs about 50p to say ‘No, I can phone them myself thanks’.
photo credit: ♪ Sleeping Sun ♪
Over there, on the right hand side of the page…down a bit…yes, there…you can see I’ve put in some links to other blogs that I read from time to time – Cottage Smallholder is most read, and the Man up a tree one.
These are quite popular blogs and often people who comment leave links to other interesting sites, sometimes there is a link from the actual text.
Anyway, I’ve been following links this morning – it’s 6am, I’ve got the washing machine on already, so I’m allowed to relax…right?
I liked this blog – Simple green frugal co-op – which I think will get added to the list.
So, Angela Ripon was on the BBC this morning making a point about utilities.
They state that the same company will offer different rates in different parts of the country – so, a provider will offer worse rates
in it’s natural territory, than others.
The reason is that in a company’s natural territory most people will use them regardless, they don’t need to be competitive to keep
customers. So, were I to do a price comparison for me, ‘Southern’ would never be the winner.
So, the obvious course of action is to shop around, but people just don’t. They often say things like ‘No, I’m happy with my gas, it never
goes wrong’. Well, yes, but for the same gas, or the same electricity, you could pay less.
So, why don’t people shop around?
Well, there is the thing where company’s will attract you with a good deal the after a while you won’t be on a cheap deal any more and
it was a waste of time. There are company’s with 30 tarrifs or more.
So, if you aren’t interested in shopping around every 6 months, the other strategy is to choose a company with just one tarriff for all
it’s customers, including the new ones. A tarrif that is pretty cheap – cheap enough to attract the new customers, although maybe not
the very cheapest at any one time.
Freecycle have recognised that every once in a while we all have something that is “too good to throw away” and so have taken the ‘recycling’ concept to the next level, by providing a facility to recycle things whole!
If you are a member of Freecycle (you can join just by asking) then you can just send a message offering your item and your location and other ‘freecyclers’ will be glad to take it off your hands.
Equally, you may find other freecyclers have ‘just the thing’.
I have just collected some pallets – to frame my composting heap at the allotment. Di collected some wall tiles – I believe she will break them and then decorate some terracotta plant pots – there is a market for that kind of thing.
Here’s some examples of other items that have appeared as available in the last 24 hours:
tv wall brackets
car radio and CD changer
Various Childrens things
BT Vision Box + BT Vision Hub
Turntable
Bike Rack
Bird Cage
Pine Dining Table
So, you see, I get about 10 of these e-mails a day – every now and then I see something that is of interest to me. Mind you, that does mean that I get alot of e-mails that are of no interest at all, but it’s easy to set up a ‘rule’ on your e-mail software to file ‘Eastleigh Freecycle’ in a separate folder and just glance at the recent items when you remember.
Visit this website.
http://clubhouse.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/index.php?m=discounts&a=listMerchants&set=a
Click on your favourite retailer… you see can the discount you receive for online shopping. The discount is recieved via a credit to your gas/electricity bill, if your bill is with Utility Warehouse Discount Club.
You see there is a link saying ‘find me the cheapest’ – well that will shortly be a price comparison search engine that will search for your product and highlight the ‘normal internet price’ and the Utility Warehouse price…
If you use a Utility Warehouse cashback card, with some retailers you get a bigger cashback…but you get the basic cashback whatever card you use.
cool huh! Now, are you tempted to become a customer yet?
© 2012 Adrian Garside
Design by SRS Solutions Developed by Wordpress expert, Di Winn
