Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Cutting communications costs
Friday, May 29th, 2009
Most people in the UK have a mobile phone, in fact there are more mobiles in the UK than there are people with over 75 million handsets but less than 62 million people.
Mobile communication is important to us and therefore the networks have great market control with charges for calls, contracts, text messages, internet use and a million and one other ways to extract our hard earned cash.
Being of the bargain hunting persona I was less than impressed when my 2 year old mobile phone began with a series of strange glitches which rendered it useless, so the great bargain phone hunt began.
The most important thing is to determine what kind of user you are before anything else. I actually don’t use my mobile that much, a few calls here and there and a few more texts. There’s little point in buying a package which gives you 500 free minutes if you are a text fanatic, or something with 100 free minutes and endless free texts if you are a prolific caller.
My monthly use on a pay as you go sim card was between £5 and £10 a month. I was determined still not to exceed that and maintain my outgoings, if I couldn’t reduce them.
So, the first thing is to find a suitable network and check the tariffs. In the ever evolving market you can choose from Vodafone, 3, T-Mobile, Orange and O2. Then there are virtual networks, like Tesco and T-Mobile, who each actually go through the primary networks, T-Mobile and O2 respectively.
You can choose from PAYG, a contract or a SIM only contract, so you really need to analyse your phone use to decide what might work out for you. If you already have one or another, check out the alternatives and weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of each. If you are on PAYG, check the charges packages to be sure you’re on the one which suits you best and consider ‘bolt ons’ to make best use of your money.
I searched the internet for the best deal I could get to suit my use. I needed a new handset and since I have text mad friends I thought it might be an idea to find a way to access unlimited texts. Eventually I found a deal on Quidco which would enable me to go through their site and buy a SIM only deal at £10 per month but with £60 cashback if bought online. The deal includes 500 free texts per month and 100 free call minutes, exceeding my use requirements but staying within my financial rein. In fact, using Quidco I’m saving money as the cash back means the actual outgoing is £5 per month for a year rather than £10.
You might like to take the opportunity to join Orange and make use of the cinema deal on Wednesdays, all at the price of a text.
Since I needed a new phone too I made a similar search for phone deals. After some searching I found an LG KS 360 which suited my needs and was on long term offers with Argos, Carphone Warehouse and Orange. I’d already decided I wanted to use Vodafone and bought my SIM pack, I engaged in a little legwork to play the three companies off against each other, checking who would give me the best offer. Both offers with Orange and Argos were tied into Orange so eventually I chose to buy the phone via Carphone Warehouse, therefore entirely unlocked to all networks and available to put my new card in immediately. It even came with £10 credit on a T-Mobile SIM card.
So, I can text myself silly on my new phone and I never run out, all my calls come into my 100 minutes and all for £5 per month, not a bad deal at all!
Check out the local offers on BView to make the most of your shopping opportunities.
Tags: 3, call costs, mobile phones, o2, orange, saving money, tariffs, tmobile, vodafone
Posted in General, offers, Savings | 1 Comment »
Buying reduced food at the supermarket
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
Shopping for food is an expensive task, and a fairly thankless one because you have to do it over again every week. It’s especially tedious when money is tight.
There is however one way you can sometimes cut your costs substantially, but it does mean being prepared to spend some extra time and effort on things.
Every fresh food item in the UK has to have a sell by date on it. This is the date after which the supermarkets aren’t allowed to sell it. (This only applies to fresh foods, items in tins and which have best before dates work rather differently). Every day the supermarkets will have a staff member who will go round and find all the fresh food items which are going to go out of date that day, and reduce the price on them. This is to help stop wastage. If they have to throw the item away they get nothing for it. If they can sell it – even at a reduced price – then they will get something.
You can take advantage of this knowledge by watching in the various supermarkets near you to find out when they make their reductions. Most supermarkets will have two times. The first time is normally when they reduce the items down by a percentage – this varies from place to place, some will be halved, some will only reduce by 10%. This first reduction is normally done fairly early in the day. The second reduction is normally done late in the afternoon or early in the evening, and at this time they will reduce the already reduced items down some more, generally to a really low price, and if you’re around when this happens, you can take advantage and buy a lot of food very cheaply. So take the time to get to know when your local supermarkets make their reductions.
Things like bread, milk, cold meat, and much more can be frozen – if you freeze it on the day of purchase, and it’s use by date is tomorrow, then when you defrost it you will have 24 hours to use it up exactly the same as you would if you just used it when you bought it from the supermarket. The same thing applies to most products that can be frozen, check to see how long they have between the sell by and the use by date… if it’s the same date, then if you freeze it, when you defrost it you will need to eat it the same day. If it’s three days difference then you will have three days when you defrost it and so on.
You do need to be careful when doing this is to make sure you can use the item before it goes out of date, OR that it’s suitable for freezing and you have the space to store it. If you buy ten loaves of bread because they’re 10p each but only have space to freeze four of them, you’ll find yourself wasting the rest.
Tags: discounts, money saving, shelf life, smart shopping, supermarket
Posted in General, Savings | Comments Off
Cheap days out
Monday, May 11th, 2009
We all need to take time off from the mundane sometimes, and a day out with the family often fits the bill quite well. It can get really expensive though, and when money is tight – which it is for many of us at the moment – we often cut out these trips because we think we can’t afford them. There are, however, places which are cheap or free, and often getting away even for a few hours can really revitalise us all so it’s worth doing.
One thing I like to do is to keep a list on the fridge of all the places we’d like to go that aren’t too expensive and are close enough for a day trip. I always list the price, along with opening hours, then when we want to go somewhere, I have a ready made list of places to choose from without all the hassle of having to look up to see if we can afford it.
Some places you may find which are free or cheap, are museums. All the national museums and art galleries in England are free of charge now, although if you can afford a donation this is greatly appreciated.
The government have just introduced a system so that for people over 60, and those under 16, many public swimming pools which are run by the local authority are now free entry. A trip to the swimming pool can make quite a good morning or afternoon trip. Contact your local council to find out if there’s a pool near you offering this.
Across the country there are many places from parks, to rivers and many other green areas where you can enjoy a nice walk and a picnic. Why not pack a ball and bats and invite a few friends to join you, this can make a really pleasant day out for everyone.
Most towns these days have a website with information about what’s on in that area do a search, and once you’ve found some places, look up and see what they cost. Then try looking online for discounts for them. Not everywhere will offer a discount, but you may find the odd one or two, and if you can find somewhere offering 2 for 1 on a pub lunch nearby you could even make that part of your day out.
Keep an eye open for places where a single entry fee allows you return access. Bletchley park in Milton Keynes works this way, when you have bought your ticket, you can return as many times as you like within the year without having to pay again. Also look out for places which offer reciprocal discounts. This means that if you visit one place in the group, and then visit another, if you take your ticket from the first place, you will get a discount at the second one.
Tags: art gallery, cheap day out, days out, family, museum, park
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Saving money on your holiday
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
We all enjoy a good holiday, it’s a time to relax and unwind. A time to forget the everyday cares and worries of work and home life. The problems come when paying for the holiday causes more stresses and money worries. So, with the economy the way it is currently, how can we cut the costs of travelling so we can still enjoy a holiday?
Taking a ‘discount holiday’ is one option that you could look a. This is a cheap holiday because it’s taken out of season, or at very short notice usually. Most of the larger companies like Thomas Cook, Thomson’s etc. all offer things like this, but they don’t generally advertise them in their brochures, for this sort of thing, you’ll often need to pop into a branch on the high street, or look online at their website to find what’s available. As well as these more obvious holiday companies, there are some online companies that specialise in this sort of thing, so it’s worth putting things like ‘cheap holiday’, ‘cheap holiday in Spain’ or ‘cheap holiday in USA’ into the search engines and seeing what it throws up at you, then having a good look around to see what you can find that might suit you.
Another way to do it, is to change the location of your holiday. If you normally go abroad, what about trying a holiday here in the UK instead. After all, when the weather is good here, it’s often just as nice as you’d get in France or Spain, and we have some lovely places around the country that are well worth exploring – from Cornwall and Devon in the south, to Wales in the west, Norfolk in the East and on upwards to places like the Lake District, and into Scotland.
If you want to keep it really cheap you could look at an option such as caravanning or camping. In the UK and across Europe there are many sites where you can stay for as little as £10 a night for a whole caravan or tent full of people. Obviously then you have to sort your own food out on top of this, and you’ll pay a little more if you want a site with a few more amenities, but it can prove to be a seriously cheap method of taking a break.
If you’re planning on being out and about in the cities across Europe and need somewhere to lay your head, but can’t afford to stay in expensive hotels, try looking at hostels as an option. These are a much undervalued resource these days, and many of them cater to couples and some to families too. The rooms are generally pretty basic, and unless you book a family room, you may be sharing with others, but when you can book a bed for the night from less than £10 in London, it’s something worth considering.
Tags: camping, caravan, cheap holiday, discount, holiday, hostel, Savings
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Online Discounts – Getting the best deal possible
Monday, May 4th, 2009
I don’t know about you, but when I find a discount code for something I’m planning on buying it gives me a nice warm feeling as I know I’m going to be saving some money. Sometimes though there are more than one code available because of the way some companies design things, and in order to get the best deal possible you have to calculate how much you’ll get off with each code to work out which is going to be best for you.
The other day I had one where I was buying an item online and there were two codes available. One offered me 10% off anything in the store, and free delivery, the other offered me £20 off if I was spending £100 or more. The item I was buying was £120 so I knew I could use either code. At first glance, I thought that the 10% off and free delivery was going to give me the best deal, but just to be certain I did have to do a bit of working out to see which worked out best. Here’s how I did my workings out:
Basic Price £120.
Delivery £5.95.
First Code – 10% off + Free Delivery = (£120-10%=£108) – Total Cost after Code: £108.
Second Code – £20 off = (£120-£20+£5.95) – Total cost £105.95
Not a lot in it as you can see, but if I’d used the first code – the one I’d thought would save me the most - I wouldn’t have saved quite so much money, and I do always like to save as much as possible. It’s nice having multiple discounts available, specially at the moment when we’re all trying to save as much as we can, but do make sure you do your maths carefully or you could miss out on the best deal.#
Tags: BView, discount, internet shopping, money off, money saving, online, voucher
Posted in Announcements, General, Savings, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Steigenberger Nile Palace or Costa Del Back Garden, holidays in 2009.
Friday, May 1st, 2009
As the elusive British summertime begins its months long game of hide and seek, many of us begin to think of holidays and jetting off to sundrenched beaches and a brief escape from the rat race. In times of financial instability a holiday could be more than some can manage. For some, perhaps the annual break will be closer to home this year.
I was vaguely considering that I could begin to plan a holiday and musing over destinations when I began to think of the practicalities. My passport is out of date and my children don’t have one at all yet. There, in under 10 seconds is a cost of £164. £72 for my own passport and £46 for each of my children. I just don’t need that headache right now. I don’t need to leave the country.
So, my thoughts returned to good old Blighty.
Now, I’ve travelled the U.K fairly extensively, in caravans, tents, guest houses, hotels and friends homes. I’ve even stayed at a substantial number of English Heritage sites. I have children who think Dora The Explorer has the most exciting life and I love the idea of something new, so, wandering around the internet I found wigwams at Humble Bee Farm.
A lovely homey looking wooden building with real beds starting from £15.00 per person per night and just £8.00 for children. So, £31 per night and no great risk from weather conditions. There’s even a secure lock on the door, which might give me some peace of mind about midnight excursions by the gruesome twosome.
Or what about a Cocoon at Nostell Priory Park at £24.50 per night? A small building which looks like a rigid tent and again guaranteeing you won’t be blown away in the middle of the night. No escapees and the dubious pleasure of cooking outside every night, just like real camping. It also means I don’t have to get up close and personal with nature, I can scurry back to the more-tangible-than-canvas-relative-safety of a plastic house. I’m warming to the idea.
I think my kids will love camping and it’s an adventure I want them to enjoy, though I worry about them getting out of the tent in the middle of the night in the same manner as they wander around the house eating chocolate in the wee small hours.
Still, I checked out the prices and venues. I remember staying in a lovely place in St Austell, Cornwall a few years ago and their prices for a tent are a very reasonable £4 – £9 per night depending on the season. However, prices vary around the country and during peak season. One site I found mentioned a £20 minimum fee per night during the peak season. You’ll often find money off vouchers in the back of The Camping and Caravanning Guide, available from CCC, Blacks and other similar shops.
Most of my childhood holidays were spent in touring caravans in Great Yarmouth and Skegness, or in static caravans in Cornwall, again, I’d quite like my daughters to enjoy that experience so I checked back to the sites we used when I was small. Vauxhall in Great Yarmouth would be around £418 for a week at the end of June in a dinky little 3 berth static caravan. The same week in Widemouth Caravan Park would be £322.00 as an online booking price.
I had romantic dreams of a cottage in the Lake District one year, all open fires and long country walks ending at cosy country pubs. The prices quoted were in the region of £350.00 minimum per week, for two people, in November! Unimpressed I quickly found a late winter sun deal in Majorca with Thomson for less and we skipped off to laze by the quiet beaches instead of the open hearth.
However a B&B begins at £60.00 per night and a weekend break might be just the thing.
I’ve never been entranced with hotels. They’ve always been associated with work related stays for me, though I confess, as a mental mum of two rampant children, I rather like the idea of no cooking and no cleaning up. Still, a brief search shows I could get a short dated booking for £42.50 in a 4 star hotel in Devon and share. I certainly couldn’t leave my little darlings in a room of their own…despite being far too young, remember the chocolate escapades I mentioned? Imagine a whole hotel full of adventure in the middle of the night. It would be Macauley Culkin Home Alone Part 4, The End!
So many people say that by the time you’ve finished, it’s just as cheap to fly elsewhere for a holiday. Perhaps the answer lies with Lastminute.com . The cheapest holiday I can find there is for £450.00 flying from Luton to Costa Brava and I’d still have to get the passports, bringing the total back up to over £600.00 without travel at either end, or insurance, or spending money. But the lure of no cooking and cleaning is strong. I could even write a blog to enter the 99% off competition and win the chance to have my holiday for just £4.50! No, I’d aim for the luxury of the Steigenberger Nile Palace in Luxor, Egypt. A snip at £489.00 per person. Still, that would be one paid for, a mere £4.89 from my pocket.
Maybe there is more to be said for Costa Del Back Garden. I think I’ll leave it a little while longer and bag a last minute deal, crossing my fingers for extra savings with vouchers on BView.
Tags: BView, camping, caravans, competition, holidays, hotels, vouchers
Posted in Business, Competitions, Features, Findings, General | 1 Comment »
Saving Money on doing up your home
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
…discounts, coupons & grants you can get to help you.
Decorating is an expensive business, and it can be even more expensive if you’re trying to make improvements to the house that are environmentally friendly. Don’t panic though, there are way’s you can cut the costs of all that DIY.
Government Grants
Did you know that the government wants people to put in things like cavity wall insulation, efficient water heating, and loft insulation? They do. So much so that they actually offer grants that are available to everyone to help them with the costs of installing some of these things. There are two schemes available, one is for people who are in receipt of certain benefits, and it gives a full grant to do certain things – this means that if you qualify, you could have your cavity walls filled, your loft insulated, and even a new sleeve fitted on your boiler completely free of charge! The other grant which is available is for the same sorts of items, but is available to anyone regardless of if they are on benefits or not, and could give you a discount of between 50% and 70%. You can find out about both here.
Coupons
BView has a section called ‘home and garden’ which is always worth keeping an eye on, there are coupons here for places like B&Q, Warrington Fire Surrounds, and ABC Carpets and Beds, as well as loads more places that do everything from lighting to flooring and kitchens. There’s another section on B-View which lists discounts offered by trades people too, so if you need a specialist it’s worth giving it a look, they’re not always national chains either, as BView encourages local trades people and stores to offer discounts through their site too.
Discounts
Lots of DIY shops want you to use their stores at the moment, so they’re all competing for your custom. What this means is that you will find most of them are running special weekend events where they offer discounts on one or more areas within the store, so plan your DIY with plenty of time, and you’ll be able to take advantage of these. Make sure you ask in the stores (the customer service desk is best) as well to see if there are any other discounts you can take advantage of. Some stores offer a percentage off to pensioners on a certain day of the week, and others offer a discount to people who’ve just moved home in the last few months.
Tags: BView, coupons, discounts, grants, home improvment, Savings, vouchers
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Discount Supermarkets
Monday, April 27th, 2009
When people talk about supermarkets, generally they’re talking about places like Tesco, Asda or Sainsburys (the big three). But there are lots of others, some of which are known as discount supermarkets. These discount supermarkets are stores such as Aldi, Netto and Lidl. The thing is, are they any cheaper, and if they are, does the quality of the products hold up?
It’s a good question really – after all why would they be considered discount if they weren’t cheap? Well in fact the reason that places like this can get away with charging less for some of their products isn’t just to do with the quality of the products. In fact, it’s got a lot to do with the layout and look of the store. Large well known places like Tesco make everything nice and neat and tidy, they take items from the storage rooms and transfer them from crates onto the shelves in nice neat stacks. Discount supermarkets often don’t make things quite so pretty, they take the crate and stack that on the shelf rather than taking the products from the crate first, or even just put a stack of crates in a gap on the floor and don’t even bother with shelves. This helps them to keep some of their overheads down and means that they can then pass the saving on to the customer.
Another factor that can contribute to keeping the prices lower, is that although generally they will always have certain key items, they won’t always have the same brands of everything, opting to buy whichever is cheapest at the time, and meaning you may have to opt for a brand you don’t normally buy if you want that product.
So, in conclusion if you don’t mind the store layout being a little shabbier, and you’re not too picky about brand names, then it’s probably worth giving places like this a try and seeing how you like their products. Many of them are of just as high quality, and the financial saving can make it well worth while. One thing it is worth noting though is that most of these discount supermarkets also make another big saving by charging for their carrier bags, so if you don’t want to waste money having to buy a few bits of plastic to carry everything in, make sure you pop a few of your own bags in the boot of the car to use instead.
One thing worth keeping your eye open for in this sort of store is oddball items that one wouldn’t normally expect to find here – from tents to computers, power tools to pushchairs. If a deal is good, the discount supermarket may buy a one off job lot of a product and once it’s gone, it’s gone, but while it is there, it’s often a lot cheaper than it could be bought elsewhere.
Tags: aldi, asda, BView, discount, lidl, money saving, netto, sainsburys, save, shopping, supermarket, tesco, voucher
Posted in General, Savings | 2 Comments »
Where can I get coupons from?
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
Coupons are great aren’t they! Little bits of paper that let us have money off the things we’re buying. I like to keep a stock of them in the house so that I can keep my shopping bills as low as possible, but sometimes it can be quite hard to find them, so I thought I’d share with you a few of my ideas on where you can find them.
Magazines
This is a great place to start looking, especially if you already buy the magazines. Lots of manufacturers advertise in magazines and sometimes they slip in a coupon for the product as well. If you find a magazine with a lot of coupons in it that you’ll use, it can even work out that you’ve saved more money than the magazine costs, in which case why not buy an extra mag and give it to a friend (after you’ve cut the coupons out of course!).
Newspapers
I don’t know about where you live, but where I am we get three free local newspapers each week, and quite often there are leaflets inside them. To be honest most of the leaflets don’t interest me and I throw them in the bin, but do make sure you check the leaflets carefully for coupons before you ditch the bits of paper, it’s ever so easy to miss them.
Online
Some manufacturers put coupons on their website sometimes, offering money off a particular product – especially new products, or savings when you eat at their restaurant at a certain time of day, it’s well worth keeping an eye on these sites, and if they have an e-mail newsletter try signing up to that too, as some of them send coupons to registered members. There are also sites like BView who have a whole range of money off coupons listed on the site – some are ones you can print off, others are codes which can be used online, these sites are always worth bookmarking so you can come back to them if you’re buying something to check and see if you can save money.
Supermarket leaflets & products
Keep your eyes on the shelves in stores, occasionally you’ll find a product with a coupon on it – Nestle did this with their cereals a while back and had several coupons on each box. Also look out for leaflets on counters in stores too, these sometimes have discount offers in them as well.
Sharing with friends
If you have friends who like to clip coupons too, try storing up everything whether you can use it or not, and then inviting all your friends over for a cuppa and have a little swapping session.
Tags: BView, coupons, money saving, shopping, supermarkets, vouchers
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Efficient personal expenditure
Friday, April 10th, 2009
Efficiency in essential expenditure is on everyones mind right now and I’ve been experimenting with keeping a tight rein of my outgoings. It came as a surprise to find out how much it costs me to run my car each day.
Transport
For some transport is a costly affair indeed, even a second hand car could be less efficient than you would expect. If you drive work out how much your car costs you daily and work out how cost effective that it to you. Check out your miles per gallon calculation here Look at your local bus, train or tram services to compare costs but balance this with the freedom of your own vehicle. Consider car shares and similar cost sharing schemes with friends, neighbours or colleagues. There are often incentives with your local councils to increase the appeal of car shares.
Income and outgoings
Check if your income and outgoings are accurate or if you are entitled to help here www.entitledto.co.uk at HM Revenue & Customs . Enter your details, it’s all anonymous, in order to calculate what you might be able to get help with. It might be single persons council tax discount, free school meals and prescriptions and a variety of other amounts.
Check uSwitch for savings on utilities and then check Quidco before you commit to a contract as you could get a substantial amount of money back. The same goes for insurance renewal, telephone, internet and television subscriptions and utility expenditure.
Local facilities
The local library is a forgotten resource. Why spend your money on books when you can order books in your town or city to be delivered to your local library. You can, for a small charge, usually hire CDs and DVDs much cheaper than the likes of Lovefilm or Blockbusters .
Cashback
When you must buy something, check cashback sites like Quidco for savings. I bought a new mobile phone at Carphone Warehouse and got cashback for almost half the price and then signed up for a prepay Vodafone SIM card and got half the money back. My £10 a month SIM is actually costing me £5 a month as a result of the cashback.
Coupons, codes and vouchers
Check any newspapers and magazines for money off vouchers or coupons you can use when shopping. Look at the free supermarket magazines before you shop. Check the likes of BView and moneysavingexpert.com for codes and coupons to reduce your shopping bill, get free delivery or additional freebies and savings on other purchases.
Buy in bulk
There are some items we get through in vast quantities. Whilst my twins were tiny nappies and wipes were financial killers. I joined Makro and began buying Pampers wipes at the equivalent of 70p per pack when buying 12 at a time in a big box. Then nappies bought on offers of buy one box of 156, get one free.
Buy second hand
If you need something, think about if it has to be new. Using eBay , car boot sales, advertisement magazines, NCT sales, flea markets, the local press and other second hand sales venues.
Buy in sales
I often buy items in sales, either to save money on gifts or to buy clothing for my twins. I have a second wardrobe which is purely to keep clothes in bought in sales. I buy 6-12 months ahead and pay around 25% – 50% of the original price whilst still keeping my girls in Boots Mini Mode, Monsoon, BHS, Next clothing and shoes. You can do the same for your own clothes. Save all your money for the January sales or end of season sales and buy whatever tickles you at the time then put it aside for the right weather. I usually hit the Boots January sale at 70% off for a huge stock of gifts through the year. Even now in April, my sale bargains have saved me around £80 on the full priced items. I even plan my sale shopping in advance by checking out availability on the website.
Buy a lower range
You’ll have noticed that each supermarket does a range of products with varying prices. It could be baked beans varying from 17p value to £1.15 best quality with posh packaging and often the content differs little. If you buy mid range now, consider dropping a level to save up to 10%. The difference is much bigger when you drop from mid level to value goods and you’ll really notice a difference in your bill. Using a stores own brand is often cheaper than a branded label. Check who the product is made by. I have it on good authority that certain brands of washing powder are exactly the same product between the highest and lowest ranges, merely marketed to attract the broadest scope of shoppers.
Check out the food reductions for last minute saves for your evening meal or to fill your freezer.
Whilst you fill your freezer, stick a load of balled up bags or those giant air filled pillows used in packaging to fill up freezer space. It’s more efficient to freeze smaller remaining spaces.
Buy energy saving bulbs for your home. Supermarkets all stock them very cheaply now and often on offers. Contact your utility supplier or look for free bulbs as part of your local councils economy efforts.
It’s very difficult to calculate how much all this could save you, we each spend different amounts in each element of our lives, but I think it’s safe to say that your expenditure will decrease and your awareness will increase.
Tags: discount, ebay, effciency, money saving, sales, shopping, smart spending, vouchers
Posted in General, offers, Savings | 2 Comments »