Posts Tagged ‘BView’
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 My passport is out of date and my children don’t have one at all yet.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
Posted in General, Savings | Comments Off
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
Posted in General, Savings | Comments Off
Vi’s top coupons for April
Monday, April 20th, 2009
BView has a lot of coupons available doesn’t it! I’ve been having a bit of a root through the site and I’ve selected my favourite ones for this month to share with you here.
La Senza
My first Top Discount is definitely one for the ladies – although men, if you know your ladies size I’m sure she’d love a treat! La Senza are offering 50% off selected lines of Bras, Babydolls, and Nightwear, and they really have some stunning items at the moment. They also offer free delivery if you spend over £35 so you could really bag yourself a superb bargain here. This offer expires 1st of May.
Expedia
For those starting to plan their holidays this one might be worth a look, Expedia are offering a 30% discount at Hilton Worldwide Resorts when you book with the Early Saver. This one doesn’t expire till 15th December, so even if you’re not planning a trip away yet, keep this one in mind as 30% is a pretty good saving.
Superdrug
A nice everyday one this, but very useful never-the-less. 10% discount across the whole store online including sale items is being offered with this voucher code, and it doesn’t expire till 18th November, so this is a must to bookmark!
Hip Home Direct
Anyone thinking of moving house? If you are, you’ll need a HIP (Home Information Pack), it’s a requirement these days. This company is offering a 10% discount to anyone who mentions the word BView when they apply for a HIP. No expiry date is given for this.
Chargrilled
This last one I’ve picked because it happens to be a favourite store of mine. They do t-shirts with funny slogans on them, and I have to say I think they make brilliant gifts because there’s just so much choice. They’re offering 5% discount with this link.
There are loads more discounts on the site too, and it’s always worth remembering that not all of them are national, so have a hunt for places in your local area who might be offering a discount through BView too.
Tags: best vouchers, BView, chargrilled, coupon, discount, expedia, hip, la senza, money saving, superdrug
Posted in offers, Savings | Comments Off
Up to £35 worth of Burger King Vouchers
Thursday, January 8th, 2009
To receive your vouchers, click here and enter the email address that they should be sent to. Then all you have to do is download and print!
Share the offer with your friends but don’t forget to vote for the vouchers on BView!
Want to know where your nearest Burger King is? Enter your location on BView.
Tags: burker king, BView, offers, voucher
Posted in offers, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
BView is now the 'answer' for Ask.com
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Ask.com are the UK’s second largest search engine and have a strong following of people who enjoy their editors answers for a wide range of questions. We’re extremely excited to announce that Ask.com’s editors have selected BView as their ‘answer’ for local questions.
Now both businesses and customers can benefit by finding local business listings from BView in their search results on Ask.com. So what do you want to find?
‘Florist in Sheffield’, we hear you ask. All you have to do is type in what you need with a town or postcode.
Select the snapshot to see what it looks like:
If you’re in the mood to browse you can explore the Ask.com results but if you’re just looking for options and could benefit from local advice, BView will present five of the closest matches.
On BView you’ll be able to access business information including a map, read what’s being said about the business, check credit scores and access discounts. All of which is conveniently available on one page!
Tags: answers, ask, ask.com, businesses, BView, local search, questions, search engine
Posted in Announcements, News | 1 Comment »
Global Sourcing Technologies- what's happening?
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
Over the last week we have noticed members commenting on orders which have not arrived from Global Sourcing Technologies based in Wembley (HA9 7NG). So far they have been given a BView score of 0% across 7 reviews and have been voted ‘not recommended’ 18 times by the BView community.
You can find out more and gain some advice by reading the reviews and comments on the following page:
Global Sourcing Technologies, Wembley
Your reviews encourage companies to respond and we have witnessed issues being resolved because of your feedback on BView. If you have received poor service this Christmas, have your voice heard by searching for a company and leaving a review.
Look out for this!
Too short on time to review? You can quickly vote for the company instead- look out for the buttons on the right hand side of the business profile.
Tags: BView, community, customer service, global sourcing technologies, london, wembley
Posted in Business, News | 1 Comment »
Treat yourself with 20% off at Selfridges & Co
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
This one is too good not to share! 20% off Selfridges & Co and 10% off selected fragrance and beauty products. To take advantage of the discount make sure you print off your voucher from here. Expires 30/11/08.
If you’re looking for a camera, Kodak who are giving 15% off any new M, V or Z series camera and £10 off any digital photo frame. Expires 30/11/08.
Since the food vouchers are so popular, I thought I’d include Frankie & Benny’s £5 discount. Once again you’ll need to print off the voucher from here. Expires 28/11/08.
Once you’ve used the voucher why not leave us all some feedback on BView?
Tags: BView, camera, discounts, frankie & bennies, kodak, offers, perfumery, selfridges & co
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
2 for 1 deals at Café Rouge, Gourmet Burger Kitchen and ASK!
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
Here’s a nice treat for the start of the week to enjoy with a friend. Actually we have four nice treats for you to enjoy with your friends! Cafe Rouge, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, ASK restaurants and Zizzi are offering 2 for 1 on meals, most offers are valid until the 27th November but you’ll find terms on the vouchers.
The restaurants have been reviewed numerous times on BView but certain branches are rated higher than others. Click the images below to redeem the 2 for 1 vouchers and check to see what has been said about the branch nearest to you.
If you do use the vouchers don’t forget to leave some feedback on BView!
Tags: ask restaurants, bars, BView, cafe rouge, dinner, discounts, food, gourmet burger kitchen, menu, offers, restaurants, vouchers, zizzi
Posted in Savings | 1 Comment »