Posts Tagged ‘save money’

Haggling for discounts

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

Have you ever haggled for a good deal when buying something big or for an expensive service like broadband or mobile phones or even home or car insurance? These days it can be done – prices are not so set in stone as they used to be. As a previous blogger described, people with nerves of steel and a little  knowledge can barter almost anyone down for anything but personally, in reality, I think most of us are a bit embarrassed about asking for a discount or an ‘extra’ as part of the cost, but it IS worth it.

I have only ever bartered over the phone but I have done it twice and it worked for me! I have my broadband, phone and TV through one company and it’s a fairly good price but there was a time when my broadband just wasn’t running to the speeds it should so I rang and told them I was cancelling my contract and moving elsewhere and to my surprise they started to negotiate over my costs and the speed. Not one to miss a bargain if I possibly can, I ended up asking them what they would offer to keep me with them. What I was offered was more than I expected and when I finally hung up I had had my broadband speed doubled and extra channels added on to my TV package. Somehow for me I do not get that toe curling embarrassment over the phone that I would face to face.

I did once try my hand at asking for a discount for cash when buying a fridge but not sure I was confident enough as the answer was a ‘no’. So I was wondering.. Do any of our BViewers haggle? (apart from Vial!) Have you managed a discount even without a voucher from BView? Or do you think that bargaining is too hard? I know that personally I am just not brave enough to ask most of the time but I can see from people on TV that it’s the cheeky people who just go for it that manage to get a better deal. Also there is the point – would you haggle more with a small business because you think they would be easier or would you feel that they are working hard to run a business and asking them to cut their profits is perhaps not ethically a good idea? Have you bargained your way to a good deal at a chain store somewhere, and is that easier or harder than face to face with a small business owner?

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Savings | 2 Comments »

Buying for your Baby

Monday, August 17th, 2009

..where to look to get some of the essentials a bit cheaper.

I have a number of friends and family at the moment who have recently had babies or are about to have them, and it’s been quite interesting watching them buying things in readiness for when each of the babies arrived Some have gone almost totally new, others almost totally second hand with others doing a mix.

Whether you go the new or the second hand route, most people know that having a baby is an expensive business, and want to try and keep the costs reasonably low if they can. The first thing I’d say is make a list!  There are always going to be people who want to buy a gift for you and your newborn, so let them, by making a list and planning you can steer them in the direction of something you really do want or need, and they’ll feel good knowing they’re buying the right thing, and you’ll feel good knowing one or two things are definitely organised.

Certain things like cot mattress and car carry seat it’s best to buy new – you do not want to risk your baby’s health after all.  Beyond that, most things can be washed or even sterilised and so second hand or new is really down to how you feel about it.

For those looking at the second hand option, places like E-bay, Freecycle, charity shops and friends with kids are good places to start.  These places are easy to access and are often very cheap or even free.  Car boot sales can be a good source as well, although E-bay does seem to have over taken these in terms of popularity for selling good quality second hand baby items – probably because there’s no need to drag baby out to do the selling!

For those wanting to go the new route, Although places like ELC, Mothercare and Babies R Us may be the places you think of first, E-bay is still a very worthwhile place to look – that there are many sellers on E-bay now who are selling purely new items and you can find yourself grabbing some good bargains there.  Supermarkets are also quite a good place to look believe it or not.  Particularly if you have a large store like a Tesco Extra, or a large Asda nearby as these often have quite a good range of baby products available from clothing to bottles, baths and breast pumps.  Always carry your list with you and then you can make a note of the prices so that when you find a good price you’ll know it (That and being pregnant the memory does tend to wander a little so it helps remind you what you’re still needing too ;-) ).  There are also places like Amazon – better known for books and dvds, but which has quite a large range of other items these days, and there are also many online stores to look at as well.  When you know the exact product you’re looking for, using the search engines to help you locate the best price can knock a good bit off the price you first found the item at I’ve found.

Contributed by Vialdana

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Savings | 2 Comments »

Travelling by Train

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Thinking of travelling by train either as a regular event or a one off?  Did you know there are way’s you can get money off your ticket?  Well there are, it’s just that they’re not really that well advertised.

If you’re a regular traveller it’s worth buying a season ticket in advance – this will reduce the cost per journey.  However even if you’re not a regular traveller it’s worth trying to buy your ticket early as some companies will offer you a cheaper ticket if it’s bought in advance – 12 weeks early is best as this is how far in advance tickets are released and this way you’ll get the best prices!  www.thetrainline.com is a good place to start for buying cheap train tickets in advance, and for season tickets try www.nationalrail.co.uk

Rail cards are available in various formats, and if you travel fairly frequently they can save you quite a bit of money.  Here are the different types of card and their costs:

16-25 Rail Card – £26 – Available for anyone age 16-25 and gives you 1/3 off all rail travel for 1 year.

Family and Friends Rail Card – £26 – Available to anyone travelling with kids and gives 1/3 off adult and 60% off kids ticket prices.  Up to 4 adults and 4 kids can travel on one card.

Senior Rail Card – £26 – Available to anyone age 60 and over, gives you 1/3 discount on all rail travel for 1 year.

Disabled Person’s Rail Card – £18 for 1 year or £48 for 3 years. – Gives you 1/3 discount on all rail travel for you and a companion traveling with you.

Network Rail Card – £25 – Gives you the same as a family and friends rail card, but is only for use on the South East network.

Something else that many people don’t know is that if you’re train is late, you are actually entitled to claim some money back for the journey that you took.  If your train is either canceled, or is more than 15 minutes late, you can get a claim form at the station to fill in to get your money back either in full or in part for the cost of your ticket.

On top of this check out different times for travel if you can.  If you travel off peak it is always cheaper than peak times, so play with your timings a little if you can – you may be surprised how much difference it can make.

Contributed by Vialdana

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Findings, Savings | Comments Off

Tesco Points Vouchers – How to use them to your best advantage

Friday, June 26th, 2009

Tesco is probably one of the best supermarkets for collecting points from at the moment, offering 1 point for every £1 spent in the store or petrol station as well as in their online stores, and with extra points offered if you shop using their credit card as well.  One point is equal to a penny if you spend it on regular food goods so that’s not too bad.  However, there are ways that you can make each of those points worth either 2p or 4p depending on how you use them.

First of all there are Tesco deals vouchers.  These have been around for a while now and so many people have already come across them.  Tesco allow you to exchange each £2.50 worth of Tesco points voucher for £10 of deals voucher, making each point you earned worth 4p.  You have to choose which deals voucher you want when you order them, but there’s quite a variety of choice from vouchers for days out at places such as Legoland or the zoo, to vouchers which can be spent at restaurants such as Bella Italia, Café Rouge or Harry Ramsdens.  They can also be turned into vouchers  for jewellery at Goldsmiths, or Air miles as well as a variety of other places.

Alternatively, the new way of using your points vouchers is to use them in store on specific departments where you can now exchange them for ‘in store deals vouchers’ worth 2x the amount of your original points voucher so £5 becomes £10 and each point is worth 2p.  The departments that you can do this for are, Toys, Clothing, Baby & Toddler, Cosmetics & Skincare, Tesco Mobile, and Wines.  To do this, all you have to do is to either use the tesco online system to exchange them using the codes on your vouchers which you can do here or you can exchange them by post by printing out this order form and sending it off to them as it tells you to.  Done online the vouchers normally arrive in about a week, and done by post a little longer.  Then you just use them in store to buy items from the relevant department just as you normally would, and hand over the voucher at the checkout.  The only difference being that you get twice as much for your money.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Savings | 1 Comment »

30% off catalogue codes

Monday, June 15th, 2009

One of the interesting facts which came from the recession was the renewed interest in reusing and repairing, from clothing to cars and everything else around us. One of those was The Sole Man in Sheffield but sadly the decrease in spending hit too hard and his business closed this week.
However, if you haven’t got it  you can’t repair it, or in some cases the item  is beyond repair.
I’ve been working on my home,  making the garden part play space and part relaxing social environment. As a result I needed to replace the rusted to death swing seat which sat despoiling my green haven.
I spent ages trawling eBay, Tesco online, Amazon and Argos, visited my usual haunts of Focus and Homebase and even tried further afield at Dobbies Garden World but I found nothing in my limited price range and appropriate size and style. Eventually, searching BView I fell upon Littlewoods Direct and their current offer. You might remember the name as domestic catalogue company or perhaps you’ve been accosted on the street during a marketing campaign. It’s less in vogue to shop by catalogue these days but when they’re giving away a generous 30% discount off items up to £500 for your first order it’s hard to ignore.
So, I signed up for a credit account, ordered a swish swing seat for my little suntrap and enjoyed the 30% off which entirely cancelled out the delivery charge and a further chunk of cash besides.
It’s worth noting that the same swing seat was £30 more expensive at Littlewoods that it was at Littlewoods Direct, so it’s worth taking the time to compare prices.

Now, boxing clever, you might not know that Littlewoods, Littlewoods Direct, Marshall Ward, Kays, Great Universal and others are all part of the same company, though, in distinction you can join each one with a separate account. Which also means you can use the 30% off code for each account but only on your first order. If you have a number of larger priced items or a families clothing to replace, it’s an offer not to be sneezed at!
I’m off to buy a new washing machine as the last one went the way of the decrepit swing seat.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in offers, Savings | 1 Comment »

Save Money While You Work

Monday, June 1st, 2009

So many of us go out to work to earn money, and we spend a lot of time at work as well as getting there and back.  We think of the time we spend at work as where we’re earning money, but if you’re clever, you can make that time a time when you are saving money too.

Think about what you eat when you’re at work, and instead of buying food from the store there, or eating in a local pub or restaurant, try buying some extra bits when you go shopping and taking a packed lunch with you – it doesn’t have to add to the time you spend getting ready each day as you can always make up 5 days worth of sandwiches and freeze them ready to grab in the morning.  If you prefer, you could invest in a few Tupperware containers and take yourself along a nice fresh salad or if your work provides a microwave that you can use, then there are many things from flavoured rice to ready meals that you can take along to eat for lunch often at a fraction of the cost of buying lunch at or near work each day.  You could even take your lunch out and get a breath of fresh air at a local park and watch the birds or squirrels while you do so.

Clothes for work can cost a fortune, especially for women as men often just wear a shirt and black trousers.  Well women, don’t forget you could just do similar, invest in a couple of decent skirts or pairs of trousers in black, and then dress them differently each day with a variety of differently coloured blouses and scarves.  Your look will stay fresh, and your pocket won’t be as empty as it would if you went for full outfits each time.  Sites like undertenpounds.com are well worth keeping an eye on too as they often have special offers of items which can save you money (for example, I once bought a ¾ length leather coat from this site for £9.99!)

The cost of getting to and from work each day is for many people the largest cost of the working week.  So why not send out an e-mail to all your colleagues and see if anyone would like to car share.  The cost of transport can be cut right down this way as there is only one car to fuel up and one to park instead of 2, 3 or even 4.  You can then take it in turns to do the driving as well.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Savings | 1 Comment »

How Coupons Can Save You Money

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

Vouchers & coupons may not seem like the sort of thing that can make a huge difference in your life, but actually if you use them right they can make more difference than you might imagine.

Most people reading this will do shopping every week, and will have to buy things like clothes, replace things for the house etc. and of course all these things cost.  Imagine if you will that over the course of a month you’ve got to buy all your food shopping, a new washing machine because yours has broken & a new school dress & shoes for your child.  Without shopping around and using coupons this will cost you a fair amount of money.  However, if you look carefully at where you buy each item, and check out what coupons are available for use on the products you need, then you could find you could save yourself quite a sum.

Shoes bought in one shop might cost you £25 but in another they’re £30.  At first glance the obvious place to buy them is the first shop because they’re £5 cheaper there.  However, imagine that you’ve got a 20% off coupon for use in the second shop and things change slightly.  Instead of paying £30, you’d pay £30-20% which is £24 making the second shop actually work out cheaper.  Saving = £1 even though you bought the more expensive item!

The school dress for your daughter might be £15 in the shop you normally buy them from, but it’s worth looking in places you wouldn’t normally think of as clothes shops – supermarkets for example often have kids clothes at remarkably reasonable prices especially school clothes.  Always join any clubs that supermarkets offer unless you really object to them as they often send out coupons that you can use in their store too.  Imagine that by doing this you have brought the cost of that school dress down to a little under £10. Oh and of course you were going there anyway to do your shopping so you’ve just saved yourself a bit of petrol too! Saving = £6.

The washing machine you’ve found that you like can be bought in Dixons, and even if it’s not the best price you can find, they price match most of the big stores.  So rather than buying it in store, go online and buy it from their website – the delivery will be free, and you can use the £10 off code that BView has available in the voucher section. Saving = £10 and a trip to the store!

Obviously you won’t always find a voucher to help, and when you do sometimes the savings will be big, and sometimes small, but even if you only averaged saving £16 a month that would still be an extra £192 you’d have towards other things over the course of a year.

Vialdana

Tags: , , ,
Posted in General, Savings | Comments Off

Discount night out

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Luxuries, in all forms, have been the first casualties of the recession. People are tightening their belts, new car sales have dropped through the floor and property sales joined them. Non essentials seem to be all so yesterday dahling! We’ve almost begun a revival of ‘make do and mend’, the popular quote of wartime Britain. However, the beacons which remain strong, if not stronger, are restaurants and cinemas.

Zagat Survey tells us that here in the UK, eating out is still de riguer even though the cost of eating out has risen by 3.7% in the last year. The financial climate has not yet stolen our gastronomic freedom. This might be helped in part by the proliferation of discount vouchers available. BView has been part of the rise and rise of the discount voucher, with the Pizza Express voucher having over 1600 downloads alone. Many retailers, restaurants amongst others, have their own coupons, codes or downloadable vouchers available via links on the BView site. You can find 2 for 1 offers at ASK , Strada , Cafe rouge ,  Zizzi and many more .
Those vouchers can be the decider and assist in putting diners behinds on restaurant seats at quieter times, introducing new clientele and encouraging greater spend, after all, we are more likely to spend on desserts and drinks if our main course is free or half price.

I indulged in the same way at Old Orleans this week. The neighbouring cinema were in cahoots, printing ticket stubs with a 2 for 1 offer at the restaurant. I was meeting a friend for a midweek girly night out and we decided, based on the ticket stub to eat out first. We each ate a delicious main meal and a dessert with happy hour cocktails (all in the name of research of course ) and considered ourselves well fed at low cost, the total bill was £27.00.
Technically we each saved £5.50, splitting the reduced cost in half. Not an enormous saving but enough to encourage us to eat dessert and indulge with the fancy drinks, increasing what would otherwise have been a £17.00 bill by £10.00. Genius marketing indeed.
In comparison to Zagats figures of an average meal out in London running a bill of £40.55 per person, £13.50 each was quite the money saving deal.

Content in our meal we did not indulge further in snacks at Cineworld,  though I doubt they missed our custom as they have also seen a rise in profit across the country.
I asked them about their business in relation to recession and found that; “From a local perspective, since the start of 2009 we have seen a 9.11% increase in admissions over last years figures, a real ‘bums on seats’ increase of 37,942 people and a total amount of admissions so far this year of 386,951, which is staggering!

Those figures are in part attributed to the releases of Bolt 3D and My Bloody Valentine 3D and the Unlimited card, allowing the cinema goer unlimited viewing for a fixed monthly price, again convincing the customer of value for money. This falls in line with the national figures for Cineworld showing revenue up 4.8% to £298.9m and box office up 6.4% at £197.5m. A very strong position for 2008’s figures in relation to 2007 which saw the continued rise of house prices and the national boom.

As an Unlimited card holder, paying £11.50 per month and using it at least twice per month, then using the discount voucher at Old Orleans, my girly night of a meal with dessert and drinks and a showing of Marley & Me totalled less than £20. I feel I’ve had a lovely night out and without great or unjustified cost.

A two act night of fun reprised across the country for everyone to enjoy, bring your own friends for maximum appreciation.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Business, General | 1 Comment »