Posts Tagged ‘shopping’
Online Shopping – Compare Prices of UK Shops at www.118118.info
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
The latest online voucher code or local voucher added to BView is Online Shopping – Compare Prices of UK Shops at www.118118.info
Terms and conditions and full details of the voucher are as follows:
Compare Prices of UK High Street Stores and go Shopping Online for Big discounts on Top Brands .
go to www.118118.info
To read more about this voucher code or special offer head here
Tags: 118118, online, shopping, special offer, uk, voucher, voucher code
Posted in vouchers | Comments Off
Online Shopping – Compare Prices of UK Shops at www.118118.info
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
The latest online voucher code or local voucher added to BView is Online Shopping – Compare Prices of UK Shops at www.118118.info
Terms and conditions and full details of the voucher are as follows:
Compare Prices of UK High Street Stores and go Shopping Online for Big discounts on Top Brands .
go to www.118118.info
To read more about this voucher code or special offer head here
Tags: 118118, online, shopping, special offer, uk, voucher, voucher code
Posted in vouchers | Comments Off
Online Shopping – Compare Prices of UK Shops at www.118118.info
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
The latest online voucher code or local voucher added to BView is Online Shopping – Compare Prices of UK Shops at www.118118.info
Terms and conditions and full details of the voucher are as follows:
Compare Prices of UK High Street Stores and go Shopping Online for Big discounts on Top Brands .
go to www.118118.info
To read more about this voucher code or special offer head here
Tags: 118118, online, shopping, special offer, uk, voucher, voucher code
Posted in vouchers | Comments Off
Have you started your Christmas Shopping Yet?
Monday, September 7th, 2009
Yes, I know it’s only September, and some of you are probably thinking I’m off my trolley right now, but lots of people get in a bit of a panic about Christmas when it comes around each year, worrying about the cost, but really as we know it’s going to happen every year at the same time, we can do a lot to make it easier on ourselves by doing what some people do and starting shopping half way through the year or before!
Start now, and plan out who you’ll be giving to, and how much your maximum is that you will be spending per person. I do it by making a chart so I can put the person’s name and what I buy and see at a glance when someone’s completed as I have a box to tick when I’ve sorted them totally (especially useful when planning for kids who you may buy more than one item for).
Because of my chart, I can buy things through the year when I see them at a good price, and put them away without forgetting what I bought or who it is for. This helps me spread the cost out, and it also makes it cheaper as I can take advantage of sales through the year as well.
It’s worth doing this for things like cards, wrapping paper and stocking fillers as well I find. Many things like these are quite expensive from November onwards when most people want to buy them, so if you can manage to store things, pick up cards and gift wrap in the January sales when the shops are clearing it out, but even in August you can sometimes find deals on things like this on market stalls or in charity shops as people clear out their cupboards.
The other thing I use my chart for, is to write down how much each item costs. This way I can keep an eye on how much I spend on Christmas even if I don’t spend it all at once. It’s not really any different to putting a few £’s away each month in terms of what you spend, but you don’t get that horrible mad rushed feeling in December and can look smug when all your friends are moaning about how busy it is in town because you’ve been so organised and got so much done earlier in the year.
Tags: christmas, planning, shopping, xmas
Posted in Savings | 1 Comment »
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: discounts, loyalty cards, save money, shopping, supermarket, tesco
Posted in Savings | 1 Comment »
Buying Independent V Buying from Big Chains – The Big question
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
I personally find it quite hard to decide whether I should buy from the big supermarket who sells things cheaply because they have huge buying power so can get the best deals, or whether I should pay a penny or two more per item but support my local small sellers who would go under without the support of the local people.
On the one hand I have to think of my own pocket don’t I? I mean, if I can save a few pence here and there buying from the supermarkets, I can afford to treat my family to a few extras along the way, and that’s a good thing for us.
The conflict for me is that if we all think like that, then the little shops go out of business just leaving the big chains who then have a hold over us because there’s no one to challenge them. Add to that, the choice issue – with a small seller, if you want something specific they can often get it for you, but a big chain can’t do so because the people working in the shop have nothing to do with the buying process.
The same problem occurs for me when I think about other products too – buying a TV or a Washing machine for example, do I go to the big chain store where they have loads of tellys on display but that’s all they have. Or do I go visit the independent dealer who can’t afford to have them all there on display because it costs too much and he doesn’t have the space, but he can actually offer you a much wider choice range because he can choose to deal with any manufacturer and can get any of their range of products even if he doesn’t normally carry it.
Personally I generally try to choose the smaller independent dealer for the big items like Stereos, Fridges and computers because I think that I get much closer to what I actually want that way as well as supporting the local economy. When it comes to supermarkets however, I’m afraid I tend to go the other way I go for cheaper and all under one roof – mostly for ease to be honest. It’s much harder to have to go to 20 different small stores than to go to one large one each week. Do you have something different that influences your thoughts? I’d love to hear if you think differently to me!
Tags: independant, shopping, supermarket
Posted in General | 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: eating out, packed lunch, save money, shopping, work
Posted in Savings | 1 Comment »
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
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 »