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My electric bill goes up on 1st of April 2026 as others go down
So I've been a supporter of Martin since his early days on BBC 2….yes I'm old! All I've heard is that on the 1st of April electric bills are going DOWN…..well not for me unfortunately. I'm with Home Energy and only have electricity in my home. I've received details that my unit rate and daily standing charge will rise on…
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A Totally FREE Christmas 2026
Totally FREE Christmas 2026 A very warm welcome to everyone <3 The object of the Total Free Christmas thread is to think creatively about how to reduce the cost of Christmas down to it's lowest cost which is ultimately totally FREE. Christmas 2026 is no different to 2025 with the exception of a very sad increase of what is…
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MOTs used to constantly fail
I just wanted to make a post about MOTs. For literally decades, my car used to fail every time (with all of the well franchises). This was despite having my car serviced regularly. The average cost of a so called MOT failure was around £250!! I think I've saved literally thousands of pounds. I then found out about…
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Microsoft 365 Family - Recurrent billing OFF - Got 2 months free
I went to turn off recurrent billing so that I wasn't auto subscribed to the more expensive AI enhanced package (£79.99 to £104.99) and it offered me 2 months free on my current package whilst 'I thought about it'. I have accepted this naturally. Now my subscription ends in Jan and as recurrent billing is now off, when the…
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Solar panels with storage battery and EV before and after
Before
the solar panels and the EV we were paying £120 to £150pcm for
electricity, which is around ££1,500-£1,600 per year. In September
2023 the EV arrived and the bills went more than £200 to £220pcm. I
am on Octopus Intelligent Go and the EV charges at 7p per 1kW. After
the solar installation of 9 panels and 10kWh Solar…
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£35 into my bank from Money Saving Expert
So checking my bank this morning and I have recieved £35 form MoneySavingExpert. Surprised, only thing I can think of is maybe from when I switched energy suppliers, but thay was back in April. Thank you MSE
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M&S Sparks rewards
Im loyally scanning my sparks cards when I spend my hard earned cash in M&S but not sure I've ever had any good rewards as a result? Random discounts to things I cant buy in my FoodHall... anyone else in same boat? Im just gonna stop scanning soon. First world problems I know, but I'm interested if anyone is finding this a…
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printer inks
This is just to warn people about getting caught out in
signing up to schemes by Epson for their ink cartridges which they claim
will save money. In my case I have paid
over £100 and received only one set of inks (after my initial purchase when I
bought their printer and paid extra for cartridges at that time). Furthermore…
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PHOTOGRAPHERS - Flickr Pro Discount
I just went to cancel my Flickr Pro account because I don't use it that much at the moment, and at the 'Cancel' stage I was offered a 50% discount to remain. I took this so that I could retain access to the 1000's of images I have put there (it saves a massive disc drive hunt if I ever need one of them). If only I'd known…
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Goals, hopes and dreams
I have £2750 saved in a regular saver that matures in June. Also month to month about £600 on one credit card and £800 on another credit card that I'm paying off at £100 a month. I'll stick all this in a signature some other time. I have a job which I will hopefully pass probation on in April. My goals are to put the…
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Health and savings journey
I'm a 40 year old male. I hope to add another £30k to my investments through the rest of 2025. This will come from regular monthly saving. I also aim to improve my health by changing eating habits, exercising regularly and reducing body fat over the year. I'm currently weighing approximately 77kg and approximately 21% body…
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Invest or save
Good morning all I am investing money on a regular basis although it is a small amount. Here is my position. I have £50,000 premium bonds. I have £20,000 in cash ISS for this years allowance. I have about another £10,000 in chip cash prize account. I have also been investing £250 in a stocks and shares run by CHIP. I plan…
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A place to hold myself accountable
Up until 4 years ago I wasn’t able to save anything and all my money went on my DD, bills and who knows what else. Then lockdown happened and I stopped spending money on anything. My DD stopped her extra curricular activities which was a massive amount to add to the pot. Fast forward to today, I’m mortgage free since 2022…
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Making a budget (and sticking to it!)
Hello fellow savers! I think this is the best board to post my new diary now that we are mortgage-free. Having paid off the mortgage about a year ago, we thought we were saving towards early retirement for DH (he is 6 years older than me) but life threw us a curve ball and he has had to take a new job for the sake of his…
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No more debt, now what? Searching for happiness.
So here's my old debt diary Getting rid of that debt in 24 — MoneySavingExpert Forum I've paid off the debt and am working on changing my habits to make sure I don't run up any more and more importantly spent intentionally and feel in control of my money. I record all my spends and work to a zero budget. This month things…
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I find it hard to spend
I have a problem and I feel its affecting my life. I find it difficult to spend money. Ive always been bought up to be a saver - count the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves kinda thing. It's worked OK so far. Im 44. Married with 3 children (now teenagers). No mortgage. expensive car on the drive. Over…
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From living in an overdraft to 30k pounds saved and invested in four years
Hi all prior to covid I was livign in my overdraft. Four years later I have saved 24k pounds. Most of it invested in the ftse global all cap index fund which is up currently 5k. The rest is in high interest savings. I have done all the bank switches and all the deals on MSE I can. Thanks a lot for everyones help here! I am…
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Did I really need to buy deer food?! My 'concentrating on saving' diary
Yesterday I decided after a discussion with dh about my spending on deer food and a bin to keep it in (despite them seeming perfectly happy with the bird food and peanuts that i put down several times a day) that I'm probably not being as money-saving as I should be!! I need to make much more of an effort with my savings…
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Life after debt.
Morning, I have been on the DFW board since Jan 2017 and finally became debt free in April 2021. I found I no longer fitted there a few months ago , and some things didn't sit right with me so closed my diary. Have decided this is the place for me now. Semi retired working two days a week, age 61 living alone in HA flat so…
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My savings goals
"Hello! Well, a bit about me: I'm 38 and have always been very careful with my money. I earn £25,000 a year. I have a mortgage for £79,000 at 2.79% fixed until 2027. I have been saving hard for about 1.5 years, which was great with the rise of interest rates. I have saved to date £15,500. I'm hoping to get to at least…
