a few ways I have saved

Dfc_3

Powergen for gas and electric
Onetel for telephone
skype for voice over Internet
complaining about poor service resulted in free TV for a yr from NTL-
free trial internet from all providers
walking a lot - using public library
by eating less - do not smoke and do not drink -
and never getting married has saved me a fortune!!!

HappySad

I have also saved a lot by getting ride of NTL and using freeview. I also use onetel for my phone calls.

As a mum of a 19month old boy I have also saved a lot by buying his wipes at the BOGOF as stocking up on them when they are on this special offer.

I also don't smoke, drink wine very little and never go to the pub. I get all my music and books from the library. I buy all my son's clothes from Ebay and I plan to sell them on eBaby afterwards which means that I got my son's clothes for FREE. :rotfl:

MY family now only has one car. Which saves loads. My gas and electric is from Southern Electric.

chinagirl

[QUOTE=.__My_gas_and_electric_is_from_Southern_Electric.[/QUOTE]


I too have my gas and electric with Southern. Did you also sign up for their energyplus Argos Homebase discount card. For every pound you spend on your fuel, you accrue points which convert to discount off goods bought. (The amount of money I spend at Argos I have often thought I should have shares in the company). So I am hoping to save some dosh with this new scheme.

trace-j

• Ditching Sky and using it for freeview
• Ending my O2 contract and going back to PAYG
• Cutting up my credit card (even though it was a Liverpool Victoria one)- was a bit like casting the ring back into mount doom (LOTR)- it wouldn't let me do it at first.
• Cancelling Private Eye and Which? subscriptions. Can still get Which? at work for free.
• Upgrading Fitness First membership to Platinum- yes upgrading. Was paying £36pm, but by paying a one off loyalty bond of £100 I now have £10 monthly reduction for life. Has now paid for itself after 10mths.
• Entering first half marathon having only run 3miles for the 1st time in the Race for Life last week, means have to use the gym membership and cut out the booze.
• Doing a small shop every week with a list, as opposed to a massive shop as and when buying rubbish. No going out for lunch at work.
• Go to stay with friends more often instead of inviting them to stay over all the time (extra money needed to feed extra mouths and other entertainment).
• Vouchers for eating out with MSE as and when we have some spare cash.
• Signing up for mystery shopper assignments, although you have to report at length, you get reimbursed for buying stuff and may get a little extra thrown in.

Fortunecooky

FOR those in money making mode, there is a new website called eunibooks.co.uk which will list and sell your books for FREE ( unlike Amazon which charges 17.25 % commission ). This is only for the first year- I guess they are new so they want to set up ! So sell your books there and make money. What a great idea !
:rotfl:

gravitytolls

trace-j wrote:

• Ditching Sky and using it for freeview
• Ending my O2 contract and going back to PAYG
• Cutting up my credit card (even though it was a Liverpool Victoria one)- was a bit like casting the ring back into mount doom (LOTR)- it wouldn't let me do it at first.
• Cancelling Private Eye and Which? subscriptions. Can still get Which? at work for free.
• Upgrading Fitness First membership to Platinum- yes upgrading. Was paying £36pm, but by paying a one off loyalty bond of £100 I now have £10 monthly reduction for life. Has now paid for itself after 10mths.
• Entering first half marathon having only run 3miles for the 1st time in the Race for Life last week, means have to use the gym membership and cut out the booze.
• Doing a small shop every week with a list, as opposed to a massive shop as and when buying rubbish. No going out for lunch at work.
• Go to stay with friends more often instead of inviting them to stay over all the time (extra money needed to feed extra mouths and other entertainment).
• Vouchers for eating out with MSE as and when we have some spare cash.
• Signing up for mystery shopper assignments, although you have to report at length, you get reimbursed for buying stuff and may get a little extra thrown in.

well done you.

How do you sign up for mystery shopper assignments? Sounds like great fun.

jo_b_2

gravitytolls wrote:

How do you sign up for mystery shopper assignments? Sounds like great fun.

You can register to be a mystery shopper for the Arcadia group here:

http://www.counterintelligenceaba.co.uk/arcadia/

This includes Top Shop, Burtons etc. You do have to buy an item from the shop and you only get paid £10, no matter how much you spend! More for fun than for profit!

trace-j

I found most of them here in this C4 article.
If you're a bloke you get more assignments- must be a shortage of blokes who like shopping. MOH has just done 2 for local pubs through retaileyes. He's just got feedback and we're waiting to see if he gets paid before doing more.

You get a spend limit (for the reviewer only) and small additional fee- not mega bucks. You have specific instructions on what to. When you've made the visit you submit a report, takes a couple of hours and send them a scan of your receipt. Even though I paid to go, the meal works out half price, which isn't bad. We did the reports as soon as we got back.

There are a few companies around, check to see if they're a member of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association I've also checked with companies house to see how a company has been around.

I've also had to check with the taxman about the additional income (albeit small) as some companies wont tax the fees and you're treated as a consultant so need to do a tax return.

You don't get something for nothing, but its good fun. You only take on what you want to do.

john269

Great!

That's what I will do. I will get on the phone tomorrow and complain to BT. I am a BT boardband user that is quite far away from the exchange so I can only have a 512 MB connection, which first makes my contact not as good as other peoples as they can get upto 2 MB's, but I have now choice. I have to have 512 MB if I like it or not unless I move home.

Why should I phone BT. Well I have a 12 month contact with them and so far I am finding their service not good at all. They are supplying their customers with FREE Voyager ADSL Routers that seem to not work. OK they work for people that are near to the exchange. But for people that are at boarder line they do not work. I told BT that and they said they have never had any complaints or problems so they sent me other one. I then used it and that one was even worse.

I have not phoned them up yet, but I am going to complain as I am paying for a service that I am not receiving properly.

How I know that their Routers are not all that good and always have problems when being use with people who are far away from the exchange is that I have read it on other forums and the only way that I can fix it is by purchasing my own router.

Dfc wrote:

Powergen for gas and electric
Onetel for telephone
skype for voice over Internet
complaining about poor service resulted in free TV for a yr from NTL-
free trial internet from all providers
walking a lot - using public library
by eating less - do not smoke and do not drink -
and never getting married has saved me a fortune!!!

aaroncroydon

Hi, I wanted to tell you all about how I got cheaper broadband from BT today. I'm not able to sign up to UKOnline, so I'm stick with BT. I pay £25 per month for 2Gb broadband/15M monthly allowance. I wanted to jump to Tesco, but BT have reduced my monthly fee by £6.50 for 4 months, so I've got almost the same price as Tesco until the end of the year. And then I'll change in the New Year. If any of you are with BT for broadband and have not had any discounts in the last 12 months, they will discount for you too.

dinkylou

jo_b wrote:

You can register to be a mystery shopper for the Arcadia group here:

http://www.counterintelligenceaba.co.uk/arcadia/

This includes Top Shop, Burtons etc. You do have to buy an item from the shop and you only get paid £10, no matter how much you spend! More for fun than for profit!

I do this aswell, have found it to be very useful in times of need. Found it helps if I buy something I dont want and then take it back once I have done the shop and so get the full £10 for doing it. Only downside is that it has become very popular now and so getting the jobs near where I live is more difficult.