How much have you saved?

System

Dear Martin
Off sick from work 11th July, thank god!
Watched"this morning"Changed my out look on my financial set up. Never really taken control before.

Put 4K n debt on RBS Advanta O% 6 months saved 200 pounds.

Went to Charcole on line got new deal 3.59 fixed for to years saved 100 pounds per month.Borrowed enough to pay off Credit card debt. So now no more CC bills! and less going out per month.

Went on uswitch .com and saved 200 per year on gas and electric.

Now have a book and write down every time i spend (sad I know) but it made me realise where my cash goes every month!Saving #300 pound per month.

Martin you are my hero!!!

Tim_L

I've been bouncing balances around cards for something like three years off and on, and currently carry about a 15,000 CC nominal debt. This didn't come from Martin, but rather my brother (curiously we come from roughly the same part of Cheshire as Martin). I started CC transfers when I bought a car and needed a 3 month 'loan' pending the maturity of a Tessa.

This is all carefully backed up in savings in INGDirect, and I always ensure I pay in at least the full amount on the main credit card every month without fail. This is in my non-taxpaying wife's name, so nets about £600 a year (as a higher rate taxpayer myself, this is equivalent to about £1,000 in salary).

On top of this I make about £200 a year on normal credit card spending on a Capital One Circle Rebate. Essentially all possible spending is put on this card, including my wife's rather regrettable M&S sandwich habit (but then again her status as tax haven does mitigate this to some degree). Business expenses also help bump this total up.

IThen there are occasional bonuses, i.e. vouchers from some applications (Bank of Scotland Affinity cards are good for these), and in one not-to-be-repeated wonderful deal, £200 from Zurich bank on an account which I'd opened with £500 to qualify for a free case of Wine, and which they had decided to close down with an ex-gratia payment. I had a smile that lasted for weeks after getting that letter.

And I'm careful to get decent deals on as many other savings/mortgage products as possible and am a real rate tart. Also a terms and conditions junkie.

Very worthwhile, in summary.

Fioled

So far savings include:
Mortgage with Birmingham Midshires £6000 over 3 yrs
House insurance £110 pa
Discount on ISA £160 pa
Gas with Scottish Power £60 pa
Elec with London Elec £50 pa
ISP £7 per month (£84pa)

Total £6464 this year ;D

MarcusB

being a newbie at this game, I've not done a lot, but

moved £5800 to the barclaycard 0% for life, off of 3 10% + cards.

moving my life insurance, saved me £30 a month,
moving my bank loan has chopped off the last years payments saving me £3600 ( yes I used the site links ;D)

I've found better whole income protection, and am just waiting to shift me leccie which should be worth £ 70 a year.

Thanks Martin

Pal

Given that I am one of the more prolific contributors to this site you might think that I would have saved a lot, but I cannot recall saving anything at all.

Still, I have:

"borrowed" £3600 for Barclaycard and will earn about 4% interest on it. My spreadsheet shows a profit of up to £145 after 4 years or so + £1 a month to charity/this site.

Got my new Halifax card, and should make £50 as soon as I get round to activating it and making the 3 purchases.

made £10 on Gala scratchcards

made £5 from Cyberslotz.

More of a moneymaker than a moneysaver. ;D

Now all I need to sort out are the phone (BT), my gas and electric (London Electric & Seeboard), and lets not discuss the mortgage.

SuzieQ_5

I knew I needed to knock my finances into shape and this site has helped motivate me to do just that.

So far I have achieved:

Saving of £93/yr on my gas and electricity by moving to Atlantic.

Changed to BT basic line rental with calls through talktalk (never could understand BT bills but knew I was paying far too much). Cancelled extra BT features, which I never used. Returned rented phone to BT and bought my own. Total saving approximately £250/yr

Obtained a 0% interest for life Barclaycard with a limit of £4,800. After transferring outstanding balances from other credit cards I will be left with £1,800, which I will be investing with ING.

Lodged a complaint about being missold a mortgage endownment.

Can't arrange a better mortgage deal at the moment because I recently entered into a 3yr fixed deal with the Halifax. I will, however, approach the Halifax in about 18mths and ask if they can offer me a better deal (presently 4.9%).

Other bits and pieces from tips on this site:

£25.00 from Gala Casino
Free case from Viking direct
Made use of £10 John Lewis voucher (for item I intended purchasing anyway)
Installed free anti-virus software and just as well because I had a pretty lethal 'worm', which is now disabled!

The most exciting thing for me is being able to invest in a savings account, which is something I've not managed to do for many years.

Thanks, Martin, for giving me the incentive to sort out my finances - and making it fun in the process

Martinslovechild

Where do I start ?

Ah yes - the dreaded mortgage.  After (quickly) coming to the conclusion that I want this hanging around my neck only for as short a time as possible, I looked into changing to a different lender with flexible terms and setting up regular overpayments.  Result - interest saving of £15664.28 and mortgage reduced by 8 years  :).

My wife then decided to purchase a new car.  Take out a loan ?  No thanks !  Instead, we put the whole amount of £16,500 across three 0% credit cards.  Result - interest saving of £3526.28 over 5 years :P.

I then transferred my own car loan onto a 0% card too (had to go via Egg as it was in a personal loan account and Egg allows transfers from loans & overdrafts - nifty !!).  Result - interest saving of £1,011.59 over 3 years  8).

Next up - I thought I thought my gas and electricity costs were competitive.  I got a shock !!!  I switched and now save over £210 a year  ::) (moved from British Gas & Manweb to Amerada Online).  I've now in the process of moving again as Amerada has recently been taken over by Powergen.

Then I started looking at the phone bill.  Even switching from BT's standard package to BT Together Option 1 has generated savings of about £120 per year  :-*.

I keep two credit cards which I pay off in full each month that offer me 1% cashback - FREE MONEY !!!  As I work away a lot on business and put ALL my personal spend on these cards, this nets me approximately £360 per year  ;D.

I also save an unknown quantity on buying BOGOF offers and 3 for price of 2.

I now buy an annual family travel insurance policy which saves me about £150 per year compared to Lunn Poly  ;D.

Car Insurance.  I ALWAYS do my homework here.  Result ?  Approximately £150 per year cheaper compared to simply renewing the premium with existing insurer  ;).

House Insurance.  Same as above really.  Abbey National offered me a 'competitive' quote when I took out a mortgage with them some years ago.  I beat it by over 50% by spending a couple of hours on the internet.  Saving = £210 approx.

Also, I lodged 2 complaints - the first about a mis-sold endowment. Result = £1360 payout.

Second complaint to Abbey National regarding having 2 interest rates (I was on the higher one). Result = £880 payout.

Total Savings (so far) = £23642.15.

Just want to say thanks Martin for fighting such a good cause  ::).

nigel_3

Since seeing the cc tip on Simply Money on Sky (shame the channel closed!)..

Earnt around £3000 in interest on cc 0% deals - current balance of 0% money is around 42K, all in a childrens account with Nationwide - kids have their uses!

Used Shell Visa to get 450 air miles. Did the same for my wife so got 900 miles. Cancelled the cards; waited then took out a new card with another 400(?) miles. Now use the card at Shell so earn triple points and even more miles. Also took out two Air Miles cc's for my wife and I; another 900 miles. Use the miles on P&O to Spain saving 40% in the winter - around 400-500 per trip - savings around £1000 to date.

Egg second cards on both our egg cards when there was a free wine promotion. Sold the white as we don't drink it - £20.00
Same for First Direct - another £20

MBNA - took out cards with free minidisk players - sold them both for £170
Can't remember the cc company but got a free cordless phone; sold for £30
MBNA again - 2 free watches (worth £70 each) - any buyers?
MBNA again! - 2 free personal CD players - keeping them for xmas presents.

Moved mortgage from Halifax to Abbey national - 3 yr tracker discounted with no tie in - saving approx £8500 over 3 yrs.

Mobile with Orange - both mine and wifes - both light users. Changed from Orange plans at £13pm each to Virgin with Orange Value Promise - bill dropped from £26pm to average of £2pm - saving £288pa

Switched both Gas and Electric to NPower on monthly dd from British Gas and Southern Electric. Big saving but don't know how much exactly as... Installed Cavity wall insulation - cost around £650. Saves 25% of energy per year! DO IT!!!

Change to energy efficient bulbs - go to one of the roadshows and they sometimes give bulbs away free.

Just made £100 on HardRockCasino.com - great tip - thanks!

Moved all banking from LTSB to Cahoot. Re jigged finances so that my salary stays in for most of the month - bills are paid the day BEFORE I get paid; thereby maximising the interest. I use an account without a chequebook for salary and bills and a seperate account with a cheque book that I keep +/- £100. I can transfer immediately online if I know a large cheque is going out.

Negotiate a deal with the car insurers as we have 2 cars - they will try to match/better a deal to keep you.

Use indirect access for the phone still keeping the BT line - don't know how much is saved but it is a bit; pity BT got wise to people doing this on the light user tarriff - I managed for a few years so got most of the line rental back.

Buy in bulk from wholesalers; Booker or Makro - you can usually find a friend who has a card if you don't have one yourself but beware as not all things are cheaper than the supermarkets.

Strike a deal with your life insurance/mortgage broker to split the fee on new policies - this can be substantial. They are often willing as you can always take your business elsewhere. You will probably need to indemnify them as if you cancel the policy early in the life of it then they will have to pay back the commission so only do it if you plan to keep the policy in force! I've made £1500 doing this.

I'm sure there are a few more too but all in all the savings have been significant. ;D ;D ;D

johnllew

current balance of 0% money is around 42K, all in a childrens account with Nationwide - kids have their uses!

Not a clever move, I'm afraid. If you invest your money in the name of your child who is under the age of 18 and the income created is £100 or more, all the income is assessable in your name. If you fail to declare it and are found out, you could be liable for tax on the income plus interest and penalties which could eat into your savings.

nigel_3

Not a clever move, I'm afraid. If you invest your money in the name of your child who is under the age of 18 and the income created is £100 or more, all the income is assessable in your name. If you fail to declare it and are found out, you could be liable for tax on the income plus interest and penalties which could eat into your savings.

Ah, but.. it's registered in my wifes name and she does not work; therefore has a full tax allowance. This way we get the most from our savings as she is unlikely to exceed her personal allowance and we can declare it.