NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

Butterfly_Brain

sairy2010 wrote: »

Whilst in town we made an appointment with Santander to open one of their 123 accounts. I think it's the right move for us, does anyone have any experience with them, good or bad??




I originally banked with Girobank who became Alliance and Leics. this was bought out by Santander so I stayed with them. So I have sort of been with them for about 40 years. I have only had one problem when some one put my middle name as None! It took me ages to get them to change that. Apart from that they are very good. If you keep £3000 pounds in the current account you get 3% interest. I put all my savings in there and with the extras I get for paying bills by direct debit I get about £20 interest per month. (You have to pay £2 per month in fees) Not a fortune but better than most current or savings accounts. I can't fault them. I do not have the credit card as I have a Capitol One and get cash back.
The staff at my local branch are very helpful although I do most of my banking on line.
Do give them a go. If the rate changes I shall look else where but in the mean time they suit me fine.

Be very careful of Santander they appear to be in trouble

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jan/09/santander-shares-slump-cash-call

[Deleted User]

I did get on a roll re selling books to amazon, just packed another box worth £24 so whoopee. Several recipe books are going as our lifestyle has become simpler ie more plain yummy tasty food, rather than a lot of fancy stuff. Several books were not wanted so, as my dds are here tomorrow, they will be given a pick (doubt they will take any except maybe the game of thrones box set) and then off to the cs. I must admit the shelves had got rather dusty though

Hoho, still no aches in my back, instinct was right and the sluggish lymphatic system was to blame, as well as underused muscles

eandjsmum

Fed up today seems all spend, spend ,spend. All bills petrol food, parking for college. Parents evening also scuppered my good intentions as I finished work, rushed round parents evening and then evening college so it was take-out. Had what I planned to eat last night today. No NSDs for me -better luck next week. Plan to tidy up tomorrow and freezer mine for goodies to cook. Was give a box of choccies though

rosiepup2000

Liliyanna wrote: »

Now I recall reading the details about this book trade in but wouldn't know where to find them at the pace this boat moves. Can anyone give me a brief run down of the whys and wherefores?


Thanks

Lily x x

The details are here, but be quick, the extra £5 gift card offer ends at the end of January:


http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000790083

Basically, dig out all the old books you're never going to read again and which are in good condition, and run the ISBN codes through the Amazon trade-in search; it will give you a price for any they will buy off you. So long as you're trading in over £10's worth the postage to send the books in is free, and if you trade in over £15 you'll get an extra £5 gift certificate on top of the trade-in value.....on which point, many thanks to the people who've mentioned already getting their £5 voucher code emails - just checked my email and it had gone into my spam box so have just rescued it!


Edited to add - you get gift vouchers for the trade-in value, not cash.

Slowdown

Ahoy me hearties!

Having spent the last couple of days catching up on the log book, I'm ready to step back on deck and view the surroundings.

I see many a small craft surrounding our vessel, packed to the brim with unnecessary goods and chatels, bobbing around without paddles or direction. They bouce and flounder in the wash of our passing and our jolly shipmates toss yet more overboard. Well done! We are staying afloat very nicely.

I had a bit of a spend up this week. DS1 is off to NZ tomorrow as part of his gap year. He needed his walking boots and other bits to finish off his supplies so about 90 squid later we were done. I'm really going to miss him and keep waking up in the night worrying. What about I'm not sure. He's pretty sensible and we have family out there he will be dropping in on. But still. My baby.

Not done too badly on the food front but still have a butchers trip today.

Going back to thrift wizards cautionary tale, unfortunately this is the case in many a town. However, I am getting the feeling that people are getting a bit fed up of these global exploiters. I did feel at one time that Tesco may well take over the world as they have their sticky fingers in so many pies. It's hard to operate at such a level without treading on the small man and employing somewhat dodgy practices. They do seem to be on the shrink at the moment though.

Bit of a discussion about bank accounts earlier. I bank with nationwide and have done since I started work 25 years ago. This was my choice as they are a building society and not a bank. The shareholders are the customers. Bit like waitrose I like the philosophy and that I'm not investing my money for some fat cat to reap the rewards.

So what of today? I need to help DS get the rest of his bits together and will be buying a few extra toiletries to take. Need to finish putting my course work together and hopefully make a coffee cake as I'm off chocolate until Easter. We have an extended lent in this house. No chocolate or crisps between new year and easter. Do it every year with hubby and DS2 and DD. Not easy if it's a late Easter.

I have not bought a single thing this year that has not been planned for or needed with the exception of my £15 fat face jumper mentioned earlier. I did need a jumper but CS did not yield. Should have waited but it was such a bargain. A lesson learned for me though.

Chilly start here but I know the sun is shining on the decks of our ship, lighting our smiles and warming our hearts.

Happy days
Slowdown

Slowdown

http://www.foodnetwork.co.uk/recipes/christmas-flapjack.html

Link for the festive flapjack. Trouble is I eat the lot myself!

Enjoy

[Deleted User]

Good morning shipmates, well busy day yesterday I managed to get my shaggy locks trimmed and the new lady who did it made a nice job of it .Cost £15.00 including tip ,but well worth it I thought.So that came out of my 'entertainments ' budget :):) no food shopping bought thought :j. I did have to fill my car up with diesel as it was running on fresh air .Was pleased that it only cost me £53.89 though as its usually £60 + for a month's diesel.:j.It seems there was some discount from Mr T's petrol that would have expired at the end of January from my Tesco card. I rarely shop there but youngest DD does and we share a card as we save my petrol points and her food shopping vouchers when we go on holiday.So the diesel had gone down since last fill up plus I had £4.11 discout from points .so I am a happy bunny

History was interesting and that payment of a fiver also comes from the 'entertainment ' budget. I have just done a quick add up and all bills plus food,entertainment and other small regular payments including a regular savings amount stashed each month came to £667.50 this month.I'm very pleased with that as it covers everthing and I still have just under that amount again left over from income.So the surplus will go into my Isa (rainy day cash ) Looks like the HMS No Spends is working well for me :j:j

My friend and her OH dropped two wardrobe off for my DD yesterday as well so son-in-law will pick them up tomorrow hopefully as my sitting room is full of two flat packed M&S wardrobes, so looks a bit like a furniture shop.
Then DD texted me last night to say DGS Ben has sorted out a really good deal on his accomadation for next year as in September he comes out of Halls and rents with his chums in Norwich.Means he will have a bit more cash from his grant to eat with :):)
Today I have some ironing and also a little sewing to do as DGS Henry has grown a bit more and needs his school trousers letting down AGAIN.I think DD is feeding him Growmore on his cereals:rotfl::rotfl:
Right time to get a wriggle on. Have a good and frugal day chums
jackieO xxx

Live_laugh_love

Yuck snow!!!! Hope there's an ice cutter thingy on the front of the boat, we don't want to get stuck especially with all those clutter filled dingys lurking!
Have had a good week not spending wise, just a couple of needed reels of cotton and groceries. Been de cluttering,very therapeutic, so coupleof bags up to CS today and then down to our local butchers for meat supplies then the greengrocers. We're very fortunate in our town to have some good independent shops on our high street that are stubbornly supported even more so when we had the threat of Mr T wanting to build on the edge of town! With all their troubles they've pulled out, yippee!!
I'm with Slowdown on the bank front, been banking with them 30 years never had any issues with them at all!!
Stay safe peeps!

76rosie

good morning shipmates..

i have been catching up with the posts and saw the mention of bank accounts.

i have a 123 bank account and credit card. I also have a first direct cc account and the 6% savings account, i also have the halifax reward account and a tsb account 5% current account.

i pay my wages into my first direct account and move the money from one to another to comply with t&Cs.

I only use the santander account for the cashback as with the credit card. it is also 0% on purchases.

I do have enough savings in my accounts to cover credit card balance when 0% finishes.

i don't earn a great deal but manage to comply and i also have some savings even after christmas.


even though i am accruing some cash i'm still going to be careful.

I'm going to lidl this morning to buy chicken drumsticks and vegetables as i've heard there are some good offers currently.

have a nice day shipmates.

Igamogam

I lurk on this thread - not sure what kind of sea farer that makes me :rotfl:

S*nt*nder..............wouldn't touch them with a barge pole!

Nothing but groceries purchased in this household since 27.12.14