What have you done to INVEST in yourself to make future SAVINGS later?

solidpro

I'd love to learn welding so I could work on metal fabrication for home projects and I would also like to practice tiling and maybe even plastering so that I could do parts of home decorating to a higher level of finish.

Oh and we bought a 3 year old Tesla MS in 2019 because I felt it was a reasonable price for a car that I could live with for 10 years and as it has little that could go wrong or need servicing (compared to my last car, an BMW), I felt it would save us money in the long term. Lucked out on that one as fuel has increased dramatically, it came with a 4 year warranty which has sorted any niggles (the service centre is 1 mile from my house) and the range has not changed in 30,000 miles. It's also gone up in value rather than down (although this is only a short term 'benefit'. 4 of us do a 300 mile round drip once a month and it only costs us about £25.

Anyone else got a useful one?

Norman_Castle

Stopped smoking.

bungleberg

I’ve changed the PCB on my boiler twice when the relay was clearly at fault, the manual has a flow chart to help diagnose problems. Would not dream of touching the gas parts of the boiler tbh.

Rinsed the Tesco points over the years in Goldsmiths

stopped smoking

was a massive snoozer back in the day

only buy what I need not what I want (occasional treats of course permitted) life is too short after all!

DannyCarey

Upskilled and got a better paying job, investing more money.

El_Torro

I’m pretty lazy when it comes to learning skills that could save me money, would rather get a professional to do it. Especially if getting it wrong means I could blow myself up or gas myself.

I’d say my biggest achievement in this area has been work. I haven’t picked up any professional qualifications but for a period of about 5 years I was flexible about where in the country I worked, as well as the number of hours I worked. During that time I moved 6 times, gaining experience that I would otherwise not have had. Now I have a pretty well paying stable job and am reaping the benefits. If I had never relocated chances are it would have taken me a lot longer to get to where I am today.

wmb194

anotheruser said:

However, we do have some money set aside for the little one when they grow up.
We want to try and save about £1000 a year so when they're older, they will have money for a deposit for a house.
As is ever on this forum: I don't know if there are rules about gifting money like that.  The rules may change in the next 20 years.  The banks may need proof of the money gift.

£1,000pa, c.£85pm, is a complete non-issue, don't worry about it and I doubt the rules on that kind of amount will ever change.

https://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax/gifts

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bungleberg said:

I’ve changed the PCB on my boiler twice when the relay was clearly at fault, the manual has a flow chart to help diagnose problems. Would not dream of touching the gas parts of the boiler tbh.

I did have some experience with electronic servicing years back so I was happy working with PCB’s  (printed circuit board)

A boiler engineer will charge £ 200 - £ 300 to replace a PCB (Not including labour) What I did..

1, Re-solder any suspect dry joints. If that didn’t work.

2, Snap-off the casing on the relay (old style) and clean the contacts. If that didn’t work.

3, Replace the relay at £1 part cost.

You will note a boiler engineer will happily take away your old PCB.

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I invested in a cheap Chinese made angle grinder, my best tool ever.

I also invested in a barbers hair trimmer. Been cutting my own hair for 30 years, think of all the savings I’ve made.

 

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Mobile phone fell out of my pocket broken glass all over the place. Official repair 100 quid.

1, Logged on to Amazon bought the screen for £1.50p

2, Logged on to YouTube “how to repair” removed the broken glass screen with a hair dryer! 10 minute fix.  

london21

Thumbs_Up said:

Mobile phone fell out of my pocket broken glass all over the place. Official repair 100 quid.

1, Logged on to Amazon bought the screen for £1.50p

2, Logged on to YouTube “how to repair” removed the broken glass screen with a hair dryer! 10 minute fix.  

creen for £1.50p that cheap,the repair companies making a lot of profit.

woolly_wombat

1. Took out a 2 year fixed energy deal in late summer 2021.

2. Installed solar panels in spring 2022.

That’s the good news. The bad news is there is still no sign of the battery that was supposed to have been installed with the solar panels.