I wouldn't be able to put a figure on how much MSE has saved me, for me its not about aparticular figure its more than that.
I probably haven't saved as much as some people, I didn't have any bank charges to reclaim etc, BUT .... as a single parent on a low income this site has been a lifesaver for me ... it has helped me stay on track, it has helped me discover other sources of income (mystery shopping / AQA / survey sites), it has given me confidence in managing my personal finances (and now helping some of my freinds to do the same) and it has helped me make a heap of new friends
For me MSE is utterly priceless

I cannot begin to imaine how much MSE has saved me, but I know for a fact I have made an extra £700 through 2 challenges on the DFW board.

The site has taught me to be more careful with my money and through careful spending I have been using my cashback card and paying off in full each month. and have had the rewards from that already.

I have cancelled credit cards that I no longer require and use bank accounts with better interest rates.

I have also come across sites such as quidco and pigsback.

I find that sticking with the site keeps me on track with my mindless spending (which is hard to put a figure on how much I would have spent in the last year alone) and not to forget the improvement on my savings!! this year alone I have been extremely careful with my spending and have an extra £4000 in my savings account that would have been frittered away!

Just goes to show that we need this site! keep up the good work

really given me a wake up call. i would say i have must of saved over £500 in the last year, really has helped with moneysaving and good to have support

Well, I ticked box E, but the more I add it up, the more I think I may have underestimated.

We haven't had anything to reclaim, and our interest rates on various products are the best we can get, but this site has introduced hubby and I to sites like Quidco and Pigsback, which alone have given us almost £500 in the last year.

Add that to our savings that have come from the shopping boards, with all their offers and bargains (Christmas has cost less than half the rrp this year), and also from boards like the OS and Celebrations boards (which have given us a new angle on the way we run the house, and our lives), I think we're actually well over £1000 in the year or so I've used this site properly.

All we have left now is to clear our debts - they're not out of control, but having come out of a CCCS DMP years back (before we found this site), we don't want to go back into one.


So, I'd like to thank this site, and everyone who works and posts on it - you've made and saved us money, helped make life with three kids and a low income much easier, and given us a few laughs along they way - keep up the good work

I have saved at least #200 pounds on my car insurance and much much more on all the phone calls I have made at home and abroad in the last year. Keep up the good work and lets give the big boys a run for their money.

Have no idea how much actually saved by using this site, but as I always check for offers,vouchers or deals before doing or buying anything it probably adds up to a fair bit and thats not including almost £2,500 reclaimed for my O/H from Natwest (still training him in money saving ways ) and not to forget the freebies too.

Love this site and always tell people about it, keep up the good work

I had a refund from Abbey of £126 for overcharging on my Mortgage Repayment/Completion Fee, using the template letter. Many thanks, Martin.

Not sure exactly but halved house insurance,
card tarted,dont pay more than 6.9%
joined quidco and greasypalm for cashback,
checked and swapped gas and electric twice,
phone once,
stupidly still have to do mortgage and endowment mis- selling though! going to organise that tomorrow.
Biggest plus is being made far more aware of all the tricks these companies use

Thru this site I found Quidco, and have saved over £100 in 3 months, buying only things I would have bought anyway; also lots of freebies.
You folk are great, carry on the good work!

Like other posters, MSE has not just saved money - I have also gained insights into making money and generally live life better and refuse to be ripped off.

Hearing people's stories makes you realise how lucky you are that you have the earning potential to get yourself out of the mess you had got yourself into. Being able to assist others with regard to dealing with debt is also a great feeling for me.

I posted up in 2006 about the savings I had accrued to date, I originally saved over £300 in running costs per month as I had previously never really watched what I was being charged or what I was spending my money on. All I knew was I earned a pretty good salary, but never had any money!

However, its additions like Quidco, Pigsback, Mobipay, discounted travel, vouchers, MFiT challenge, Old Style Forum and challenges, the 3R's (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), switching current account, declutter and eBay/freecycle, rediscovering my cooking talent, etc that have been entirely down to MSE's influence. Not to mention the mindshift that you don't have to have stuff - only buy what you need and stop using the credit card if you can't pay it off at the end of the month!

I initially used my monthly savings to reduce my £18k worth of credit cards that were costing me over £800 in repayments per month!!! So, that is over £1000 per month more in my pocket now than pre-MSE. The cutbacks helped, but I couldn't have cleared the entire amount in 8 months without other forum members moral support which encouraged me to bite the bullet and go freelance, increasing my income 3 fold.

I also managed to save my OH £200 per month through reviewing insurances, utilities, etc which he couldn't believe!!

My £1000+ per month went toward my fabulous MSE wedding in September (eBay dress, HM bouquet, HM decorations, Quidco cashback part-funding the catering, 0% credit card funding the rest!) and is now going toward my mortgage. I switch to an offset mortgage in November.

If I make the MFiT challenge, that would be an additional £50k+ saved in interest! Even if I don't clear the mortgage completely, I stand to save thousands on interest just trying - and I aim to give it a darn good try!

MSE has literally changed my life. My hope is that it continues to do so for many others!!!

Thanks Martin & Co!!!!

Like others, I find it impossible to quantify.

I have found a new way of life here, so the savings add up every day, every week, every month, every year for the rest of my life.

How do I save thee? Let me count the ways.

1. I have almost completely paid off our debts - just one loan left.
2. I shop around for all our insurances.
3. I do not pay PPI - and indeed successfully claimed back a refund on my DH's loan, as he is self-employed and wasn't covered.
4. I only have one credit card, which is paid off in full each month, and is a cashback card.
5. I regularly check my utilities and switch supplier where appropriate.
6. I use the Call checker for calling mobiles and calling abroad.
7. I switched bank accounts to a higher interest earning one.
8. I paid savings into an ISA, having shopped around for a good one.
9. I use savings 'pots' for car tax, clothing, gifts budgets, etc etc.
10. I have and live within a budget and my means.
11. I take my own lunches to work.
12. I cook from scratch.
13. I look around for good deals on anything I buy.
14. I have simplified my cleaning products.
15. I shopped around for a decent interest bearing savings account.
16. I started to plan for my retirement.
17. I saved a decent amount for a house deposit (19.5%) and shopped around for a decent mortgage.
18. I question the value of everything I am about to purchase.
19. I have made money on Ebay and Amazon decluttering my house.
20. I have been given the tools to be financially knowledgable, and most importantly am now able to pass this knowledge on to my DD.

20 seemed a good number to stop at, but I can think of many, many more ways in which this site saves me money....shopping at Lidl, using Discount codes/vouchers... etc etc.

How can this possibly be quantified?

rumbly xxx

I couldn't begin to calculate how much this site has saved me over the years I have been using it but off the top of my head it has got to be well over £5K.

Level term life insurance (Cavendish online) alone accounts for about 4K over the life of the policy then there is the re-mortgage which I was going to do anyway but I used this site for reference and ended up with a far far better deal than the one I was offered by HBOS ,my then current mortgage provider,and about £50 a month better off which should be even more once interest rates drop.

Then there is £200 I got this month from a cashback CC that I got after reading through this site .

My savings account with ICICI which has currently one of the best interest rates for savings accounts.

Home insurance,gas and electricity,mobile phone cashback,glasses & etc the list is endless.

I never ever make a major financial purchase/decision without first checking out this site or the newsletter.

Has to be one of the best resources on the (UK)web.

Big thanks to all who have anything to do with the running of it.

Cheers,

Tony.

Let me see...

Mine is about £800 a month - interest that was being charged on debts. Plus about £30 a month by changing my mobile phone provider. Plus about £350 a month by being taught about grocery budget and reminded about all my mum's OS cooking methods

Can't put an actual figure on it as I think I would have carried on as I was until ... I don't know when

But more than that... it saved me so much worry and stress as without this site I would still be borrowing from one credit card to pay the others and stressing how to buy food and petrol. Without this site I wouldn't have contacted CCCS or even known what a DMP was.

So thanks. This site has helped me beyond just £££'s.


Edit: Wow that's about £1,180 a month - no wonder I got so in debt :rolleyes:

I also find it difficult to quantify, but made a guesstimate at 51-150. I know this site gave me ideas how to save money on my first car insurance when I bought it last december (added my parents as named drivers, cut the cost by £70). I've also made/saved money via sites like quidco & pigsback, & got samples of stuff for free instead of having to buy it to try (which I always did, I'm a mug for new stuff, a marketing campaign's dream customer, or at least I used to be!)

But above all I feel the real value of this site to me is not what I've saved so far, but what I've learned for the future. A lot of the money saving tips don't apply to me at present, as I'm living with my parents, but I still read just about everything on here, as when I get my own place (hopefully quite soon!), the knowledge I've gained from this site will quite probably save me hundreds! It'll quite probably stop me from getting into debt I would otherwise have done.

Also this site has educated me about why people get into debt, and changed my whole way of thinking about those people. I used to work in a high street bank, and I would scoff at the people who came in with thousands owing on their cards, to make minimum payment, and the people who every month were charged £100s cos they were overdrawn, but now I realise how wrong I was to mock! Thank you MSE for changing my thinking, and giving me sympathy!

Oh, and of course there's the value of all the great people I've met on the forums, impossible to quantify!

Well done Martin & the MSE team, who all work so hard to keep us all out of debt and give us great advice. The way they worked through the technical attack at the weekend was brilliant. And thanks & well done to the other MSErs, the people who use this site and give so many good tips & advice to others. You all deserve a big pat on the back! Long may MSE continue!

I really do not know what I have saved--a lot-- but more importantly for me I have learnt a lot and I did not realise how much the MSE is part of my life until it went down.
The excitement of Glitches in Tesco's and Boots. Quidco and Pigsback all been very rewarding whilst being fun too.
So many thanks Martin you have enlightened my life, added interest and spice to it.
Please keep up the good work and I have a rusty pair of scissors to castrate whoever is attacking MSE

£1200 council Tax refund for parents
£4000 holiday paid with Tesco deals saved in 1 year - used to get about £20 per quarter until I discovered MSE
Hundreds of £'s savings with MOC's
About £5000 in R&R's from Tesco before this extremely generous policy ended.
£250 Quidco
Plus much more, and this is on top of loads of fantastic advice.

OK, not all the above is 100% as a result of MSE, but if I had not discovered MSE then I would not have got any of it.

Well done Martin in beating the attackers. Keep up the good work.

I have so much to thank Martin and this website for, i.e. :

Bank charges reclaimed £3,800.00
Council Tax rebate £580.00
Mortgage Redemption Fee refunded £135.00
Using Tesco clubcard vouchers to pay for yearly car service £160.00

I am now more savvy about cash and shop around for better deals on insurance, etc. This website has given a lot of confidence to people and encouraged us not to get taken for granted as consumers !

Have a great weekend all !!

Couldn't really estimate, but I have just had a Warm Front boiler and draught proofing put in, saved me £2,700 , I didn't know about this before I came on here. I've got a half price cinema ticket thingy, in fact if I start to reckon up I would bore you all to death, I have saved such a lot, especially my sanity. As I have probably said before, I had a good job, great salary before I became ill/disabled, when I discovered this site I was existing on £59 per week IB...................., without MSE I don't know what I would have done. Seriously. Thanks Martin and all the others who keep this site going, and especially all the peeps who answer threads, it's lovely!! Fankyou fankyoouuuuuuuuuuuuu

And I have a spoon!

£4000 claimed in bank charges (plus my mothers £2000)
£1700 by making an offer on a bank loan
£350 quidco
£300 pigsback
£50 nectar points

Probably hundreds in pricing glitches and offers

Probably hundreds more in codes and vouchers

Not to mention the freebies.. from catfood (for me, my mother and my sister!! Yes I do 3 of everything because they are skint too!) to coasters to vouchers to hair bobbles to mascara and beyond!

Then there are the freebies others have very kindly sent me.. clothing for the children, vouchers, books..

AND.. howe can you put a price on life skills like cooking? And the cost of the planet?

I am much more conscious about my carbon footprint and saving the poor abused planet for my children.

I compost now. I bake. I haven't any debts to talk of (apart from a BIG loan!) and I have quite probably changed the whole way of living and thinking in terms of money and eating and shopping.

My hubby says I NEVER pay full price for anything any more!!!