Strike1 to the Thrift. Save money while you earn

OK I'll figure out a proper way to track what I'm up to ready for the start of the year but I feel the need to start recording anything that I try in my mission to save money that works straight away so you can either: copy it if it works everywhere, or make you aware so you can look for something similar in your own country.

As I said I'll figure out a way to present all my findings over the coming weeks but I want to get some details down fresh while they are in my mind. I don't do new year resolutions so this will just start immediately and run whenever I find a new and clever way of saving money.

First does everyone understand the term thrift? To be thrifty is to save money. Scottish People are often accused of being overly thrifty. They say that copper wire was invented as a result of two Scotsmen fighting over a penny. We're actually not that bad but I think most people are being a bit more careful with their money at the moment so maybe the Scottish Reputation for stinginess will return. Personally I think the Scots got their reputation because they are not stupid with their money. Unfortunately I'm of Irish descent (no offence to our Irish readers but Ireland's money worries have been somewhat in focus over the past few weeks).

OK, let's see if we can save some pounds or make some or something.

Tyres

First up lets get the cash rolling in with some tyres. Now this probably is quite specific to the UK but the principal is probably world wide. Do a google search using just your tyre code and narrow the results if possible to just your country. Haven't the time for all that searching? Let me give you some perspective on this one. My car has an unusual size and width combination that it shares with very few other cars. The numbers sound innocent enough on their own but even decent, honest tyre dealers suck their breath when they hear them in that combination. The big national 'fit them quickly' tyre shops don't even have these bad boys in stock. Yep I have to give a days notice if I'm going to have a flat and I can't have one at weekends. One tyre from the dealer (excluding fitting) is £165. (At the time of typing that's 193 Euros or 263 US dollars)

Now for once the dealer price is not ridiculous. A National tyre company who won't be beaten on price quoted £159. A local tyre fitter who I trust gave a similar quote but then phoned around and came back with £113 (including fitting valves and wheel balancing). Ebay had a couple of sellers doing second hand Pirellis with approx 5mm tread for about £30 but who buys those? Even more curiously who fits them? Can you fit tyres at home? I know I cant. There was a web-site that I discovered a while ago and bookmarked that offered a budget tyre by a company called Nankang for £58.70 however this didn't include delivery (£5.99) or fitting. Not sure how a tyre fitter would react to that as I assume they make something out of ordering the tyre as well as fitting it. I'm not even sure what the cost is to fit a tyre. In case your wondering, the fact that the tyre is cheap doesn't really worry me. It's not a remould and it's certified European Safe so it's good by me. It may not last as long as the pirelli but, at a third of the price I'll cope. Anyway these tyres were out of stock at my time of need so I had to search more. For future reference the stockist was called camskill. http://www.camskill.co.uk

In desperation (near bald tyres in the snow isn't good even on a 4x4) I searched more and found another company with a budget model. These tyres are called Nexen and cost £73.70 but this includes delivery and fitting plus valves changed and wheel balancing. I'm a sucker for the valve change and wheel balancing. I checked out web reviews for Nexen tyres and they seem to get between 3 and 4 out of 5 on the review sites so they aren't all bad (The continental premiums I have don't do any better). The site (for those in the UK) is CTyres http://www.ctyres.co.uk.

One pitfall to watch for: My only concern with these guys is that they work through a network of independent garages. As I wanted the tyres quickly I phoned two of these independents directly to see if they wanted to 'cut out the middle man' so to speak and take the work directly from me. Neither was even remotely interested. As one said 'that's just ridiculously cheap for those tyres. Order through the site and I'll happily fit them but I couldn't do those for under £100'. So I did order them through the site and the order was confirmed on Friday for fitting on Wednesday. They were to be fitted by the guy I've just quoted tomorrow except.... They called to say they were out of stock and they couldn't give a date when they would be back. They could offer a dearer option however. Poor show I say. Unfortunately for that company they broke this nugget of bad news to my wife instead of me. She suggested that, as an act of good faith, they source whatever they can but price match the quote given. After some stumbling they agreed. Good show I say. So provided they get fitted tomorrow as stated then we have our first genuine saving. Taking the next cheapest quote of £113 per tyre, we purchased two tyres for £147.

Total Saving on 2 x tyres £79

Time taken to source deal (1hour approx)
Calls to confirm (2)
Days delay compared to next cheapest option (3)

Cash back sites

These are a new Internet phenomena and something to approach with caution. These are sites that promote the goods and services of various companies to you but offer an additional incentive to you if you use a link from the Cash back site to sign up to the promoted product or service. If you want sound advice on how these sites work and the various pitfalls of using them in the UK then I strongly recommend going here first http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/cashback-websites

Money saving Expert is a consumer site in the UK but it's advice probably holds true around the world. They test various ways of saving money and report comprehensively on how they work and what to watch out for.

Anyway I have a couple of colleagues who swear by one of these sites. So I thought I would try one out using a product that I have some knowledge of.

Gas and Electricity

In the UK Gas and Electricity supplies are deregulated meaning that companies are free to compete on price. There are however only five major suppliers and, despite them all competing on price, there are regular claims of price-fixing between them. As someone with a bit of knowledge in this area I take any savings quotes with a pinch of salt. What I do believe in however are straight forward bribes (loyalty bonuses) and discounts. I went to the cash back site http://www.quidco.com to check out what was on offer.

According to Money Saving Expert they are only the second best site to use but I went for them anyway as I was aware how they worked. I believe they also operate in the US.

Quidco were offering £80 if you used them to switch to one of the UK electricity and gas suppliers. I used another site that I trust to check this supplier out http://uswitch.com. (Remember Quidco aren't doing a price comparison to say that this company will be cheaper. There's no point getting cash back if it costs you more than what you already pay). According to Uswitch I would indeed save around £220 per year by switching (remember Uswitch quote a total saving so that includes any incentives. read on). This would be in addition to the money Quidco would give me. I've already said that I don't put a lot of faith in these discounts and I don't believe you should either. There were however two extra incentives that made this a deal worth looking at. The package on offer tracked at 2% below standard prices. On my annual bills this amounts to £31 per year. In addition there was a sign up bonus of £100 for a limited period. The potential total saving is:

80+
220+
=£300

I'm not going to count any of these savings as being real until I have actually made them. It's also worth noting that the package I've signed up to is not fixed so will get dearer if prices rise and also ties me to that company for a year. Watch this space to see if the discounts work out to be true.

What I do know to be true is that, by changing supplier, I will release around £200 of credit that I have with my present supplier. That is the only part of the above deal that I am reasonably certain of although I wont know the exact amount till January as it takes six weeks to switch and I'll use power during that period. If all goes to plan I'll have approximately £280 in my bank in February with £100 off my first bill in March so, whatever way you cut it, I'm better off.

One pitfall to watch out for: Most suppliers bill quarterly. Add up your last four bills and you'll have a yearly amount. In my case I use £1550 per year (£700 electricity and £850 gas). The new supplier was quoting a monthly direct debit combined of only £50 per month (£600 per year). THAT IS NOT A SAVING. THAT IS WRONG. If i was to pay that I would quickly go into debt. If you get a quote like this you must phone up and make them sort it out. It's not that I want to give away any more than I need however my maximum saving should be about £220 and this includes the £100 incentive. My direct debit should therefor be no less than £110 per month. Don't get suckered in this way because once your in debt it becomes very hard to leave one of these companies. Also understand that that £110 per month will be too little in winter and too much in summer meaning I will never seem to be paying the right amount. It wont balance out till I've paid that amount for twelve months so don't increase or decrease your payment amount until the first year is up.

Time taken to source deal: N/A (Just log in to Quidco)
Time taken to investigate potential saving: 30 mins on Uswitch
Time taken to gather information and switch: 1.30 hours working out present bills

It's a lot to take in but on my first thrifty post I have:

An actual saving of £79 for tyres against the next cheapest quote
A potential saving of £120 from the new utility supplier over one year (£10 per month)
A potential incentive of £80 for using Quidco to change utility supplier
A potential cash incentive from the new utility supplier of £100
A potential refund of £200 from my present supplier

If everything works out I will have saved £199 and earned £380 for a few hours online.

I'll figure out a better way of presenting this information shortly folks.

This could be ...Extreme saving with Tquittin. What do you think?

8 hours is not enough

Hi folks from snowy Scotland

Computer
It was a sad day last Sunday when I finally had to admit that, in its present condition my faithful old desktop has had to retire. The fact is that the glitches that it's reporting such as missing registry files and blue stop screens are just symptoms of a hardware problem that I just can't get past.

I spent about two and a half hours on Sunday trying to fix it and then had to admit defeat. As any good geek will testify, a computer is a conglomeration of many parts so all is not lost. The graphics card and sound card will probably make it on to a new 'basic spec' machine when I can afford one. The good news is that the hard drive is intact and runs using an external USB caddy so I shouldn't be too down. What I miss most is the graphics though and its not just me being fussy.

We probably watch more TV online over the net than what we get through the box. I have a 32" flat screen that has served as my pc monitor and display for online on demand television for about three or four years. The thing is I managed to purchase the only flat screen ever made that didn't have a VGA input for the PC. With my trusty desktop the graphics card had a HDMI output which was fine but the laptop only has SVID which is OKish for TV but dreadfully blurry for text like my blog. I did have to treat myself to a USB keyboard however as the laptop one just doesn't cut the mustard for any kind of typing. So for the moment the laptop will have to step up as the main PC because there are no funds for a new desktop, just now or, any time soon.

Credit Crunch
That brings me to the tale behind the title of my blog. 2010 has just been too tough and I'll not weep to see its passing. Although I don't want to wish my life away. I shouldn't complain as I have been able to pay my bills (most of them at least) and I have a decent job but it's the complete lack of even a spare penny as a contingency that's getting me down. I took my car to the dealer for new wheels. Yep I'm still screwing the dealer for every penny after my failed MOT earlier this year. Anyway they couldn't do two of the wheels because I need new tyres. That meant shopping around for tyres and yet more money. Then there will be next years caravan fees before you know it. I already can't afford Christmas so god knows what will happen if something unexpected crops up. So I am going to commit now to earning more in 2011. I don't do new years resolutions, it's not that, but I'm not spending another year of all work and no play. So here's the plan...

Between now and January I'm going to research ways of earning more and spending less. The blog has lacked focus since I gave up smoking but, from January I'm going to start monitoring what ways I come up with to earn Money. I'll also try to measure what I can manage to save by either using less or by learning to do things myself. Yep, this blog is going to be about thrift. I'm going to share whatever advice I come up with on beating the recession and living life. Any tips you guys have will also be included.

Iphone
This weekend saw new iPhone software released on the world iOS4.2. So why hasn't there been a blog about how to jailbreak? Well I haven't even upgraded yet. I'm waiting. I'm actually considering upgrading but then not jailbreaking. To any jailbreaker that must sound strange. Well the truth is that I want to see if I can improve the performance of the phone. I have already gone back to my HTC for satnav because the iphone is so poor. But it seems to be poor at everything so I'm wondering if it might perform better without the customisation. Watch this space for results.

Smoking

This weekend my wife was away with relatives. As I wasn't there I decided to have a wee weekend to myself. I bought a 24 pack of beer and settled in for some serious guy time. I even looked out some old vinyl 45rpm singles. Anyone out there remember the Stranglers, the Clash, The damned? What about some 80s stuff like the cure or the fall. I've even got older stuff inherited gradually from relatives so have some great stuff from the stones and Rod Stewart. What does this have to do with smoking? Well there's been a cigar kicking about my office since long before I quit. I've mentioned it more than once in the blog. I always enjoyed a cigar back when I smoked but this one survived intact. Until now. Yep, late on Friday night I nipped down to the cellar and smoked it outside the back door. Now anyone who follows the blog will know that there have been the occasional cigs.(The last one was back in July) To be honest the cigs haven't done anything for me and they are just one of those things where you try one once in a while to see if your missing something and then realise that you aren't. The cigar however was different. I loved it. So much so that I can't have another one because I would quickly become a smoker again. Maybe on Christmas day or boxing day I might have another but otherwise it's a no no. I've been quit since February and I aint going through that again.

Car

Finally. It's snowing heavily here. Yep winter isn't just around the corner, it's here. This could last till February. I've just spent two hours clearing the path. This means that the wife and I will have to share the car. To all those who scoffed at my 4x4, who's laughing now? Can't wait till after Wednesday when the new tyres get fitted but to be honest I'd rather be in my car with bald tyres in this weather than most of the other cars I see sliding around the road. Last year mine had a hiccup on black ice but apart from that it's the only way to handle this weather.

Hope everyone is well. Enjoy the snow. Give me ideas to make or save money or to do things myself without paying. I'll update again next week.

Cheers

T

Help my PC has turned blue and isn't moving. It might be....

Just in case the world thinks that I've given up the blogging I thought I'd drop a very quick post to let you know what's happening.

For the past two weeks I've had a bit of a rush job on a work so have been working on parts of it at home. These things can get pretty all consuming hence the lack of activity on the blog. The good news is that it's finished and looking good. The bad news is that my PC is yet again in pieces around the office floor. I just cannot figure out what's making it so sick. I even tried my hidden ace of using a different hard drive just to get it started but it just wasn't playing.

It went blue on Friday and I spent most of Saturday pulling it apart and trying to cajole it into activity but to no avail. I would have went further today but I sacrificed the virtual world to go out amongst the real world and see some relatives. I can be really guilty of shutting myself off from the world once the caravan season ends. What that means is that, if you don't own a caravan, some relatives haven't seen me since the last time the trees were this bare and the nights this dark. It's a shame because every time I visit I think, I really enjoyed that, I should make the effort more often. I hardly even saw my brother in law (he's not really but I think of him as being) and he's one of the very few folk who might have some idea how to fix my pc. Here in Scotland there has even been pockets of snow and the temprature has been down close to zero. It could be a long cold winter if this keeps up.

Anyway I'm on the laptop and its late so I'm off to bed. I will update the world as soon as I either get the pc back up and running or give up the ghost and admit defeat. The money pit is empty so there's no option for a replacement PC so I'll be burning the midnight oil to get this one fixed. Plus after seven years or so of service I doubt a new one could ever live up to it (or down to its unreliability).

There's also rumours about iOS 4.2 around the corner and a new version of iTunes so there might be a wee iblog due soon too. Although itunes and all the software for updating my phone is on the broken PC so that may be a problem.

So I'll be blogging again very shortly. Wish me luck in the meantime
T.

The clock struck one....Then struck one once again... It was twice 1am in the morning.

November!!!!! Here in the UK the clocks went back one hour on Saturday night. It's a strange ritual but, what happens is that, on the last weekend of October we put our clocks back one hour and keep them that way until April.

Why? Believe it or not it's to do with health and safety. For a few more weeks at least it will mean that the mornings are brighter (and therefor the roads are safer) for kids going to school. It's supposed to allow us the maximum amount of daylight during our waking hours. Problem is that many of us work in doors and so, by mid to late November, will leave the house in darkness, work indoors during the 6-8 hours of daylight that we get and then return home in darkness.

I sometimes wonder how we got to the top of the food chain. We waste all of our quality time working hard to earn money for things that we price beyond our own reach. Lower down the food chain the less inteligent animals hibernate, or store food, or at very least only hunt when they are hungry (and scavenge then). Us clever animals have made it so we must hunt at least eight hours of every day from age 16 to age 65.


My Jack Russell, and the cat that preceded her have both watched bemused as my wife and I get up at early oclock year after year on bitterly cold mornings to head for work whilst they turn around and snuggle deaper into their blanket (with a bowl of snacks at their side). Sometimes, despite being practically incapable of containing their excitement at our homecoming they still show no desperate urge to leave the warm house for a stroll through the snow. Strange little dumb animals....

Sorry for the lateness of my post this week. I try to post around the weekend unless something important crops up however this weekend it was our thirteenth anniversary. For folks our age (40ish)thirteen is quite an achievement. So we took a long weekend which is why the post is late.


It's good the way our anniversary falls. It means that we can celebrate our love for each other as we head in to winter in October and, provided we don't kill each other during the long dark winter months, we can declare our love once again at valentines day and look forward to spring. As I wrote on last years anniversary card: 'as long as we have each other, we'll never run out of problems'.

October was a funny month for the blog. Visits dropped from around 500 per month (based I think on folk looking to break their iphones) during August/September to 389. Personally 389 is about 386 more visitors than I would expect. (Myself, my mum and my wife shouldn't really count in the stats). What is interesting about last month though is that the blog is now truly global. Vistors came from 48 countries/regions. The US provided almost as many vistors as the UK with Canada and Australia not far behind. Someone from Hong Kong visited five times whilst someone in Saudi spent almost 15 minutes in one visit. Some African states now show on my map however I have yet to ingratiate myself with the good people of either China or Greenland. Come on guys you don't need to smoke or break iPhones to join in. Tell us what interests you and we'll try to include it.

I'm sure I've got more to add to this post so I'm publishing it so I can go to bed but it may get longer tomorrow night.

Untill then...

T