hooli – Member
I would suggest not reading bike magazines. Not only do they cost £4 a go but they convince me that I need a new bike or bike parts

. Nice one never read a bike magazine but still nice one.

Another moneysaving tip? Don’t work! 😆

The money I spend working is crazy. Transport, food, work social events because I don’t want to be seen as a miserable bugger. I only really realised how much working costs when I became a self employed contractor and started claiming work related expenses.

I’m kinda being tongue in cheek here, I’m not genuinely advising people not to work, but I wouldn’t go back to being permanently employed/owned again now I actually keep account of how much of the cash I earn is being spunked just so I can keep going to work and earning the money. I mentioned this on another thread, but where I work now, they have a lot of facilities, onsite shops, canteen etc and a discount scheme, so the employer pays people their salary, but a large proportion of it goes straight back to the employer via convenient onsite stores selling the employer’s products, people buying their breakfast and lunch there, and using the discount scheme for their home shopping, paying for their parking permit for the onsite car parks….

Basically, it’s an existential nightmare! 😆

.littlemisspanda – Member
Another moneysaving tip? Don’t work!

Exactly what I did lost one house to a blood sucking leach (I have issues). Soon as I paid of the 2nd house, 10 years of none stop work sold up and moved back to the country. Sweeeeeeeet Pension not great but my aim is to make each £1 stretch to £2 or more. You can achieve that if you have the time.

Checked my DD today Anglican Water have reduced my bill to £4 a month from £5.50. Robbers have been overcharging me.

. SD-253 – Member
Ps money saving expert has a link to free nakd bar offer. Some health bar although make your choice from all there products up to 75p. Used 3 email addresses printed 2 for each address. Will use in the only 2 supermarkets in town. Worth trying. Should be the sort of thing people put in theres and there kids lunch box. Not long left on offer 5 days?
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/nakd

Feel very depressed as I printed another 6 off but forgot them and my shopping list. Took 6 to CoOp they accepted all 6 coupons for 6 x 75grm bars. Rule was 1 per person and 35grm bar. Maximum price per bar 75p mine were 79p and 89p per bar, robbers charged me the difference. Going to help the community out aka beer drinking.That will make me feel better

Jesus I’ve just revised my earlier tip of moving in with SD-253, the guy’s an accident magnet! 🙂

I have nothing constructive to contribute, but just wanted to express how much the people offering genuine but ridiculous (i.e. not purposely funny) money saving tips sicken me (my fave being filling up a thermos of hot water at work so you don’t have to use the kettle at home). You joyless, petty, miserable, boring weirdos. 😀

Those suffering genuine economic hardship (if its that bad, turn the internet off), and mental health issues (which accounts for much of this sort of behavior) are excluded from the above criticism.

Unnecessarily tight penny pinching is one of my pet hates, if it’s not obvious. Think I might start a thread about spending money is okay as long as you can afford it and it makes you happy.

DON’T waste money on expensive iPods. Simply think of your favourite tune and I hum it. If you want to “switch tracks”, simply think of another song you like and hum that instead.

SHOES last twice as long if only worn every other day.

SHOPPERS: Take one grape to the till. It won’t register on the low-tech, insensitive scales so you will get it for free. Repeat this procedure 100 times or so and you have yourself a free bunch of grapes.

EMPLOYEES: Only use the loo at work. Not only will you save money on toilet paper, but you’ll also be getting paid.

.angeldust – Member
I have nothing constructive to contribute, but just wanted to express how much the people offering genuine but ridiculous (i.e. not purposely funny) money saving tips sicken me (my fave being filling up a thermos of hot water at work so you don’t have to use the kettle at home). You joyless, petty, miserable, boring weirdos.

Those suffering genuine economic hardship (if its that bad, turn the internet off), and mental health issues (which accounts for much of this sort of behavior) are excluded from the above criticism.

Unnecessarily tight penny pinching is one of my pet hates, if it’s not obvious. Think I might start a thread about spending money is okay as long as you can afford it and it makes you happy

Love to know,and I am not being sarcastic, which one am I in the above?

Was drinking Bateman’s breweries Chocolate biscuit all weekend, didn’t sell that well. Cheered me up know end when last night he said I could have it half price. Was drinking it anyway. £1.45 a pint. Head hurting today.

TV switched off , not on standby

Don’t think I can turn my tv off, but it uses a whopping 0.9w on standby. Go me.

SD-253 – apologies for slow response.

Yes – that was £49 divided by nights – it’s £49 per year. I have used a Christian house exchange organisation (where you paid for each exchange) before but mainly use Intervac as there is loads of choice. There are no other costs – someone will be using your electricity, gas but you will be doing the same.

It was set up by teachers! Been exchanging for 30 years (first with my parents when I lived in Thamesmead and then with my own family) and have noticed that more people are doing exchanges; seems to be attracting more affluent people (judging from the size of houses and the pics provided) although we generally prefer less plush places. Sometimes you meet families – sometimes you don’t but often meet their friends, which I like – daughter had play date; had drinks / food with various neighbours, etc.

I’ve been to most countries within Europe – went to Valencia and Belgium last year. It’s generally easier to get an exchange abroad than within the UK although done plenty of UK exchanges.

Hope it works out for you

jms – Member
SD-253 – apologies for slow response.

I would be very surprised if it didn’t work out. As my house is small I assume most with big house won’t be looking to exchange with me? But noticed that most were couples no kids. I wonder if having no facilities in the village other than 1 bus a week would be off putting for some? Also some of the exchange say you need a car. Now I know I can’t get anywhere on a bike I wonder if they will accept that. I often have that problem on freecycle. Thanks very much for let me know about Invertac.

Love to know,and I am not being sarcastic, which one am I in the above?

I haven’t paid any attention to what you’ve posted, but I’ll stick my neck out and say both 😈

angeldust – Member
Love to know,and I am not being sarcastic, which one am I in the above?
I haven’t paid any attention to what you’ve posted, but I’ll stick my neck out and say both

That doesn’t say much about about your personality if you can make such generalisation. Bit troll like.

You think?!?

.angeldust – Member
You think?!?

. Your actually the only Troll we have had on this thread. Not controversial enough for your mates? 😀

having just fallen off my chair after reading a thread on here where a guy paid 200quid to have his bike serviced…. my tip is learn to do your bike yourself. it ain’t rocket science. i had no idea you could pay 200quid for bike work.

.gavtheoldskater – Member
having just fallen off my chair after reading a thread on here where a guy paid 200quid to have his bike serviced…. my tip is learn to do your bike yourself. it ain’t rocket science. i had no idea you could pay 200quid for bike work.

I never do any servicing other than clean. Anything else i use to take it to the bike shop. A new chain wheel, cassette and chain fitted is not going to come to? If I can’t remember it couldn’t have cost a £100.
Have Rohloff now with Disc brakes not much to go wrong/service. Haven’t broke anything for ages. Replacing another bike with Alfine 11 again with disc brakes. My bike mechanic said “I won’t being seeing much of you in the future”. I hope he is right 🙂

gavtheoldskater – Member
having just fallen off my chair after reading a thread on here where a guy paid 200quid to have his bike serviced

200 QUID ……….Don’t believe it!

SD-253
Re home exchanges, it really depends on the individuals as to what they are looking for re size of place, location, facilities, whether they have access to car, etc. We’ve exchanged with much larger / smaller properties than us so don’t be put off!
On the Intervac site, you specify how many people your property can sleep, put up photos of your property; set out what facilities you have and what countries you are looking for; when you can exchange, etc. IMHO it pays to be flexible re where you want to go as this will give you more options…

Neither my wife or me have been earning for the last few months since moving to the middle if nowhere. We will start earning again in about six months. In the period off we have had a lot more time (and need) to look at our spending. We were never big spenders but there are a lot of things we’ve found we can do more cheaply with no loss of quality – and in many cases a big improvement. Thing is we’ve really enjoyed the process of paring back our outgoings.
My favourites are:

Homebrew – really good stuff works out about 35p/pint once you’ve got the kit
Giffgaff – £7.50/month for more minutes/texts/Internet than I can use (compared to old £22/month)
Cycle everywhere – just buy the right clothes/mudguards and you can arrive dry/warm/not too fragrant
Breadmaker – with a bit of tinkering we’re making really nice bread at about 40p loaf
Buy a sack of potatoes from the farm/green grocer – ten times more for your money
Cook things from ingredients rather than buying processed stuff
Home haircuts – after a few wonky efforts we’re both very happy
Sell stuff – keeping the bike spending neutral by mining the tat horde
Buy quality and, if you can, secondhand.
Not having children – neither of us ever wanted them so wasn’t really a choice but seems like they eat into the cash
Do lots of jobs yourself – drain rodding, chimney sweeping etc
Without wanting to sound like Dave, wear an extra jumper and discover the joys of slippers/woolly blanket of an evening

Invest in a huge stock-pot. You can batch cook 10 servings of chili / bolognese etc, and then freeze them in individual or 2 person sizrd portions.

FWIW I can cook 14 servings of chili for about a tenner.

. mightymule – Member
Invest in a huge stock-pot. You can batch cook 10 servings of chili / bolognese etc, and then freeze them in individual or 2 person sizrd portions.

FWIW I can cook 14 servings of chili for about a tenner.
Nothing beats a slow cooker cheap to buy cheap to run. Don’t even have to keep an eye on it. Just go to pub it will ready when you get back.

stop paying monthly for your new car and run an old banger. i reckon many could save thousands.

. wynne – Member
Cycle everywhere – just buy the right clothes/mudguards and you can arrive dry/warm/not too fragrant

. If you cycle a lot think about investing to save. Disc brakes and hub gears. The Alfine 11 looks like Excellent value hub gears. I have just bought this one http://www.evanscycles.com/products/charge/mixer-11-2013-hybrid-bike-ec054337#features

Really good value I bought mine second hand on Ebay. Even though this is a cheap time to buy bikes it still cost me £560 + £33 courier. I already have a Rohloff equipped bike but most will find Rohloff to expensive. It arrives tomorrow so won’t know till then how good it is. Maybe £120 worth of extras but still I paid a lot because most models with Alfine 11 are very expensive. Disc brakes are a real money saver even on pads never mind worn out wheels.

Don’t but a plunger of one of those special toilet unblocker things. If you’ve a blockage, simply put your loo brush in an old carrier bag and use that instead. The carrierbag / loo brush combination forms a pretty good seal in the top of the u bend, and one or two ‘shoves’ shift anything!

. Not having children – neither of us ever wanted them so wasn’t really a choice but seems like they eat into the cash

There robbers they raped my wallet again this Christmas 😕