Terry mentioned it, how do you keep your Stag going and do other things you want to do in the current situation? As you get older the road ahead is shorter so you have got to enjoy yourself in the limited time that is left by courtesy of health and mortality.
Many of you with mortgages are laughing because of the huge cuts in repayments just lately, but people like me are the losers. My income has dropped about 20% over the last few months as the incomefrom a lifetime's savings has plunged. My main concern is now to hang onto the capital, so saving money has become a big preoccupation. Heres what I do for the benefit of any other pensioner Stag fansout there:-
Get a water meter, which is usually free.
Route all phone calls through 1899 (www.1899.com) Mobile – Onetel £4.99 a month with 20 minutes (Vodaphone Network) and use 1899 for calls at 10p/minute.
Be a 'tart' and change all your insurance providers every year - Get all your insurances through Quidco (www.quidco.com) which gives massive cashbacks. Check out all the comparison sites to identify the cheapest and then carefully remove any insurance company or comparison site cookies from your computer and go through Quidco . I saved £440 last year doing this on two car insurances and home insurance.
Regularly check your gas and electricity on comparison sites to see if you can get a better deal
Shop at Aldi instead of any other supermarket. The goods are high quality, in many cases indistinguishable from brands and will save you approx 25% compared to Tesco and Asda and 40% to Waitrose. Buy the things you can't get at Aldi somewhere else. My Aldi bill last week was £37, it would have been £51 in Tesco and Asda and £61 in Waitrose. I know its sad but I did check using www.mysupermarket.com. Some of Aldi's £3 and £4 wines are excellent.
Enquire at local farms for meat. I get 25kg of beef for £150 and £25kg of pork for £90. Eggs are £1.10 for 6. Gammons £5.90 lb. Makro for 1/2 price fish.
Dump AA and RAC and get Autoaid www.autoaidbreakdown.co.uk/ , it costs £37 for ANY & ALL cars you and your partner drive and you get better cover.
Buy your petrol using this as a guide http://www.petrolprices.com/
If you buy a daily newspaper consider subscribing, this can save 25%
I use my Tesco credit card for everything, it gives Clubcard points. This year I'm using the points for a half board holiday on Lake Garda. Long haul will be with some Air Miles if I can manage to save enough for accomodation from my pension. As well as the holiday we get 1/4 price magazine subs, West End Tickets, Eurotunnel fares and some Christmas present using the points, and we don't shop at Tesco!
Be a regular visitor to Charity Shops, and use your local Freecycle they are part of the economy now and have some great stuff.
It might seem like a sad subject to some, but this has become an imperitive to me to weather the financial disaster that Brown and the bankers have inflicted on us prudent people.
Al
Many of you with mortgages are laughing because of the huge cuts in repayments just lately, but people like me are the losers. My income has dropped about 20% over the last few months as the incomefrom a lifetime's savings has plunged. My main concern is now to hang onto the capital, so saving money has become a big preoccupation. Heres what I do for the benefit of any other pensioner Stag fansout there:-
Get a water meter, which is usually free.
Route all phone calls through 1899 (www.1899.com) Mobile – Onetel £4.99 a month with 20 minutes (Vodaphone Network) and use 1899 for calls at 10p/minute.
Be a 'tart' and change all your insurance providers every year - Get all your insurances through Quidco (www.quidco.com) which gives massive cashbacks. Check out all the comparison sites to identify the cheapest and then carefully remove any insurance company or comparison site cookies from your computer and go through Quidco . I saved £440 last year doing this on two car insurances and home insurance.
Regularly check your gas and electricity on comparison sites to see if you can get a better deal
Shop at Aldi instead of any other supermarket. The goods are high quality, in many cases indistinguishable from brands and will save you approx 25% compared to Tesco and Asda and 40% to Waitrose. Buy the things you can't get at Aldi somewhere else. My Aldi bill last week was £37, it would have been £51 in Tesco and Asda and £61 in Waitrose. I know its sad but I did check using www.mysupermarket.com. Some of Aldi's £3 and £4 wines are excellent.
Enquire at local farms for meat. I get 25kg of beef for £150 and £25kg of pork for £90. Eggs are £1.10 for 6. Gammons £5.90 lb. Makro for 1/2 price fish.
Dump AA and RAC and get Autoaid www.autoaidbreakdown.co.uk/ , it costs £37 for ANY & ALL cars you and your partner drive and you get better cover.
Buy your petrol using this as a guide http://www.petrolprices.com/
If you buy a daily newspaper consider subscribing, this can save 25%
I use my Tesco credit card for everything, it gives Clubcard points. This year I'm using the points for a half board holiday on Lake Garda. Long haul will be with some Air Miles if I can manage to save enough for accomodation from my pension. As well as the holiday we get 1/4 price magazine subs, West End Tickets, Eurotunnel fares and some Christmas present using the points, and we don't shop at Tesco!
Be a regular visitor to Charity Shops, and use your local Freecycle they are part of the economy now and have some great stuff.
It might seem like a sad subject to some, but this has become an imperitive to me to weather the financial disaster that Brown and the bankers have inflicted on us prudent people.
Al
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