One of my goals at the moment is to cut my spending without significantly downgrading my lifestyle. I will try to keep this page updated with my success stories.
Annual Savings
£85 (approx) switching to a cheaper breakdown service, AutoAid (Feb 2008).
£120 (£10 / month) approx interest on current account following switch (Aug 2007).
£3412.98 as a result of a job-change (July 2007).
£93 cancelled direct debits for unused services (April 2007).
One-Off Savings
£30 cheque for keeping M:Metrics market research software on my Smartphone (Feb 2008).
£38 on a smart-casual jacket, M&S January sale (January 2008).
£27.49 on jacket, EWM January sale (January 2008).
£10 total discount on 4 turtle-neck shirts, BOGOHP in EWM January sale (January 2008).
£22 on trowsers, M&S January sale (January 2008).
£0.50 on “grommit” shortbread, by buying a broken biscuit rather than a perfect one (January 2008).
£15 postal order for installing M:Metrics market research software on my Smartphone (October 2007).
£2.75 on fuel at Tesco by using a voucher (October 2007).
£30 bank changes avoided by promptly repaying money into old current account when I accidentally overdrew (September 2007).
£50 cash for changing current accounts (September 2007).
£10 compensation from Alliance and Leicester when they failed to transfer my direct debits to my new current account (July 2007).
£4.25 refund on a meal (June 2007).
£12.40 (20%) off a Littlewoods Direct order: Using a voucher (June 2007). [Edit: the voucher was not honoured by Littlewoods]
£367.86 Endowment mis-selling compensation from Prudential (May 2007).
£162 MEAF reclaim against Abbey (May 2007).
Other Benefits
Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition worth about £200 (April 2008): Free gift at Microsoft product launch event.
Free Thorntons Easter Egg: Promotional Offer (March 2008).
Free small bag jelly beans (Yum, yum!): Promotional offer (Feb 2008)
One free banana (Yum!) : Fairtrade promotional stand (Feb 2008)
Signed up for Quidco (December 2007).
12 free pots of playdough: special offer at ToysRUs (December 2007)
A free Pentel marker : For filling in a freepost enquiry form for a service I’ll never use (July 2007)
A free Financial Review : Offered by our bank, Alliance & Leicester, when we opened a current account. There was a sales pitch, but it was low-key and easily dodged. The adverser was genuinely helpful (June 2007)
Free Braodband : Switching from BT to TalkTalk gives us free broadband for the same monthly spend (May 2007)
Free Sausage and Bean Bake (Yum, Yum!) : Voucher in local paper (May 2007)
Free Wireless ADSL Modem: Asked my Father if I could have the one he was not using. (May 2007).
Borrowed The Money Diet from the library (April 2007).
Started tracking spending in Microsoft Money (March 2007).
All Wrong 