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Other SuperSavers Thread - Making money go further!

Discussion in 'General' started by Blogins, 6 Feb 2018.

  1. Unicorn

    Unicorn Uniform November India

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    I've re-invested (most of) mine twice now! :lol:

    Could be doing with it this year though, race car parts are expensive. Who knew? :worried:
     
  2. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Two words: charity shops. Head to the ones in a well-off area and you'll find barely-worn brand-name clothes for a quid or two a throw. Better for things that come in restricted size options like T-shirts than trousers or dresses, but still a great money saver.
     
  3. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    Not just clothes - I work in a Furniture & Electrical charity shop.

    A woman came just last week and furnished the flat she just got for about £800 - TV stand and 32" flat screen, sofa and armchair, coffee table, bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers etc.. kitchen table and chairs, fridge freezer and washing machine.
     
  4. bawjaws

    bawjaws Multimodder

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    Yeah, I used to live across the road from a charity shop that specialised in furniture, and some of the stuff they had was amazing value. They used to get a lot of ex-display stuff from IKEA, for example. I bought a fantastic extendable dining table from there for £20 (rather than the IKEA RRP of £160), which I used as a computer desk until fairly recently. It's not been pressed back into service as a dining table and is still in mint condition.
     
  5. Krikkit

    Krikkit All glory to the hypnotoad! Super Moderator

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    In my experience as well, converse to standard thinking, it can be better to buy the thing which is more expensive in the long run.

    Very often they last longer and function much better, meaning they don't need replacement.

    Case in point - microwaves. We had a phase of buying the 2nd-cheapest one available for a long time, then needed one every 15 months or so (out of warranty at least). Spend a bit more (certainly not 2x as much) and the current one is well into its 3rd year without bother.
     
  6. Guest-23315

    Guest-23315 Guest

    Opportunity Cost

    Do I buy a £1 thing and have to replace it 10 times all the time, or £10 thing and not have to worry about it.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: 7 Feb 2018
    Byron C likes this.
  7. jinq-sea

    jinq-sea 'write that down in your copy book' Super Moderator

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    dat link bust, bro
     
  8. Mister_Tad

    Mister_Tad Will work for nuts Super Moderator

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    I've had the same £50 microwave since 2002. I didn't even do my research... I picked it because it was cheap, and blue inside.

    ... not that I dispute your point. Shoes would be my example - I have shoes over 10-15 years old that still look new, my dad has shoes that are older than I am. I have some 5 year old boots where the logo stamped on the heel hasn't even come close to wearing down yet.
     
  9. Guest-23315

    Guest-23315 Guest

    FTFY :thumb:
     
  10. Byron C

    Byron C Multimodder

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    Yeah. There are a lot of areas where you can cut corners and save money, but there are some things where it's worth spending the money.

    It's usually clothes for me too, particularly footwear. I used to buy dirt cheap trainers and shoes, but I'd be replacing them every few months. But since I've switched to decent quality and more expensive footwear, I'm hardly replacing shoes/trainers these days. (This was easier when my dad was still in the RAF: he worked in stores so when he could "find" shoes and boots in my size he'd grab them for me; properly looked after, a pair of those shoes or boots would probably outlive you.)
     
  11. yuusou

    yuusou Multimodder

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    I've got a pair of CAT work boots my dad bought for himself somewhere between '95~'97. They're mine now, they're a bit scuffed and the steel toe tip I think is more of a rust toe tip, but a good polish makes them perfectly wearable especially around this time of year.
     
  12. Blogins

    Blogins Panda have Guns

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    Found an interesting hidden deal quite by accident for the gift card re-seller Zeek. I was using a VPN that threw my IP address over to Belgium and when browsing Zeek noticed that amazon.co.uk gift cards could be bought. This is really useful for those that use TopCashback or Quidco because the cashback can be withdrawn with a 15% markup against Zeek credit. So that's a good slice of free money if your shopping through amazon anyway! If you withdraw the cashback directly as an amazon.co.uk gift card from TopCashback or Quidco then there's only a 2.5% markup.

    Curious why amazon.co.uk can't be bought with local UK IP addresses from Zeek!
     
  13. Mister_Tad

    Mister_Tad Will work for nuts Super Moderator

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    Nice tip! I'll definitely be doing this next time - I cash out to Amazon anyway.

    On a similar topic, anything that allows you to change currencies when checking out, worth having a try with a few others. I found that Acronis was around 40% cheaper in RUB than GBP/EUR/USD, and one of a dozen or so currencies you could select from the drop-down.
     
  14. LennyRhys

    LennyRhys Fan Fan

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    Go to your local Tesco or Asda at around 6pm when they reduce all the perishable groceries. On Saturday night I got four large sausage rolls for 12p, two macaroni pies for 12p and other bits and bobs for next to nothing. I had a bag full of stuff for under two quid. I almost always hit the reduced section even if I have stuff that I specifically need to buy.
     
  15. Blogins

    Blogins Panda have Guns

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    Has £50 and £100 denominations and you can track cashback spending your cashback giving a greater discount. Worth keeping an eye out for discount vouchers with Zeek. Currently offer circa £6 cashback for new accounts then a discount of £5 on £50 spend if you use their app with the promo code GETAPP. All builds up to a decent saving converting cash to amazon.co.uk credit. Even if you have no cashback to convert then Zeek credit can be bought at a 1% reduction with the purchase tracked through TopCashback or Quidco. Then spend the Zeek credit and track cashback again!

    Worth getting a credit card that doesn't charge a conversion fee and offers favourable rates for this reason. Often worth sticking with a websites domestic currency even when checking out with PayPal. Unfortunately PayPal will default to the accounts specific currency. So if you have a UK based account it'll charge to Pounds even if you want to buy something in Dollars. However there is an option to change to the websites currency whatever that maybe. I've saved loads of money simply by opting out of paying with pounds just before PayPal checkout has finished. I imagine PayPal makes an awful lot of money off of people not paying attention to this small detail!
     
  16. bawjaws

    bawjaws Multimodder

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    I've definitely noticed that the reduced section in my local Tesco is a lot, lot busier than it used to be. You can get some properly great stuff from there if you time it right.
     
  17. Guest-23315

    Guest-23315 Guest

    Yeah, but you have to get through the gang who go there every night to pick up bargains for their restaurants... or at least you did in Fulham.
     
  18. Blogins

    Blogins Panda have Guns

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    Quidco currently offering 20% extra payout for Zeek credit. Worth cashing out now!
     
  19. Archtronics

    Archtronics Minimodder

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    If you have space Bulk buying is a great way to save money, I've got something like 2000 Yorkshire tea bags in the cupboard I got for £6.
    Then generally I try to price everything based on usage into a monthly cost, hence why I don't mind spending a grand on a phone that I use all the time vs stuff I rarely use.
     

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