I've re-invested (most of) mine twice now! Could be doing with it this year though, race car parts are expensive. Who knew?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.