Credit Crunch Tips

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Virgin Media

I've just renegotiated my Virgin package - it was a luxury I couldn't justify at the mo. I was paying ?38/month for TV/ Broadband/Mobile/Phone. On their website they are offering new customers the same package for ?28/month.

The first person I spoke to couldn't help but they patched me through to the Customer Service Dept. I had to wait about 20 minutes (so use the freephone number 0800 9522227 or dial free on 150) but the lovely chap I spoke to rejiggled a few things and reduced it to ?26.50/month.

Result!

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Virgin Media

I've just renegotiated my Virgin package - it was a luxury I couldn't justify at the mo. I was paying ?38/month for TV/ Broadband/Mobile/Phone. On their website they are offering new customers the same package for ?28/month.

The first person I spoke to couldn't help but they patched me through to the Customer Service Dept. I had to wait about 20 minutes (so use the freephone number 0800 9522227 or dial free on 150) but the lovely chap I spoke to rejiggled a few things and reduced it to ?26.50/month.

Result!

[Narnia]

Sounds like a good deal. Would you mind filling in some details like the TV service you have, broadband speed and mobile deal please?

[Narnia]

Sounds like a good deal. Would you mind filling in some details like the TV service you have, broadband speed and mobile deal please?

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Not at all.

I've reduced the TV to M (medium) which is the lowest it will go, basically equivalent to a free view box.

Upped the broadband to Large (it's what I use most) - I think it's 10 megadoodas.

Telephone is Medium which is free weekend calls so I try to keep mid-week calls to a minimum (other options are available but this is what works out cheapest).

I give the mobile to my daughter. That is ?10/month (but part of the bundle) and paid separately to Virgin Mobile. They have SIM only offers open until the end of November, so I've just changed that to 200 free minutes and unlimited texts - she has no excuse not to be in touch now!

Hope that helps

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Not at all.

I've reduced the TV to M (medium) which is the lowest it will go, basically equivalent to a free view box.

Upped the broadband to Large (it's what I use most) - I think it's 10 megadoodas.

Telephone is Medium which is free weekend calls so I try to keep mid-week calls to a minimum (other options are available but this is what works out cheapest).

I give the mobile to my daughter. That is ?10/month (but part of the bundle) and paid separately to Virgin Mobile. They have SIM only offers open until the end of November, so I've just changed that to 200 free minutes and unlimited texts - she has no excuse not to be in touch now!

Hope that helps

[RosieH]

I have a credit crunch tip. It won't save you as much money as PGC's, but every little helps...

A glass jar* in the bathroom is the very thing to store all those sample sachets of perfume and shampoo and moisturiser that you get out of magazines. That way when people come to stay at your house, the greedy feckers don't have to use all your nice expensive products.

On another festive season tip, a family sized washing powder box with the top cut off and covered in left-over wrapping paper makes an excellent magazine rack. You'll never have to hunt high and low for your Readers Digest again.

*or, as festive season is upon us, the excellent sturdy plastic box that Ferrero Rocher come in

[LegalEagle-ish]

I am working full time but my salary is still crap. I need to look good enough for my forthcoming raise, so have been buying designer suits, some of them brand new, from charity shops for between ?5-10. Result!

Also get all my posh shirts and tops for peanuts from charity shops.

Got my kids into it recently too. My 22 year old is always broke and complaining about never having enough money to buy clothes for my fast growing granddaughter. I dragged her into three or four charity shops and came out with a big bag of quality clothes for about a tenner.

[Narnia]

Didn't realise you were old enough to have a 22 year old legal! What's the secret?

I wish I had a tip for the day but I just can't think of of one...at the moment.

[LegalEagle-ish]

Thanks Declan, my oldest is 23!

[daizie]

Taking a bath once a year can save you about

?30, and if you do it with a friend you save

double.

[brum]

Can I be your friend?

[daizie]

Old Character Bubblebath bottles make great cheap garden gnomes .

[brum]

Yes but if you only bathe once a year it will be a long time before you build up a reasonable collection...

[daizie]

lol

[daizie]

Save money at Christmas and birthdays by returning last year's cards to the sender with the simple inscription "Same to you".

[Moos]

Mine's really dull.

Plan what you're going to eat at every meal for a week. Then go and buy the ingredients, in as many shopping trips as you think appropriate. Don't buy any other food.

This saves an absolute fortune.

[HonaloochieB]

Fall out with all your friends before Christmas.

Then afterwards either assemble a new batch or apologise to the old lot.

Could save yourself tens if not hundfreds of pounds and not look as mad as someone who makes magazine racks out of soap powder boxes.

RosieH channeling Blue peter via Bizarro world. Good work.

[skidmarks]

This is a dull couple one too.

This probably saves more if you use electric more than gas. I got my single rate electricity meter changed to a dual rate meter and set my water heater immersion to come on over night and it is saving me quite a bit a month.

They may try to charge you to fit it but they can?t if you use electricity to heat your place ? just argue with them. (You?ll need your electrics checked first too)

[daizie]

Buy whole milk and when nobody is looking the milk gets a good glug of water from the tap to eek it out a little further .

[Brendan]

That?s what I used to do to my mum?s gin when I was a teenager and needed to procure some of it for a Friday night by the swings.

[daizie]

Freeze in winter to minimise your carbon foot print and save money on your energy bills. If you can hang round a while, about half a century or so, the 'experts' tell us, it will get warmer anyway so you will gradually (on average) freeze less in winter and save the planet .

[Mick Mac]

I have one:

Don't bet large amounts of money on Rip van Winkle - he's a donkey.

[brum]

Never iron your clothes with an electric iron. Instead, place ironing board on top of mattress. Lay clothing item on board, then make bed as usual. Go to bed. Next morning, hey presto! Perfectly pressed clothing item.

[giggirl]

Here's a credit crunch tip - open a Quidco account and do all your regular shopping via there.

http://www.quidco.com/

It literally is, in the imortal words of Dire Straits, "MONEY FOR NOTHING".

I use it for everyting and I get hundreds of ???? back every year (?440 already this year). Honestly, money for nothing. They retain ?5 of your earnings every year to run the site but other than that you get a percentage back of all you spend. And they don't allow any advertising on the site - which is brilliant.

Here's how it works - the etailers sign up to Quidco. If you want to buy anything from that etailer then you go to Quidco, log in, find the link to that etailer, and then shop normally on that etailer's site. Quidco is sent a percentage of your spend and they pass some/all of this on to you. The money really mounts up quickly so well worth doing.

Mostly I use it for booking Eurostar, booking travel with Expedia and buying CDs. Bravissimo has recently stopped it's association with Quidco - which is a pain! All Saints, however, gives 10% cash-back and free shipping. Nice - I love All Saints.

Try it.