The true cost of running a freezer

Freezers are a great invention don’t get me wrong but they are rather expensive to run. There is the obvious cost of purchasing a freezer along with possibly having somebody come around and fit it. But that’s only the start of the costs as the electricity to keep my freezer running costs approximately £85 per year (assuming it uses 2 units per day at current rates) and then there is the hidden cost of maintaining your food inventory.

(more…)

Free Chocolate Egg from Thorntons

Found this voucher online yesterday which entitled me to a free chocolate egg from Thorntons simply by presenting the voucher instore.

Whilst I may not be able to count the 59p it would have cost as money saving as I would not have purchased it in the first place, it is still free chocolate… yummy!

Easter Egg Hunt

It wouldn’t be Easter without an Easter Egg, or at least it wouldn’t be for me anyway. The problem is they are very expensive for what you get with many being over 5 times more expensive than the equivalent amount of chocolate being bought in bar form.

Also I have expensive taste so prefer the ‘premium’ eggs which cost considerably more than some of the cheaper alternatives available. Unable to totally resist the urge to buy an Easter Egg this year I did however hold out until today which meant I could buy the egg I wanted for only £1.24, reduced down in price from £4.99. So I got exactly what I wanted but for £3.75 less than what I would usually have spent.

My first steps into Matched Betting

Having lost so many of my recent bets I was determined to start recovering my losses from the bookies and having heard how much some people were making through a technique known as Matched Betting I knew I had to have a go.

The basic idea of matched betting is to sign-up for a new betting account with an online bookmaker that is offering a free bet as an incentive to attract new customers. This free bet offer will normally require you to bet through a qualifying stake before you receive the free bet, or in other words risk your own money first!

However there is a way of offsetting your liability by laying on the same result with a betting exchange, which is basically betting against the outcome you risked your own money on with the online bookmaker. This effectively cancels out your original bet and provides a risk free way of qualifying for the free bet offer. If you have never come across this idea then it can be very confusing but it should make more sense as I go through the bets I placed.

(more…)

Cheap lunch for two

We went out for lunch today with some family that we currently having staying with us. Knowing that I am on a tight budget at the moment we chose our local Wetherspoons as they are known for their good food but at reasonable prices. We had also kept some vouchers that came through the post the other week which reduced the total cost down to £10.54 for a meal for two (including drinks).

If we had not had the vouchers then the cost would have been £11.98, so they saved us £1.44 which I am counting towards my target. In reality the savings from simply choosing Wetherspoons as a cheap place to eat were far more as similar lunches have cost us £15-£20 in the past.