My Budget Review Q4 2008

When I wrote my last quarterly review of my finances the FTSE100 stood at close to 5000 points, little did I know within a matter of weeks it would drop by 24% as the world came to terms with a global recession. But closer to home, how did my own finances fare during this period of economic turmoil?

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New Years Resolution: Give up the Gym

As we enter the new year millions of people will be making their new years resolutions and for many top of the list will be to lose weight, get fit and atone for the excesses of the festive season. This explains why January is the busiest time of year for Gyms up and down the country, with over 3.5 million people signing up in the first two weeks of January according to research by Sainsburys Bank.

As I wrote at the start of last year, typically many people have a blitz in the first fortnight, attend once a week in February, and by Easter are rarely making an appearance on the treadmill. Meanwhile, the direct debits continue to be paid and with the average gym membership costing £372 it will be peoples pocket rather than their physique that will be shedding the pounds.

So this year I am going against the crowd and giving up the gym for my new years resolution. Well actually not quite, when I told Fitness First that I wanted to cancel my gym membership they offered to reduce my monthly fee to £7.95 for 3 months which is a substantial saving on the £31.25 I currently pay.

I might still give the gym up altogether come April when the weather is nicer and I can get out on my bike, but for now I’ll keep dragging myself and the extra pounds to the gym. To be precise I’m £69.90 better off over the 3 months.

You can’t get better than a Kwik-Fit fitter

For years Kwik-fit advertised with the slogan “you can’t get better than a Kwik-Fit fitter” but they should probably add “unless you buy from us online!” to their jingle. On Monday I got a quote of £90 from my local Kwik-fit for two new tyres for my car but decided not to buy there and then as they had no special offers available and I often see them advertising deals in the paper.

So today I thought I would search around online and see if I could find any special deals and started with the Kwik-fit website which let me buy the same tyres for £70.48. No coupons or discount codes required, just £19.52 cheaper because I have paid for the tyres online rather than from the garage, it will even be the same mechanics that fit the tyres when I take my car in.

Crazy, but hey I am not going to argue!

Don’t stop, never give up

Hold your hand high and reach the top, let the world see what you have got, bring it all back to you….. Sorry I was struggling for a headline and got my inspiration from an old S Club 7 song that was just playing on the radio. Anyway my point is that sometimes you have to resist the urge to give up and keep going, and that’s exactly what I have been doing with Pipex to get back the £11.72 they owed me from over charging me when I cancelled my service.

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The cost of not renewing anti-virus protection early

Buying anti-virus protection for your computer is a bit like buying health insurance for yourself as statistically speaking you are unlikely to need it, but it helps you sleep at night. It’s fear, often fuelled by the makers of these products that drives you to buying them and it’s that fear that ensures I buy one of the premium products each year rather than one of the many free versions you can download.

Once you have one of these products towards the end of the annual license they’ll prompt you to renew directly with them, in fact they make it very easy to renew but in my particular case at a price of £39.99. Now that’s a ludicrously high price considering I can buy the 2009 version of the same software for just £27.97 on Amazon, so that’s exactly what I did a couple of weeks in advance of my current license expiring.

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