No insurance? This paradise could become a nightmare

There are times when life gets so busy that you forget some of the simplest rules. That’s my excuse after I discovered last week, to my horror, that I was abroad without any travel insurance.

I’m an experienced financial journalist, so I know full well the importance of having proper travel insurance. I cocked up, though the mitigating factor is I recently moved home.

While I made what felt like 50 calls to change my address, I missed out my travel insurance provider. So I never got my renewal notice reminding me to buy a new annual policy.

I only realised while abroad, when I went to check when the policy was due to lapse. I wouldn’t say I got the shock of my life, but I ended up kicking myself when it dawned on me I’d gone the previous three days uninsured.

As soon as I discovered my aberration, I called my insurer to check the price to renew. But while it was a good deal, it said it couldn’t cover me for my trip as I was already abroad. I got the same message from other firms after searching for the next best deals.

To be honest, I was less worried than I’d have been in any other country as I have citizenship in the country I visited, so would have qualified for low-cost medical care if the worst happened.

I was also staying with family, reducing the risk of having items stolen as I wasn’t in a tourist area, while I also know the places to avoid, where you’re more likely to get mugged.

As I went through the doomsday scenarios, I realised the biggest risk was not being covered for repatriation were I to suffer serious illness or injury. Nevertheless, given how cheap travel insurance can be considering the peace of mind it provides, I was hardly jumping for joy even though the risks were lower (see our Cheap Travel Insurance guide for the top deals).

Luckily, I’m back home now safe and sound, with all my belongings.

I’ve learned my lesson, but this tale serves as an important warning to anyone moving home. Don’t forget to tell your travel insurer about your new address, or you risk disaster.

Have you made the same mistake or do you have any comments? Please let us know if the comments section below or in our forum.

"I know how to snap up a bargain"

As a general rule, I don’t spend money on anything without a bit of research. Buy a dress without going meticulously through hundreds of reviews? You must be joking. I just can’t take that risk – it’s retail Russian roulette!

So I’ve just come back from a road trip in the USA (tip: tell your bank if you’re going on holiday to avoid rejected payments and stressful calls in Disneyworld). All in all I booked about 20 different hotels, so you can imagine the hours of research I put in.

A less organised person may think life’s too short to put in all that effort – but thanks to those hours spent in the rainy UK, every single hotel was lovely, a bargain and in a great area. Apart from one…

We wanted to spend two nights in New Orleans (although I’d have spent two years there if I could – gumbo, anyone?).

I was told the French Quarter was the only place to stay, as a hotel there would mean we were in the middle of everything (no late night taxis, etc), and it was also a safe area.

But I noticed pretty quickly that hotels weren’t cheap. In fact, they were extortionate. So I thought I’d roll the dice, throw caution to the wind and try a secret hotel. I was pretty happy – I got a bargain. Or so I thought.

On the Sunday morning we had to check out and leave New Orleans, a bit of paper was put under our door. It was a $116 (plus tax) bill.

Saturday night had been fun, but surely I’d have remembered drinking $116 of cocktails at the lobby bar, or throwing a TV out of a window.

But no, it was the parking and internet bill. Seriously. Parking was $38/night and internet was $20. Hardly value for money.

So no matter how you book your hotel – do your research.

My tip is to scour hotel reviews. You’ll get all the insider knowledge from people who aren’t trying to sell you anything.

You’ll also find out about all the hidden costs such as hotel tax, parking, and wi-fi to make sure you’re actually getting a good deal.

And anyway, the research and preparation is one of the best parts of the holiday. Oh, is that just me then?

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments section below or in the forum discussion.

Talking cash in the classroom

As it’s both Volunteers’ Week and the Personal Finance Education Group’s My Money Week, I thought it’d be the perfect time to share my experiences of delivering financial education classes in my local high schools.

For the past 17 months I’ve volunteered one day a week in the financial capability team of my local Citizens Advice Bureau in Barnet, north London.

As a team, we deliver money management sessions on a range of topics to community groups, residents and schools. While all have their own rewards, it’s working in the classroom that’s really blown my mind.

Getting savvy with credit

The main session I’ve delivered to around 350 year 10 students was one I’d put together myself, from a mix of Citizens Advice and MoneySavingExpert.com concepts, called Getting Savvy With Credit.

It looked at the APR of different types of borrowing from store cards to loan sharks and many others in between via a ‘higher or lower’ game.

Then they got to choose the best smartphone mobile contract for a mate, where I usually got to chuck in a mention about the beauty of haggling. We also covered financial jargon in a game of ‘borrowing bingo’ that often got very lively!

While not all the feedback from the pupils was positive (I expected no less from a mixed group of teenagers), some of the comments they left made me smile:

"You answered some of my questions I was searching for answers for."
"Very interesting to find out how hard it is to survive with money in the real world."
"I’ve learnt to look for the best offer when buying or taking a card."

And the comment from this student makes me think they’re destined to be a MoneySaver: “If you don’t have the money, why buy it?”

My best day on the job

As one of the main parts of my job at MSE is coordinating our PPI reclaiming campaign, my favourite question of the year was: "What’s all this stuff that’s on TV about PPI?"

That’s exactly the kind of inquisitive consumer our kids need to be in today’s complex consumer marketplace.

To me, part of being savvy means if you don’t know what something means, find out. And this young lady did just that. Hopefully she went away wiser in the world of reclaiming, claims handlers and spam calls after I enthusiastically answered her question!

The schools were already providing financial capability classes for their pupils as part of PSHE, but they took in external speakers to add variety to their own lessons. I only had one session with each class, and it was clear that more were needed when I got comments like these:

"It was an eye-opener to find out how to manage money but there were some things I didn’t understand."
"I don’t like money – I’d like my daddy to carry on paying my bills."
"Needs more dragons." [This student was obviously so financially capable they were already preparing to appear on Dragons' Den.]

I doubt everything I said sunk into every student. But it’s my hope that when they next hear about payday loans or they’re offered their first store card, they’ll stop and think: “I’ve heard about that before, what does it mean, how much will it cost me, can I afford it and is it the right choice for me?”

I’m so pleased that more students will get the chance these young people did, both during My Money Week, and when financial education becomes a compulsory part of the English national curriculum from next September.

It’s an important stage of their buyers’ training and something that will start building the blocks to help them make the millions of financial decisions they will face in their lifetime.

Let me know in the forum or comments below if you’re taking part in My Money Week, or if you’ve taught your kids, or others’, about money and what your experiences were.

Couponing is my new MoneySaving vice

I have no shame. Ever since MSE Jenny introduced me to US show, Extreme Couponing, I’ve been hooked on saving money on groceries. In fact, couponing has rapidly become my new MoneySaving vice, replacing my addiction to selling on eBay.

I find there’s something quite satisfying about the ritual of building up a stockpile of coupons and money-off vouchers, handing them over to the cashier and watching £s drop off your grocery bill.

My boyfriend (yes, we’re still together despite my French MoneySaving faux pas last year) calls me the "Coupon Queen", although he refuses to come shopping with me. He finds it embarrassing when people in the queue behind us start scowling and muttering when they see me hand over the 30+ coupons I’ve been hiding in my handbag.

I don’t mind though, shopping without him is quicker, plus there’s no chance of him sneaking cakes or chocs into the trolley, and for a couponer like me it’s imperative to stick to your carefully-calculated shopping list.

Grocery shopping in our house requires planning and military precision. I’m not ashamed to admit, for really big shops, I even draw up spreadsheets, comparing prices at the different stores, so I can make sure I get the maximum discount when using my coupons.

How much can couponing save?

It may sound like a lot of time and effort, but if you’re dedicated, couponing can save you serious cash.

A month or so ago, I had a trolley load totalling £112. With multibuys, BOGOFs and coupons I whittled it down to £88 (a 21% reduction). And last night I achieved a new record: £75 down to £43, a saving of 43%.

My savviest buy to date is a Gillette women’s razor, which I managed to nab for just £1.50. Usually £10.99 at Tesco, it’s currently half price at £5.50. There’s a £2 off coupon on the SuperSavvyMe site, but I also had a unique "£2 off any Gillette product" coupon from Tesco Clubcard, which brought the whole thing down to £1.50. Bargain.

Obviously this is peanuts compared to the US extreme couponers, who manage to get hundreds of dollars worth of groceries for 43 cents (or even get PAID to take their trolley load home), but unfortunately coupons just aren’t as readily available over this side of the pond.

Where can I get coupons?

The MoneySavingExpert.com Forum is a good starting point. There’s a whole thread dedicated to supermarket coupons, where savvy-spenders post any coupons they find. Big thanks to forumite myrtleturtle for keeping the thread up-to-date.

There are plenty of other places to look for coupons, including:

• Special coupon websites (the two biggies I use are SuperSavvyMe and BeforeIShop).
• Newspapers (if you don’t want to buy every single daily newspaper, check out the MSE Forum for a newspaper summary in the Discount Codes ‘n Vouchers board – thanks to forumites’ Nudge and chum for compiling every day).
• Magazines (especially the free store magazines for each supermarket).
• Retailers’ websites (again, check the Discount Codes ‘n Vouchers board, as well as each of the supermarket’s websites).
• Brands’ websites (try Googling things such as "Heinz voucher UK 2013" or "Charmin coupon UK 2013". If you can’t find anything, head over to the brand’s Facebook page).
• Junk mail / leaflets (as theycallmebargainbetty mentions, you can get coupons in leaflets and mail outs, so quickly scan everything that comes through your letter box before binning it).
• Your Tesco Clubcard account (if you’re a Tesco Clubcard customer, login to your account and see if there are any coupons waiting for you – full how-to in the Reclaim Tesco Vouchers guide).

Once you’ve got your coupons and are ready to shop, these are my top tips for making maximum savings:

1. Shop in the right place. Sometimes a coupon is better value for money in one store over another, depending on what offers and prices are available. I use canny comparison site MySupermarket to find out which stores have the item cheapest, and then shop wherever I can make the biggest saving. Unfortunately it doesn’t include Morrisons, but luckily there’s a store near MSE Towers, which I will casually walk around with my shopping list spread sheet, jotting down the prices and any offers (I told you this was extreme couponing!).




2. Factor in existing offers, BOGOFs and multibuys. MySupermarket is also good for this as it tells you if there are any promotions on the products. Plus coupons combined with offers on non-perishables (like dishwasher tablets and cleaning products) are great because you can stock pile on the products you use, but not worry about them going out of date.




3. Read the coupon small print. Sometimes a coupon specifies "one coupon per transaction", and other times it can be "one coupon per product". Could you benefit from taking two coupons for the same product if you’re getting a multibuy deal? For example, two Flash "mix and match" cleaning products for £2.50 in Tesco, combined with two x £1 off coupons (1 per product) = two cleaners for 50p.




4. Timing is everything. Pick and choose your couponing time carefully. Saturday mornings are a big no-no, especially if you want to avoid impatient cashiers and glares from fellow shoppers. I prefer to go about 9pm on a weekday night – the stores are virtually empty and the checkout staff seem a lot more relaxed about you taking your time with your hoard of coupons.




5. Watch the cashier like a hawk. Coupons are tricky little things, they can stick together and sometimes they don’t scan properly. Watch the cashier carefully and make sure everything goes through as calculated. You don’t want to end up spending more than you should.

Can you beat my 43% saving at the checkout? Share your extreme couponing stories and tips in the comments section below or in the forum discussion.

"What's fake bread?"

"What’s fake bread?", my friend asked when I told her some of the MSE girls were holding a bread-baking banquet in honour of Real Bread Week.

"Anything else," I told her – my way of saying the processed stuff most of our supermarkets churn out is fake.

Real bread only needs flour, water and optional yeast and salt.

Last week’s Real Bread Week was organised by Sustain, a charity fighting for better bread in Britain. It’s a chance to celebrate (ie, eat) real bread by encouraging people to bake their own or buy fresh, delicious, natural loaves from their local independent bakers.

I’d made a few loaves before but only to be eaten by my hubby, who will obviously love anything I’ve made him. So I decided baking for others was the next brave step to take.

We’ve quite a few cake bakers in the office, but very few had made their own bread before. So I was really pleased when so many of the girls said they’d give Real Bread Club a go (the first rule of Real Bread Club is to tell as many people as possible about Real Bread Club).

How easy is it?

Half of our creations were homemade — MSE Becca even got up at 5am to do her kneading — and half from a local independent baker near MSE Towers. All were delicious.

Bread is probably one of the simplest and cheapest foods to create from scratch. Instead, we buy food that’s packed with preservatives and even things like flour improvers and dough conditioners, whatever they are.

According to Sustain, we buy about 12 million loaves a day in Britain. Three-quarters of us eat it every day. Around 95% is made by big business. And even worse, Government stats show up to a third of it then ends up in the bin, wasting millions a year. Dough!

You don’t knead any high tech kit to make your own real bread. I think it’s just as easy to make it freestyle as it is in a bread machine. Plus it looks better, being its own natural shape than forced into the shape of a boring rectangle tin.

Most of the new MSE bread bakers said they’d do it again, and I hope we’ve inspired some MoneySavers to give it a go.

After all, why would you want to waste something you’ve taken the time to make with your own fair hands that tastes so good?

Have you made your own and what’s your favourite recipe? Let us know in the forum or comments section below.

How safe is paying for energy upfront?

Two table-topping energy companies – Spark and Flow Energy – are asking customers to pay for their energy upfront.

Spark, which has been in the spotlight more for its poor service than cheap prices, stipulates customers’ accounts must be in credit by at least one month’s energy bill. Flow, a new kid on the block, asks customers to pay in advance by monthly direct debit.

It’s no surprise two of the smallest players operate in this way. To compete with the big boys, cashflow is key.

It allows them to bulk-buy energy in advance for less, so they can offer best buy deals to build market share where the big firms dominate.

You could argue the big six use similar tactics when they set direct debits over and above what’s needed to cover your usage (though remember, you’ve always got a right to a fair direct debit).

I’m in no way suggesting either Spark or Flow are at risk. But paying upfront for anything always begs the question, how safe is your money? What actually happens if an energy firm goes bust?

You’ll probably lose cash

As with folding retail companies, when an energy firm goes bust and owes you money, you become a secured creditor. Effectively, you join the end of a long queue of people looking to get cash back. So if you get anything, the chances are it will only be a fraction of what’s owed.

While banks have a fairly robust compensation scheme in place, the energy sector has no such thing. Though of course, the maximum loss with energy bills is likely to be far less compared with a savings or bank account, unless you’re spending a fortune on power.

There’s little you can do other than hope for the cash back. Though it’s possible if it ever happened, other energy firms may step in and cover lost money if you switch to them. If your bill was over £100 and you paid by credit card, there’s a possibility you would be covered by Section 75 rules, but it’s untested.

The regulator will ensure continuity of supply

If an energy company goes into administration and the administrator can’t find a buyer, Ofgem has powers under the Utilities Act 2000 to appoint a new supplier for affected customers, and to ensure this handover takes place as smoothly as possible. It says there’s no risk of disconnection if your supplier goes bust.

On top of this, the Government has put together some contingency plans (the Energy Supply Company Administration Rules). It’s aimed at ensuring a stricken firm can keep operating until it is sold, rescued, or its customers are switched elsewhere, and will work in addition to the powers Ofgem already has.

Fingers crossed, we’ll never need to find out how effective these measures actually are.

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments section below or in the forum discussion.

'I wait for half price salmon offers'

I’ve been feeding my kids salmon since they were babies.

Now that bombshell’s been dropped, before you click away thinking you’ve got the wrong website, remember MoneySavingExpert.com isn’t simply about being thrifty or frugal (of course, there’s the good old Old Style MoneySaving Board for that).

The site’s ethos is about cutting bills without cutting back (see Martin’s blogs We don’t hate banks – busting this and other myths and Things people assume I think but I don’t).

Like most parents, I want to give my kids the best possible start in life. I reckon the Omega 3 in oily fish does a good a job in the brain power stakes. 

Being half-Japanese, the kids also love sushi and other standard Japanese foods which people in the UK may consider "posh". So the challenge is to find it here, but for less.

So how do I get it?

Ordinary supermarkets

I wait for half-price salmon offers, then stock up. They usually have fairly long use-by dates, so they keep well in the fridge.

Of course, the reduced section scrum at 3pm on a Sunday can be great for cut-price fresh fish. I try to check tuna steaks are a nice deep shiny red, though, after my other half turned his nose up at my efforts in the past.

We make sticky rice in our rice cooker at home. For this you need short grain rice, which can work out quite pricey in Asian supermarkets.  Buy ordinary pudding rice, from the desserts aisle in Tesco or Sainsbury’s. It’s around 90p-£1 for a 500g packet, roughly half the cost.

Discount supermarkets

Some Japanese food, such as sushi, is made with caviar. In the UK at least, that’s about as posh as you can get and is hugely expensive. I don’t like it, but my husband goes mad for it. So when we found you could get it cheap in Aldi, he was in his element.  

Use the local Asian supermarket

We try to stock up at our nearest every couple of months. The one we go to sells large freezer packs of the more unusual fish you can’t get in ordinary supermarkets.

Plus, while prawns, squid and scallops are available in ordinary supermarkets, they tend to be much smaller – so they shrink to almost nothing when you cook them. Asian supermarkets are also great for larger packs of tofu (needed for miso soup), which cost roughly the same as the small packs you get in ordinary supermarkets.

Try before you buy at Costco

I think meat and fish at Costco are pretty good quality for the price. If you’re unsure, I’ve noticed weekends, when it’s busier, tend to be good for free sampling.

When I go, I keep my eyes peeled and I try before I buy. You need to keep an open mind, know what you want and don’t fall for the patter.  I’ve rarely bought coffee, tea or cakes after sampling them, but I once tried scallops that were double the size you’d get elsewhere. They were really tasty and cost only slightly more, and I’ve bought them a few times since.

Amazon sells food

I’ve been aware of it for a while and have checked out the prices. So far I’ve not found any ingredients I need on sale for less there, but its prices can go up and down depending on demand. So I keep my eye on it and will pounce if I spot a bargain I need.

Grow your own

Spring onions are a staple of many Asian diets, yet they’re so easy to grow. They grow upwards out of the ground and quite close together so they don’t need much soil – mine are just in a longish trough, with a little compost in. 

I’ve also grown Swiss chard and fennel, which make great Jamie Oliver-style "posh nosh" sauces (see Digging deep and saving money too). Plus Swiss chard is like rhubarb, it keeps growing back each year – a great MoneySaver if ever I heard one.

Have you spotted a cheap source of posh nosh? Let us know on the forum, or below.

I think of myself as an astute MoneySaver, with one exception, when it comes to my main passion — West Ham.

Since joining the MSE team nearly a year ago, I’ve saved hundreds of pounds on purchases through using discount codes, taking advantage of flash sales, haggling and researching the best deals.

But football is a different story. I recently received an email from my club, West Ham United, telling me my season ticket will cost £620 next season, a 3.33% increase on this season’s price.

Did I immediately search the internet, hoping to find a discount code? Pointless. Did I email the club and ask if they’d knock a few pounds off as I was such a loyal customer? Waste of time.

You can never switch teams

The problem is football clubs have a massive advantage over other businesses. The passion people feel for their club often overrides any MoneySaving principles and sometimes even logical thinking. The brand loyalty that exists in football is not something you can easily find in other industries.

Sure, one year I could decide to go on a game-by-game basis rather than pay for a whole season. However, I don’t have the luxury of being able to follow a cheaper club… at least not without running the risk of being disowned by certain family members.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with the value for money I receive from the season ticket, which works out at just under £33 per game. I also like to justify this considerable outlay by reminding myself how frugal I’ve been in other areas over the past year.

However, paying full price for anything these days is not something that sits right by me. Unfortunately, though, as the famous West Ham anthem goes: "Fortune’s always hiding, I’ve looked everywhere…"

Are you another football fan paying huge prices to follow your team? Let us know your thoughts in the discussion below or in our forum.

Welcome to Nashville

"How was your trip to Nashville, Tennessee?"

WHAT?! That was my first thought, as I read the email from hotel booking firm Hotwire. I’m not due to go there for another month.

Then it hit me. I’d booked my hotel room for the right date, but the wrong month. I won’t be getting my money back.

It’s just one of those things, a really dumb mistake.

To be fair, it was one night out of 27 I’ve booked for an American road trip. It’s an easy mistake to make, and the other 26 are fine.

But it hammers home the message to always double-check before committing your hard-earned cash to something.

This isn’t the first thing that’s caught me out this week – maybe the money gods are trying to teach me a lesson.

I went into Superdrug and noticed a 3 for 2 promotion. So picked up my mascara and eyeliner, then thought about what I could choose as my free item. Lipstick it was.

As I left the shop, I realised the whole bill seemed expensive. Inspecting the receipt, I saw I’d been charged for the third item.

I went straight back and was told the lipstick wasn’t included in the promotion. I asked if I could return the lipstick. I couldn’t – it doesn’t do refunds on cosmetics.

I don’t think I’m the only person to have made this sort of mistake but, again, it shows the importance of checking.

There’s a third incident, but this time it went my way. On my journey into work, I stopped into Boots for some shampoo and paracetamol.

I handed over my card, and as I was about to put in my Pin, I froze as the machine said £12.

I asked the assistant to double-check what she’d scanned, and it turned out the real cost was closer to £2. Luckily, I noticed in time, and I was charged the correct amount.

Not so silly after all.

Has something similar ever happened to you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or in the forum discussion.

Getting a 'Chunk of Wonga'

A few weeks ago, I read on Facebook that a friend was heading out to the pub and because he didn’t have any money, he got himself a ‘Chunk of Wonga’ which means he has just taken out a £400 Wonga payday loan.

After following the discussion, he said he had taken it out for 30 days. He paid interest and fees of £125 so the total cost to pay back was a mind-blowing £525 for a £400 loan.

My response was along the lines of "YOU F*****G IDIOT!

"Seriously, that is going to cost you so much to repay. I should come round and beat you with a salmon."

It just goes to show how expensive these loans are and how angry I get when I see another consumer exploited by the promise of quick cash.

What do you think? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or in the forum discussion.