Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

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Slash Online Shopping Costs Even Further… The Cashback-Sites Maximiser. New Tool
To cut online shopping costs, first find the cheapest e-tailer using sites like Pricerunner*, Kelkoo* and/or Shopping.com*. After that see if you can get money off on top by checking if the supplier is listed on a cashback website. To help, use the new Cashback-Sites Maximiser which finds you the highest cashback payer; those who’ve never heard of cashback sites should first read the Top Cashback Sites article. New Tool: Cashback Site Checker Updated Articles: Cheapest Online Shopping, Top Cashback Sites, Last Order Dates

Three Chart DVDs for £15. There are lots of DVD sales right now both online/offline. Get a movie on

Beat the 15% train fare rises! Hidden techniques to slice costs by 75%. New Article
Train fares will rise an average 5% on 2 Jan, with some as high as 15%; so season ticket holders should renew by 1 Jan. Yet to really save, there are three bizarre tricks to slash train fares 1. Two singles can be half the cost of a return. 2. Split the tickets, e.g. London to Penzance costs £240 return; but as the train stops in Bristol, instead buy four tickets (London to Bristol, Bristol to Penzance and vice versa) and you pay £80 for the same journey on the same train. 3. Only pay peak prices for peak time portion! This rewritten & re-researched article takes you through it all. New Article: Cheapest Train Fares Related Articles: Cheap Hotel Prices, Cheap Flights, Cheap Car Hire

Cheap Beauty Bonanza. £1.50 make-up, free pamper treat, posh body lotion for £3. Beautiful deals

URGENT! Cheapest Low User Mobile Deal. Get a 50 mins/texts month for £60/year
Carphone Warehouse has a limited promotionon a Talk Mobile Sim at £6/month, which includes 50 monthly mins of calls to landlines or mobiles & 50 texts. Better still, the first two months are free and you can end it at any time with just a month’s notice. At £60 a year it’s one of the cheapest contracts I've ever seen and compares well to Pay-As-You-Go deals. Yet use over the allocation and call costs aren't cheap; so if that’s likely compare the cost using OneCompare* or MobileChecker*. As it’s a Sim only deal you’ll need a handset to use it; most old ones can be unlocked for free so it’s not a problem. If you’re not a light user to find your cheapest read the Full Article: Cheapest Mobiles Related Articles: Mobile Cashback Nightmares, Get Cash For Old Mobiles, Free Intn'l Calls From Mobiles

STOP YOUR FRIENDS WASTING CASH! PLS SUGGEST THEY GET THIS EMAIL

Half Price Perfume/Aftershave. How to sniff out a fragrant bargain. Updated Article
It’s claimed more perfume’s sold on 24 Dec than the whole of August; if smelly stuff is your fall back plan then there are ways to slash the cost. The easy solution is to buy online which can undercut the high street by over 50%; yet there are added tricks of buying from the US, grabbing tester bottles and cutting the cost on the high street. Full details in the Updated Article: Cheapest Perfume Related Articles: Festive Fivers, Cheapest Online Shopping

All-in-one-printer £20. It scans, prints and photocopies. Can you beat it?

Last Online Christmas Order Dates. Some end this weekend. Full store-by-store guide
Christmas time’s close; but there’s still time to pick up bargains online and avoid a reckless high street dash on Christmas Eve. Each store's ‘last order dates’ vary. This new article lists the major e-tailers last order dates as well as top tips on bagging a bargain and your rights about ‘Christmas Delivery’. New Article: Last Christmas Shopping Dates Related Articles: Cheapest Online Shopping, Buying From The US, Consumer Rights

10,000 free copies of Moneywise magazine blagged for MoneySavers. First come, first served

Potential Gas & Elec price rises; 'Switching Traffic Light’ now AMBER. ‘Switch with caution’
I’ve shifted the traffic light which indicates whether it’s a good time to switch energy supplier from Green to Amber. Industry sources suggest price rises are likely in the first quarter of 2008. If you’ve never switched before, you can still switch now and save 20%, yet if you have switched before, while you'll save you may need to switch again next spring/summer, hence the ‘switch with caution' status. To find your cheapest supplier, my top pick comparison site is Energyhelpline* which gives £15 per fuel cashback if it can switch you. For more info, including how to get a free £40 crate of wine and to see the traffic light, read the Updated Article: Cheapest Gas & Elec Plus Cashback Related Articles: Cheapest Boiler Insurance, Staywarm: Is It Worth It?, Grant Grabbing

High Street Voucher Bonanza Weekly Update. This week's discounts include The Body Shop (20%), H&M (25%), Early Learning Center ( 20%), Oli (20%), Hamleys (10%) and more. Discount Vouchers

REMINDER Make £150 from a credit card! Sneaky loophole to take revenge
Currently, for a small fee Virgin* and MBNA* credit cards let you move cash straight to your bank account at 0% interest, for 15 & 12 months respectively; save this cash in a top savings account at over 6% and you could make £150 in fifteen months. This is only for the debt-free and financially on-the-ball; please ensure you read the full instructions first; they're in the Full Article: Stoozing

Ensure you don't miss out, get these tips e-mailed each week
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It Pays To Watch Needs Wannabee & Extraordinary MoneySavers + Free Tickets
Planning continues apace for my new 7.30pm show starting on Five TV in January. We’d love you to take part. Have you followed the car insurance system and got yours for under £75?; have you moved mortgage and not reclaimed your exit fee?; do you stooze over £20,000?; are you a Tesco Wombler or baby powder buyer? Or do you want free tickets for the audience? Forum Note: It pays to watch wants you

Xmas Budget Boosting Loophole at Wilkinson, Somerfield, Iceland, Morrisons & Tesco!
Supermarket saving stamps schemes are designed so that you save for Christmas year round and then get a bonus. Yet five stores Wilkinson, Somerfield, Iceland, Morrisons and Tesco, give anyone paying with their stamps in December the bonus. So simply go to the store, buy the stamps and then pay with them to add up to 5% to your shopping budget. Yet don’t overbuy as you don’t get change when you spend in stamps; so buy a little less than you think you’ll need. Read Article: Supermarket Saving Stamps Related Article: Supermarket Shopping

Looking for a green Christmas pressie?
Just a quick mention that the Thrifty Ways for Modern Days Book, written based on the Old Style forum, is full of handy hints for living cheaply and ethically (all my author's proceeds are donated to the Charity Fund). Worth a look. Find out more: MoneySaving Books

CHEAP FLIGHTS SALES ALERT Airline: EasyJet. Price: c.£20 e/w. Ends: When it sells out.
My top pick budget airline sale this week is EasyJet’s sub-£22 inc. taxes & charges to about 20 European destinations from a range of UK airports. Tickets are at this price until they’re sold out but are only available on selected flights. How to quickly find the sales flights: Don’t go direct, instead use the Budget Airline FlightChecker and ask it to find all flights under £22. Non-Budget Airline Tools: These are listed in the Cheap Flights article. Related Travel MoneySaving: Cheap Hotels, Spending Abroad, Cheap Currency, Travel Insurance, Mobile Roaming

Are you a Facebook, Myspace, Web Forum User? Two important security tips!
There are two important security tips for anyone who uses social networking sites, web forums, or joins clubs, info sites online. 1. Try to avoid putting any secure details e.g. birthdates, mother's maiden name, first pet's name, online. 2. Don’t use the same password for these organisation as you do for your bank/financial accounts; as it increases the risk of ID fraud. Article: ID Fraud Help

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should Liam roll with it?
Noel and his brother Liam decide to combine funds and buy a house together. It's the investment opportunity Noel has vigorously researched into for the past 18 months, whereas his brother's been surfing mates' sofas in this time so just views the purchase as a stable roof over his head and tells Noel to sort it. So whilst Liam entertains himself with cigarettes and alcohol, Noel finds the perfect house and negotiates a £25,000 reduction in asking price, plus organises the best mortgage deal. He then argues that as he did all the leg-work he deserves a larger stake in the property, regardless of their equal deposits. Should Liam roll with it? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should Liam roll with it? Previous MMDs: Should Darth take money from his kids' accounts? and Grant's been overpaid, should he keep it?

Great 'What to get someone who's got everything' Hunt
What do you buy the person that has everything? If you know someone that is notoriously difficut to buy for whether it's becasue they have every gadget under the sun or insist they want for nothing it makes Christmas gift shopping a nightmare chore. So I thought I'd tap MoneySavers collective knowledge to compile a list of unique, useful, inventive presents perfect for everyone that has everything. Add your ideas/read other peoples': Great What to get someone who has everything Hunt Past Great Hunts: Energy & MoneySaving, Price Beaters Plus, Free Online Books

Board of the week: NI MoneySaving
Northern Ireland is often massively underserved when it comes to MoneySaving deals and offers so I set up a forum board especially to help. The Northern Ireland MoneySaving board offers a wealth of information. Recent Discussions include Belfast Ikea opening Thursday, Free Guinness Poker Night Kits/Vouchers and Northern Ireland Delivery Charges

Great 'Christmas Decorate Your House for under £20' Revisited Hunt Result
Last week I asked MoneySavers for even more top tips on decorating your house for Christmas for under £20. There were some great suggestions, including Print decorations from the Web, 70s cotton reel glam and Poundland Specials

MoneySavingExpert on the box/wireless
If you like to watch as well as read about MoneySaving, I’ll be appearing on the following programmes over the next week or so.

• LK Today, ITV1 Wednesday between 8.45-9.15 am. This week I'll be talking through my top 5 Christmas tips.
• Watch Last Week's ITV1 Tonight again. Christmas MoneySaving Party

Keep updated on appearances: Changes and updates go in the Updated appearances list

This week's Martin's Blog: The Seven Stages of Public Recognition
"The twiglets company should be ashamed!" and "Harry Hill ". Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)

What's the cost of Christmas? This week's poll. Vote and What's the cost of Christmas? discussion.

MoneySavers really do save! Last Week’s Vote. Over two thirds of MoneySavers have some savings tucked away, with a quarter impressively having more than their annual income. For the 8% that have savings but also have debts read Should I Pay Off Debts With Savings? See 'How do your savings compare to earnings? poll results.

Archna's Free Game of the Week! This one has all the makings of a classic addictive game. Exterminate the tiles of the same colour and don't leave any loners! Same Game

Where's Santa? That's it for this week, but before I go, there's a great site I include every year for keeping the kids amused on Christmas Eve. Norad in the US lets you track Santa while he does his present drop. Track Santa

I hope you save some money

Martin

Explanation of * Links

How this site is financed. Any links with a * by them are affiliated. That means go via this link and a contribution may be made to MoneySavingExpert.com, which helps it stay ad-free and free to use. You shouldn't notice any difference, the links don't impact the product at all and the editorial line (the things I write) is NEVER impacted by it. If it isn't possible to get an affiliate link for the best product, it's still included in exactly the same way. As I believe transparency is important, I'm including the following 'un-affiliated' web-addresses for the same things: energyhelpline.com, pricerunner.co.uk, kelkoo.co.uk, shopping.com, onecompare.com, mobilephonechecker.co.uk, virginmoney.com,mbna.com, alliance-leciester.co.uk, icicibank.com. Read more about this in how this site is financed.