July 26th, 2010
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With interest rates being painfully low it can be hard to motivate yourself into putting cash away. It’s not all about interest rates though, and living below your means is a great way to put cash away for a rainy day or as a cushion for unexpected life events such as redundancy.
However, if interest rates are your motivator then it may be worth looking at fixed rate bonds. This does put a padlock on your cash, but with accounts such as Nationwide offering 2.01% with a minimum deposit of £1 you don’t have to go all in. Split your savings between a fixed rate bond and a easy access saver and it’s happy days. You never know, this could be the start of a whole new beginning!
July 25th, 2010
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Buying in bulk isn’t always best. Frugal first timers and long term frugalistas alike would be forgiven for having a “bulk is best” mindset, but it is very important to study the labels.
All supermarkets have labels which state the price per weight. Unfortunately they don’t stick to a standard, so when comparing different size packets of the same product or like for like with other brands you’ll often find yourself staring at price per 100g and price per 1kg and trying to do a quick bit of mental arithmetic o workout which is cheapest. Ok, so it’s not so difficult in this example, but how about when there is a special offer such as 3 for 2? It rarely tells you what the price per weight is when you’re taking advantage of the offer, something I find irritating as I’m not great with maths, not least when I’m shopping with my toddler.
I often see examples where its cheaper to buy less of a product, and this is something I don’t quite understand. Perhaps the shop sells more of the reduced quantity item so gets a good stockist discount? Either way, pay caution and don’t always go bulk. Going bulk is usually the most sensible choice, but if it’s not cheapest and/or the product is perishable is it really worth it?
July 22nd, 2010
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Transmission Lines of Electrical Power Station Built on Staten Island Marshland. Image from the U.S. National Archives on Flickr
If you take a look at a cross section of the six top energy providers in the UK, three have already withdrawn their best deals on the market and swapped them for tariffs that are 3.4 percent more expensive on average. That’s inflation busting, and I’d urge people to move quickly and lock in on the remaining deals before it’s too late. People save on average £259 a year on dual fuel deals compared to standard tariffs.
On price comparison websites the cheapest energy deals which are still available today are First Utility iSave v3 and EON’s save online v2. Check them out before they’re gone.
April 24th, 2010
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I find growing my own vegetables at home highly rewarding. I like watching the plants grow over the days, weeks & months, knowing that I’ve helped them along.
Personally I always buy seedlings to cut out the step of germinating seeds. They’re still a frugal option as they’re cheap enough, and the crop far outweighs the initial cost. You could grow seedlings in the home on a small scale, but I think I’ll this for a time when I’m lucky enough to have a greenhouse.
I’m far from an expert at gardening. In fact I first tried growing vegetables last year whilst I was living in a house with no garden. We just had a small concrete yard, but undeterred I managed to put together 2 raised beds filled mostly with soil from a nearby field and then topped up with compost. Despite the limited space and my limited knowledge, I managed a to grow 4 healthy broccoli plants , 4 baby sweet corn plants and 2 fruitful cherry tomato plants. I also grew basil, parsley, coriander & chives. I had also planted some lettuce but these were damaged by slugs and never recovered.
March 23rd, 2010
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With a weekend away planned in Aberdeen over the easter weekend, we’re looking at close to an 800 mile round trip from our home in North Wales. Looking at whatmpg.co.uk I know my Peugeot 206 1.1 lx should get around 50mpg on the open road. Then using the tools over at fueleconomy.co.uk (because I’m rubbish at maths) I have calculated that given the current high fuel prices of around 117 pence/litre, this trip will cost me around £85. However, I don’t think the mpg listed takes into account a car where every square inch is crammed with people and their luggage, so lets say £100. Eek.
With figures like these you can understand why I’ve been searching the net in a quest for ways to reduce the cost, i.e. to increase my mpg. I’ve come across some great ‘green driving’ tips, so I though I’d share them here. Before I start though, the best tip I read suggested that to save fuel you should simply imagine that you are riding a bicycle. Take cycling through a town for example, you wouldn’t accelerate up to every set of traffic lights and then slam on the brakes. With all that wasted energy you’d be knackered, and the same applies for your poor car. This really brought it home for me, it’s all about being sensible.
March 13th, 2010
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It may have taken 4 weeks, but our little Peugeot 206 is back on the road! So why the change of heart? Well, it turned out that the car was not in as bad shape as the first garage had made out. I replaced the radiator, and the front brake discs and brake pads for a total of £105. Me and my dad fitted these easily enough, so that saved us on labour costs. I then put the car in for it’s MOT, and with just 2 new tyres and a new brake hose it passed. Total cost back on the road was £220. Slightly less than the £600+ the (rogue?) garage tried to charge u.
So, what have I learnt from this experience? Never to accept a quote from a single garage! The garage I took it to for its MOT was recommended by a friend, and true to his word they were very fair and didn’t try and rip me off. If you can’t get a recommendation from anyone I suggest looking up your local council test centre. These are purely setup for MOT purposes and as they don’t do repairs it’s not in there interest to fail you unless absolutely neccesary. Unfortunately my closest one if a 30 minute drive away, and that’s more hassle than its worth in my opinion.
Anyway, I’m a very happy and frugal father this week!
February 22nd, 2010
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Back in May 2008 me and my partner purchased an X reg Peugeot 206 as a little run around. In that time we’ve had problems with a sheared off radiator fan, peeling paint on the rear bumper, a squeeling wheel on the front passenger side, steering pulling to the left, and before christmas our neighbour reversed into the side of it and creating a massive dent. (He didn’t own up either).
February 20th, 2010
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I recently started looking for new job, or rather I uploaded my CV to monster.co.uk and the jobs found me! I had been slogging may way through poorly designed jobsites which make searching for a job quite difficult, until a friend told me about the monster.co.uk cv upload service. Anyway, here I am a week later and following my first interview I was offered a job! It’s exactly what I was looking for, and it will see my salary rising by as much as 36% in the first year. It’s a frugal father victory! (…is that tag line a bit cheesy? Maybe I should have gone with frugaltastic)
It wasn’t an easy decision as I currently live just 6 miles from the office, its a fun place to work, and as a colleague runs me back and to it only costs me £20/month to commute. The new job is a 45 minute train ride away, with a £1700 a year cost attached to it. This is covered by the intial £2k salary increase, but given that in 3-12 months I’m likely to see a £4-9K increase you’ll see why I decided to make the move 
I handed in my notice last week, so in 4 weeks time I’ll by tying up my lose ends and moving onto pastures new. Wish me luck!
February 5th, 2010
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Fellow frugal fathers and nationwide misers, behold the Frugal Father guide to protecting the moth habitat living within your wallet.
First of all the Valetines Day Card. If you are like me and you think cards are a waste of money, that’s too bad. Girls love the bloody things. Fear not though, you can make one yourself from some card.
You don’t have to be a creative genius for this one, but do ensure you put a long message inside telling her why you love her so much and her heart will melt, thus ensuring she fails to notice it looks pants. Joking aside though, it won’t take much work to put something together yourself, you can google for neat ideas, and the fact you’ve gone through the trouble will earn you extra brownie points.
January 21st, 2010
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My personal Charity Skydiving Experience
I had just finished my first year at the University of Liverpool when I completed my first skydive. Being a student I didn’t have a lot of spare cash, so I looked into the prospect of Charity Skydiving through the Liverpool Student Skydiving club. Little did I know at the time that I was just months away from taking over the Liverpool Student Skydiving club, which I then spent the best part of 3 years running!
Charity Skydiving offered a method whereby I could essentially do my first skydive for free, whilst also raising money for a good cause. In this blog post I hope to explain to you the ins and outs of Charity Skydiving at a UK skydive centre
