By Thrifty on January 5, 2010
When I hear news about the housing market, it triggers a Pavlovian response in me. Having rented for the past 7 years, I want to be able to own my own home again. But how will I be able to do this?
As I’ve mentioned previously, we don’t even have a credit history, so we’ll need [...]
Posted in Home and Housing | Tagged HomeBuy, housing authority, rent to buy, shared ownership | Leave a response
By Thrifty on January 1, 2010
We are in need of another car again. And we don’t have the money to get another one yet. We’ve considered getting a personal or car loan but the interest rates are too high. Plus, our bank is not likely to give us a loan because we do not have a very long and active [...]
Posted in Money matters | Tagged credit card, credit history, credit rating, interest, loan sharks, loans | Leave a response
By Thrifty on December 16, 2009
It never used to be the case, but it seems that for short distances the train is cheaper than the bus. Recently, I had to travel in to Haywards Heath from Burgess Hill. The local bus company charge GBP 3.70 for an adult return fare, and children travel for GBP 2.40 each. I went ahead [...]
Posted in Travel | Tagged bus, train | Leave a response
By Thrifty on December 4, 2009
I’m a regular train traveller and recently discovered PlusBus. It’s an economical way to travel via bus in addition to train. It was great because I had to take a side trip one day, which meant I was unable to use my regular train route.
PlusBus is available at various towns across England. For around 2-3 [...]
Posted in Travel | Tagged bus, PlusBus, train, Travel | Leave a response
By Thrifty on August 17, 2009
If you are getting rid of your car and you’ve already paid your taxes on it, you can get a refund on the unused portion of the tax. However, you need to do this as soon as possible. We found this out too late and lost two months’ worth of taxes when we left our [...]
Posted in Cars and Driving | Tagged DVLA, refund, scrapping vehicle, SORN, tax disc | Leave a response
By Thrifty on August 9, 2009
If you are mobile near Uckfield in East Sussex and need to jump on the Internet then we’ve found the local Costa Coffee in the main street is very reliable. In fact, we prefer this Costa to the one in neighbouring Haywards Heath largely because it seems more spacious and less noisy. The [...]
Posted in Internet | Tagged Costa, East Sussex, free internet, free parking, free wifi, uckfield | Leave a response
By Thrifty on July 27, 2009
I’ve spoken before about Morrison’s supermarket and some of the ways they can help when trying to live on a tight budget. However, last week I discovered another.
I popped in to our local Morrison’s at 8:30pm, a half hour before closing time, for a loaf of bread. I got the loaf and then [...]
Posted in Eating | Tagged cheap food shopping, Morrison's, save money | Leave a response
By Thrifty on June 10, 2009
Those who enjoy finding ways to cut corners have probably already discovered this method – buy foods on a short date. Yes, especially now, when they are discussing changing the “Best by” and “Use by” dating system.
Many supermarkets have a scheme in place, where they offer foods on a short date at incredible discounts. This [...]
Posted in Shopping | Tagged best by date, discounts, expiration date, food, health, safety, Shopping, short date, use by date, waste | Leave a response
By Thrifty on May 20, 2009
Is the MP expense row over, do you think? I’ve been following it with great interest. It’s unbelievable to see how many of us are struggling to cope with the recession, being unemployed, trying to just get by, finding ways to save money here and there, while those who are much better off are abusing [...]
Posted in News and Media | Tagged car scrappage scheme, David Cameron, fuel costs, loans, MPs expenses, recession, thrift, unemployment | Leave a response
By Thrifty on May 5, 2009
I can never understand a parent’s need to make their children fashion-conscious. If you have the money to do so, I guess you can choose to do what you like. But, there are others who lack the money, but insist that their children wear designer labels, etc. Why?
First of all, children outgrow everything very quickly. [...]
Posted in Shopping | Tagged clothes, hats, jumble sale, shoes, used | Leave a response