Look after the pennies

Cutting corners

2006-09-14T21:47:00.001+01:00

A quick word on the subject of haircuts as this is one area you can save a lot of money on as salons regularly give out money off vouchers in newspapers and on flyers. One salon in Covent Garden is currently giving out a ten pounds off voucher to Evening Standard/Metro readers.

An even cheaper way to get a hair cut is to look through the free magazines like Ms. London, you get on the street - there are often hair models required adverts, and you can keep an eye out in hairdressers windows for signs asking for hair models too.

Alternatively, you can ring up one of the big salons like Vidal Sasoon or Toni and Guy - both of these have training academies in London where students need a constant supply of people to practice on. The plus side of visiting these academies is that you will get a good quality cut (even though the cutters are students, many of them have been working as hairdressers for years and are after extra qualifications) and the most it will cost you is a fiver. On the down side, appointment times are not always at particularly useful times - often they are first thing or in the middle of the day, and it will take a bit longer than normal to get your haircut. Think though, if you spend £25 every two months gettting your hair cut then every year you spend £125 - thats a reasonable saving.

Have a look on Ciao - there are some very good reviews of some of the training schools which give you a great idea of what to expect.

Shopbot heaven

2006-09-07T19:06:00.000+01:00

Well, since yesterdays rant I've been given three two pounds coins in my change - maybe someone was listening, or reading this blog. All will be going straight into the tin when I get home.

Thought I'd cover shopbots today, which can be a very good way of saving a few quid, especially if you combine their use with cashback sites. In short, shopbots are search engines which will search through a number of stores and find you the cheapest price. Some are general, and there are more specialised ones for things such as CDs and DVDs. I think the secret is to use a shopbot first, and then, once you have found where the cheapest price can be found, to check through cashback sites to see where you earn the most cashback for that retailer. No point buying from someone more expensive just cause they offer cashback!

Some big shopbots which have sections for pretty much everything under the sun are Kelkoo and Pricerunner. For DVDs and CDs I particularly like find-dvd and find-cd as I find that these usually give better prices than the major shopbots. For example, yesterday I did a search for the OC season 3 boxset (I know, I know, it's hardly intelligent drama but I like it!) on find-dvd. Release on 4 September it's RRP is £61.99 - a bit much for a DVD box set in my opinion. I'd seen it in Virgin for £42.99 which I thought was pretty good - £19 cheaper, but thought I'd have a look online just in case. According to find-dvd CD-wow are selling it for £32.99, and what's more, if I shop trhough Greasy Palm I get a further 2% cashback - total saving of nearly £30 and all for taking 5 minutes to look online.

If you're really broke, most of the cashack sites will also pay you a few pence for every search you do on a listed Shopbot. It literally is a couple of pennies, and the amount of searches you can do per day are limited, but use every cashback site every day and you'll probably make about an extra £20 a month - if you can be bothered...

Current £2 total - £10

A mid-week update

2006-09-06T17:56:00.000+01:00

Had a nice relaxing weekend - hope everyone else did too. I've just joined another survery site, Lightspeed Research, which so far seems pretty good. They pay you in high street vouchers with each survey being worth around a quid. I'm already up to £3.50 after 3 days and you can claim your vouchers from £5. Got to be worth a look at least - I'll post an update once I reach the minimum fiver and see how long it takes to get my cheque.

Now, this £2 coin saving malarky. Why is it that as soon as you decide that you are going to save some money (in this case every £2 coin to come through my hands), the Gods conspire against you to make sure it doesn't happen. Since my last post precisely NO £2 coins have crossed my grubby little palm and so my £2 tin still has just the two little coins from before rattling around in it.

Current £2 total - £4, still...

Rainy bank holidays

2006-08-31T23:53:00.000+01:00

Well, given the rubbish weather bank holiday weekend I see a couple of people have registered on Greasy Palm using my referral link - thanks all - every penny helps!

If you're looking for something to do in London before the winter properly kicks in there are some more good offers on Visit London's website. Good deals include 2 for one at London Dungeon and Syon House and Gardens, 20% off London Duck Tours and combined tickets to Madames Tussauds and the London Eye for £29.99 (save £5).

This is London, the Metro website also runs some good offers through LastMinute.com. Again, worth a look - no point paying full price if you don't have to! Paticularly good is their offer for Vue cinemas - £4.25 a ticket Mon-Thurs, and that includes places like the Vue West End. A lot cheaper than the standard tenner especially if a couple of you go.

Talking of the the Metro, looks like they are now doing an evening newspaper as well as the morning's Metro. Called London Lite you can pick up a copy at the tube - worth a look - it's free!

I've also decided to join the £2 club (not really a club, more a name for all those people who save every £2 coin that comes into their possession). I figure that I won't miss the odd two quid but over the months it should add up.

Current £2 total - £4

Survey sites

2006-08-30T00:09:00.000+01:00

So, can you make money from survey sites?

One of the easiest ways I've found to make a few extra pounds is by completing online surveys. I've already covered YouGov and Ciao, but there are a lot more sites out there. The problem I've found is that most of them rarely send you surveys that you qualify for, or else you never reach the minimum payout, or else the surveys take forever for very little return.

I think the key to making some extra cash from these survey sites is to register with a few, and then fill in every survey they send you. Slowly but steadily you'll see your balances creep up, and then the cheque is a nice added extra when it arrives.

One I have found who send you enough surveys to make it worthwhile registering with them is Global Test Market. I find I get a survey from them by email every couple of days, sometimes more often, and they pay you a small amount even if you aren't in the target group which is better than most. The minimum payout is 1000 Marketpoints (with each market point being worth 2 US cents) and once you reach this amount they'll send you a cheque in your local currency (works out about £26).

A couple of other survey sites I have registered with who I do find pay out are:-

YouGov - see below

Survey Savvy - Like Global Test Market, they are a US based company but you can still register with them and complete their surveys. One big plus side is their referral scheme - you make $2 for every survey one of your referrals completes, and then $1 for every survey one of their referrals completes. Also, there is no minimum payout so you can request money from them whenever you have something in your account.

Test and Vote - This is a bit of an odd one. Like the others they will credit you in points which you can trade in for Amazon vouchers when you complete surveys, but you can also earn points from filling in profiles, entering quick votes (one question) and registering to test products. If you do test a product for them you get to keep it, but I've never been lucky enough to do this.

Media Transfer - pay you in Amazon vouchers, though it takes a while to reach the minimum payout.

New job!

2006-08-24T23:30:00.000+01:00

Not had time to write a long post today I'm afraid, though I have (touch wood, still waiting for the confirmation letter to come through) got a new job, which pays me a bit more than the old one - hurrah! All the difference will go towards the credit cards, got to be a good thing. (*Pats self on back)

I've also been flicking through one of my favourite books for saving cash in London - feel I deserve to go shopping at the weekend and treat myself. The book is Bargain Hunters London by Andrew Kershman and it's full of useful things like where all the good secondhand shops are in town and which markets are good for buying what. You can get it from any major bookshop, though Amazon is best for secondhand books I find.

I've also been reading some other blogs on the web which often give good money saving tips - shame most of them are in the States though as a lot of the offers and suggestions don't apply here. I'll be linking to more finance blogs as I find them, but in the meantime, have a look through my links list for some I have been reading.

Off to Liverpool this weekend, but back Monday. Have a good bank holiday people!

Grease your palm

2006-08-23T17:41:00.000+01:00

Now this is one of my favourite sites - sometimes I think I should just get a job spreading the word of Greasy Palm. Basically Greasy Palm is a cashback site - you follow a link to an online shop (which includes shops that people actually use like CD-WOW, HMV, Play and Figleaves) and if you make a purchase the shop will pop a pecentage back into your Greasy Palm Account in the form of cashback. Once your cashback has reached £20 they send you a cheque - I've received over £100 worth of cheques already. As an added bonus you get £2.50 when you first sign up, and then they give you a further £2.50 every time they send you out a cheque.

You can also also earn cashback from financial products, flight and holidays, utilities, mobile phone contracts etc. and normaly the cashback on these is very good - from about £15 to £40.

If you don't shop online much they do have a lot of competitions, newsletters etc which you will be paid between 10p and £1 if you sign up for. If you go this route, I would suggest opening another webmail account such as hotmail to enter as your email address - saves your mails from friends being lost amongst the bumpf you get sent.

They do run a referral scheme as well - for every person you recommend to them you will receive £7 in your GP account once that person has earned £15 of cashback. You can sign up by clicking on the banner below (so that I earn some cashback too). Go on, you know you want to!

I should mention that there are a lot of other cashback sites out there - My Shopping Rewards, CashBag and Free Fivers are others, but although I have had a cheque from My Shopping Rewards I found it took much longer to reach the payout amount and the site isn't quite as easy to use. Still, they do sometimes have offers which are different to Greasy Palm so worth signing up for occasional use.

Green Phones

2006-08-23T17:33:00.000+01:00

Just a quick one - a great little site called Envirophone. Basically, if you have an old mobile phone you no longer use - which with contract phones happens every year now it seems, you can send your phone to Envirophone and they will then recycle it. As a bonus they'll also give you a little bit of cash for it - got to be a good thing - you get a few pounds rather than a useless phone, and you get to feel good cause you've done something for the environment.

I've not actually used this service yet, but I've heard ood things about it. My mobile phone is due to be upgraded in a couple of months time so I fully intend to trade in my old phone then - apparently it's worth about £20 which is pretty good. I'll let you know how it goes. If you have a Greasy Palm account you'll also earn 75p cashback for every phone you trade in which again, has to be a good thing.

Free Buddy Holly DVD

2006-08-22T00:16:00.000+01:00

Well, this one isn't going to make you any cash, but it is a freebie. I'd filled in the Free DVD Club survey a couple of weeks ago and then promptly forgotton about it, but I got home today and lo and behold my free DVD had arrived. Not much cop if you don't like Buddy Holly, admittedly, but I do so was rather pleased when my DVD arrived.

Ciao for now

2006-08-21T21:37:00.000+01:00

A new day, a new link, this time to a website called Ciao (note - if you sign up to Ciao through Greasy Palm (see below) you'll also earn yourself some cashback!). Basically Ciao is a consumer based website where you can earn a few pennies for writing reviews on products and services - basically anything from phones and cameras to books and chocolate bars. Every time your review is read and rated a penny or ha'penny will arrive in your account, so the more people that read your reviews, the more pennies you will make. Normally I find for a good review I will make about £1, but if you are a well known member of the community and have a lot of friends on Ciao who will read your reviews you can get more. I find if you try and write one review every couple of days you'll keep a steady trickly of pennies coming into your account. Once your account reaches £5 you can request that your money be paid into your bank account.

There is also the option to make some extra cash from surveys - £1 to £3. I don't find I get a huge amount of surveys sent to me that I am in the target group for, but the odd ones that I do get make it worthwhile having your profile completed for - the more complete your profile, the more surveys you will find you get sent. They will also give you 50p for every person you refer to the site, which is another way of making a few pennies - simply add your friends email addresses into the refer friends section, and if they sign up and write a review, voila - 50p.

You can sign up by clicking on the banner below - that way I get my 50p referral bonus!

Underground Savings

2006-08-19T12:16:00.000+01:00

Well, just a quick one today as I'm about to head out. I had a friend up in town yesterday and was looking for something to do. We were thinking about going to see a show and I came across the offers page for those who have an Oystercard. Worth keeping an eye on as they do seem to have some pretty good deals on there - and hey, it's better than paying full price isn't it?

YouGov - money for your opinion

2006-08-17T22:30:00.000+01:00

YouGov is an independent (not linked to the Government in any way) website which pays users a small amount to complete surveys on a number of topics. Many of the surveys have a political slant and ask your opinions on MPs, parties and Government policy, but recently I have been sent a lot of surveys designed to judge consumers awareness of various brands. The results are then collated, and sometimes they are published on the YouGov website.

To register you will be asked to provide information about yourself and your household (age, where you live, number of people in house etc.) and some lifestyle questions. Based on this profile YouGov will then e-mail you with a link when they have a survey which requires people of your demographic. Once you have completed the survey, the money will be added to your YouGov account immediately.

The payout is 50p - £1 per survey (the majority are 50p), and in addition there are surveys for which you are entered into a prize draw once completed. The surveys are well designed and easy to complete, normally taking about 5-10 minutes each to fill out. They also have a nice little refer a friend scheme where for every person you refer you get equivalent amounts in survey credit for each survey they complete during their first three months of membership.

On the down side it does take a very long time to reach the required payout amount (you will only be sent a cheque once your account balance has reached £50). This is definately not a "get rich off the web site, but the surveys can be interesting and the occasional £50 cheque is a nice bonus if you stick with it - after all, 5 minutes every now and then is nothing but it does add up, especially if you refer friends to them too.

Money from the tube

2006-08-16T18:10:00.000+01:00

Ever annoyed when the tube breaks down yet again? Sick of paying for Underground tickets and then having to walk to whereever you were going? Well, you may not realise it but Transport for London will refund you the cost of a single ticket every time you suffer a delay of 15 minutes or more on the London Underground. Just go to their website and fill out the form. Irritatingly they will only send you a £3 voucher (or however much the single fare would have cost) which has to then be spent on London Underground, and this can take a few weeks to come through. However, over a months period I have accrued £21 worth of little vouchers which is nearly enough to pay for a weeks tube pass (zones 1&2).

Transport for London refund form

Hello

2006-08-15T22:14:00.000+01:00

Well, ok, this is my first blog so I'm kind of finding my feet at the moment - bear with me and we'll see how we go. Basically I'm a 27 (nearly 28, brithday soon) year old girl living in London. I don't earn a bad wage, but Ive still got about £1600 on credit cards and £5000 odd of student loans to pay back from my University days. This year I've been trying to get my debts down - so far I've knocked £1700 of my credit card bills, they were £3300 in January and also I've opened a savings account. There's only about £500 in it at the moment, but hey, it's a start.

As my salary is pretty much spent every month on rent, travel etc - it's not cheap living in London you know, I've had to find a few ways to make my hard earned cash stretch that little bit further, which is why I thought I'd set up ths blog. Following the tips and suggestions I post here won't make you an overnight millionaire, not a chance. However, there are so many people claiming they have miricle ways to make money on the web, and there are so many sites out there promising you a few pounds that I thought I'd write about the ones I have actually had a payout from - every site I recommend using on here has been tested by me, and the few pounds I've been sent has gone straight towards my credit card debt.