Teahot

With the economic “downturn” we have been saving pennies with even more grasping desperation than ever. Every time we think of another way to save cash, the refrain is “Gordon would be proud”.

Recent penny pinching larks:

1. Mystery shopping. I signed up with five mystery shopping organizations about six months ago and regularly check the websites to see if I can fit in a coffee or restaurant visit in the next week or two. This normally pays for my transport as well as any expenses. For example I’m getting 23 quid plus 3 for travel to checkout Pizza Express, this will pay for the two of us to eat out (may have to fork out around a fiver on top) and then as my travel card is paid for, we can go to a free museum or gallery for the afternoon.
2. Selling unwanted stuff on eBay. I’ve slacked off recently and need to get back into doing this regularly. It might be peanuts (we sold a re-enforced glass, brand new but unwanted, hifi table for just £3.00 when it would be £100.00 to buy from John Lewis and a coffee table that cost £159.00 9 years ago and sold for £22.00) but at least these no longer needed possessions get out of the house and someday we hope to be able to use our dining room again!
3. Selling unwanted books. Our house is a bit of a library with around ten bookcases and piles of overflowing books elsewhere. I have around 200 books listed on GreenMetropolis (they donate money to the Woodland Trust for every transaction) and list about 20 books on Amazon (the more expensive items). Occasionally I weed out books that look like they’ll never sell and give them to charity. We sell off about 1 book per week which pretty much pays for our broadband connection.
4. Recycling old phones. I used an online service called fonebanker to send off an old broken K750i that had been lying around in a drawer for two years to get £8.00 back (surprisingly they sent me a cheque for £16.00, the amount for a fully working K750i when actually it was a bit dodgy; especially as I sent it without a battery as I kept it as a spare for my own K750i).
5. Changing utility companies. It’s a real drag but the general rule of thumb is that for every utility, insurance or other regular service you should shop around every two years for a better deal. My most recent changes were landline telephone, I changed my Mother’s provider to Yourcalls.net from Talktalk (her landline bill for calls had got up to £30, now she’ll pay £3.90/month for all UK calls and 11p/min (6.5p evenings) for mobile calls) and I challenged Talktalk about my own bills and the monthly cost for landline + broadband has gone down from around £22+calls to £12+calls (for six months then it’ll go up to £16.99+calls, which looks like the current new subscriber offer, for another six before I can shop around again). The main change is dropping inclusive day-time calls but I already pay around £2.50/month with Skype for free UK landline calls, this effectively works like another landline including having it’s own phone number and voicemail that I can use from anywhere with internet access. Saved myself around 90 quid over the next 12 months for the sake of 18 minutes hassling Talktalk for a better deal.
6. Buying reduced price food. I can’t believe how much bread has gone up in price over the last two years. I frequently grab a bag of reduced price rolls (whole wheat) when in the supermarket when they clear out their bakery and adapt my ideas for what to have for dinner based on any current special offers.
7. Getting more house insulation. Okay it cost £1,200 to get the attic and ground floor insulated with fibreglass but we have felt the difference this winter. I recently found some cheap but smart looking single arm door closers on eBay, at £5 each including postage they were less than half what they would be from a shop and the surface mounted type are easy to fit. I bought these using some of my Paypal cash from earlier sales and use them to help keep down drafts travelling from one side of the house to the other from accidentally leaving doors open. It’s surprising how much warmer my study/office is when the door is consistently kept closed and cooking smells are much less likely to travel around the house.

Over the last few months I have grown increasingly irritated by UK journalists endlessly repeating the American phraseology of “African American” when describing President Obama. The man was born in Hawaii, not Africa, this makes him Hawaiian . Obama himself said “I’ve got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher” and comes from a rich mixed ancestry.

Their problem seems to be that they want to describe the colour of his skin and don’t want to say he is black or (even worse?) coloured as, though technically more accurate, this might cause offence and so use this inaccurate political description that in itself could cause offence by ignoring his true ancestry.

My ancestors were Dutch, Russian, German, Goan, British and Irish but I would be described as English as I was born in England, I see no reason the same logic should not be applied to describe Obama.

Every morning my alarm clock wakes me up with Radio 4 playing the Today Programme and occasionally I get treated with hearing a politician squirm around a straightforward classic “yes or no” question.

Unfortunately I recently became over sensitized to guests responding with “absolutely”. Sometimes the guest uses the term 3 or more times in the same interview. I had the misfortune to tune in to Any Questions on Saturday and they really overuse the term on that show. Once someone uses it, it’s like a contagion as each guest can’t think of a different word to use when in positive agreement. Ruddy annoying, though not quite as bad as people starting sentences with “So, “ when starting a conversation.

Try it for yourself next time, just repeat “absolutely” out loud every time it’s used, you’ll be amazed.

I have managed to resist the temptation to buy an iPod by looking at my mobile phone and asking “what’s the difference?”

I use a three year old Sony K750i with earphones, having recently upgraded the memory to 8GB here’s how they compare:

As I prefer to carry one gadget and have to carry a phone, this seems a pretty
good solution on the assumption that 100 CDs worth of music is enough variety
for my regular bus and train journeys (and I never feel the need to watch video
clips on my moble). As I listen to podcasts and the odd audio book rather
than music anyway, 8GB is plenty of space. I would find the lack of a radio to
catch up with the live news rather an annoying oversight with an iPod.