My current list:
- Utilities - Changing my gas/electric deal after comparison on MSE, uswitch, etc plus £30 cashback via uswitch/topcashback (more than MSE). Moving back to E.on and their smart metering after a year with a small cheaper provider but decided that I like the greater visibility of my usage that smart metering provided. I'm also pleased with my (£90) Nest which has helped us to optimise usage - particularly modulating the boiler and reaching temperatures steadily. Regular comparison searches and cashback for all other insurance/utility renewals. The figures from last year to beat are: car insurance £163, home insurance £146 and electric/gas £64.50 pcm, annual travel insurance free (HSBC Premier), car breakdown £27 inc homestart.
- Cashback - Just turned a £43 Quidco payout into an Amazon voucher (with 1.5% bonus) so I have broken the £2.5k payout from Quidco. However, I am doing more with Topcashback now as Quidco tracking is so unreliable.
- Price watches - Camelcamelcamel alerts me when any of my Amazon wishlist items hit my target buy price, including presents for kids, kids party gifts. Hotukdeals alerts me with other keywords, like Xiaomi Aqara sensors for my cool smarthings set-up.
- Mortgage - Remortgaging in June and considering an offset this time and wondering whether to lock-in a deal early (?).
- Credit - I'm fortunate to have a perfect credit score but still check credit record monthly via noddle and Experian to ensure there's no fraud or searches that could affect our rating (particularly ahead of remortgaging). Still us Amex for 1% cashback.
- Tracking - Watching all my accounts using Moneyhub web/app which gives me daily alerts on all transactions which are good for fraud monitoring but lets me categorise spending and do budgeting and analysis (well worth £10 a year to me, but others exist). Also reviewing all our subscriptions and direct debits to check no money is leaking away.
- Holidays - Summer holiday all book and paid for with cheap long-haul flight deal during the summer vacation, staying with friends and family. I need to schedule mini-breaks during the half-terms. I will use up some free nights from reward nights from hotels.com and possibly add some further family outings on to business trips (Scotland, Cotswolds, etc)
- Groceries - As for shopping, we can afford Waitrose but proudly shop at the nearby Lidl which is quick, easy and far cheaper for most things. Occasional trips to other supermarkets for other items and bulk buying non-perishables on deals elsewhere.
- Meals - Meal planning is definitely an area for improvement.
- Savings - Shuffled some savings and cash ISAs to Virgin Money and cycling money through regular savings accounts. I've finally got a Zopa account and may consider parking some money there for a while.
- Investments - Consolidated old F&C CTFs into II JISAs. Sold some of my miscellaneous shareholdings from my iWeb Shares ISA. Generally simplifying and holding on to too much cash so hoping for a healthy correction at some point
- Pension - Requested my annual transfer valuation from an old USS pension. All my II SIPP holdings are in low-cost Vanguard Lifestrategy 80:20 as I haven't had time to actively invest recently. I'm not sure I'd get better results from tinkering but should ask other Lemon Fools...
- Car - Car serviced using a friendly local one-man garage who doesn't mind me bringing along oil, filters etc that I pick up on deals online. MOT booked for March at a testing station that doesn't do repairs. My 12-year-old estate is now on 94k miles and still going strong, considering whether breaking the 100k barrier causes a large price drop (?). Every month or so I consider a change to a hybrid/electric but the car is so reliable and costs so little to run (and depreciation) that it's not worth getting a new one for the kids to destroy. Only downside is it's diesel VED but we don't travel far and switching will probably do more net environmental damage.
- Fuel - Spend £80 a month on fuel on average, less than 8k miles a year. Monitoring my fuel using the Fuelio App on Android (highly recommended, but others exist). Doing an experiment with BP ultimate fuel for a few fill-ups which seems to push the price per mile up from 16p to 18p but the car does seem more spritely. The car costs in total well under £2,500 a year for everything (fuel, insurance, VED, servicing) part of which is also offset by business mileage.
- Health - Cancelling my private income protection cover and doing it instead via my business, in a trust. Need to revisit dentist subscriptions for the family which have crept up (particularly given that none of us have any dental issues and we spend all of 30 seconds in the chair every 6 months)
- Garden - Doing a planting plan and will be visiting my local allotments shop plus watching out for online deals from Thompson & Morgan etc. Will do fewer but high-value crops in my small veg patch this year.
- Home help - Taking great pleasure saving a lot of money doing all our own cleaning, gardening and DIY (while our next door neighbour is never without a tradesperson's van outside their house).
- Entertainment - After spending well over a hundred quid for a decidedly average meal last week, we resolved to avoid fine-dining restaurants for a few months and instead blow the money filling-up the fridge with nice food and wine from the supermarkets instead.
- Reward Schemes - Having said that about restaurants, it's time to use up some those Tesco 4x vouchers on free Pizza Express trips with the kids and some days out this summer. After years of collecting, I still haven't seen anything good to spend Nectar points on.
- Tech - Tech is my weakness and I'm at 'peak gadget' right now. I really need to remove old and redundant tech as we have old laptops, tablets, cables, you name it. Does anyone know any good sources for getting rid?
- Stuff - Seriously, we don't need more stuff. It's time to empty all the cupboards, attic, wardrobes, garage and donate, sell or recycle/dump all the garbage we have accumulated over the years. Made a start on the kids rooms which are now wonderful. Less is more!
What's everyone else up to?