Some days we want to save money so that other days we can splurge

The biggest splurge for many is buying a home. I love the big search for a new pad. It’s addictive looking and wondering if the next property will be the one. Plenty of my friends begin very interested in searching for a home, only for it to become progressively more like hard work. Especially when it becomes increasingly impossible to find somewhere that is either cheap enough, big enough, not near a good school, too near a noisy school…

The simple solution would be to hire a home finder like Kirsty and Phil from one of my favourite programmes Location, Location, Location. Phil himself has his own company Garrington Home Finders. 

Other UK home finding companies that I could find on the web include:

The County Homesearch - Nationwide search
Relocate UK - Nationwide 
Britton Relocation Services - Yorkshire 
Property Wise - Hampshire & East Dorset 
Peter Long & Partners - South West 
Essex Homesearch  
Highland Homesearch - Scotland 
Kent Homefinders 

Advantages 
* Good contacts with all the Estate Agents who inform the home finders when a new property comes on the market immediately. The Estate Agents take home finder companies much more seriously than the average Joe because they know there is a serious buyer that has paid for the services of a home finder.

* They may know about properties that aren’t even being sold by Estate Agents.

* Handle the negotiations with the seller and oversee the conveyancing through to completion.

* Most importantly valuable time will be saved ruling out properties that aren’t suitable.

Disadvantages 
* Cost. Varying from £250 total fees to £750 initial registration plus the greater of either 1.75% of the purchase price or 15% of any savings negotiated. Home finders all believe that the reduction they get for you on the property outweighs the costs paid to them. Of course you could get the same reduction negotiating yourself.

In these credit crunch times the home finders are really struggling. It’s been reported that even Phil Spencer (from Location, Location, Location) has downsized his company, shutting one office already in Knutsford, Cheshire. Maybe a reduced rate could be negotiated with them?

Has anyone experienced using a home finder services? Did they get a reduction in the property price that you may not have been able to get yourself? Please leave your comments below.

The savers option to home finding will be in the next blog. Meanwhile I’m going to put the house in the picture above on my Christmas list and hope for the best. It’s for sale for a cool £3,000,000 via Hamptons.

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photo credit: William Hook

My phone contract with Vodafone is coming to an end and I can’t wait. It feels like an early Christmas as I get to splurge on my next phone. For me there are only two options: iphone or the new Blackberry Storm Smartphone.

Here are the main differences:

iphone
2 megapixel camera
300 hours stand-by time
5 hours talk time
8 or 16GB 620 MHZ
Loads more apps from AppStore
Better design

BlackBerry Storm Smartphone
3.2 megapixel camera
Can record video
360 hours stand by time
5.5 hours talk time
1GB (can be increased by up to 16GB with micro SD card 528 MHZ)
Can talk on the phone via speakerphone and use the internet
Can copy & paste
Bit thicker in size

The camera on the Blackberry Storm Smartphone is better and it has the video option but, why does the BlackBerry Smart not have wi-fi functionality? Not so smart for BlackBerry to have excluded that.

What are the differences in cost?

iphone with o2 18mth contract
£35/mth 600 mins 500 texts 16GB phone: £159. Cost over 18mths: £789
£45/mth 1200 mins 500 texts 16GB: £59. Cost over 18mths: £869
£75/mth 3000 mins 500 texts 16GB: Free. Cost over 18mths: £1350

BlackBerry Storm Smartphone with Vodafone 18mth contract. All phone handsets are free.
£40/mth 600 mins unlimited texts. Cost over 18mths £720
£45/mth 900 mins unlimited texts. Cost over 18mths £810
£55/mth 1500 mins unlimited texts. Cost over 18mths £990
£80/mth 3000 mins unlimited texts. Cost over 18mths £1440

The deciding factor for me has to be the wi-fi capabilities of the iphone; I like the idea of being able to connect to a wireless network wherever I am if I can.

The iphone, however, is slightly more expensive. Not willing to accept the first price given, I search for a better deal. o2 won’t budge stating that Apple don’t offer deals. It looks like I’m going to have to be sneaky…

I worked out that I can sign up for the £45/mth deal then after 9 mths switch to the £35/mth contract (you can’t change your deal before 9 mths). Over 18 mths this will cost me £779. So £10 cheaper than if I were to get the £35/mth deal from the beginning. Not a huge amount I admit, although I get double the minutes for the first 9 mths and I don’t have to pay such a lot to start with. I’ll just have to remember to set my calender for 9mths time.

Anyone out there decide on the BlackBerry Storm instead? Why? I’d be interested to hear your views, please comment below.

***UPDATE***

Quidco and Topcashback promise to give you £35 cashback if you buy a monthly o2 plan via them. I’ll try it and let you know if and when I get the cash back. The initial cost of the iphone will therefore be £24, bringing the total cost of an 18mth contract to £744. Thanks for that tip Hamish Campbell.

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photo credit: mikebaird

After all that scrumptious food from the last foodie post, we need to think about burning off all the calories. Especially if like me you feel virtuous when you don’t order a desert for yourself, only to then devour most of your husband’s crème brûlée.

Using a gym is the most common way to exercise, but for me it gets boring after the first month of joining somewhere new.

To save…

The savers option to avoid boredom is signing up to a DVD subscription site and hire fitness DVDs as well as feature films. 

I know I’ve wasted money on buying a fitness DVD in January only to use it a few times before becoming bored of it. This way you can pick one of the many hundreds of fitness DVDs every few days and try out something new. Plus you get to exercise from the comfort of you own home.

The rental packages vary from renting 1 DVD per month, to hiring an unlimited amount of DVDs per month with up to 3 DVDs at a time. Here are the costs I found when comparing packages with unlimited DVDs with up to 3 at a time:

PostaDVD.com £13.75/mth DVDs & games
Tesco £14.97 - with games £17.97
Cinema Paradiso £14.99/mth
Blockbuster £14.99/mth
Outnow £14.99/mth - offering the best trial of 3 mths and paying for only 1 mth (2 DVDs at a time only). Use code ON341FT.
Lovefilm £15.99/mth
EasyCinema £19.90/mth (up to 10 DVDs a month).

To splurge…

If you feel like splurging then one way is to sign up with a qualified personal trainer. Make sure that they have more to offer than just running with you round the block or teaching you sit ups on a swiss ball. There are plenty of trainers out there that offer kick boxing, yoga, tennis and more. There is no quicker way to gain confidence and knowledge in a new skill than one to one training.

Another splurge which I find that motivates me is a heart rate monitor, especially when running on a cold dark morning. My current one tells me the distance I’ve run and the calories I’ve burnt.

The Polar FT80 with G1 includes a GPS sensor tells you the speed and distance travelled, also useful if you get lost! It’ll help build you a training programme and give you weekly training targets to aim for.

Another option is the Gamin Forerunner 405 also with GPS which transmits data back to your computer. You can send your favourite route to a friend for them to try or, for the more competitive out there, you can try and beat the time that your friend completed the same route in.

Now all I’ve got to do is be good until a visit from Santa

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One of my favorite pleasures in life is food. My husband knew straight away that the way to my heart was through my stomach!  

We can all eat like Kings and Queens and I don’t mean huge portions, although that’s always a bonus.

Does it have to be expensive?

Well…it is expensive if you visit the top restaurants on a Friday or Saturday evening, however, there are ways in which to experience fine cuisine at a fraction of the cost.

Buying a cook book written by a top chef is one route to saving the pennies. Do be aware that it can become just as expensive to buy all the ingredients that many top cook books suggest; if you can get hold of the ingredients at all. Yes, you can still make many recipes and not include the expensive ingredients, but this blog is about enjoying the best, and the majority of these expensive ingredients are worth their weight in saffron.

It also should be said that the experience of visiting these restaurants with the high service, beautiful decor and lively ambience make it even more worthwhile.

How to dine at the top restaurants for less…

One way is to take an afternoon off work and go on weekday lunchtime and have a set meal. Here are examples from some of London’s finest restaurants:

Maze 

Head Chef - Jason Atherton. Four courses for £28, six courses for £42.50.

Sample menu includes: Smoked eel vichyssoise, spiced leek and poached quail’s egg / Roasted breast of poussin with confit leg, St George mushroom purée, date and bacon sandwich.

Gordon Ramsay at Claridges

Head Chef: Mark Sargeant. Three courses for £30.

Sample menu includes: Game, roasted vegetable and foie gras mosaic, spiced pears, pistachio brioche / Pan-fried fillet of cod, crab tortellini, mussel and apple broth.

J Sheekey

Weekend lunch menu. Three courses for £24.75.

Fillet of Cod,
 buttered savoy cabbage and smoked salmon / Braised ox cheek,
 chanterelles, smoked bacon and parsley mash.

 

Another alternative way to save money fine dining is to go for breakfast during the week or weekend…

 The Wolseley

Mixed basket of croissant, pain au chocolat, danish, amandine, pain sucré au beurre normand, cannelé bordelais £7.25 /  Fried haggis with duck eggs £6.

 

My third suggestion is to go to the less extravagant ancillary eateries of the top chefs such as Jamie Oliver’s Trattoria at Fifteen or one of Gordon Ramsay’s new pub ventures such as The Devonshire…

 Trattoria

Risotto ‘ai frutti di mare’ with cod, brown crab, mussels, cockles, chilli and fennel tops £11 / Linguine carbonara with guanciale, marjoram, garlic and pecorino Toscano £9.50.

The Devonshire

Set lunch Monday - Friday. Two courses £13.50, three course £16.50.

Sample menu includes: Corn fed chicken breast with mushroom and parmesan risotto / Pan fried rainbow trout, purple sprouting broccoli and tarragon butter sauce.

So I say – put on a posh frock and get yourself down to a restaurant that you’ve always wanted to go to… the problem then is getting a table.

 

Do you know of any other ways to dine at the top restaurants for less? Please get in touch and subscribe to my feed to keep updated on the latest news from SaveorSplurge?  

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photo credit: pfala

Unless you’ve buried your head in the sand for the last few months, you’ll have seen lots of coverage about the downturn of the economy. A lot of what I’ve seen and heard recently is about ways in which to save money.

I agree that saving money is wise but lets not forget that we all deserve to enjoy the finer things in life.

That doesn’t mean splashing out mega bucks on items that aren’t worth it. With this blog I intend to compare cheaper items with the more expensive offerings. Does it pay to purchase expensive items or are there cheaper alternatives that will give you the same for less money?

Please subscribe to my feed if you’d like to be kept informed of all the latest ideas on how to save or splurge your money.

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