Extreme Moneysaving UK Style

   Every family has staples which they will go through from week to week. Some of these will be perishable and others will be inperishable or with a long use by dates. For instance, in my household I know that, from the second of the previous options, we will use:

• At least 50 tins of beans.
• At least 50 pot noodles.
• At least 20 bottles of washing up liquid.
• At least 50 toilet rolls (see my view on buying toilet roll elsewhere on this blog).
• At least 50 tins of soup.
• At least 50 bottles of concentrated orange juice.
• At least 20 multi surface sprays.
• At least 10 bottles of shower gel.
• At least 10 tins of deodarant.
• At least 10 tubes of toothpaste.

....... and probably a lot more that I can't think of right now.

   Now over the last week there has been lots of articles in the newspapers about American-style extreme Moneymaking coming to the UK. The general consensus is that the UK Supermarkets are too tight with their vouchers for the full strength US experience to be enjoyed over here, however there are some general rules of thumb which seem to resonate across all the reports, namely:

• Order online and across numerous sites. No shop loyalty allowed.
• Use the comparison sites to find deals.
• Save your points and hunt out opportunities to get other people's points too.

   If we put all this together then my recommendation would be to start trawling the supermarket sites looking for exceptional deals on any of these products and to buy a year's worth in advance if the price is right (and the deal allows you this option). If you buy too much then don't worry because (a) you are going to use it all anyway, and (b) you could all knock some out at cost to family members. If the family members are impressed with your deal-finding tehn you could offer to do the same for them - and obviously bank the points for yourself in doing so.

Betfair Update

   Funny goings on on Betfair over the last few weeks. I decided that discipline is the key, so therefore any losing bet which I put on which is outside of the normal system is being reimbursed from my own pocket. I can't say that I haven't had to do so either.

   The upside is that a few days back, the fund touched £2300 - the highest watermark for quite some time. A freak(ish) result in France, where 3 goals were scored from the 84th minute onwards has since stung me for £111 but good form since has seen the fund bounce back to £2230.

   I'm becoming more and more convinced that my slow broadband is costing me cash.

New Breed of Puzzles

   This would be quite hard to do on an individual basis but bear with me. If you go into ASDA or Tesco nowadays you'll see a pretty good selection of puzzle books. Now the majority of these will be Wordsearch, Crosswords and Sudoku because these are the ones that sell. To a lesser extent you'll find codebreakers, arrowtabs, kakuro and mixed puzzle.

   I think I know a 4th title that could sell as much as Wordsearch etc: Hidden Object.

   We've all played I Spy, and most of us will have played a "hidden object" type of game either on an Ipod/ Ipad or on a pub Itbox. They are addictive fun games.

   If I knew someone who had the IT know-how, I'd get them to knock together 50 images each containing 25 hidden objects. Send these files off to China after a bit of negotiation. From 5 mins on Ali Baba, I reckon you could get these printed and delivered back to you for less than 50c a pop. Full colour cover, B&W inside. Get yourseld down to the market and knock the 1000 you bought for £300 out at £1 a piece. Remember there is no VAT to pay on books. Split the profits with your IT chum.

   If this works then re-invest your profits and go bigger and better on round 2.

Your thoughts?

Dominos Success

Voucher in the post.

I've won £10 per day since my boy was born......

   More steady drips in the bucket with tonight's Champion League games:

Ross Taylor 02-Nov-2011 21:56



Soccer: £21.82
Tote:
Total P&L: £21.82

More Stats

   Found a great resource for stats. Check out Opta on Twitter. They give loads of great information for free.

The Steady Drip Always Fills the Bucket

   Another nice night of football betting this evening. 17 bets and 17 winners, no sweats at all.

Ross Taylor 01-Nov-2011 22:01



Soccer: £19.43
Tote:
Total P&L: £19.43