Blog: Latest Posts

This is the first in what I'm planning will become a regular(ish) post - five things I've done, seen, found or otherwise which you might just possibly enjoy, too. There'll be no particular themes, categories or order: just 10 things which have amused me, helped me, tickled me (not literally...) or changed me in some way or another.

1. Nabru
Tucked away in an industrial estate in Uxbridge, North-West London, is the Nabru showroom. Selling 'slot' furniture, this was a godsend when we needed to buy a new sofa for our Victorian cottage - with tiny doors and windows that only open at the top. Delivery is free - to anywhere in the UK except the highlands and islands - and they offer a huge choice of styles, materials and options as it's all custom-made. Just don't put the base on the wrong way round and only realise towards the end of the flat-pack build like I did. D'oh.

2. MSE
My girlfriend has been subscribed to the MSE - MoneySaving Expert - newsletter for a while. It has amazing discounts, offers, money-saving tips and more financial goodness than you can shake a 50-quid note at. I thought I'd give it a go as well - if only to see the discounts a few hours before she does...

3. Moneydance
I've been searching around for a Quicken-a-like for a while and haven't found anything worth shelling out for (or even an open-source alternative I liked). However, just yesterday, I came across another blog listing '6 Great Free Alternatives to Quicken and MS Money' and one of the suggestions was MoneyDance. I liked it straight away and duly handed over the $40 (£20) asking price.

4. Airmiles
As you may have guessed, I like to travel (although I haven't yet been out of Europe, unless you count Iceland...), so I'm on a bit of an Airmiles frenzy at the moment. I discovered the scheme from the MSE newsletter (see #2, above) - apply for a new Lloyds TSB Airmiles credit card (APR 15.9%) and you get 1,500 airmiles automatically - enough for 2 free return journeys to Zone 1 (Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Jersey, Guernsey or within the UK and Ireland) or one return journey to most of mainland Europe. Then continue collecting by using your credit card, shopping online, exchanging store loyalty card points for miles, filling up at Shell garages, and signing up for the big mile offers - I collected 750 airmiles just for getting this year's car insurance with Lloyds TSB... and it was cheaper than the Admiral renewal quote! Our aim is Sydney in a few years' time: 10,000 miles is the target...

5. Luton FM
I have to declare an interest with this one: I managed the station with 6 student colleagues last year. Therefore, I have a vested interest in this year's management team (it acts as a final project and is worth about 60% of the final degree) doing badly in comparison. Only joking. Somehow, when I went to see them to catch up with my ex-course lecturer a fortnight ago, I got cajoled into making their station website for them - with just a few days to go before they launched on-air! I've just made the website public today - although I know it still has a few issues, particularly on Internet Explorer (damn it not being standards-compliant...)

spEak You're bRanes: If you like it so much, why don't you go live there?

Loved it instantly. It's the anti-thesis to site such as the BBC's Have Your Say, which are infiltrated with messages, complete with appalling spelling and grammar, against everything and anything - whether it makes logical sense or not (I'm sure it does in the posters' heads).

Was looking at the B&Q website this week when one of those occasional "How can we improve our website" survey pop-up things appeared.

Er... well, you could start with getting the "How can we improve our website" survey pop-up thing sorted...



Sad to say that I couldn't even take the survey as I couldn't click the button!