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How I saved £750 on cutting down trees
I was quoted a whopping £900 to have three trees removed (about 10 ft tall) and decided to do it myself!
We couldn’t keep on top of the trees and wanted some more space. They were two Cyprus leylandii and one tree that was already dead but we had a trunk left.
The first quote I got was, and frankly was an absolute con. I spoke to some tree specialists and they say to remove the trees really should have been less than £300. Anyway, this quote got me thinking:
- £600 to level the trees to the ground (£500 if I booked there and then!) – what a rip off!
- £400 to take their root stumps out, if manually as they couldn’t get a machine in, though should be around £75 if using a stump
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British Gas customers to get free electricity at weekends – FreeTime
British Gas is planning to offer free electricity for up to eight hours at weekends to two million customers who have smart meters installed.
Customers will be able to choose to use the free power either on Saturday or Sunday, between 9am and 5pm. This initiative could save customers around £60 a year.
However, when looking at comparison sites, it may still not be the cheapest deal on the market, so shopping around is still recommended.
As only 2.4 million British Gas customers have smart meters, most won’t be eligible immediately. Dual fuel customers with British Gas smart meters already installed will be able to take up the deal, as well as anyone else who wants a smart meter and is able to have one installed. The average dual fuel bill will be £1,001, based …
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BillHub launches to simplify spliting and managing shared bills
Free-to-use utility billing service, BillHub has launched in the UK. It is designed to allow housemates – from students to young professionals – to split all their monthly bills and keep track of the exact outgoing payments from all parties online or via an app.
The BillHub makes the bill payment process more convenient, transparent and secure for renters. With the number of renters rising, since deposits are getting higher, it’s annoying that one person has to pay the bills and claim money from other occupants, so BillHub could be a great solution.
Users of the platform can mix and match the energy and internet providers they want from a range of providers which BillHub has partnered with – these include energy providers GenRent and Spark Energy, and broadband companies Virgin Media, Plusnet and TenTel. …
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Free gardening advice app launches
These days we have everything at our disposal at the touch of a button. But what about for helping our green thumbs? Well, let’s introduce Garden Compass, a new horticultural advice app. It is inspiring a gardening digital revolution having smashed through the 25,000 download barrier in the first three months of 2016 alone.
Why is it a handy app for gardens enthusiasts and beginners alike? The free app is introducing a new generation to gardening through its simplicity and easy-to-follow expert advice, with the normally gardening-reticent 25 to 35 year-old bracket proving to be the most popular users of the app.
Garden Compass offers a complete horticultural resource to give people all the tools they need to easily create and manage their outdoor spaces, be it a window box, balcony, small urban garden or …
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Garden table upcycling
The cost of a decent sized folding garden table is not cheap. We bought ours from Ikea around 12 years ago. They don’t sell the same thing anymore, but a simliar size in white, is £110 and it doesn’t even fold.
The table is still in good condition underneath, but looks bad. So I decided to try out my creative skills and upcycle my existing table, and here’s my experience in images. The whole thing cost me my time – can’t put a price on that, I am worth far too much; Rust-Oleum surface primer, Rust-Oleum Textured finish in deep forest and Rust-Universal Gloss Spray Paint in Racing Green – totalling – £26.75 (if you do it right first time).
I am super impatient, so the spray paint appealed. Some of my tips include, …
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Kit out your kitchen with Aldi’s latest range
From electric slicers to frying pans, Aldi’s new kitchen range, including Russell Hobbs devices, is sure to have something for everyone, whether you’re a budding chef or a first-time cook looking to improve your skills. Available in store and some of the stuff is also online from 5th May, while stocks last.
My favourite items must be the Russell Hobbs kit as you can buy them singly or as a set and they look really funky together. Coffee lovers can wake up to a freshly brewed barista-style coffee with this Russell Hobbs Grind & Brew Coffee Machine (£69.99), featuring a digital programmable control which lets users set what time of day their coffee brews. The permanent filter makes for an easy clean as well, with no paper filters required. This is a great price, …
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Add loads of value to your home – really easily
Lots of schemes promise easy ways to make money, and this really made me laugh. Basically, by using Cif to clean a London home, it actually gained a lot more value! Incredibly, the average value was 26% higher by cleaning the house.
Cif posted an online film highlighting the value of a beautifully clean home – increasing the house price by simply cleaning with Cif products. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga7QEnAbIfo
The idea was simple…a before and after experiment filmed over two days. Cif took an average London home and asked three independent real estate agents to give their honest appraisal of what the home was worth in its current state. The average value was £1,050,000.
A professional cleaning team then gave the whole house a Cif deep clean from top to bottom. Three further independent real …
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Kit out your kitchen with Aldi’s latest range
From electric slicers to frying pans, Aldi’s new kitchen range, including Russell Hobbs devices, is sure to have something for everyone, whether you’re a budding chef or a first-time cook looking to improve your skills. Available in store and some of the stuff is also online from 5th May, while stocks last.
My favourite items must be the Russell Hobbs kit as you can buy them singly or as a set and they look really funky together. Coffee lovers can wake up to a freshly brewed barista-style coffee with this Russell Hobbs Grind & Brew Coffee Machine (£69.99), featuring a digital programmable control which lets users set what time of day their coffee brews. The permanent filter makes for an easy clean as well, with no paper filters required. This is a great price, …
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Lowest priced bedding available online?
There’s an outlet shop for everything it seems today, so why not for bedding? Our kids are increasingly having more friends to stay and en masse. I prefer to provide my own bedding (it’s the way I am!), but for irregular use, I don’t want to pay a fortune for a single duvet.
This little single duvet is just £3. It comes in basic packaging to keep the products low cost, and is 4.5 tog which is fine for a room full of sweaty kids! However, once you add standard postage, it’s almost £6, so massive tip – buy more stuff!
The Boston Duvet & Pillow Company sells a range of filled bedding products, currently available on Amazon. The brand has now launched on online outlet store selling slight factory seconds of pillows, duvets, mattress …
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Dare to repair an appliance rather than replace?
When a household appliance breaks down, your first instinct might be to call a repairman – or even just to take it as a sign that it’s time to upgrade to a shiny new device. I can’t believe the money I have wasted on repairmen, when all I had to do was open the overflow on the washing machine, or just undo the shower and wipe it down inside.
Anyway, are you ready to try and repair the product yourself? I’ve found Ransom Spares, where you can pick up spare parts from as little as just a few pounds. And, if the prospect of repairing a wayward washing machine or fixing a fridge freezer seems intimidating, the Appliance Repair Help & Advice Centre is packed with useful information, from lists of common problems to …
