Just found £188 ($250) down the side of the sofa

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Image by Gerhard G. from Pixabay

Well, metaphorically, anyway.

I went through the household bills and by either changing suppliers or finding a new deal, I've reduced outgoings by £188 or $250 dollars a month.

Most of this - £170 - was on just four bills a month. The highest saving was the outstanding loan on the house with an improved rate of interest with the same provider, saving £75 a month; I opted for a new 2 year contract with the telecoms supplier saving £26 a month (and a new router at no cost vastly better than the old one) and a change of energy supplier resulted in a saving of £33 a month. I also claimed the discount for local taxes (for some reason, I thought this was automatic) saving £39 a month.

The balance came from cancelling two subscriptions which, between them, came to roughly £18 a month. I have, since the start of the year, been culling subscriptions. These were the last two to go.

I do have a new subscription which is for The Guardian on Saturdays. Through the week I keep up with the news online, but I love walking down to the shop on Saturday morning with my discount voucher and collecting my paper. I always pick one from a few copies down the pile so it is still pristine and I carry a special bag to put it in to keep it that way until I get home.

Having time to sit down and read a newspaper is a sign that all is right in my world. Before I had the responsibilities of a house and family, I used to walk into town and buy the paper, then a broadsheet, and spend all morning in a traditional Italian family-owned coffee shop reading it. Sometimes, friends would come by, but mostly I would get lost in news from around the world, theatre reviews and cooking recipes. I loved the adverts for exotic holidays abroad and checking the art exhibitions and concerts listed in The Guide.

Nowadays, the paper is tabloid and the inserts much reduced, but I still enjoy reading the listings and the book reviews. I drag it out by doing the quick crossword and studying the weather forecast and maps intently. Occasionally, I read the business pages and once or twice I have been known to read an article in the sports section.

I make my own coffee these days. I've just finished some Monsoon Malabar from White Rose Coffee:

The color, shape, and size of the beans as well as their aroma and taste are the results of special post-harvest processing. Indian coffee was historically shipped to Europe in wooden sailing vessels, taking four to six months to sail around the Cape of Good Hope before reaching their destinations. Coffee, stored below the water line and kept in a humid atmosphere by moisture seeping through the wood, underwent a form of treatment on its long voyage to market. When the coffee reached Europe, its color had changed from bright green to pale gold and its new crop acidity had disappeared. This "Monsooning" process was later systematically replicated in India with the goal to consistently reproduce the familiar flavor from the historic voyages to the European ports. (Source)

It was really beautiful coffee and I was sorry when I got to the end. I loved the taste which is very distinctive and I like to think it is a little bit "shiver me timbers"! I'm going to be getting some more, but before then, I'm going to try the new Brazil Nuts Hive Blockchain Coffee also from White Rose Coffee. Incidentally, you can buy White Rose Coffee using crypto and you can also earn through an affiliate programme.

I've just noticed White Rose Coffee have a coffee subscription service, too, but all these savings - £188 a month - are destined for my Buy-a-Bitcoin Fund. I'll have to get a Saturday job to pay for my Guardian-and-coffee habit.

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23 comments
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What a success! It really pays to spend that bit of time every year to review your finances.

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It certainly does!
How are you? I envy you being near the sea (I'm guessing that you still are near the sea)?

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Those are some good savings! It can be worth reviewing your outgoings.

We get the weekend Guardian via subscription too. Unfortunately our nearest shop never seems to have any, so we have to go further afield. It can take me a few days to read everything of interest. We sometimes get the Observer too, but it can all be a bit much sometimes.

I will have to order some more coffee from White Rose soon.

Will some of your savings go into HIVE or other crypto?

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I thought about the weekend subscription but I would never get through it! I usually read it in the evening now, after other things have been done. I have to go and get it early otherwise both of the nearest outlets will have sold out.

I'm glad that White Rose dooes the 250g packages and I would prefer to buy from a small business in the UK rather than supermarket chains and large scale suppliers.

I want to diversify my cryptos a bit - some Bitcoin, some others, maybe some second-layer Hive tokens, I love my SPIs 😁

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That’s a pretty sweet saving anything I can save right now goes into Bitcoin there’s no two ways about it lol! I cancelled my pay TV ages ago, I still have Netflix though but I’m always actively looking at where I can cut down

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Thank you 😁. Yeah, I've got freeview and I prefer to rent one off films and series when I want to watch something. But you've just reminded me, Amazon caught me in a 30 day free trial for Audible and I must cancel that!

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Nice savings.

I haven't read a copy of the Saturday Guardian for years, but making it into a tabloid would put me right off!

I guess a subscription and a voucher is the only way to do it.

The Week is well worth subscribing too if you ask me.

I'd definitely avoid buying anything if you can and spend it on crypto!

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making it into a tabloid

I know! I was on holiday at a family wedding the weekend it was announced - and it's published at Wapping in the same print facility as the Sun. I nearly cried. I was paying full price each weekend for it anyway, so I think that's another 75p saving a week right there!

I've just read your post about Bitcoin -> £100k; really good timing for me as I realised I haven't got a proper plan other than "buy crypto".

I'll have a look at The Week. Is it digital only?

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I think the Week has different options - digital is one of them, or you can get a print copy, or both.

Posted Using LeoFinance Beta

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Nice back-of-sofa find :)

Still got the Guardian subscription! I guess this may be a bit delicate then, but I've moved over to https://off-guardian.org/ where I find that the narrative is vastly different from that of the mainstream....I'd certainly advise some more subscription saving here lol, but that's just my perspective on 'current events' and my conviction/observation that main-stream journalism has turned into a mouthpiece for corporate agendas of the Powers That Shouldn't Be.

Interesting to know the story behind Monsoon coffee. Perhaps @whiterosecoffee will implement Hive Pay when it's ready and we'll be able to buy coffee with our native token, that'd be really cool.

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I agree with you about mainstream journalism and I have found that The Guardian, just like the rest, sensationalise and bring negativity and fear into reporting current affairs (and sometimes, they are just making it up). Thank you for the reminder about off-guardian, I'll have another look (I use this place, too).

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I'm so pleased you responded like you did 🙂

Thanks for the link to ACG, have bookmarked it to explore. And....continuing this exchange, here's another one I'd wanted to put in the first comment but didn't wanna overload. Perhaps you know it already: https://www.ukcolumn.org/.

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I tend not to read online. I don't enjoy it and I find I engage more critically when I'm reading a material newspaper (or book). It's one of the reasons why I went for a subscription. Plus the recipes 🙂.

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You reminded me... we still have two subscriptions for magazines which we should cancel, which we want to cancel for some time but always forget to do. Both were relevant during our time at university, but that’s long ago. You are really good in saving and I always read your post with interest and try to learn. Emphasis on the word try....

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I have plenty of things that I forget to do, too 😍

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Thanks for continuing to make Hive awesome.

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Wow, that's a big change in household bills! Telecoms here are NOTORIOUS for overcharging people. We only have two options, so they know they can get away with it. It's so gross.
Congrats on your savings!
!BEER

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(Edited)

Hello so good to see you 😍.
I was thinking about you and came by your blog yesterday - I read the post about things you only have one of but I was called away before I could leave a comment. I have been so pre-occupied by The Ink Well - we're gradually getting where we want to be in the community so I will have more time for my world. Hope all is good with you?
Mmm, I'm in two minds about the liberalisation of the market - on the one hand, there is more choice, on the other hand, people are overwhelmed by it and stay with the same provider, regardless. Insurance premiums are the worse, some of the increases are blatant, plus all the upselling of add-ons. And, without asking you, they make renewal automatic from the last account details you gave them. I had to ring up home and car insurance and get that reversed.
Oh well, I guess when all is said and done, we do have a tradition of highway robbery 😂.

Thanks for the beer - have some !ENGAGE 50

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No worries at all, I haven't been spending as much time on Hive as I used to; I just haven't had the focus of late. So I've been very derilict in keeping up with everyone's blogs!
Yeah, oh, insurance BS - here in the US, elderly folx generally have Medicare, the government plan, which you have to be 65+ to get, I think. But private insurance companies are always trying to "upsell" Medicare add-ons, which more often than not actually LESSEN your coverage, not increase it. I can't tell you how many times when I worked at the hospital, we had a patient get denied treatment and had to tell them, go cancel that add-on and just have regular Medicare and you'll get approved, because they approve our patients all the time, and lo - that's exactly what happened. So seniors are paying extra to be denied healthcare. 'Murica.
Thanks for the Engage! Does this one still work? !COFFEEA

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