It's been a day of super deals, somewhat marred by an evening rip-off!
After a foggy morning digging hard earth on the allotment, I decided to spend the afternoon in a warm (home) office sorting out some long-standing jobs. I actually did quite well until I shot myself in the foot at the very end of the afternoon.
Deal no 1 was my mobile phone. I've a £25 per month contract on O2 which is now running. I've been trying to untether my phone and get a better deal on another network, without success; inertia and technical snags have meant O2 has got an extra three months out of me.
Today, I saw a great deal on the BT website - a SIM-only deal for 500Mb of data and 200 minutes for £5 per month. They also use the EE network, so I might actually get a signal at home.
I bought an iPhone 5 and my 4S, which is chained to O2, I'll give to Margaret on an O2 pay-monthly deal. I should be able to make a monthly saving of £10 - £120 per year.
Deal no 2 was another from BT. They'd sent me a letter saying I'd have to pay £7 a month for BT Sport unless I signed up for another broadband contract. When I called them, they offered me Superfast Broadband, a YouView box, BT Sport and Eurosport 1 and 2 (so I can watch bikes) for £5 less than I'm paying now. I can also cease my Sky contract, which is costing almost £70 per month.
I think this is what's called "on a roll" - monthly saving of £75 or £900 a year.
And I'm not done yet. I've been trying to convert some of Margaret's personal tax allowance to me, but the government's website hasn't been working. I tried again today and it failed again, so I called them and they sorted it out on the telephone. That's a saving of £250 per annum.
So total savings of £1,250 per annum!
Of course, there's always a little cloud to rain on your parade and this cloud had Easyjet written on the side. I seem to have a blind spot with the Easyjet website. Last time I booked flights to Jersey, I ended up flying from Southend instead of Gatwick (which was something of a happy accident, although quite a surprise when I realised).
This time, I made sure I booked flights from Gatwick and back to Gatwick and thought I'd got a good deal - £33 out and £15 back - but when I tried to print out my boarding card for the return leg, it wouldn't let me. I spent ages trying to figure it out before I realised I'd booked to return on December 23, not November 23.
Easyjet applies a charge of £45 to make any changes to flight details, so I've got a £15 flight that will now cost £45 to move to the date I want.
How did I screw up? I've no idea - I think the return date jumps a month, or perhaps I just engage 'stupid mode' when I log onto Easyjet.
I didn't pay the £45 admin charge, I just booked a new return flight for £15 for the right date.
