Lewis - Thrifty ways for modern days: handy hints on living better for less from the community of MoneySavingExpert.com

Contents

Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert, is a 34-year-old ultra-specialised journalist and TV presenter who grew up in Cheshire and now lives in West London. He spends his life focusing on how to cut bills without cutting back.

Martin is in constant demand on television and radio. He has his own series, Make Me Rich, on ITV1 as well as being the Money Saving Expert on Tonight with Trevor McDonald, BBC1s The One Show and others. He is a national newspaper columnist and has monthly phoneins on BBC Radio 2 and Talk Sport.

In 2003 he set up a completely free website: www.moneysavingexpert.com. Three years after its launch, without any advertising budget, a million people a month were using the site, making it the countrys biggest independent money site.

Before focusing on MoneySaving, Martin worked in the BBCs Business Unit and has reported for BBC1, BBC Network Radio and even spent time as a Business Editor of Radio 4s Today programme. Prior to that he worked for the other side as a City spin doctor, advising major companies on how to communicate, and dabbled in stand-up comedy to relieve the tedium.

Martin has a postgraduate degree in Broadcast Journalism from Cardiff University and is a graduate of the London School of Economics.

The Dumbledore of Debt Paul Ross, This Morning

The UKs biggest Financial Anorak Paul Lewis, BBC Radio 4s Moneybox

If anyone can help, its this man. Martin Lewis knows more about credit cards than possibly anyone else in the country Justin Rowlatt, BBC1 Panorama

Dedicated to the war generation, who learned to save money without a choice, and who pass on their knowledge so the rest of us may thrive.

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Epub ISBN 9781407080444

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The information in this book is general in nature and not intended to constitute nor be relied on for specific financial or any other professional advice. The author and publishers disclaim, as far as the law allows, any liability arising directly or indirectly from the use or misuse of the information contained in this book.

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Copyright Martin Lewis 2006

Martin Lewis has asserted his moral right to be identified as the author
of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

First published in the United Kingdom in 2006 by Vermilion,
an imprint of Ebury Publishing
Random House UK Ltd.
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A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library.

This extraordinary book is based on the collective wisdom of the scores of contributors to the MoneySaving Old-Style section of MoneySavingExpert.com the award-winning, trend-setting website which, in less than four years, has attracted over one million UK users a month.

The Old-Style forum started when many of the older visitors to the site decided to share their accumulated knowledge with other younger users. It has swiftly developed into a discussion on living life cheaply, healthily, ethically and thriftily, with all generations together searching for a path to Old-Style bliss.

Edited by Martin Lewis who, as well as being the founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, is a newspaper columnist, TV and radio money guru and presenter, and author of the bestselling The Money Diet, this lively book cannot fail to appeal to anyone who is interested in living better for less.

As this book is based on collective wisdom, Martin Lewis is donating all his proceeds to the MoneySavingExpert.com Charitable Fund.

I dont truly consider this book to be mine, so its rather strange to be writing the acknowledgements. This is a communitys book, written from the contributions of a huge range of people to the discussions on the Old-Style board, part of the Chat Forums of my website MoneySavingExpert.com

I must admit a great pride that such a community has formed, developed its own cohesive philosophy and now thrives; helping each other and newbies. So without doubt the first thanks must go to all the regulars, irregulars, occasionals and one-off posters. It is literally impossible to thank everyone, so Ive picked at random a representative of the most common posters, and I apologise to those whove been omitted.

Old-Style thanks: Penny-Pincher, halloweenqueen, apprentice tycoon, lynzpower Thriftlady, Murtle, moggins, oops a daisy, purpleprincess, Crispy Ambulance, black-saturn, Snowy Owl, Queenie, Rikki, wigginsmum, VickyA, purplemoon, Bogof_Babe, Ticklemouse and RacyRed.

Id also like to thank all the volunteer Board Guides whove kept the information easy to find, and compiled wonderful reference lists, many of which are detailed in this book: Squeaky, Arkonite Babe, Pink-winged, Gingham Ribbon, Cathy, Judi, Galtizz and Fran.

For the book itself, huge thanks go to Sue Hayward. Sue is a consumer journalist who researched, read and compiled the bulk of the information from the forums, and organised it into book form for me to edit. Without her work, this book wouldnt exist.

Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert

So, my pictures on the front cover, its about MoneySaving, comes from my website and Im the editor of this book, but the first thing Im doing is shouting, Im not an Old-Styler. Confused? Well, of course MoneySaving is my thing, but within this context I suppose I should say MoneySaving New-Style is my thing.

New-Style is all about cutting your bills without cutting back, living your life exactly the same way yet paying less for it. Its about leaving you with more money to spend on yourself or pay off your debts, and indeed thats what my book The Money Diet and most of MoneySavingExpert.com is about.

Old-Style is different. The Old-Style board started when many older MoneySavers wanted to share their accumulated wisdom with a new generation. Its since developed into a discussion on living life cheaply, healthily, ethically and thriftily, with all generations searching together for a path to Old-Style wisdom.

These thrifty ways implicitly involve a change in lifestyle. New-Style is about putting every penny into your pocket rather than that of companies, yet with Old-Style you also deliberately choose to live life a different way. There are two main reasons for adopting this technique:

Necessity. Old-Style is fantastic for those with debt or other money problems who need to make extra savings to get back on track. It boosts your budget, but does require work and attention. Yet those who need to work hard on their finances tend to be more time-rich than money-rich, so its the perfect solution, even with the necessary sacrifices.