May 30, 2019

Should You Delay Taking Your State Pension?

Nick Pensions & Benefits pensions 6 Comments

I know many readers of Pounds and Sense are coming up to the state pension age. That includes me. I have just over three years to go, assuming the government doesn’t change the rules again!

One decision everyone in this situation has to make is whether to start claiming the state pension as soon as they are eligible, or defer it. You might wonder why anyone would choose to put off receiving their pension, but the government does offer a modest incentive for doing so. For every nine weeks you defer, you get an extra 1% added to your pension payments thereafter.

If you are in good health and don’t need the money (perhaps because you are still in work) delaying may be worth considering. Even so, it’s something to think carefully about, as you may have a long wait until you are in profit from doing so.

Crunching the Numbers

Here are my (admittedly somewhat simplified) calculations.

The current new state pension is £168.60 (people who retired on the old state pension are likely to be on less than this). One percent of this is £1.686 per week.

If you opt to sacrifice 9 weeks of the state pension, that has a total value of 9 x 168.60 = £1517.40. If you divide this by the extra weekly pension you will receive after this, you get a figure of 1517.40/1.686 = 900. In other words, you would need to be claiming for 900 weeks, or just over 17 years, simply to break even.

Deferring for a year will earn an increase in your pension of 5.8% but cost you – at the current rate – a total of £8767.20. The extra pension thereafter will be worth an extra £508.50 a year, but again it would take you a little over 17 years to recoup the year’s pension you didn’t get.

Overall, then, for most people I don’t believe that deferring will be a desirable or sensible option. This applies especially if you have any health or lifestyle issues that may reduce your life expectancy.

However, there is one other thing to take into account, and that is tax…

Tax and the State Pension

Not everyone realises this, but the UK state pension is taxable. That means if you have other sources of income that use up your personal allowance, you will have tax deducted from your state pension at your highest marginal rate.

If that applies to you, the case for postponing your state pension is stronger. Assuming you pay tax at the basic rate of 20%, then 168.60 x 20% = £33.72 would be deducted from your weekly pension in tax, leaving you with just £134.88. If you do this for 9 weeks, you will therefore receive 9 x 134.88 = £1213.92 in total after tax. Dividing this by the 1% extra you would get from deferring gives you a figure of 720 weeks or 13 years and 8 months to break even by deferring. That’s still a long time, but if you are in good health you are more likely than not to live this long after reaching pension age. Of course, this does assume that once you start claiming the state pension your total taxable income is covered by your personal allowance. If that’s not the case and you have to pay tax on your state pension, the payback period after deferring will be longer.

Like all the calculations in this post, the above assumes for simplicity’s sake that the state pension remains the same in future. In practice it is likely to go up every year, increasing the value of that extra 1% (or whatever). That means the time period before you recoup all the money you turned down is likely to be a bit shorter. On the other hand, the effect of inflation is likely to offset this.

Another potential issue could arise if you are already earning a substantial income and claiming the state pension would push you into a higher tax band. This could be another good reason to consider deferring.

Summing Up

Overall, it seems to me that if you expect to be on a modest (or even average) income in retirement, there is unlikely to be much benefit to deferring your state pension (and I don’t intend to myself). If you are a higher earner and in good health, however, there might be.

Obviously everyone’s circumstances are different and I can’t give individual advice, but it’s well worth speaking to a qualified pensions adviser if you think that deferring the state pension may be beneficial for you.

Finally, if you do decide to defer, no special action is required. Four months before you reach state pension age, you should receive a letter and booklet from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) telling you how to claim your state pension. You can just delay claiming and it will be assumed that you wish to defer.

As ever, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

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May 26, 2019

My Weekend at Aberdunant Hall Hotel Near Porthmadog

Nick Everything Else reviews, travel 2 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I enjoyed a long weekend (three nights) at the Aberdunant Hall Holiday Park and Hotel near Porthmadog in North Wales.

It was the first time I had stayed at Aberdunant Hall (as I’ll call it from now on), but I know the area pretty well. I used to stay at the Tremeifion Hotel just across the estuary from Portmeirion, but unfortunately this closed last year. So I went online to research alternatives in the area and discovered Aberdunant Hall. It had generally excellent reviews, so I decided to check it out for myself.

Aberdunant Hall is about four miles from Porthmadog, near a small town called Prenteg. I have embedded a map of the area below (courtesy of Booking.com).

Booking.com

The Hotel

With the help of my satnav I had no difficulty finding Aberdunant Hall. On the main road there is a gatehouse and you have to turn in here and follow a narrow, winding road through some scenic woodlands before you reach the hotel.

The hotel is actually quite small – it has only about a dozen rooms for guests – and the reception area is basically a desk in the dining room. A friendly and helpful young man took my details and showed me to my room.

I say my room, but I had actually opted to stay in what the hotel describe as a Forest Retreat. This is a small cluster of wooden cabins a few minutes’ walk from the main hotel. Here is a photo to give you an idea. Mine was at the top of the hill, in the middle of this picture. You can see the view from my balcony in the cover image (above).

The Forest Retreats are certainly compact (the website says they they measure 14 ft by 10 ft). There is a fold-down bed which when pushed up reveals a sofa with a mirror above it (the mirror in mine was cracked, unfortunately). There is a small but well-equipped kitchenette by the door and a bathroom with a shower cubicle at the back.

You also get a balcony with a table and chairs. I know if I had been staying with my late partner Jayne, I would have ended up being banished here quite often while she was getting dressed and ready! There isn’t much space for hanging clothes or putting things away, so I wouldn’t recommend this type of accommodation if you are planning to stay any longer than a few days.

If you are in one of the Forest Retreats – or any other accommodation in the hotel and holiday park – you have the option of eating at the hotel restaurant if you wish (you will need to book in advance). I ate there on the first night and enjoyed an excellent meal of potato and leek soup, smoked haddock with poached eggs and spinach, and vanilla cheesecake with a strawberry topping. The other two nights I cooked my own meals, but that was just for convenience (and to save a few pounds) really.

A cooked breakfast is included in the price you pay. This is basically a self-service buffet, though a waitress was around to answer questions, fix the drinks machine and toaster when they broke down, and deal with any special requests (e.g. vegetarian/vegan options). I enjoyed the breakfasts. I rather prefer the buffet style, as you can choose exactly what you have and when you have it (e.g. I prefer to have my toast at the end). It would have been nice if scrambled eggs had been available as well as fried, but that’s a very minor criticism.

Although you don’t get any sea views at Aberdunant Hall, the country park location is undoubtedly picturesque. As well as trees and plants, the park (which also houses lots of static caravans and lodges) is criss-crossed with small streams. My Forest Retreat was wonderfully peaceful, and I slept very well while was I was there.

Financials

As Pounds and Sense is primarily a money blog, I should say a few words about this.

I paid £395 (including VAT) for my three-night stay in a Forest Retreat at Aberdunant Hall, which I thought was reasonable. My three-course meal in the restaurant including a drink came to £29.75, which again I didn’t think excessive.

There are plenty of other accommodation options at Aberdunant Hall. They include a variety of rooms in the hotel itself, from a basic single room starting at £85 a night to a Victorian-style luxury room with four-poster bed starting at £185 a night. Or if you prefer to stay in the park rather than the main hotel, you can book a Woodland Escape Suite. These are over twice the size of the Forest Retreats and cost from £185 a night. I like the sound of them, even though they are (of course) really aimed at couples. You can see all the accommodation options at Aberdunant Hall Hotel on this page of their website.

One comment I would make is that – a little surprisingly – there is no shop on the site. So if you are planning to cater for yourself at least some of the time, you may want to bring some provisions with you. The nearest shopping centre is Porthmadog, about four miles away. This has a large Tesco and a variety of other shops.

Finally, I should mention that (as I often do) I booked this break via Booking.com. I like this site for a number of reasons, including the fact that it shows you what rooms are available on any given dates for your accommodation and even suggests alternative dates if your first choices are unavailable. But you can, of course, also book directly with the hotel if you prefer. I find there isn’t usually much difference in price one way or the other.

Things To Do

Aberdunant Hall is on the edge of Snowdonia, so there is no shortage of things to do in the area. As well as walking, there are some popular tourist attractions as well. Here are the main places I visited and things I did while I was there…

1. Portmeirion

This is about twenty minutes’ drive from Aberdunant Hall and I spent my first morning here. Portmeirion is a beautiful Italianate village created by the architect Clough Williams Ellis. These days it is probably best known as the location for the 1960s cult TV series The Prisoner, starring Patrick McGoohan. It is a wonderful place to while away a few hours. I recommend taking one of the guided tours that start near the entrance and run more or less continuously through the day. I also recommend the woodland train, which offers an effortless way of exploring the wooded area behind the village and includes a photo stop at a viewpoint above the village (see below). There is an admission fee to get into Portmeirion, but you can save a pound or two by booking at least a day in advance on the website.

2. Festiniog Railway

This heritage steam railway has two separate lines, both of which run from Porthmadog. The Welsh Highland Railway takes you on a two-and-a-quarter hour trip through the heart of Snowdonia to Caernarfon, while the original Festiniog Railway takes you on a one-hour trip to Blaenau Festiniog. As I only had the afternoon I took the shorter journey, but I have done the Welsh Highland Railway trip before and highly recommend it as well. You can get more info on both (and book in advance if you wish) via the Festiniog Railway website.

3. Snowdon Mountain Railway

On my second day I drove to Llanberis, which is about 40 minutes by car from Aberdunant Hall. At Llanberis you can get the Snowdon Mountain Railway, which will take you all the way to the peak of the highest mountain in Wales. This is a very popular attraction, so I highly recommend booking in advance, which you can do via the website. I was fortunate that on the day I went the weather was perfect and so was the visibility. Here’s a photo I took on the summit, although no photo can really do justice to the amazing views in all directions.

4. Electric Mountain

This is another tourist attraction in Llanberis, so I thought I’d combine the two. Electric Mountain is actually the Dinorweg hydro-electric power station. For a modest fee you can take a one-hour guided tour on a mini-bus which takes you deep into the mountain. I found this interesting and informative, and the engineering on display is undoubtedly impressive. No photos of this, as they don’t allow you to take cameras or mobile phones on the tour, presumably in case you are planning a spot of industrial espionage. You can book tours in advance on the website. At the time of my visit they were renovating the visitor centre, so visitors had to collect their tickets and assemble for the tour at a portacabin in the car park.

Closing Thoughts

i enjoyed my visit to Aberdunant Hall and would certainly consider going again. I am not sure if I would stay in a Forest Retreat another time, though. Even for me, as a solo visitor, it felt cramped. If you are going as a couple, I’d imagine that staying more than a day or two could put quite a strain on your relationship!

There are many positives, though. The woodland location is peaceful and picturesque, and allows easy access to Snowdonia and the Lleyn peninsula. All the staff I met were charming, and the food was very good as well. Although I’ve been a little disparaging about the size of the Forest Retreats, mine was spotlessly clean and had all the facilities needed for a short stay, including a cooker, fridge and microwave.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

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May 21, 2019

Make Money Watching TV With The Viewers

Nick Making Money reviews 2 Comments

Today I wanted to give you a heads-up about a market research company that is always looking for new members for its (paid) audience panel.

As the name suggests, The Viewers researches people’s TV viewing habits. They regularly run studies about this and pay participants in cash (via PayPal) or Amazon vouchers.

One type of study they run is focus groups. These are typically held in large cities. They generally last 90 minutes and involve discussing current and planned TV programmes in a small group led by a researcher. You can expect to be paid at least £40 (cash in hand) plus free refreshments for a 90-minute group discussion, and often more if the project involves tasks to complete before or after the discussion.

The Viewers also run online focus groups, which (obviously) you can do from the comfort of your own home. Payment is similar to the physical focus groups, though without the refreshments!

They also run a variety of other studies and surveys. A recent one I took involved tuning my TV to a number of Freeview channels and taking photos of what was on the channels in question, including the station logo at the top of the screen (see sample photo below). I used my mobile phone camera to do this, and uploaded the photos to the website as instructed.

This whole task took me about 20 minutes and I received a £5 Amazon voucher in payment (I could have opted for a slightly smaller amount in cash, but as I’m always buying stuff from Amazon, a voucher was just as good for me).

As well as these paid studies, The Viewers also run some shorter ones where payment takes the form of prize draw entries. Here’s one I was sent recently by email:

You could be suitable to share your thoughts on a TV actor or actress. Those taking part will initially be entered into a prize draw with some participants invited to an optional longer paid survey within the next week. If you would prefer not to hear about prize draw surveys, please update your research and communication preferences towards the bottom of this email.

Reward: Entry into this project’s prize draw with 1 x £50 flexi e-gift card and 10 x £10 flexi e-gift cards up for grabs. These can be spent at Amazon, Argos, Cineworld, M&S, Pizza Express, Tesco & more.

Additional prize draw: All taking part (including those who don’t qualify) will also be entered into our additional May prize draw which runs across all surveys with 1st prize of £100 amazon voucher, 2nd prize of £50 amazon voucher and 5 runner up £10 amazon vouchers!

Time required: 5 minutes (approx)

There is no obligation to do these (or any) studies, as there is no guaranteed reward. But if I’m not busy with other things I tend to, as they are usually quite interesting and take no more than five minutes to complete.

Obviously, if you never watch TV, The Viewers isn’t going to be for you. But you don’t have to be a telly addict either. On the website, they say, ‘ We want to speak to all manner of viewers, from ardent fans of a programme to those who just catch the odd bit of TV. Please just be completely honest when registering and you will be contacted when a project is right for you.’

Clearly nobody is going to make a fortune from The Viewers, but it can be a great addition to your portfolio of sideline-earning opportunities, and the studies are generally interesting and enjoyable as well.

To register with The Viewers, click on this link (or any of the links in this post) and click on the Join Now button. Enter your details and you will then receive emails from them any time they have a study you may be eligible for. In my experience, payments (or online gift vouchers) normally arrive within a week.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about The Viewers, please do post them below.

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May 18, 2019

Infographic: Transferring Property Ownership After Death

Nick Everything Else property, infographic 0 Comments

Today I’m bringing you an infographic created by I Will, a firm of solicitors who specialize in will writing. I published their previous infographic, An Essential Guide to Writing Your Will, back in 2017.

The infographic below is all about what happens with a property when the owner dies. As the graphic says, when the house is in joint ownership (as is typically the case with a married couple) and the surviving partner wants to go on living there, it is usually just a matter of notifying the Land Registry and (if relevant) the mortgage-holder.

If the house was in sole ownership, though – e.g. after the second partner dies – as the graphic says, the situation is more complicated, and there are various important things the executor will need to take into account.

It’s quite a long graphic, so please take a little time to scroll down it, and I’ll see you at the other end!

Thanks again to I Will Solicitors (not an affiliate link) for permission to use their graphic.

The company specializes in Islamic wills, but offers numerous legal services to people of all faiths and none, including Probate, Lasting Power of Attorney, Deputyships, and more. They say, ‘The writing of Sharia-compliant Islamic Wills is our specialty, but we are by no means a “Muslim-only” legal services provider.’

As I have said before on Pounds and Sense, where wills are concerned I strongly recommend using a properly qualified solicitor (and even more so where property is involved). I have had several experiences within my own family where failing to do this has caused serious delays and problems. In my view it really isn’t worth trying to save a few pounds by using a cut-price ‘will-writing service’ or attempting to do it yourself, not to mention all the hassle this can entail.

If you have any comments or questions, as ever, please do post them below.

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May 9, 2019

How to Save Money When Buying a Garden Building

Nick Saving Money property 0 Comments

A garden shed or cabin is a serious purchase. Erecting a building in your garden doesn’t come cheap after all, even if it is made of wood.

As it’s such an expensive buy, you’re going to want to make sure that the shed is going to be fit to serve you for many years to come. The ultimate way to waste money when buying a garden shed is to have to replace the thing after a year or two!

Some shed manufacturers make sheds that look just like their higher-end peers, only they have been built using every shortcut in the book. Some might feature inferior wood varieties, construction methods, glass, or delivery options. Spending a bit more up front and going with a quality supplier will ultimately save you the most money, since it will need minimal maintenance work or repairs over its lifespan. Remember, you’re buying something for years here, not simply a few months!

Unfortunately, there’s not really any getting around the fact that your new shed or cabin is going to cost a reasonable amount. Whilst there are loads of manufacturers that are happy to sell you a building for less than the average asking price, these are often shoddily constructed, and the likely result is an angry customer needing to replace their shed much sooner than they expected.

One possible way to relieve some of the sting from your wallet when buying from a quality manufacturer is to use a discount voucher. This will allow your money to go that little bit further and, ultimately, you’ll end up with a much more rugged and durable building. Remember the mantra: buy cheap, buy twice.

There are loads of different manufacturers around that all run different promotions throughout the year. You’ll find two such special offers– one for Waltons discounts here and one for Shed Store discounts here. Both of these companies offer exceptionally high-quality garden buildings and these promotions make their products a little easier on the pocket.

Save Money by Getting it Right First Time

As is often the case, the best way to save money on a new garden building is to spend a little more up front and go for the highest quality possible. Although it is perhaps counter-intuitive, higher quality sheds pay for themselves in a couple of ways. Firstly, a superior garden building is much more likely to protect whatever you store in it from the elements as well as would-be intruders. If you end up having your lawnmower nicked because you bought a cheap summer house or shed with a rubbish lock, did you really save any money?

Secondly, a higher quality shed will need much less spent on it in terms of either maintenance, repairs, or even replacement. The cost of a new shed is certainly going to be more than whatever you saved by buying the cheap one in the first place. Again, remember the mantra, buy cheap, buy twice.

With that in mind, here are some things to look out for to make sure you get the best shed possible first-time round:

Building materials – Is the wood used suitable for outdoor construction? Look for slow growing varieties and beware of manufacturers not displaying the type they use.
Treatment – Does the product come with a treatment included? Sheds coated in a protective treatment last MUCH longer.
Building techniques – How are components joined together? Look for tongue and groove here over square cut joints or shiplap cladding.
Door hangings – Are doors hung externally or rebated? Rebated doors are much more secure and offer far greater draft exclusion. Are hinges recessed?
Windows – Is the glass thick enough to offer protection? Is it even glass? Are they rebated?
Roof – Does the roof come with an adequate covering? Felting protects sheds from succumbing to the elements and isn’t always included in the asking price.
Delivery – Is delivery included or do the company charge extra for it? How are pieces delivered? Avoid companies unloading components to bigger sheds by hand.

Shop Around Before You Spend

It’s a really good idea to shop around, visit review websites, and read a load of customer reviews about different products. This will give you a good feel for what’s out there. It will also help you to determine if the shed you’re considering is priced highly versus the rest of the market or seems more in keeping with it. Check the different manufacturers’ specifications with the above bullet points in mind. Pay close attention to dimensions of components used. This is a common place for manufacturers to save a bit of money by offering something that isn’t really fit for purpose.

You can even pay a visit to most manufacturers’ showrooms. This allows you to see prospective sheds in action, so to speak. You can look at and touch the products themselves to determine whether the sheds on display have wobbly floors, ill-fitting doors, or other design imperfections.

It’s likely that the shed you were thinking of buying won’t be on display when you visit a particular showroom. Don’t let that put you off, though. You can still learn a lot about the manufacturer by looking at the other products they make. If the rest of their stuff seems exceptional, it would be very bad luck for you to pick the one rotten apple, after all.

By combining your own visits with internet research, you’ll be able to make a reasoned decision about your eventual purchase. It won’t feel quite so much like a stab in the dark and you’re much more likely to end up with a garden building that will last for years with minimal maintenance. Even if it costs an extra £200 up front, if it remains useful for five or more years longer than the cheaper alternative, you’re quids in really!

As always, if you have any questions or comments about this post, please do leave them below.

This is a collaborative post with WhatShed.co.uk.

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May 6, 2019

As I Write This Letter – How to Make Money with Magazine Letters

Nick Making Money guest post, writing 10 Comments

Today I have a guest post for you from my writing colleague S. Bee (her pen-name) on the subject of making money writing letters and fillers for popular magazines.

This is a money-making sideline I have a soft spot for, as many years ago I started my writing career doing exactly this. I remember, for example, having a series of letters published in The Sun newspaper, for which I received the not-exactly-princely-even-then sum of £2 each. I treasured those cheques when they arrived, though!

It’s good to know that this opportunity still exists, even in this digital age.

Over to S. Bee then…

When I began writing seriously in 2011, I focused on the fiction market for women’s magazines.

As I became more involved in it, I discovered that several of these short story writers had also enjoyed publishing success with letters in national magazines.

More importantly, they’d been paid a small fee for their efforts. If there was no fee, a prize was offered instead.

I thought, Why don’t I have a go at that? So I did, and eagerly began to send letters in.

My spirits were high. Surely I’d see my name and piece in print somewhere? But no. Sadly, I didn’t get anywhere at all!

After a few months, I felt ready to try again. However, this time I carried out research first. I studied the tone and style of the magazine I intended to submit to, and what type of letter was likely to be picked for publication, plus the subject of it. For example, I learned that positive feedback about a previous feature was very popular.

I kept my submission short and snappy – and my hard work paid off. I was absolutely thrilled to see my very first letter published in What’s On TV magazine. I was delighted to receive a payment of £10 for little more than a paragraph.

Since then, I’ve had lots of letters published in Woman’s Weekly, The People’s Friend, Yours, My Weekly, Web User, Vegetarian Living, Take a Break and Your Cat. And lots more in What’s on TV – I even made Star Letter status once! (I was paid £25, instead of their usual £10).

How do I find ideas for letters? It’s easy – you need to think of what could appeal to readers.

For Woman’s Weekly, I once wrote about the tests I undertook for breast cancer. I urged readers not to ignore any call-ups. (Thankfully, I was okay.)

I’ve also been featured with several opinion pieces for the ‘You’re Telling Us’ page in Take a Break magazine. The ‘You’re Telling Us’ question can be found on the TAB Facebook page. They request a photo of yourself and your age, too.

TAB also publish call-outs for a true-life reader experience type of feature in the magazine. I’ve had ‘A letter to your younger self’ piece published and a ‘Christmas cringes’ one too. These can pay more – up to £100.

The TAB letters page, ‘We’ve Got Mail’ currently pays £25 and £50 for the star letter. They like photos with the letter.

TAB also have call-outs in the mag for paid photo opportunities, e.g. pets or kids in a messy/awkward situation.

Some publications offer a prize to the star letter only.

I attempt it, and often I don’t win the prize, yet I’m still pleased to see my piece published.

I’ve won a small beauty prize for my star letter in the free TESCO magazine, and being selected for Your Cat‘s star letter scooped me a range of cat toys and biscuits. Your Cat will pay for true life cat tales, too.

Update: Tesco now only award a prize to the star letter in their mag – it’s a £50 Tesco voucher. That’s bound to help with the grocery bill!

My prize letters in a monthly writing magazine netted me a free one-year magazine subscription – twice! (a fantastic saving of around £160).

If you have a hobby, e.g. computers, gardening, cooking – pick a suitable magazine that accompanies it. For instance, my hubby is a very good cook and baker. He’s had several recipes published in Take a Break‘s My Favourite Recipe magazine. (He was awarded £25 per recipe.)

It’s not just letters. Some magazines also publish short poems.

I’ve had several poems published in the fortnightly Yours magazine, and a weekly, The People’s Friend. These magazines like rhyming, upbeat, reader-friendly material.

TPF award a small prize (I’m not sure, but it used to be a tea caddy and a packet of loose tea) if your poem is selected for publication in their letters page – however, they pay £15 per poem if you target your poems to their other publications, e.g. their fiction special, annual or fireside book. The magazine has different email addresses for these slots.

Yours pay £10 in gift vouchers per poem. The vouchers can be spent practically anywhere. They pay a £10 gift voucher for a normal published letter too.

Yours regularly publishes call-outs in the mag for specific reader’s memory/nostalgia experiences. They sometimes require photos to accompany the feature, so you’d need to scan these in and send them with your article [or of course send digital photos – Nick].

Don’t forget that fillers such as top tips, funny photos, a ‘pet of the week’ type of feature, puzzles, jokes, beauty queries, travel articles (think about what’s interesting about about your town/city – photos required) and ‘items to be valued’ pieces are high in demand, too.

I’ve had my childhood teddy valued in Real People magazine (I earned £25). My cat has been featured in My Weekly (another £25) and I’ve had beauty questions featured in Take a Break. (They pay £25 for this.)

I’ve also made it to the TAB letters page, with their ‘What a laugh!’ slot. I was £50 richer for just a few lines of text!

A writer friend of mine likes to create her own word puzzles (not necessarily crosswords) and she has these published regularly in Real People magazine. If published, the fee for this is either £30 or £50.

I’m not a gardener, but my writing friends who are have hit the jackpot with letters and hints in gardening magazines. Prizes and cash are up for grabs.

Although you won’t be able to earn a regular salary with letters and fillers, the odd £10 here and there soon adds up.

Bear in mind that no matter how many letters you submit, you won’t be chosen every week. Consider the fact that the editor or team will become familiar with your name. However, saying that, they do appreciate regular contributors – just don’t swamp them!

Publications are always looking for well-written, entertaining, intelligent letters that fit in well with the editorial style of the magazine.

Always be cheerful and polite, don’t waffle, and make sure you follow the magazine’s submission instructions. It’s all done via email now.

Your subject heading should be: ‘Letter for consideration’.

Work can be edited, changed or even added to – to me, this doesn’t matter as I want to be published and I want to be paid.

Some magazines let you know beforehand if your letter/filler/poem has been selected, and some don’t. If you submit material regularly, this means a weekly scan of the magazines in newsagents or the supermarket to check if your piece is in.

Some prizes arrive completely out of the blue. One Christmas, I won a prize of a large jigsaw puzzle, yet I hadn’t a clue who had sent it or what publication my letter was in. All I had was a snail mail letter saying ‘Congratulations!’ from the makers of the jigsaw, which didn’t really help.

Later, I realised I must have been awarded star letter in Down Your Way, a Yorkshire-based nostalgic magazine. I quickly emailed the Ed and he confirmed it. (Update: I’ve won this prize a second time with a piece about phone boxes.) As it was approaching Christmas, it came in very handy as a gift for a family member who loves jigsaws.

So, what’s stopping you from having a go?

If I can do it, so can you! Get writing and good luck!

S. Bee

Thank you to S. Bee for an interesting and inspiring article.

I would just add that you don’t need any special writing skills to win cash and prizes this way. It’s really just a matter of keeping your ear to the ground about current events and issues, and coming up with positive, upbeat angles on them.

S. Bee isn’t being paid for this article, but she asked me to mention a charity ebook she is promoting on behalf of the RSPCA (who receive all profits). It’s called Paws for Thought – 27 Tail Thumping Stories (see front cover, right). It’s for a great cause and only costs £2.99 from Amazon as a Kindle ebook. If you enjoy short stories – and especially if you love animals – why not check it out? 🙂

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this article, please do post them below.

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May 1, 2019

My Weekend at Lake Vyrnwy

Nick Everything Else reviews, travel, food 2 Comments

I recently spent a weekend at Lake Vyrnwy, a few miles over the border from Shropshire into Wales. I had wanted to visit the area since watching a TV programme a few months ago about the history of the lake.

Lake Vyrnwy is actually a man-made lake (or reservoir if you prefer). It was created to provide a water supply for Liverpool in the 19th century. It’s about 25 miles from Oswestry. I’ve embedded a Google Map below showing the area.

My Hotel

I stayed at the Lake Vyrnwy Hotel and Spa (pictured below), which is near the dam at the western end of the lake. I booked on the Booking.com website.

The hotel dates back to 1890 – it was originally built to accommodate senior managers and engineers on the construction project. Since then it has been extended several times, although as recently as the 1970s it was still owned by the water company (it’s now in private hands). The hotel doesn’t make as much of its interesting history as it could, in my opinion.

Anyway, I pushed the metaphorical boat out and booked a Premier Lake View Room via Booking.com. The view certainly didn’t disappoint, as the cover photo (taken from my balcony) indicates.

My room was on the top floor, up various flights of stairs. One thing to bear in mind if you plan to stay here is that there is no lift in the main hotel, though I was told there is one in the spa (which I didn’t go in, partly because you have to pay extra – see below).

My room was spacious and comfortable, with all the features you might expect from a four-star hotel, including tea and coffee-making equipment, flat-screen TV, refrigerator, walk-in shower, and so forth. There was also good free wifi in the room, and in the public areas of the hotel too (just as well, as there was no mobile phone signal!).

I had my breakfast and evening meals in the hotel. Breakfast was included in the fee I paid. Evening meals were extra, though to be honest there isn’t really anywhere else to eat in the vicinity (apart from a couple of cafes that aren’t open in the evening anyway).

A lot of people rave about the food at the Lake Vyrnwy Hotel. Personally I thought it was good but not exceptional. It was let down by little things, e.g. at breakfast on the first day the muffin with my Eggs Benedict was burnt. I went for the full Welsh breakfast the next day, and on my final day decided to chance the Eggs Benedict again. This time the muffin wasn’t burnt but dense and tasteless – I’m guessing it had come straight out of the freezer. I’ve had much better Eggs Benedicts at my local Wetherspoons. For the money I was paying I’d have expected better really.

You have two dining options at the Lake Vyrnwy Hotel: the restaurant and ‘less formal’ brasserie. My top tip would be to stick to the restaurant and give the brasserie a miss. On my second night I tried it and found it crowded (it’s in a small room and the tables are pushed close together) and noisy. There were also young children running around apparently unsupervised. Okay, the brasserie might be a bit cheaper, but the main restaurant offers a much more relaxed, civilised dining experience, and much better views across the lake as well.

Financials

As Pounds and Sense is primarily a money blog, I should say a few words about this.

For my Premier Lake View Room (with single occupancy) I was charged £589 including VAT for three nights. Obviously I could have booked a cheaper room without the lake view, but in my opinion it would be a shame to stay at the Lake Vyrnwy Hotel and not have this.

Evening meals in the restaurant were charged at £27 for two courses or £35 for three (there were supplements for certain dishes such as sirloin steak). You do also get a complimentary ‘taster’ of fresh soup with home-made focaccia bread, which I enjoyed and recommend.

At the brasserie you order from an A La Carte menu, so the price depends on what you choose.

As mentioned earlier, the hotel also has a spa, for which you have to pay an extra £10 a day admission charge. The spa has a thermal suite, including a sauna, steam room, ice fountain, whirlpool, and tepidarium (no swimming pool though). It offers various treatments at extra cost, including massages, facials, manicures, pedicures, and so on..

Activities

One thing I should mention before describing what I did is that when I visited – the weekend before Easter – it was bitterly cold. The temperatures typically didn’t rise above 4 or 5 degrees, and when you factor in the wind chill as well, it was probably around freezing. I was very glad I remembered to take my quilted winter coat, gloves, scarf and woolly hat!

First Day

On my first day I walked to the dam down the precipitous bridle path from the hotel (I asked the receptionists how many guests they lost on this – they laughed but didn’t reply).

The dam is undoubtedly impressive and leads to a small tourist area with a visitor centre; this is a good place to start your exploration. A short film plays constantly inside with alternating English and Welsh narration. It tells you about the history of the lake, and the various plants and animals that live around (and on) it today. Nature conservation is quite a major theme around the lake.

Also in the village is an RSPB shop and a bird hide that is well worth a visit (see picture below). There is also a friendly cafe called The Old Barn, and Artisans, a cafe and shop where you can also hire bicycles. I had planned to do this myself, but the very cold weather dissuaded me. I did see quite a few – admittedly much younger – people cycling around the lake, though.

A short distance away is a sculpture park, and I recommend this if you fancy an enjoyable walk that isn’t too taxing. The sculptures are all made of wood, and some are quite striking. This one is called Mother Earth, for example.

In the afternoon I walked the opposite way from the hotel to the Victorian Straining Tower (picture below). This Gothic-style building filters the lake water through mesh before it starts its journey to Liverpool. Unfortunately it’s not open to the public, but you can admire it from the road. It’s a pity there isn’t an explanation board, just a forbidding ‘Keep Out’ notice.

Second Day

On my second day I decided to drive around the lake, stopping at points of interest along the way. There is a good (if narrow) road all round the lake, about 12 miles in total.

I had picked up a leaflet from the hotel reception about walks in the area, and decided to do the two-mile round trip to Rhiwargor Falls. This walk starts near the east end of the lake at a convenient car park. Despite the cold I enjoyed this. I didn’t see another soul on foot the whole time, although I did come eye to eye with a few sheep…

The waterfall is pretty impressive, and I imagine if it has rained recently it is even more so. Here is a video I recorded.

On the way back I stopped at another bird hide on the side of the lake, but there wasn’t a lot to see. I spotted a Canada goose and three mandarin ducks and duly logged them on the whiteboard. I erased the previous recorded sighting of six pterodactyls, as I suspected this wasn’t entirely genuine.

In the afternoon I took a short walk from the hotel to visit a church I had noticed before. This turned out to be St Wddyn’s (pictured below).

St Wddyn’s was built in 1880 to replace the original church of that name that was flooded (along with the rest of the old village of Llanwddyn) when the lake was filled. It is a quiet, peaceful place with some beautiful stained glass windows. It is well worth a visit if you are staying at the hotel, as it’s barely 10 minutes’ walk away. Again, I didn’t see another living soul while I was there.

Closing Thoughts

So that was my visit to Lake Vyrnwy. I didn’t hang about on my last day, as it was still very cold, and the wind was getting up as well.

I thought the area was beautiful and unspoiled (if you can say that about a man-made reservoir) and the hotel itself very good despite my minor reservations.

It’s probably not a place to take young children as there wouldn’t be a great deal to occupy them. But if you enjoy beautiful scenery and (especially) if you like walking, running or cycling, it would make a great short break destination. The Lake Vyrnwy Hotel and Spa is also a popular venue for people celebrating their honeymoon or anniversary, or wanting some serious pampering in the Spa. In view of the many steps and lack of lifts it’s probably not ideal if you’re physically infirm, though.

If you like the idea of visiting the Lake Vyrnwy Hotel and Spa, if you follow any of the links in this article you can get a £15 discount via the Booking.com website. This is credited to your card once you have completed your break. I will also receive £15 as a reward for introducing you 🙂

As always, if you have any comments or questions about Lake Vyrnwy or the hotel, please do post them below.

Note: You can get the £15 discount on Booking.com wherever you go on your next visit, be it Lake Vyrnwy or elsewhere. Just click on my link and follow the instructions!

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