November 29, 2019

Is a Friendly Society a Good Home for Your Savings?

Nick Saving Money, Investing reviews, sponsored post 7 Comments

If you’re looking for a home for your savings (or some of them), a friendly society might not be the first thought that occurs to you. Nonetheless, it may well be worth considering.

Friendly societies are one of a number of UK institutions called ‘mutuals’. These were originally set up by groups of people for a common financial or social purpose. Before modern insurance and the welfare state, friendly societies provided financial and social services to individuals, often according to their religious, political, or trade affiliations.

Friendly societies today typically provide a range of savings and insurance services. Along with other mutuals, they are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Why Save With a Friendly Society?

One big attraction of friendly societies is that they are owned by the members themselves. This means any profits generated go to members (directly or indirectly) rather than shareholders, as is the case with banks.

A good example is Shepherds Friendly, which offers a range of savings, investments and insurance products. These include a highly rated Stocks and Shares ISA. There is a minimum investment in this of £30 a month or a minimum lump sum of £100.

The Shepherds Friendly Stocks and Shares ISA is an actively managed fund and rated medium to low risk. The fund invests in a mixture of UK and overseas company shares, property, government and company bonds, and cash deposits. Most of the fund is normally invested in stocks and shares for greatest growth potential, but at times of economic turbulence some may be switched to safer investments such as bonds and deposits.

Investors in the Shepherds Friendly ‘With Profits’ Stocks and Shares ISA receive an annual bonus based on how the fund has performed in the year in question. Shepherds Friendly say that this has worked out at 3% for the last five financial years after all management fees and costs are deducted. Members may also receive a final bonus when they exit their investment. Note that annual and final bonuses depend entirely on how well the fund has performed, and are not guaranteed.

As with all ISAs, any profits are free of income tax and capital gains tax. Everyone has an annual ISA allowance, which is currently a generous £20,000 a year. This may be divided as you wish among a Stocks and Shares ISA, a Cash ISA and an Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA). However, you may only invest in one ISA of each type per financial year.

A major attraction of the Shepherds Friendly ISA is that it is covered under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £85,000 per person. That means if the society were to collapse in a worst-case scenario, your capital would be protected and returned to you by the FSCS.

Bonus Fund

A further benefit of saving with a friendly society is that because of their special status they can offer additional tax-free savings over and above the ISA limit. In the case of Shepherds Friendly, you can save from £10 a month to £25 a month tax-free in their Tax Exempt Bonus Fund. This is also an alternative option if you have already invested in another Stocks and Shares ISA in the current tax year and are therefore excluded from the Shepherds Friendly ISA.

Voucher Offer

Shepherds Friendly are currently offering investors in their Stocks and Shares ISA a Love2Shop voucher worth up to £50 once you’ve made your first deposit. I’ve copied the actual amount you would receive for Stocks and Shares ISA investments below from the Shepherds Friendly website:

Many of the other financial products sold by Shepherds Friendly include a Love2Shop voucher as well – see this Terms & Conditions page on their website for more info.

Closing Thoughts

If you are looking for a home for some of your savings, Shepherds Friendly offers an interesting option. The society has over 100,000 members, so it is also one that is very popular.

The potential returns from the Shepherds Friendly Stocks and Shares ISA are higher than those currently on offer from banks, though not as high as the potential returns from P2P lending and property crowdfunding (among others). But those investment opportunities do of course tend to be riskier, and your money may not be as easy to access in an emergency. They are also not generally covered by the FSCS guarantee.

As with all stock-market-based investments, there are still risks involved, and past performance is no guarantee of what will happen in the future. Shepherds Friendly is at the lower-risk end of the spectrum, but you should still regard it as a medium to long-term investment (five years at least). With the Shepherds Friendly Stocks and Shares ISA, however, you can at least access some or all of your money at any time if you need it. As stated above, this is not the case with many P2P/property crowdfunding platforms.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below. I’d also be interested to hear from anyone who has invested with a friendly society – be it Shepherds Friendly or another one – what your experience has been and whether you would recommend this method of saving to others.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behalf of Shepherds Friendly. If you click through one of the links in it and make an investment, I may receive a commission. Please note that I am not a qualified financial adviser and nothing in this article should be construed as individual financial advice. You should always do your own ‘due diligence’ before investing, and take professional advice if in any doubt how best to proceed.

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November 25, 2019

Make Money From Your Shopping With ShopandScan

Nick Making Money reviews 2 Comments

For about three years now I have been a panelist with ShopandScan. This is an ongoing market research programme run by a company called Kantar Worldpanel.

I got an invitation to join ShopandScan in the post, but you can also apply directly if you wish (see below). I now receive £10 reward vouchers every few weeks just for scanning my shopping and my till receipts.

How it Works

After accepting the invitation to join ShopandScan, you receive a membership pack in the mail. This includes a User Guide and a barcode scanning device or ‘clicker’ (see picture above).

As a panelist, you use this to scan all shopping with barcodes coming into your home. You also scan barcodes in the User Guide to indicate who in your household did the shopping, the store concerned, and how much was spent.

There are also barcodes to scan for items that don’t have codes themselves, e.g. loose fruit and vegetables. Finally, there are barcodes to scan when an item is on special offer or part of a multi-buy offer. You can see a sample page of the User Guide below…

You have to upload the scanned data via the ShopandScan website once a week (at least). Full instructions are provided, but it isn’t rocket science. Basically you plug the clicker into a USB port on your computer and follow the instructions in the User Guide.

For doing this, you receive points. You get 1100 points a week for uploading the data from the clicker. In addition, you get 500 points a week for uploading scans of all your till receipts (unfortunately you don’t get points for each individual receipt). So each week that you do these things, you earn a total of 1600 points. Occasionally (e.g. at Christmas) they award extra points, to allow for the fact that it’s easy to forget at busy times of year.

The points accumulate in your account and once you get to 10,000 you can redeem them for a £10 electronic gift voucher. These are available for a variety of online retailers. I normally choose Amazon, as I buy stuff there all the time. However, you can also get vouchers for Waterstone’s, Halfords, W.H. Smith, and many more.

As well as getting points for uploading your data and submitting till receipts, you can get them in various other ways. One is by completing questionnaires about some aspect of your shopping.

Recently, I was offered a questionnaire regarding my purchase of own-brand almond milk from Morrison’s. They wanted to know why I bought it and when and how I intended to consume it. It only took a few minutes to complete and I got 300 points for this (equivalent to 30p).

There are other point-earning opportunities as well. Right now I am signed up to another project which involves allowing access to the browsing history on my smartphone. I know not everyone would feel comfortable about this but I don’t object personally (all data is anonymised) and it means I get an extra 500 points every week for no effort (it’s all done via an app).

You may also be offered the opportunity to take part in other studies. I did one a few months ago that involved completing a food diary listing everything I ate and drank for a week. Although I got points for this I found the task rather tedious, and declined when they offered me the opportunity to do it again. There is never any problem if you decide to turn down an invitation in this way.

How to Apply

As I said earlier, I got my invitation to join ShopandScan in the mail. I don’t know how they chose me or got my name and address.

However, you don’t have to wait for an invitation. If you wish to join ShopandScan, you can register for free at https://www.volunteer4panels.com. There is no guarantee that your application will be accepted immediately, as they aim to keep the panel balanced across age groups, locations, domestic circumstances, and so on. From what I have heard, though, once you have applied there is a good chance you will receive an invitation within a few weeks, or months at most..

Closing Thoughts

Clearly nobody is going to make a fortune from ShopandScan but it can be a great addition to your portfolio of sideline-earning opportunities. Once you get used to scanning your shopping before putting it away, it really isn’t much of a hassle. If you do some questionnaires and so forth as well, you can easily make over £100 a year.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post (or ShopandScan in general), please do leave them below.

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November 18, 2019

Save Money With Cashback Sites

Nick Saving Money 2 Comments

If you ever buy anything online, you can almost certainly save some money by signing up with cashback sites.

In this post I’ll be discussing the top two UK cashback websites, Quidco and Top Cashback, both of which I have belonged to for some years and can vouch for.

You might also like to check out My Money Pocket, a new UK cashback website I reviewed here recently.

The idea behind cashback sites is that they are free to join (although premium membership may be available at a small cost) and provide links to a range of online retailers. When a member clicks through one of these links and buys something (or performs some other action) the cashback site receives a commission from the retailer. Rather than keep all this for themselves, the sites return some or all of the commission they get to the member in question.

So if, for example, you need home insurance, you could click through to a broker’s website from the cashback site. If you then buy a policy from that broker, some or all of the commission paid to the cashback website is credited to your account. You can then withdraw it to your bank account, PayPal or even as vouchers for your favourite merchant.

As mentioned, I have been a member of the two sites mentioned above for several years now, and have made hundreds of pounds from both. Via Quidco, for example, I made £110 when I clicked through their link to the Nutmeg financial services website and opened an investment account with them. Although described as cashback, really this was more like a bonus, as the money I invested with Nutmeg does of course remain mine and I can get it back at any time. My Nutmeg investment has actually risen in value by over £2,600 since I invested, so this has clearly been a worthwhile investment in more ways than one! You can read my full review of Nutmeg here, incidentally.

With Top Cashback I recently pocketed a more modest £40 cashback by switching my gas/electricity provider using a comparison service listed on the website (the cashback came from the comparison service rather than the energy provider). I shall be saving around £500 a year by switching provider, so again the cashback feels more like a bonus than the return of any money I have spent.

You don’t always have to spend money to benefit from cashback sites either. Both Quidco and Top Cashback list offers where you can get money simply asking for a quote or some other action. On Quidco you can earn 50p just by signing up for free with SearchLotto and making 25 internet searches (which also gets you a free National Lottery entry). And on Top Cashback you can get £7.35 if you order and activate a new SIM card from Giffgaff.

You can also make money by introducing friends and family to these sites. Offers change from time to time, but typically you are paid between £5 to £10 when someone joins via your link and earns cashback themselves. The links in this post are referral links, of course.

As you can tell, I’m a big fan of cashback websites. I highly recommend signing up with both Quidco and Top Cashback, as they compete feverishly with each other to offer the best deals.

My money blogging colleague Will Pointing from GreatDealsMadeEasy.com is a fan of Airtime Rewards, a different type of cashback app. He says: ‘I use the Airtime Rewards app as it automatically lets high street retailers pay towards your smartphone bill (in the form of cashback) when you buy items. It is very similar to Top CashBack and Quidco, but you don’t need to manually select the retailers – it is all done automatically (you can also get two separate cashback amounts for a single transaction, essentially getting double cashback). All you have to do is download the app, register your card and then buy as you normally would. For example, if you bought some eye-drops at Boots for £4, you would get 5% back, so 20p. Once you get to £10 in cashback funds, you can select to pay this towards your phone bill – so free money!’

Do Cashback Sites have any Drawbacks?

Not drawbacks exactly, but there are certain things to be aware of.

For starters, you only get paid by the cashback site when they receive payment from the merchant concerned. Sometimes this happens within a week or two but other times it can take a lot longer.

Also, the system depends on your visit to the merchant being tracked by the software, and this doesn’t always work as it should. This happened to me recently when I made a groceries purchase from Asda. It didn’t track for some reason, so I had to open a claim via Top Cashback. Eventually I did get my money, but it took over three months.

So one thing to remember is not to rely on your cashback arriving quickly (or indeed at all). You should only make a purchase via a cashback site if you genuinely want- or preferably need – the item in question and believe it is good value. The cashback then will be a welcome bonus when it arrives.

For Readers Outside the UK

Finally, if you live outside the UK, there are cashback websites in many other countries as well (for example, Top Cashback now has a US operation, Top Cashback USA). Just do a Google search for “cashback website” plus your country’s name and see what results come up. Or check out this article on the MakeUseOf website which lists a number of such sites serving the US. Read the comments section below the MakeUseOf article for a range of international cashback sites as well.

As ever, if you have any comments or queries about Quidco and Top Cashback or cashback sites more generally, please do post them below.

Save

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November 14, 2019

Elderly People and Scams (Infographic)

Nick Everything Else infographic, retirement 2 Comments

Today I’m sharing another eye-opening infographic from my friends at the credit reference agency Equifax.

It’s an unfortunate fact that older people with vulnerabilities can be targeted by scammers. Older people often fear being mugged or burgled – but 90% of all crimes committed against the over 65s are actually fraud.

Scammers don’t always come across as aggressive or pushy – they can often appear very polite and friendly, which is how they win people over and gain their trust. They use several methods to commit identity theft and steal money, which include:

Online scams (for example, via fake emails)
Phone scams (where scammers call up and pretend to be a company or business)
Postal scams (where fake letters encourage people to reveal their bank details)
Doorstep scams (where scammers try to gain access to your home, or ask for money)

Age UK has reported that almost 5 million people over the age of 65 believe they have been targeted by scammers. People living on their own, or suffering with dementia, are especially vulnerable.

The same study revealed that 27% of single people were duped by a scam when they were targeted, compared with less than a tenth of people who lived with someone else.

The cost of fraud – in terms of money, time and individuals’ health – is massive.

In 2017, victims suffered an average loss of £29,000 due to investment fraud
On average, pension scam victims lose £91,000
It can take weeks to sort out the aftermath of a scam

The infographic below sets out some ways to help elderly people protect themselves against scammers – and warning signs that might suggest they’ve been targeted..

Thank you to Equifax for an eye-opening graphic. If you help look after an older person – whether it’s a friend or a family member – it’s important to keep an eye out for this and offer advice and support when appropriate. This applies especially if they live on their own.

The infographic includes some excellent advice on ways to reduce the likelihood of being scammed online. But, of course – as mentioned at the start of the article – scammers operate in other ways as well.

An increasingly popular method is scam phone calls, e.g. this one where the victim receives what appears to be a genuine phone call from HMRC telling them that they are being prosecuted for tax evasion. Of course it’s a lie, the purpose of which is to get the victim to make payments into the scammer’s bank account and/or hand over their bank details. If you know any older people who may be vulnerable to telephone scams, it’s important to warn them about this and tell them always to contact you for advice before they respond.

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

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

November 6, 2019

Guest Post: The Three Most Important Retirement Questions

Nick Pensions & Benefits retirement, guest post, pensions 29 Comments

Today I have a guest post for you from James Mackay, a certified financial planner and regular reader of Pounds and Sense 🙂

In his article below, James addresses an issue that will be real and pressing for many readers of this blog – how to prepare for retirement and enter it successfully.

Over to James then…

If you’re starting to think about your retirement, these are three important questions that you need to ask.

1. Have You Had Enough?

It’s Sunday evening and you’re winding down after a busy weekend with friends and family. As you sit back in your favourite chair and think about the week ahead, you can’t quite get comfortable.

The thought of going back to work on Monday morning makes you feel a bit uneasy. In fact, the thought of doing it for another 5–10 years makes you feel sick!

If you’ve ever experienced this, you might be approaching the point where you’ve had enough (that’s a technical term).

The question you need to ask yourself is whether the pain of going to work outweighs the benefit. If you find yourself in this situation; where you’re emotionally, physically and mentally drained and no longer excited to perform at the highest level, it’s time to do something about it.

Having had enough doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily time to retire. It simply means that you need to change the status quo.

Maybe you’ve had enough of your current role, but you’ve got more to give in another capacity. Your years of wisdom could be very valuable in a different guise. Perhaps you’ve had enough of having a boss and are ready to go it alone. With the years of experience, it’s no surprise that over 50s are the best entrepreneurs. Or maybe you’re happy to carry on but just want a little bit more flexibility around what you do and when you do it.

These are all useful options to explore, particularly if you haven’t got enough to hang your boots up yet. Sometimes, the benefit of working for “just one more year” can make a real difference to your financial situation.

2. Do You Have Enough?

If you’ve had enough, and are ready to move onto pastures new, the next question is do you have enough?

Whenever I ask this question, people start telling me how much they’ve got saved up. But they’ve got it all wrong. It’s like trying to build a house without the seeing the floor plans. You need to start with the end goal and work back from there.

Working out if you have enough requires knowing:

Your monthly number – this is how much a comfortable lifestyle is going to cost.
Your monthly income – this is how much income you’ll receive from the State Pension, final salary pensions, buy to let properties, etc.
The gap – this is the difference between the two, and where your savings come in. Broadly speaking, if you’ve got 20x the gap in savings, you should be fine. Any less and you might not be quite there yet.

But, there’s more to retirement planning than just simply figuring out your ‘number’. Finding your purpose in retirement sounds wishy-washy, but without a clear purpose you’re likely to be one of the 25% of retirees who return to work.

3. Will You Have Enough to Do?

You need to ask yourself what you are going to do when you wake up on that Monday morning, free from the ties of work, and how are you going to fill your time.

If for the last 40 years you’ve been busy being busy – chances are you’re going to get pretty bored sitting around the house for 40 hours a week. I’ve seen many successful individuals retire, only to get bored and return to work within five years. The newly-found free time that retirement provides can be overwhelming for some.

Retirement is about having enough money to sleep at night and enough purpose to get up in the morning. It’s not just about the numbers, it’s about how you’re going to spend your time. Purpose will drive you in retirement, money will fund you. Try not to get those two mixed up.

The bottom line is this… retirement is the biggest transition you’re ever going to make. It’s not the sort of thing you do regularly and not the sort of thing you want to get wrong. By asking yourself these three questions, you’ll improve your chances of achieving a successful retirement.

Byline: James Mackay is a Certified Financial Planner at Frazer James. He has helped hundreds of clients to achieve financial independence and retire with confidence, clarity and purpose.

Many thanks to James (pictured above) for a valuable and thought-provoking post. As a semi-retired 63-year-old myself, I can identify with all of the points he raises.

Actually I think there is a strong case for phasing your retirement if possible, maybe reducing the number of days per week you work initially and/or moving to a less pressured role. This can make retirement feel more like going on an interesting journey rather than driving over a cliff!

I also think there’s a good case for continuing to do some work you enjoy during the early years of retirement at least, to boost your income, provide social interaction, and keep your mental and physical faculties sharp. Of course, voluntary work can do this as well (apart from boosting your income, which may or may not matter to you).

If you have any comments or questions about this article – for me or for James – as always, do feel free to post them below.

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November 3, 2019

Win a Virginia Hayward Hamper in the UK Bloggers 2019 Christmas Giveaway

Nick Everything Else events, competitions 2 Comments

Today I have a great festive giveaway to share with you.

I’ve joined forces with some of my fellow UK Bloggers to put together a giveaway of FIVE Virginia Hayward ‘The Magic of Christmas’ Hampers

These hampers sell for £65 apiece on the Virginia Hayward website. The full contents are as follows:

Barfield Bakery Mince Pies x 4
Cambrook Christmas Nuts 80g
Farmhouse Biscuits Regency Salted Caramel Biscuits 150g
Gold Crown Decorative 4 inch Square Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel & Fudge Pieces
Gold Crown Christmas Pudding 350g
Grandma Wild’s Mini Bites for Sharing Mature Cheddar 100g
Great British Crisp Company Cornish Sea Salt & Luxury Peppers Crisps 150g
Joe & Seph’s Brandy Butter Popcorn 80g
Linden Lady Decorative Chocolate Covered Marshmallows 140g
Shaws Caramelised Red Onion Chutney with Balsamic 195g
Sugar n Spice Choc Chip Cookie Bites 140g
The Secret Truffletier White Chocolate Truffles 55g
Zonin Prosecco Brut DOC Italy 75cl 11% vol
Black Wire Basket

If you need to know about any possible allergens in the contents, full information can be found via the Virginia Hayward website (click on the PDF link on the site).

Here then are all the details you need to enter, provided by my colleague Laura Light who is co-ordinating this event – big thanks to Laura!.

Good luck! It would be great if a Pounds and Sense reader wins one (or more) of the prizes 🙂

This Christmas, some of the UK Bloggers have come together to offer you the chance to win five Virginia Hayward The Magic of Christmas Hampers. Five lucky winners will win a Christmas hamper delivered before Christmas. Keep reading to find out how you can enter.

Who are the Bloggers Behind the Giveaway?

The UK Bloggers are a group of bloggers, podcasters, and influencers in the UK who are passionate about helping you to improve your life. We are a mix of lifestyle, parenting, food and money bloggers. Whether you want to make more money, find recipes, read about parenting or other lifestyle topics, we are your people. Here’s who we are:

The Prizes

You can win one of five Virginia Hayward The Magic Of Christmas Hampers.

The Rules

The giveaway is open until midnight on 17th November 2019, when the five winners will be chosen.

The giveaway is open to UK residents only.

Winners will be contacted by email from laura@savings4savvymums.co.uk

Should the Christmas hampers be out of stock then a suitable replacement will be found.

How to Enter

Please note that this giveaway works differently from the otherwise similar UKMB giveaways I have featured on this blog.

You can get two entries by clicking on the links in the Rafflecopter widget below. One is to visit my Facebook page and the other is to follow Pounds and Sense blog on Twitter.

You can then get (many) more entries by clicking through the links above – or below – to my fellow UK bloggers, all of whom have their own posts about the Giveaway with their own Rafflecopter widgets.

After the closing date all entries will be put together and five winners will be chosen at random. I hope that’s all clear, but let me know if not!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Quick Links!

To save you a bit of time finding the other posts in this giveaway, I have listed below all the bloggers who have published a 2019 Christmas Giveaway post, with a ‘deep link’ straight to the post in question. You can work your way through the list below and enter via the widget in each post. All links should open in a separate tab.

Make Money Without a Job

Mind Over Money Matters

Side Hustle Directory

Daily Deals Blog

Chilling With Lucas

Tammymum

Big Family Organised Chaos

Midlands Traveller

I Always Believed in Futures

Looking After Your Pennies

Accidental Hipster Mum

Mummy Saver Money Maker

Christmas Magic and Markets

For the Family

The Money Saving Mum

Family Travel With Ellie

Two Plus Dogs

At Home and Online

Adventures of a Yorkshire Mum

The Willow Tree

One final small point is that if a winning entry comes from following someone on social media, Laura will check before awarding the prize that the winner is still following the account in question. If they aren’t, they will be disqualified and a new winner drawn. So, please, don’t follow and immediately unfollow, as your entry won’t then count.

Good luck, and I really do hope you win a hamper!

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

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

Start Cooking! UK Bloggers Share Their Favourote Kitchen Tools, Apps and Websites

November 1, 2019

Start Cooking! UK Bloggers Share Their Favourite Kitchen Tools, Apps and Websites

Nick Everything Else food, blogging 8 Comments

Today I have something a bit different for you. I’ve been asking around my fellow UK bloggers for their favourite kitchen tools, apps and websites.

I was genuinely curious about this myself, but hope it will also be of interest and value for PAS readers who enjoy cooking (or possibly don’t but still have to!). And if you are looking for a gift for the cook (or cooks) in your life, hopefully you may find a few ideas here.

Where possible I have provided links to the resources in question. In some cases these are affiliate links, so if you click through and make a purchase I will receive a commission from the store concerned (Amazon). This will not affect the product or service you receive, or the price that you pay.

Note also that with kitchen tools and devices, multiple brands and versions are often available. I have tried to link to popular models, but they may or may not be the same as the one the blogger in question uses.

Okay, let’s get started then. 🙂

Blogger Recommendations

Tanya Barrow from Mummy Barrow says: ‘It isn’t cheap, but my favourite device is my Thermomix. It does the job of 12 other kitchen appliances and helps me cook healthy meals for my family without using a load of other kit or pans, and quickly. I couldn’t live without it now.’

Ruth Gray from Slimming Violet says: ‘My favourite kitchen device is definitely my Actifry. I thought for ages about whether I should buy one as they’re a bit on the pricey side, but I’m so pleased that I did. It makes it really easy to cook so many different healthy meals, though I must admit that Actifry chips have to be my favourite. With just a drizzle of oil, they’re so much better than their oven chip counterparts!’

Fiona Elizabeth Hawkes from The Somerset Foodie writes: ‘One of my favourite cooking resources is the Yummly app. It’s full of recipes and you can search by ingredient or meal type, exclude recipes with ingredients you don’t like and then save recipes you like the look of. You can even photograph ingredients and it’ll suggest dishes you could try to use them up. It’s great for times I’m struggling with ideas for dinner!’

Keiran Potter, who blogs at Keiran Crying, says, ‘My favourite device is my spiraliser. It’s such an easy and fast way to get vegetables into things like pasta and pies. But also it makes things like potato cook a lot faster because it makes it so thin. I love experimenting with it, it helps me keep meals interesting.‘

Jupiter Hadley, who blogs at JupiterHadley.com, writes: ‘My favorite cooking website is Allrecipes.com – everyone submits recipes and pictures, so all of the recipes are made previously and they have a good selection of simple recipes. When searching for something there, you can easily read the comments from people who have tried to make the dish (and they have a big community, so it’s normally a lot of comments with the best ones on the first page) sometimes these comments let you know the recipe isn’t sweet enough or it needs a different ingredient, while others tell you little twists you can make. It’s a great community and is really full of great recipes and feedback.’

Petra at Be Healthy Now says: ‘There are so many good websites that I use for cooking inspiration, and one of my favourites is The Flexitarian. I love this website so much because the recipes on there are simply amazing: really healthy, with interesting flavours and a little bit different to what you commonly find online. They are all vegetarian or vegan, so perfect for those who are looking to reduce their meat intake. Annabelle also shares food news and reviews, which all come in really useful.’

Rachelle Strauss of The Health and Wellness Grid writes: ‘My favourite kitchen gadget is my Nutribullet. It’s a reasonable price and is excellent for my morning smoothie (it works well on frozen fruit) and I also use it to grind seeds which I then sprinkle into most meals. So it saves me money on buying smoothies (and helps me reduce food waste by using up fruits that are coming up to being past their best) and I can buy a big bag of seeds which I blitz and hide in foods! I’ve needed to replace the blade once in a few years, but the motor remains strong despite daily use, so it’s excellent value for money overall. I also use it for soup, after the ingredients have cooled – again saving money on shop-bought products and using up old veggies.’

Hayley Muncey, who blogs as Miss Manypennies, writes: ‘My favourite gadget is my pancake/crepe maker (hot plate). Obviously totally unnecessary, but it means we can pop on the table and no one has to be the one standing cooking, it’s quick and the pancakes always end up the right shape! It’s easier to experiment with toppings too ‘

Kim John of Life Can Be Toff says, ‘My favourite kitchen gadget is my soup maker. It is a simple way for me to create quick and tasty soups, particularly at this time of year. The fact it is so quick (around 30 minutes total including prep) also means I can be quite adventurous and try different things. It is great for making in bulk and with little washing up!

Nick adds: ‘I have an electric soup-maker as well and get a lot of use from it, in the cold winter months especially. I wrote this blog post about it not long after I bought it.’

Melissa Williams, who blogs at The Diary of a Jewellery Lover, writes: ‘My favourite kitchen gadget is my slow cooker. I like putting all the ingredients in at the beginning of the day and having a delicious meal ready for me in the evening. It makes the meat so tender and delicious. I would definitely recommend getting one if you don’t own one. It will change your life!’

Afshan Nasim of Afshanesque writes: ‘My favourite kitchen utensil is my Hinari Genie blender. It is great for making smoothies and milkshakes. It also helps me chop my onions and puree my tomato for use with my curries. It’s like the Nutribullet, but cheaper.’

Nicole Shroff from The End of the Fork writes: ‘I love my cast iron skillet, it is what I reach for the most in my kitchen. Nicely weighted, it distributes heat evenly retaining it well, so food cooks faster and you do not need to move it around the pan as much. The more seasoned it becomes with use, the better it’s non-stick qualities. It is extremely hard-wearing and easy to care for as long as it is dried well before storing. A good cast iron skillet improves with age and will last generations!’

Jo Jackson, who blogs at Tea and Cake for the Soul, says: ‘ I have an ancient Moulinex Masterchef and love it. I can grate and slice vegetables in it, make cakes, pastry, blend and chop with it. I have a much newer all singing all dancing device but I can’t bear to part with old faithful.’

Jo Jackson also says: ‘I do like the BBC Good Food website. It has photos with clear instructions and sometimes videos. I like a lot of the features including ratings by others who’ve tried the recipe, timings, levels of skill, nutritional values etc. I especially like the print option. I’m a bit old school and if I find a recipe I like, I will print it off, laminate it and keep it in my cook book file.’

Melanie Edjourian, who blogs at Melanie’s Fab Finds, says: ‘I love my Russell Hobbs mixer. It’s great for making all sorts of cakes as well as pizza bases and bread. I also love my Lurch Spiralo Spiraliser as it helps me make all sorts of healthy recipes using veg, like courgetti carbonara.’

Cath Bambi Drews, who blogs at th3secretlifeofme, writes: ‘We have a Gourmetmaxx tower airfryer, which is a bit different to an Actifry. We are a family of six so this means we can actually cook sides or fries/wedges/home-made chips in one go. It cooks crispy chips/wedges. Amazing bacon. Little pizzas. We have even cooked a chicken in there.’

Paulina Borowik from UK Everyday says: ‘One of my favourite kitchen devices is my Morphy Richards Stand Mixer. It ensures that all ingredients are mixed perfectly and my kitchen stays clean. This mixer is very powerful and looks stylish. I would highly recommend it to anyone.’

Jax Blunt, who blogs at Making It Up (as we go along) writes: ‘Can’t believe no one has recommended https://cookingonabootstrap.com or https://utterlyscrummy.blogspot.com . These are my two favourite budget recipe sites. Both are written by people who actually live this life making every penny work to feed a family healthily and cheaply.’

Finally, Sally Allsop from Life Loving says: ‘I know it sounds very insignificant but my favourite kitchen gadget is my olive spoon/pickle picker. It’s perfect for getting pickled veg/olives out of the jar and draining them as you are doing it. Normal spoons make such a mess when you are dealing with pickling liquid or brine.’

Thanks again to all my UK blogging colleagues for an inspiring selection of ideas. I shall definitely be adding some of the items above to my Amazon Wish List!

Please do check out also the blogs of everyone above who contributed suggestions. They are an amazing group of talented writers and bloggers!

My Recommendation

I thought I should share a recommendation as well, so I’m nominating my Salter Aquatronic digital kitchen scales (see below). I was lucky enough to get this product free as an Amazon Vine reviewer, and was very impressed with it.

No bowl is provided with these scales, but because of the way they work you don’t need one. You can place any container you like on the scales and press the button to zero the display (so the scales disregard the container’s weight). You can then add your ingredient and the weight (or liquid volume if you prefer) will be shown. If you want to add further ingredients, you can zero the display again before doing so. Once you get the hang of this, it’s amazingly quick and simple. I use it all the time now, and even weighed a parcel on it recently 😀 I also like the way it hardly takes up any space at all in my kitchen when stored on its side.

As always, if you have any comments or queries about this article, please do post them below. And if you have any other favourite kitchen device, website or app, please do share it in the comments!

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