Everything Else

This includes everything else I discuss on Pounds and Sense, including Health, Holidays, Relationships, and so on.

June 15, 2020

Win a Garden Furniture Set in the UK Bloggers Summer Giveaway 2020!

Nick Everything Else events, competitions 0 Comments

I’ve joined forces today with some of my fellow UK bloggers to put together a giveaway of a Maevea Rattan-Effect 4-Seater Coffee Set from B&Q. You can see a photo of it above.

This set is currently on sale for £541 on the B&Q website. Details – copied from the site – are as follows:

Create your own space in your garden with this modular rattan design Maevea coffee set.

Easily change the configuration when you have guests over, or want to try something a little different.

The space saving design is easy to store and keep tucked away in a corner when not being used.

The armchairs store behind the sofa for easy storage.

Easy to clean glass top table.

Features

removable cushion covers

exclusive to B&Q with a 2 year guarantee

this coffee set is modular – it has 4 different orientations

Armchair: 565 x 62 x 770mm

Table: 520 x 360 x 925mm

Sofa: 1550 x 700 x 795mm

You can see more information about the set (and more photos) on the B&Q website. If the chosen prize is no longer available when the draw is complete, another suitable garden set will be substituted.

Here then are all the details you need to enter, provided by my colleague Emma Drew (who is co-ordinating this event). Good luck! It would be great if a Pounds and Sense reader wins this great prize 🙂

Some UK bloggers have teamed up to offer you a fantastic giveaway for this summer, organised by Emma Drew. Keep reading to see who is involved and how to enter.

The Prize

We are giving away a rattan effect 4 seater set from B&Q (depending on stock availability).

Should the chosen prize no longer be available when the draw is complete then we will choose another suitable garden set.

Enter Now

The competition will run from 15th June until 30th June 2020 (midnight).

A winner will be drawn from the Rafflecopter entries and checked before being contacted.

Once contacted and the prize has been arranged, the Rafflecopter widget will display the first name and first initial of the winner’s surname.

Simply complete any or all of the entry options in the widget.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

One final small point is that if a winning entry comes from following someone on social media, Emma 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 this fabulous prize. But even if you don’t, I hope you enjoy entering and discovering some other amazing money bloggers!

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:

June 6, 2020

My Coronavirus Crisis Experience – June Update

Nick Everything Else events, health 4 Comments

A couple of months ago I wrote this blog post about my experience of the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown. Two months on, I thought it was time I provided another update.

As I said before, I live on my own since my partner, Jayne, passed away a few years ago. I am lucky to live in a fairly large house with a good-sized garden, so being mostly confined to home hasn’t been as big a challenge for me as I’m sure it has for some. Also, I am well used to working from home, having done this for the last 30 years or so.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the crisis hasn’t affected me in a variety of ways. As Pounds and Sense is primarily a money blog, I will (again) start off with that…

Financial

At the time I wrote my last update, world stock markets were in free fall. I was naturally concerned to see my equity-based investments – and in particular my pension fund – tumbling in value. Being 64 and semi-retired with my SIPP in drawdown, this was particularly worrying for me. But I tried to follow my own advice and avoid panicking and selling up.

Thankfully, in recent weeks stock markets have made an astonishing recovery. I am pleased to say that my pension fund and other equity-based investments are mostly back to near pre-Covid levels (and even in some cases above them).

Below is a copy of the six-month chart for my Nutmeg stocks and shares ISA. At one point this was down to just over £10,000 in value, but in just a few weeks it has climbed back to over £15,000. Admittedly I did put in an extra £1,000 when the markets were (as things stand now) close to their lowest point. Even so, it’s been an impressive rally.

Assuming there is no major second wave of the virus – and world-wide there has been no sign of that so far – I am hopeful that the recovery will continue over the longer term. Of course, there are likely to be bumps along the way, and in the short term at least we face the likelihood of an economic recession. Even so, I am keeping my fingers crossed for a recovery over the next year or so, and am continuing to invest cautiously where I see value.

As mentioned in this recent post, I did also decide to invest £7,000 – the proceeds of another maturing investment – in another vehicle for Buy2LetCars. As regular readers will know, I’ve had one (new) car with this car loan investment platform for about two years now, and the monthly repayments have been coming through like clockwork. So I decided to invest my £7,000 (the minimum investment with Buy2LetCars) in another car – a pre-owned one this time, of course.

I particularly liked the idea of investing again with Buy2LetCars, as they lease vehicles to key workers such as nurses and other NHS staff (along with teachers, prison officers, police, and so on). These people all need cars for their (essential) work. They are responsible individuals, and have every incentive to look after the vehicles (though as they are fully insured, investors don’t bear any risk from accidents themselves).

Unfortunately Buy2LetCars don’t tell you who has leased ‘your’ car, but I like to think the ones I have bought are providing transport and security for two hard-working NHS nurses at this moment 🙂

In May I received a modest but nonetheless welcome payment from the government’s Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). I was pleased to hear recently that the government is extending this for a further three months, albeit at a slightly lower rate. It does help a lot at this uncertain time, and I know for many self-employed people it has provided a lifeline.

Personal

Thankfully I have managed to avoid contracting the virus so far. I know a local family who probably all had it, but they are thankfully well recovered now.

I also know people who have been badly affected by the lockdown. One young man of my acquaintance was furloughed from his job and became depressed alone in his bedsit. He started drinking excessively and wound up in hospital, where he spent several days being detoxed and having his liver checked out. Thankfully he doesn’t appear to have suffered any long-term damage, but it does demonstrate the stress many people are under right now. As I’ve said before on PAS, it’s more important than ever to keep in regular touch with friends, relatives and neighbours, especially if they live on their own.

As for myself, I am doing my best to keep on an even psychological keel. Like everyone else, there are things I am missing. Top of the list is seeing friends and relatives, going for days out, pub lunches, and so forth. I am also missing swimming (which is probably affecting my fitness as well). And I am really missing seeing my hairdresser. For the first time in my life, I have been wishing that, like many men of my age, I had gone bald 😉

At least two concerts I booked tickets for were cancelled. I have also had to cancel two holidays this year (so far). I have just one other holiday arranged, a short break in Minehead in September. I am optimistic that this will still go ahead, though how exactly it will be affected by social distancing and other anti-virus measures remains to be seen.

I am very glad that the panic buying has stopped now, though certain things can still be difficult to buy locally. Supplies of flour, eggs and rice are still variable, and I found it more difficult than expected to get a bag of compost for the garden. Supermarket shopping – as I’m sure you know – is a very different experience these days. You have to allow time for queuing outside beforehand, and expect to be marshalled inside the store as well. But things generally are far better than they were, so I’m certainly not complaining.

I still take daily walks – sometimes even two now as the rules about that have eased. I particularly enjoy going out in the (fairly) early morning. The air seems fresher and there are fewer people about, so less need for zig-zagging to preserve social distancing. I also find it sounds more natural to say ‘Good morning’ or just ‘Morning’ to people I pass. ‘Good afternoon’ is a mouthful and makes me sound like the village policeman, while ‘Hello’ just sounds lame. It’s a shame English doesn’t have an equivalent all-purpose expression to the French ‘Bonjour’!

As the crisis has continued, I have been watching less and less TV. Partly there hasn’t been much that has captured my interest, and my attention span for things like films has reduced. In addition, I have found the endless debate about the virus – and especially the negative tone of much of it – depressing and demoralizing. Instead I have been watching a lot of catch-up comedy and drama, and DVD box-sets.

Among the latter, I am enjoying Deep Space Nine, a Star Trek spin-off series (actually seven series) that I mostly missed first time round. And for light relief, I am watching The Brittas Empire, a 1990s sitcom with Chris Barrie set in a leisure centre. I highly recommend this for a bit of undemanding, escapist fun!

I have also just finished re-watching The Singing Detective by Dennis Potter, again on DVD. If you haven’t seen this, it’s a brilliant, multi-layered, musical drama serial, superbly written and acted. Since I first watched it I have acquired a lot more experience of hospitals (where much of the action takes place) so that has given me a new perspective on the show. I was also struck that in the days when it was made, there was clearly nothing unusual about patients being allowed to smoke in their hospital beds. How times have changed!

Finally on the subject of media, as I indicated above, I have become disillusioned with much of the reporting around the pandemic, which has become increasingly negative and politicized. But I do enjoy following Professor Karol Sikora on Twitter. Professor Sikora is a well-respected cancer specialist with a doctorate in immunology. He offers a positive and generally optimistic view, informed by science and statistics. He doesn’t have a political axe to grind and is willing to give the government credit for things they have done well and criticize things they have done badly. If you want one person to follow for unbiased news about the pandemic with a measure of cautious hope for the future, I highly recommend checking out his Twitter page.

Moving on, one other thing I’ve noticed in recent weeks is that I’m not spending as much money as I did before. Obviously I’m paying less for stuff like petrol, public transport, meals and drinks out, and so on. But I have also become more miserly about buying other things, even online. I’ve cancelled all my magazine subscriptions, and also been actively looking for other opportunities to save money. From what I have seen and heard, I am not alone in this. I guess it comes down to the strange and uncertain times we are living through. I think that, both consciously and unconsciously, I am trying to save as much as I can to try to ensure that I have a decent financial cushion whatever the future holds.

And finally, I realized the other day I haven’t spent any actual cash since the lockdown began! Payment by card is preferred everywhere and in some places is the only payment option accepted. The pandemic has probably accelerated our progress towards becoming a cashless society.

So that has been my experience of the coronavirus crisis to date. I do of course appreciate that I am in a fortunate position compared with many other people. I hope you and your family are coping in these strange and worrying times as well. I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences. If you have any comments or questions, as always, please do post them below.

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

May 15, 2020

How Our Mental and Financial Health Has Changed Since Lockdown (Infographic)

Nick Everything Else events, health, infographic 6 Comments

Today I have an eye-opening infographic for you from my friends at National Conversation Week, which I mentioned a few days ago in this post.

The infographic is based on a YouGov survey commissioned by Paymentshield as part of National Conversation Week, which this year runs from 11-18 May.

Among other things, the survey revealed that money is currently the third-biggest concern for the public, following fears for friends and family, and health worries. More than a third of respondents (39%) also reported a decline in their mental health since March 2020. Thirty-eight per cent of people said their financial worries had increased during the coronavirus outbreak.

About National Conversation Week

National Conversation Week aims to get people talking in a bid to improve the nation’s well-being, at a time when people are facing unprecedented challenges and are separated from each other. In particular, this year’s awareness week encourages conversations about money, to tackle increasing financial worries among consumers.

Financial organisation Paymentshield has teamed up with independent financial research company Defaqto and mental health charity Mind to emphasise the importance of financial conversations, and the close relationship between financial and mental well-being.

Financial worries have a huge impact on mental health, and talking to someone about the situation can be very helpful. However, the survey found that nearly a quarter of people (24%) are avoiding talking about finances with friends and family, for fear of burdening them or making them anxious.

As well as the effect on mental health, coronavirus is affecting consumer behaviour. Thirty-six per cent of people say that coronavirus has already had a negative impact on their personal finances, with 35% increasingly trying to cut costs during lockdown.

During periods of financial uncertainty, people tend to consider their outgoings and can be tempted to make risky financial decisions based purely on cost alone. Despite the increase in money worries and a drive to cut costs, 92% of people had not spoken to a professional financial adviser. Doing so could help alleviate concerns and provide greater understanding of each individual’s situation for peace of mind.

Jennifer Ripley, Head of Marketing at Paymentshield, said:

“The current situation has affected everyone in different ways. People are facing a variety of challenges, from health worries to loneliness, and concerns about loved ones on top of financial difficulty and uncertainty. National Conversation Week aims to encourage safe, socially-distant talking as a way of alleviating some of those worries. In particular, we want to raise awareness that a simple chat about money can help, especially when it comes to making risky financial decisions. This week, we urge everyone that is worried about finances to talk to a professional financial adviser.

“Our research found that 41% of people are actually talking to friends and family more during the lockdown, through messages, video calls, and phone calls. We’re calling on the nation to keep the conversations going, so people can help to cheer each other up and take care of each other during these tough times.”

The annual awareness week, founded by Paymentshield, is now in its fourth year. For more information, resources and advice, or ways to get involved, visit: http://www.nationalconversationweek.co.uk

My Thoughts

Thank you to my friends at National Conversation Week for the information above and the infographic. There are some pretty shocking stats in this, including the fact that nearly 40% of people admit to their mental health declining since the start of the pandemic.

So it really is essential to reach out for support if you need it right now, whether for financial, mental health or other reasons. Speak to friends and family members, and to financial experts if appropriate (here’s a link to my blog post about why I have a personal financial adviser). There is also some great advice about looking after your mental health during the pandemic at www.mind.org.uk/coronavirus.

Above all, though, be kind to yourself, and don’t suffer in silence. And equally, if you know someone who may be struggling – or you just haven’t seen or heard from them for a while – reach out by phone or at least message them to check they are okay. It may be a bit of a cliche, but we really are all in this together. And pretty much everyone is struggling in their own way.

If you are working from home right now, by choice or due to the virus, you may also enjoy this excellent piece by my fellow blogger Actual Ar about Keeping on Top of Your Well-being as a Remote Worker.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post and/or National Conversation Week, please do leave them below.

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

May 11, 2020

Let’s Talk About Money – National Conversation Week Starts Today

Nick Everything Else events 8 Comments

Today I am sharing some information about National Conversation Week, a collaborative initiative between financial organizations Paymentshield and Defaqto, together with mental health charity Mind.

What is National Conversation Week?

National Conversation Week – which this year runs from 11 to 18 May – aims to get people talking in a bid to improve the nation’s well-being, at a time when we are all facing unprecedented challenges and are separated from one another. This annual awareness week, founded by Paymentshield, is now in its fourth year.

Through safe conversations via phone, video calls, or any other socially-distanced method, people can bring comfort and care to one another during the current crisis. National Conversation Week reminds people to get in touch, and encourages creative ways of connecting with friends, family, neighbours, acquaintances, online communities and professionals, to give and receive much-needed support.

In particular, National Conversation Week hopes to encourage conversations about money, to tackle financial worries. A recent YouGov study of over 1000 GB adults, commissioned by Paymentshield, revealed that finances were the single biggest concern when asked to select from a list of 7, with 32% of respondents admitting that money is the thing that worries them the most – ranking higher than work, family, friends, fitness, housework, and hobbies. This is likely to have increased following the outbreak of coronavirus, with many people facing additional financial difficulty and uncertainty.

Financial Worries and Mental Health

Financial worries have a huge impact on mental health, and talking to someone about the situation can be very helpful. Shockingly, Paymentshield’s research discovered that 41% of people rarely ask for financial advice when they need it.

According to financial experts at Paymentshield, during periods of financial uncertainty, people tend to consider their outgoings and can be tempted to make risky financial decisions based purely on cost. Seeking the help of professionals is especially recommended during these periods, to avoid being left vulnerable if, for example, you cancel an insurance policy and are no longer protected, or swap to a cheaper policy without understanding how to avoid higher compulsory excess fees. National Conversation Week raises awareness of the benefits of talking to financial advisers, so that people can have a better understanding of what they can do if their circumstances have changed.

As part of the awareness week, a variety of free resources and information have been released. This includes mental health information from Mind, which is National Conversation Week’s charity partner for the second year in a row.

Stephen Buckley, Head of Information at Mind, says:

“The coronavirus outbreak will have a long-term impact on our economy – we’re likely to see another recession as the nation attempts to get back on its feet. We know there is a strong link between issues like debt, unemployment, poor housing and poor mental health.

“So, it stands to reason that factors like job insecurity, unemployment, low paid work and redundancy could have a knock-on impact on mental health. Unfortunately, we know these kinds of factors disproportionately affect people who have existing mental health problems. That’s why it’s important that financial support and support with wider social issues are there for people when they need it.

“Speaking about these issues and asking for help may seem daunting but sharing your worries can be a real relief and is often the first step in getting the help you need. We’re supporting National Conversation Week in the hope that it will encourage people to speak to a friend, family member, or another trusted individual about how you’re feeling.”

Jennifer Ripley, Head of Marketing at Paymentshield, says:

“We might not be able to see each other face-to-face, but that doesn’t mean that conversations have to stop. We know that right now is a particularly worrying and challenging time, especially with so much uncertainty, and whilst people are cut off from their usual support networks. It’s more important than ever before that we stay in touch, especially when it comes to financial conversations. Money is one of the biggest contributors to poor mental health. We’re calling on the nation to keep the conversation going – from video calls with a financial expert, to a chat with grandparents – and support each other.”

Independent financial research company Defaqto is also supporting this year’s National Conversation Week. Its independent comparison tools can be used alongside conversation on many websites (such as this one) to gain a better understanding of the overall value and quality of a financial product.

To mark the start of the week, Paymentshield has also launched an online quiz to help people find out more about their financial personality, and how conversation could benefit them. Why not try it out now to see what sort of financial personality you have? I am ‘Budget Bobby’, apparently!

More Resources

For more information, resources and advice, or ways to get involved, visit: www.nationalconversationweek.co.uk.

For advice and support looking after your mental health at this time visit www.mind.org.uk/coronavirus.

For more information and tips visit www.mind.org.uk/money.

Thank you to my friends at National Conversation Week for sharing the information above and, in particular, raising the very important issue of mental health and financial awareness at this challenging time. I strongly recommend checking out the website resources mentioned. And I’d like to endorse the advice that if you have money worries, don’t bury your head in the sand. Speak to friends and family members, and to a financial expert if appropriate (here’s a link to my blog post about why I have a personal financial adviser).

If you are working from home right now, by choice or due to the virus, you may also enjoy this excellent piece by my fellow blogger Actual Ar about Keeping on Top of Your Well-being as a Remote Worker.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post and/or National Conversation Week, please do leave them below.

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

April 7, 2020

My Coronavirus Crisis Experience So Far…

Nick Everything Else events 4 Comments

I thought today I’d share a more personal post about how the coronavirus, and the measures to prevent it spreading, have affected me personally.

First of all – as many of you will know – I live on my own since my partner, Jayne, passed away a few years ago. I am fortunate to live in a fairly large house with a good-sized garden, so being mostly confined to barracks hasn’t been as big a challenge for me as I’m sure it has for some. Also, I am used to working from home, having done this for the last 30 years or so.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the coronavirus crisis hasn’t affected me in a variety of ways. As Pounds and Sense is a money blog, I thought I should start off with that…

Financial

One hard thing for me (and many other people, of course) has been seeing my equity-based investments – and in particular my pension fund – tumble in value. I’m 64 and semi-retired and my SIPP is in drawdown, so I have been particularly concerned about this. But I have tried to follow my own advice and avoid panicking. In the longer term I am sure that the markets will recover, even if this could take years rather than months.

In general my P2P/crowdfunding investments have been holding up better, with my Bricklane property ISA up substantially over the last few months. Admittedly I am hearing stories about some P2P platforms such as RateSetter struggling to process the large volume of withdrawal requests at the moment, but again I am sitting tight for now, so this isn’t affecting me directly. I have reinvested some of my returns from maturing investments on Kuflink on their new secondary market (see screen capture below), so will be interested to see how this works out.

I did decide to invest £7,000 – the proceeds of another maturing investment – in another vehicle for Buy2LetCars. As regular readers will know, I’ve had one (new) car with this car loan investment platform for about two years now, and the monthly repayments have been coming through like clockwork. So I decided to invest my £7,000 (the minimum investment with Buy2LetCars) in another car – a pre-owned one this time, of course.

The only other investment I have made recently is a modest top-up to my Nutmeg Stocks and Shares ISA. This is obviously a bit of a gamble, but with equities having fallen so much in such a short time, I hope to take advantage when the markets start to rise again. Of course, there is no guarantee that the markets won’t fall further in the short term, but based on my experiences to date I am confident that the Nutmeg team will do their utmost to protect my investment and soon enough start it growing again.

I am also waiting to hear if I will be eligible for the government scheme to support self-employed workers. I think I should be, as I appear to meet all the criteria. Indeed, as they are basing payments on profits earned in the tax years 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19, this should actually work in my favour. I earned quite a lot more in 2016/17 and 2017/18 than I am earning now, as I glide serenely into retirement (lol). I won’t turn down any money I am offered as it will provide welcome added financial security. But I appreciate that my needs are probably not as acute as many self-employed people right now.

Personal

On a personal level, the crisis has also affected me in a range of ways. Some of these are predictable, others less so.

Thankfully I have managed to avoid contracting the virus so far (as far as I know). I do, however, have good friends who (probably) have it. Fortunately they haven’t had to go into hospital, though. I am following all the guidelines about social distancing and self-isolating and really hoping to avoid catching it myself (at least until better treatments and hopefully a vaccine are available).

Like most people I have had to contend with the results of panic buying, which have left the supermarket shelves bare of certain items. Here’s a photo of the toilet roll shelves in my local Morrisons a couple of weeks ago when panic buying was at its peak…

On another occasion when I went to Waitrose the only fresh vegetables left in the shop were baby courgettes (I bought a pack – they were very nice in a stir fry).

On my recent shopping trips the situation seems to be getting better. I have been able to buy most things I needed, including eggs, which had disappeared for a while. There is still no flour or pasta, but as it happened I have enough in stock to keep me going for a while yet.

I am taking a daily walk (as mandated by the government) for exercise. In fact there is nothing new about this for me, as working from home I have always tried to fit a walk into my daily schedule. But suddenly I am seeing a lot more people (and families) out and about on the roads and back lanes. People seem a little friendlier generally, more willing to say ‘good morning’ or some such greeting as they pass. I am also becoming accustomed to zigzagging from one side of the road to the other to avoid breaching social distancing rules!

I do miss being able to go for a swim. I used to go twice a week if possible to my local David Lloyd Leisure club, but that is now closed for the foreseeable future. Daily walks are good, but not really a substitute for this. I am not a natural exerciser, but am making an effort to be a bit more active in other ways at home. Having a large garden which needs a lot of attention at this time of year helps!

One online resource I have been finding very helpful is the local community website NextDoor (which I wrote about in this blog post). When last week I was despairing about ever seeing eggs again, I posted there asking if anyone knew where they might be obtained. Within a couple of hours I had over a dozen replies, including suggestions of several local shops I hadn’t even realised were still open.

A side benefit is that I am discovering shops and businesses around my area I wasn’t previously aware of, even though I have lived here for over twenty years. That includes several farm shops, including one that is barely a mile away. Also via NextDoor I learned that my town (Burntwood) is host to a fruit wine making company, and they even deliver free to local residents. I plan to order from them once I have decided whether to get damson or gooseberry 🙂

I am making good use of technology to keep in touch with friends and family (even though it’s obviously not the same as meeting face to face). My Skype skills have improved, and I even took part in an online pub quiz via Skype last week (though I’m told by younger friends that Skype is ‘old hat’ and I need to get on Zoom now!). I have also watched a couple of concerts livestreamed from the living rooms of the musicians concerned.

I was going to sign up for the NHS Volunteer Responders programme, but was a bit slow off the mark. By the time I got around to it, they had closed to new applications. If they reopen I will certainly apply though. In the meantime I am shopping for an elderly couple – old friends of mine – who are self-isolating and have been unable to get online shopping slots with any supermarket despite being officially ‘vulnerable’..

If there is one good thing that has come out of this, it is that in general people are looking out for one another a bit more. I was on the receiving end of this myself recently. The doorbell rang and when I opened it I saw a young man whose face seemed vaguely familiar. I was rather embarrassed when he explained he was my neighbour from over the road, come to check if I needed any help. It’s definitely not like Ramsay Street around here! But it’s good to know people are thinking of others at this time. And if I see that neighbour again in future, hopefully I will remember who he is now!

So that has been my experience of the coronavirus crisis to date. Not great, but I am dealing with it and trying not to get too stressed out. I do of course appreciate that I am in a fortunate position compared with many other people. I hope you and your family are coping in these strange and worrying times as well. I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences. If you have any comments or questions, as always, please do post them below.

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

March 23, 2020

Download My Kindle Ebooks Free This Week!

Nick Everything Else events, writing 0 Comments

I’m a bit off-topic today, I know. But these are – to put it mildly – exceptional times, and we all have to respond as best we can.

I know many people are having to self-isolate right now, or at least spend a lot more time at home. So I thought I would make a small contribution towards making life more bearable by offering both of my Kindle ebooks free of charge.

My ebook The Festival on Lyris Five is a tongue-in-cheek science fiction novella featuring illustrations by the talented Louise Tolentino. You can download it free (until Thursday 26 March) by clicking here or on the ad below. I hope you enjoy reading it. If you do, a review would be appreciated (though certainly not a requirement!).

My other ebook is called Three Great Techniques for Plotting Your Novel or Screenplay. As you’ll gather, this is aimed at writers and aspiring writers. If you are in that group, I hope you will find the tips and advice it contains helpful. Again, here is a link or you can click on the display ad below.

As you may know, you don’t need a Kindle device to read Kindle e-books. You can also read them on your mobile phone, tablet or PC using the free Kindle app available via Amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-dbs/fd/kcp

And since one of these titles is aimed at writers, I thought I would also include a plug here for Best Writing Forum, which I helped set up a couple of years ago. BWF is free to join and has members all over the world. If you are looking for support or feedback with your writing, you will find it here. Equally, if you are just seeking online companionship from fellow writers during these most stressful of times, you can find that here as well.

As ever, 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:

March 16, 2020

Win an M&S Easter Hamper in the UKMB Spring Giveaway!

Nick Everything Else events, competitions 0 Comments

I’ve joined forces today with some of my fellow UK Money Bloggers to put together a giveaway of FIVE M&S Easter Family Hampers. That means five lucky winners will receive a hamper in time for Easter 2020 🙂

These hampers sell for £50 apiece on the M&S website. The full contents are as follows:

Gold label teabags (250g/ 80 bags)
Caramel eggs (120g)
Hide and seek egg hunt bag (135g)
Simnel cake bar (460g)
Chicky choccy speckled eggs (90g)
8 Spiced Easter biscuits (200g)
Bubbly bunny (23g) x 4
British strawberry soft set jam (113g)
Easter fried eggs whips (180g)
4 golden hot cross buns (260g/pack of 4)
Presented in a dark stained basket with brown faux leather strap

In the event of supply difficulties, or with discontinued products, M&S say they reserve the right to offer alternative goods or packaging of equal quality and value. Full information about the hamper and its contents can be found on the M&S website.

Meet the Bloggers Taking Part

The bloggers taking part in this fantastic giveaway are as follows…

The Prizes

There are five M&S Easter Hampers up for grabs, worth £50 each.

If the hamper is no longer available when the winners are drawn then the winners will be offered an alternative hamper from M&S worth £50 each.

Enter to Win

To enter simply complete any or all of the Rafflecopter entry widget options below.

The competition closes at midnight on 29th March 2020. If the hamper selected is sold out then we will offer an alternative M&S hamper worth £50. You can see the widget for the full terms and conditions of this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

One final small point is that if a winning entry comes from following someone on social media, Emma 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:

February 18, 2020

Booking a Holiday with Airbnb

Nick Saving Money, Everything Else travel, reviews, property 2 Comments

I recently booked my first ever break with Airbnb.

Of course, I’ve been aware of this person-to-person accommodation booking platform for some time, but till now I’ve avoided using it myself. In the back of my mind were stories I read years ago about people renting out sofas in their living room to make a bit of extra cash. At my age that prospect – the sofa in the living room, I mean – definitely didn’t hold any appeal!

Times change, though, and it’s important to keep up with them. In my case I wanted to book a short break in a part of North Wales that isn’t well served by hotels, the Lleyn Peninsula. Okay, I could have stayed at the Haven Holidays Park (formerly Butlins) in Pwllheli, but I was pretty sure that wouldn’t be my cup of Welsh tea either.

So after researching the relatively few hotels in the Abersoch area where I wanted to stay using Booking.com (affiliate link), I decided it might be time to give Airbnb a try. In recent years, as regular readers will know, I have become more accustomed to booking self-catering accommodation for short breaks, and have realised that in some ways I prefer this to staying in hotels.

In this blog post I thought I’d share my experience of registering with Airbnb and finding and booking accommodation. I hope this might inspire you to try it yourself if you haven’t yet taken the plunge with Airbnb.

Of course, you can also become an Airbnb host and make money that way. I haven’t tried this myself, but did cover the subject in another blog post titled Boost Your Income by Renting Out a Room.

Registering with Airbnb

Before you can make a booking with Airbnb, you have to be registered on the website. You can still browse without joining but (as I found out) if you find somewhere you like available on the dates you want, you will have to go back and register and then start the whole process again. This is a frustrating waste of time. It’s free to register and doesn’t take long, so if there is any chance you might want to book through the platform, my advice would be to do this first.

Registering with Airbnb is similar to registering on other booking websites. One thing to be aware of, though, is that as well as your personal details, as proof of ID they also ask you to upload a scan of an official document such as your passport or driving licence with your photo on it. Once you have done this, you have to wait for your ID to be approved. In my case this happened within 15 minutes and I received notification by email.

Once you’ve done all that, you can start searching for your perfect holiday retreat!

Searching Airbnb

Once you are logged in, you can start your search using the box on the Airbnb front page (see below).

As you can see, you have to enter where you wish to go and the dates you want to arrive and depart. You have to choose specific dates, even if (as I was) you are flexible about this. Once you have found somewhere you like, you will be able to see what other dates that accommodation is available. If you want to check all possible places in the area, though, you may need to do a few searches using different dates.

Anyway, once you have entered the relevant details and clicked on search, a new page will open showing you a map of the area in question. Here’s what I got when I searched just now for accommodation near Abersoch in early May (not actually when I am going).

As you may gather, each of the prices in a small oval represents an Airbnb place with availability on the dates in question. The price is the cost per night. Clicking on any of these will bring up brief info about the accommodation in question. If you like the look of this, clicking again will bring up a new page with photos and more. Here’s the top of the page for a cottage I like the sound of, though it would be too large for me alone.

Also on this page are full details about the accommodation and a reservation form – see below.

As you can see, for your money you are getting considerably more than a sofa in someone’s living room 😀 £110 a night seems very reasonable to me for a cottage that can accommodate a family of six.

As you may have noticed, there are some additional charges. Many Airbnb properties – though by no means all – charge a cleaning fee. In addition, you will always be charged a service fee. This goes to Airbnb, and is one way they make their money (they also charge a fee to the property owners).

If you scroll down you will see various other items, including visitor reviews and a calendar showing when the property is (and isn’t) available. Also towards the bottom of the screen you will find the cancellation terms. These are set by the hosts and vary considerably, so be sure to study them carefully. Often you will be able to cancel free of charge until a certain date. After that, you may have to pay the service charge and perhaps part or all of the booking fee as well.

Making Your Booking

If you want to proceed, clicking on Reserve will take you to a new page where you can confirm your booking and provide payment information. This is pretty standard, although one thing you don’t normally have to do on hotel booking sites is write a message of introduction to the property owners (your hosts).

Airbnb provide a ready-written message you can use by default. This is pretty bland, however. I think it’s best to take a few minutes to write something more personal about who you are, why you want to visit the area, and so on. This is especially important if you are new to Airbnb and don’t have any history on the site or reviews written about you (yep, Airbnb hosts review guests as well as vice versa). In theory a host can decline your booking if they don’t like the sound of you, so it’s good to reassure them that you are a normal human being and will treat their property with respect.

And that’s it, basically. When I made my booking it all went through smoothly and I received a thank-you message from the hosts within an hour. I haven’t been on the holiday yet, but will post a review on this blog after my return.

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:

December 23, 2019

My Top Twenty Posts of 2019

Nick Everything Else events 0 Comments

As is customary for bloggers at this time of year, here are the top twenty posts on Pounds and Sense in 2019, based on comments, page-views and social media shares. They are in no particular order. I have excluded any posts that are no longer relevant.

I hope you will enjoy revisiting these posts, or seeing them for the first time if you are new to PAS. Don’t forget, you can always subscribe using the box on the right to be notified of new posts as soon as they appear.

All posts in the list below should open in a new tab when you click on the link concerned.

1. Twelve Great Ways to Generate a Sideline Income

2. How I Saved £511.08 on my Annual Home Insurance

3. Make Money from Car Loans With Buy2Let Cars!

4. Trade Your Way to Profit With Deal Arbitrage

5. Nutmeg Review: My Experiences With This Robo-Adviser Investment Platform

6. Get a Free £50 on Football Index With Footy Index Scout!

7. My Short Break in Aberystwyth

8. Two Places You Really Shouldn’t Turn for Tax Advice (And One You Definitely Should)

9. Why Property is an Essential Part of the Retirement Planning Jigsaw

10. How to Save Money on Clothes Shopping

11. Is It Worth Getting Batteries for Your Solar Panels?

12. My Short Break in Llandudno

13. Can You Get the Warm Home Discount?

14. How to Start Video Gaming as an Older Person (Guest Post)

15. How to Save Money on Prescriptions

16. Kuflink: My Review of This P2P Property Investment Platform

17. Is a Friendly Society a Good Home for Your Savings?

18. My Best Investments of 2019

19. Crowdlords: My Review of This Property Crowdfunding Platform

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

Thank you very much for your interest in Pounds and Sense. I hope 2019 has been a good year for you.

I’ll be taking a break from blogging over the festive period (though I’ll still be around on Twitter and Facebook). I’ll therefore close by wishing you a very happy and peaceful Christmas, and a prosperous and fulfilling new year. See you again in 2020 🙂

If you have any comments or questions, of course, feel free to leave them below as usual.

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

December 1, 2019

Win One of EIGHT Marks and Spencer Hampers in the Great UKMB Festive Giveaway!

Nick Everything Else events, food, competitions 3 Comments

Today I have another great giveaway to share with you.

I’ve joined forces with some of my fellow UK Money Bloggers to put together a giveaway of EIGHT Christmas Afternoon Treats with Flowers M&S hampers. That means eight lucky winners will receive a hamper in time for Christmas!

These hampers sell for £50 apiece on the M&S website. The full contents are as follows:

Christmas afternoon treats
Swiss chocolate extra smooth milk chocolate truffles (205g)
Pure origin Assam teabags (125g/50 bags)
Classic recipe top iced bar Christmas cake (450g)
The Collection Berry medley soft set jam (42g)
The Collection Bitter Seville orange marmalade (42g)
All butter shortbread fingers (28g) x 3
A beautiful bouquet of flowers

Meet the Bloggers Taking Part

The bloggers taking part in this festive giveaway are:

The Prizes

As mentioned above, there are eight Christmas Afternoon Treats with Flowers M&S hampers up for grabs, worth £50 each.

If the hamper is no longer available when the winners are drawn then the winners will be offered an alternative hamper from M&S worth £50 each.

Enter to Win

To enter simply complete any or all of the Rafflecopter entry widget options below.

The competition closes at midnight on 14th December 2019. If the hamper selected is sold out then we will offer an alternative M&S hamper worth £50. You can see the widget for the full terms and conditions of this giveaway.

There are plenty of ways to enter this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
One small point is that if a winning entry comes from following someone on social media, Emma 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.

Once again, good luck, and I really do hope you win a hamper!

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

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