Celebrate with some of the blog’s biggest money savers.
Woah. Time flies. Be Clever With Your Cash is two! Well strictly speaking it’s two years and three days old. I forgot, but it’s not like I forgot a person’s birthday is it. I’d never do that. Well, rarely.
Anyways, I’m really excited about this milestone. It’s prompted me to reflect on the last couple of years, and I hadn’t really appreciated how much everything has changed.
In 2014 I was looking for something different. I’d spent the first six of of my 11 years at the BBC making TV programmes, and I really want to be producing creative content again. I also wanted to find a way I could indulge my love for helping people with their money.
Somehow a blog – Be Clever With Your Cash – was the result. I didn’t really think it would go anywhere. I thought it might act as a portfolio to get myself a personal finance journalism gig (it did!) and I’d just carry on with it as a hobby.
Well, that didn’t quite happen. I can’t commit as much time as I’d like to the site, but I genuinely love putting the effort and hours in to share knowledge and deals that help you get more from your money.
Last year was pretty special for the blog as it was recognised at the Santander Media Awards as the money blog of the year runner up, beating sites such as the Financial Times and Skint Dad. I’ve also found out the site has been shortlist at the Headlinemoney awards, which are kind of like the Oscars of personal finance journalism. So it’s all pretty exciting!
Top tips
To celebrate, I thought I’d share some of the biggest money savers I’ve written about in the last two years. If you’re a new reader and missed them, or whether you’ve been around for a while, these are my top tricks to put a little extra back in your pocket.
(By the way, you might have noticed the cake in the picture has five candles rather than two. Well that’s because it was baked by my professional cake making sister for my niece’s birthday. You can see more of her delicious creations at Wren Cakes.)
Be a student even if you’re not a student
I don’t mean just go into work for a few hours each day, or spent far too much time in bars. The most popular posts I’ve written are around a trick I found to get yourself a student discount at shops, cinemas and even flights well after you graduated.
All you need to do is sign up to certain e-learning courses which make you eligible for an NUS card!
>> My cashhack to get yourself an NUS card and student discounts
Loads of money from Topcashback and Quidco
Every time I buy something, and I mean every time, I’ll check the cashback rates at Quidco and Topcashback. Sometimes it’s just a few quid, but the returns can be massive too. I’ve just received £189 from last December’s broadband switch, and there’s another £78 due from a bank switch!
>> Sign up to Quidco – get a £3.50 bonus when you’ve earned £5 (Limited time)
>> Sign up to Topcashback
Change your bank
I’m a bit of a bank account geek, so I know most of you won’t be quite as extreme as me (I’ve nine current accounts. I think…). However, if you’re still with the same bank you’ve always been with, you could easily be £160 or more up this time next year. You don’t even have to switch to get some of the offers.