Hello friends, hope this is a right place to ask this.

I've been purchasing from JL for several years now, not very often but usually big-ticket items (think appliances and large furniture), so spent a decent amount. They've sent me a few rewards but aside from invites to craft classes and free Birthday cake slices, it's generally been rubbish like tiny beauty discounts or £X off when you spend £XX (not on anything I'm remotely interested in). Recently any time I look at their home goods, many or all of the reviews state that the submitter "received free product" on that review, as they submitted a "partner review". Think a vase with 5 reviews, and all 5 say this is a partnered review and the person received free product. Does this mean they received *that* product for free? Or they received a voucher and used it to purchase that item? Or they just got a small gift with purchase/voucher after submitting a review?

I tried googling random combinations of words to find out but nothing tangible comes up. Google tells me "partner" is what they call their employees, but surely those can't be employee reviews as that'd be considered astroturfing. I'm assuming it's some sort of review reward/mystery shop program, so would love to learn more and even try to participate if possible. Does anyone have any experience with this?

The reviews have "myJohnLewis Review Panel", "Received a free product: Yes" and "Partner Review" in them.

Are there reputable places that sell 2nd hand dishwashers and that will fit + recycle an old one?

I just need a dishwasher that will survive a year or two until I refurb my kitchen!

The previous owners of the house had built in wardrobes put into the main bedroom however they leave a small gap between them and the window as they do not extend all the way to the wall. We now have mould in this space, we are in the process of getting new windows as they haven't helped the situation. We also have our dehumidifier running most of the day as we get bad condensation on the window in winter. I have to window vac it daily in the window to get rid of the condensation.

Any ideas how to clean the mould in this gap? I can't get into the space and I also can't reach in to get the mould off the walls.

I came across this ai food site, looks good, simply add the ingredients you have and it will come up with recipes.

https://www.freerecipemaker.com/?ref=taaft&utm_source=taaft&utm_medium=referral

I recently moved over from Singapore where I subscribed to an audiobook streaming service which unfortunately is not available here.

For about £5 per month I was able to stream as many books as I liked- recent releases etc from big publishers as well as classics. The selection was pretty wide and there were no limits to how much I could listen to. I supplemented this with a library membership, but their selection of audiobooks was a lot more limited and it wasn’t on demand. I would read about one book a week overall.

Since moving over, to the UK, I can only see Audible as an audiobook subscription service, but it seems like I’ll be paying more for less. One ‘paid’ premium book a month, and then a smaller selection of free books if I understand correctly? Is there a better service available that offers more value for money and a really wide selection?

Have a big whites wash every 2 months at end of month 2 and would not have thought to even put my washing out today very little wind mostly overcast but this app forecast predicted doable.

App allowed me to override the drying conditions as garden is small and enclosed allowing little wind

Times were spot on for the category types TYPICAL ie t-shirts and sheets and HEAVY ie towels

Great to be able to reduce my indoor humidity levels and learnt a lot about drying times

https://www.laundrytimer.com/

Anyone else using this app?

Ok admit that it did get a bit chilly 2/3 weeks ago but with these warmer temps with us until circa 10/11 reckon will achieve my mid November target before turning the CH on.

Have already achieved target of no heat between BST and GMT just pushing a little further.

Gives me time to sort a few insulation issues in the loft and today been chopping wood for my open fire in readiness for winter proper..... don't plan to fire that up until winter solstice 21/12.

Hows everyone else doing?

My neighbours don't really have the best hygiene and the hall way always smells terrible when i get in. I normally use a can of Fra breeze but is there something automatic and cheap

Is phonesltd a good place to take out a SIM only deal? When I go directly to the EE website a seemingly similar plan is 10.50 instead of 18 pounds

Both are a 50 gb essentials plan

Am I missing something? Will they both have the same quality of service?

I have genetic premature greying since I was 11 and the doctors said nothing could be done about it. So my only option is hair dye!

Hi guys,

This post may be a wild shot in the dark but I’ve searched every corner of the internet for an answer and this may be my last hope.

We have an autistic member of family who is obsessed with the smell of the Ariel x Lenor washing pods (I will try to link it in the comments below.) So much so that there was a breakdown when we last tried to switch to a cheaper option.

We’ve tried finding out what the smells were to find a cheaper way of washing our laundry without hurting my sibling but it’s been futile.

Any clues or hints of similar smells are very welcome, we’re going insane

Which cities, towns/areas do you think offer a cheap but decent quality of life (relatively)?

EDF energy are offering to install a smart meter for gas & electric free of charge. I thought this would be a no brainer but apparently I should reconsider??! Can anybody help me out? Has anyone had any bad experiences? There's just me and my partner living in a 3 bed house, currently on a deemed tariff and pay via monthly DD (I submit meter readings once per month)

Getting a better EE broadband deal - negotiations not working

Just wanted to see if anyone else has experience of trying to negotiate with EE lately.

We have broadband (150 meg, WiFi 7 router) and two SIM only deals (unlimited everything).

This costs us £55 pm for the broadband and about £10 each for the SIMs - the SIM deals are cheap because we have the broadband with them as well.

We think the price for broadband, given the relatively low speed, is a bit high (are we wrong?) and have tried to threaten to cancel to see if they'll offer anything better and got literally nothing, just offers of more expensive deals for faster download speeds. Have tried calling EE twice about this now and same response both times.

Any advice?

After a change in circumstances I'm having to re-evaluate how I shop.

It's been years since I've done a monthly big shop and I'm now stumped as to what to buy.

I do meal plan, but the plans are very transitory in nature.

How do you all plan your monthly big shop to ensure you're not popping back every other day for stuff you've forgotten or indeed run out of early.

This subreddit is for honest and practical waste-reduction, debt reduction, budgeting, saving, fix-it-up, and do-it-yourself.

We tolerate you posting vouchers and discounts, as long as as it's a genuine one, you're not profiting from it, and everyone gets to use it.

This subreddit has 120,000 users - if you post a discount or coupon code that can only be used by one person, then you're spamming 119,999 users of this subreddit. They didn't need to see the message and your post is wasting their time.

Same goes for begging for referral codes, in case that isn't obvious.

This is not Facebook - the posts you make here should be useful and helpful to people.

I have found out that direct trains are expensive, but if I take a stop at Crewe and switch, I can save about half for ticket prices. Are there other routes that are like this?

Hello,

I’d appreciate if someone who’s on Asda rewards but not using the celebrations tub coupon to please DM me the screenshot?

Just trying to stock up for Christmas… please and thank you :)

I recently bought a emporio armani ar2448 watch but I don't know if it is real. I've looked everywhere to see if it's real but I don't know. I've seen the exact same watch with the same serial number so I'm skeptical it is fake but I don't know. Is it a legit website?

Looking for best mobile phone sim deal. Would need about 10gb of data. Don't mind if it is pay as you go or contract. Phone will only be used in the uk

Anytime I make online purchases or book travel, I tend to scour a couple cashback sites or use Virgin Red to see if I can rack up points.

I tend to use Complete Savings; Rakuten (they've got a handy Google Chrome extension) or TopCashback.

I find that although Complete Savings charge £18 per month, they have a monthly bonus of £18 + some pretty decent cashback deals so it pays for itself each month for me.

Does anyone know of any other high paying cashback portals? So far Complete Savings is the highest paying I've seen.

TopCashback is generally slow with their tracking and also hit and miss so I try to avoid.

I used to spend £20 a week at Lidl by stocking up on rice, noodles, pasta, lentils and a family pack of bacon. This year I discovered I can't eat carbs (including potato, too much cauliflower or carrots, etc), dairy or red meat. I'm in agony if I do! The cost of white meat (family sized chicken thighs and breast), fish (one pack of salmon) and veg has raised the bill to £40 a week because I need to bulk my meals with extra veg. Is there anything I can do to half it?

So I’m feeling the pinch when it comes to the food shop. We used to shop at Aldi/Lidl but the meat became super gristly, fruit/veg would go out of date quick and we ended up doing “top up” shops during the week. Moved onto Hello Fresh who kept giving us discounted boxes/free boxes until that ended (got us through the newborn stage well though). I now have a 1 year old so have been avoiding going to the supermarkets in person as she now hates the trolley and it’s a fight to keep her content longer than 10 minutes. So I’ve been doing online food shops and we love it. Have been doing Ocado as I got blue light discount on a couple shops with free deliveries for 6 months. This has now ended and I’m looking for alternatives. I don’t mind paying a little more to get better quality.

Is it possible to do the rounds on all online supermarket deliveries getting their discounts and then moving onto the next? Am I missing a trick in getting better vouchers? Or is in person shopping going to be most cost effective?

Had some 30% and 60% off orange stickered stuff today. At self service I noticed the first 60% off I scanned only discounted 50%. Told the guy and he told me it's now changed. 60% is now only 50% off and 30% is now only 20% off. BUT they don't have new stickers yet. But they've already updated the tills. So be careful if you're store still has 30% and 60% stickers. The price on them is wrong and you'll pay more.

Seems a bit dodgy of Lidl tbh.

How many people have gone through the manned checkouts and not noticed.

Hi. I am looking to reduce monthly spending, and can see that one of the biggest expenditures is groceries (family of four). What is harder, is to analyse what exactly that spending is going on.

I am going to collect receipts and plug detail in a spreadsheet. However, does anyone know a free (or cheap) app that can scan and read the receipt, and help with this? Basically putting different lines into categories? It will make it more likely I keep it up than if I have to do manual data entry.

Also, shame on the supermarkets for not providing this capability as part of their loyalty programs. They analyse my spending for their purpose, they could easily give the data to me for mine.

EDIT TO ADD: I possibly didn't make my purpose fully clear. I am wanting to put the basket items in a spreadsheet so that I can see how much of my spending is going on what items. As a lot of £2 items can add up very quickly.

I have been speaking with the Meaco sales team back and forth via email, and it's like pulling teeth getting any information from these guys about their product, which is frankly astonishing.

Aside from telling me they have no energy data for the 18L version (Costco exclusive), they cannot answer any questions about their app and compatibility with other smart home products.

Here's a quote: "Regarding your smart home question and Matter compatibility, we do not have a list of products/services that currently integrate with our app."

So I'm wondering, can any users explain what the app is actually capable of, and if you can connect to other smart home services or eco systems? I am aware you can use Alexa/Google Home speakers for voice control commands, so I would assume that surely must be able to do more? Any explanation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I hold things back from my week shop like milk and go to waitrose on my lunch break so I get a free latte

I take a disposable cup as I don't like cleaning and also thinking to start taking hot chocolate powder in a key chain accessory as I like mocha's

Does anyone know why there are two Trustpilot pages for Ziffit which are so wildly different? One with 1 star reviews and one with 4 and 5 star reviews?

I've made the mistake of packaging up all my books to sell then seeing a bunch of reviews on the 1 star page that says Ziffit often takes the books, doesn't pay out or send the books back. Now I'm trying to decide whether to (and how!?) to cancel.

Does anyone have good or bad experiences with them?

I begrudge having to pay £53pm for Sky, when the only channels we actually want is sky sports for the football for me and the F1, which my wife loves. Having Sky isn’t frugal at all obviously, but wondering if there’s a cheaper way. Last time I looked at NowTV, looked like it was only a couple of quid difference. Thanks!

Does anyone know somewhere (other than Amazon) where I can buy proper wool socks for less than £6 a pair? Preferably shops I can go to in person as I can't stand some wool products and don't want to be trying to organise returns. I know Adapt Outdoors has some at 2 for £10 for brightly coloured ones, but is there anywhere else? I don't have £30+ that I can justify spending on socks when I need at least 6 pairs.