Thrifty Thursday: Cutting motoring costs too

The Aldi super-six this week are cucumber, spring onions (100g), mixed chillies (80g), pointed cabbage, carrots (1Kg) and broccoli. They are all 39p this week.

The super six meat offers includes gluten free sausages. I’ll watch out for those. The Aldi stores where I live have all been reorganised. We were getting bad traffic jams between the seedless grapes and the minced turkey…  I couldn’t find anything on Monday when I went. They didn’t have any Banks’s mild either, but the bitter is OK and only 99p. They really need to space the meat section out a bit and clearly label the shelves so I can find things quickly.

Today’s special buys are mostly gardening tools, but there is some food items too. There’s a paving brush for 5.99, I need one of those…

The Sunday special buys includes paint brushes and gloss paint. I was thinking about doing a little painting, so I’ll check those out…

Running the car

Insurance and breakdown

Many finance sites tell you to shop around on the internet for car insurance quotes and other things, but I find comparison sites time consuming. My car insurance quote came this week and it was nearly £540 including breakdown cover. It has gone up the past few years and so it was time to shop around. I got a quote from the AA rather than Saga and it was the same company, but with free AA  membership. It took me an whole afternoon to do it, but I changed my home insurance to the AA too. Total savings were £290, which will help pay my credit card bill next month.

Tyres

I don’t drive more miles than I have to, so my car is lasting well. It will be due for it’s MOT in November and I had a warning on one tyre last year. I had one new tyre a few years ago and that’s good, so I checked the other three and I think they were all the original tyres. They were legal, but well worn and showing their age. I had all three changed today by Tyres on the Drive and the price seemed quite reasonable for Firestone tyres. I checked the reviews on some of the cheaper tyres and they don’t wear well and lose grip in the wet. I think we will continue to have more rain and we can expect ice and snow this winter. This is an investment in safety. I put them on my credit card and have money left over from paying my insurance to pay that and might even afford a new lens for my camera!

On the subject of cameras and camera lenses, I always shop around. The lens I want is very expensive and I can get it at almost half price if I shop around. I bought a 300mm lens not long ago that some retailers are selling for £400 for just £150. I put it on my credit card to get the legal protection; the lens was original and very good quality. I shall probably have the 105mm lens I want from the same supplier.

Don’t forget you can save money by buying used goods too. According to the Economist, it’s quite fashionable to use charity shops now. Some pensioners are using their bus passes to travel from deprived areas to posh areas to use their charity shops where the goods are better quality.

Have you found a bargain or a discount this week? Please share your finds with a comment. You can also follow me on Twitter.

I nearly forgot, if you have to shop at Tesco, check their bargains online first…

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