Gareth Rubin
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Don't pay for stuff: the secrets to winning competitions
Filed under: Competitions, Freebies and Bargains
Why work for a living when you can just win everything you need? Pretty much all the things you will ever need in life - and some you won't - are being given away by someone, somewhere. You can win houses, cars, holidays, money, lawnmowers or even a year's supply of chocolate hob-nobs, so long as you know how to go about it. What's more, even if you don't want the prizes, you can always sell them for cold, hard cash on Ebay.
Smokers and the overweight benefit from special pensions
Filed under: Retirement
If you smoke or are overweight, it's worth knowing that your unhealthy habits could help you net a much bigger retirement income. Smokers and people with weight problems - shocked into action by plummeting pension annuity rates - are rushing to buy into specialist pension schemes designed for their requirements because they offer much better payouts. And you need to do the same to avoid missing out.
Poundland's secrets revealed - what to buy
Filed under: Freebies and Bargains, Food and Drink, Families
Poundland and the 99p Stores are the new giants of the high street. Like glittering Aladdin's caves, they tempt you in with their simple pricing structure and the promise of bargains undreamed of – mostly because you had no idea you even needed half the stuff you come out with.
Should we eat the Queen's swans to cut the national debt?
Filed under: Weird and Wonderful, Emergency Budget
At some point today, the government will start reading all your suggestions for cutting the national debt.More than 100,000 ideas have been submitted, many of which are sensible suggestions such as auctioning off the Queen's swans for meat or making prisoners run on treadmills connected to the National Grid to generate power. A bit like gerbils in a dynamo.
Sleeping with the boss helps your career, new study shows
Filed under: Work & Careers, Weird and Wonderful
If you're not getting on at work, there's one surefire way to boost your chances of getting that promotion: Sleep with your boss. If you are male, it helps, but if you are female it REALLY helps, according to new research. And almost two fifths of office workers say that employees who have gone in for a bit of ooh la la with the boss, have come out the other end with a step up the career ladder.
Electric cars more expensive to run than petrol models?
Filed under: Travel, Technology and Online
If you are thinking about buying an electric car, be warned: it may cost more to run than a petrol machine. Britons are about to get the chance to order the Nissan Leaf, which Nissan says will be the world's first mass-produced electric car. Nissan says the Leaf's running costs will be as low as 1p per mile. But the BBC reports that it has been given figures from rival car company Mitsubishi saying that, over three years, it could be cheaper to run a petrol car.
Charities missing out as fees for "chuggers" wipe out donations
Filed under: Families
If you give money to charity through chuggers – "charity muggers" – the money you give will often go entirely to the street collection company. An investigation by Newsnight has found that the professional chugger companies frequently charge the charities employing them £100 or more for each member of the public who signs up in the street or on his doorstep to a direct debit. This means the firms make tens of millions each year, but it often takes a year before the charity sees any of it – the rest has gone to the chugger firm.
Could you hire out your sofa, car, driveway...?
Filed under: Entrepreneur, Families
We all know that if you have a spare room you can take in a lodger to make some extra cash. But there are a number of other things you can hire out to raise the dough without having any real impact on your life.Rent your floorspace
First, you may not want a full-time lodger, but you could offer your spare room, sofa or even a bit of floor space to some cheap travellers for a few days. The website Crashpadder means you can advertise what you have and see if anyone wants it. You won't be able to demand five-star prices, but it could be a bit of fun and you will make some cash at the end of the day.
Will your holiday operator collapse?
Filed under: Travel, Insurance
You could be left stranded on holiday this year because another 20 tour operators could collapse. Recently, Goldtrail, Kiss Flights/Flight Options and Sun4U have on gone bust, and more will follow, say experts.Nick Hood from business rescue specialist Begbies Traynor, said: "We will see a significant number of additions to the list as we progress into the autumn.
Self-service checkouts make queues longer
Filed under: Food and Drink
Those self-service supermarket checkouts we all have so much joy in using, often result in longer queues – not to mention near-lethal check-out rage when the damn things bleat about "unexpected item in the bagging area" and the need to "call member of staff".Research shows that queues at the staffed checkouts often get longer when the self-service (cost-cutting) tills are introduced.
