RENEWAL RIP OFF

I hate paying full price for anything. If there’s a discount code I can use to save myself even a few pence I’ll use it. I always shop online thru’ cashback sites like Quido or Topcashback to maximise my savings. It’s not like I’m tight or anything but as Tesco says ‘Every little helps’ and its better being in my pocket than theirs!

So, I just had my home contents insurance renewal thru’ from Budget. My initial thought was ‘Wow, that’s a jump’. Last years premium £124.72, this years £163.70, well I wasn’t going to take that on the chin was I? I did a bit of homework first (thank you Compare the Market) where the top 3 quotes ranged from £115.45 (Dial Direct) to £136.53 ((Post Office) and I also did a quote with Saga (seeing that I’m now in the 50’s club) and that came in at £119.20

With my homework done, I rang Budget to say I’d regretfully be taking my custom elsewhere and I was asked if I wanted them to check to see if they could do anything, of course I said yes (I know how it works) but I was amazed at how fast ‘Henry’ came back with a new figure after ‘discount’ £112.82

£50.88 saved in about 15 seconds!!!!

Which is all great BUT why the hell don’t they just do that at the start, becos’ now I’m annoyed that if I hadn’t rang up, I’d have renewed and paid £50.88 more than I should have. Why don’t insurers just give you the best price from the get go??? Reward loyalty for a change instead of penalising it!

It is one of my BIGGEST bug bears with insurers, even more so becos’ I know damn fine, as do they, that the older generation for the most part, don’t know they can shop around for cheaper quotes, believing loyalty is key and end up being the ones most susceptible to being ripped off!!!

And I say that with experience as my Mum and Dad were massively ripped off by a big banking name (who’s name I won’t divulge at this present time, as they are currently being investigated by the banking ombudsman following my complaint). I estimate they were ripped off to the tune of £2K between 2011 and 2016 on home buildings insurance! My parents were told in 1977 that they had to take out buildings insurance with their mortgage lender, in order to secure their mortgage. They thought they had to stay with the same insurer, believed that loyalty paid and not being computer savvy, had never heard of ‘shopping around’, so had probably been ripped off for 34 years prior to that also.

Rest assured, once I have the conclusion from the ombudsman, I’ll be going public with the full tale and shaming them BIG TIME as they are ripping off the most vulnerable in society. My parents, your parents, your grandparents!

But for today, I’m happy that I’ve saved £50.88 this year with a quick phone call…..how much else can I save this year????

John Lewis – Price Match Pain

I like John Lewis. I’ve bought a few electrical items from them and when I have, I have always been impressed with both their customer service and pricing. That was until this week……

I ordered an iPad on behalf of my Mum, it was £319 on John Lewis’ website on Sunday 6 January 2019 but it was only £299 at Argos, Curry’s and Amazon on that same day. I rang John Lewis’ customer services to ask about their price match promise under their ‘Never knowingly undersold’ policy. I was told to go ahead and buy the iPad and then submit a price match request and they’d refund the difference once verified.

So I did just that. Within half an hour of purchasing the iPad from John Lewis and submitting a price match request with link to Argos’ website, I had an email confirming that the price match request had been agreed and that once the iPad was received and I was happy with it, I was to respond to the email and they would refund the difference.

I did that yesterday and was rather taken aback when I received an email stating that they couldn’t refund as the price of the iPad is now £319 at Argos, making it the same price as John Lewis. So the price had gone up BUT when I purchased the iPad, it was £299 on Argos’ website, they’d agreed the price match, so HOW could they turn round days later and refuse to pay it?

I said as much when I replied and even sent screenshots of both Argos and Curry’s websites, taken on Sunday 6 January 2019, only to receive a second email refusing to refund and they couldn’t accept the screenshots as they couldn’t verify their authenticity!!!

I was absolutely incensed. I rang customer services and explained the situation and asked how they can agree to a price match refund one day, tell me to contact them once item received and then because competitor price had increased in the meantime, refuse to honour their agreement? The chap I spoke to agreed with me and said they couldn’t go back on something already agreed. I suggested he go back to the 2 customer service agents who had both done a U turn on what was originally promised and tell them that. I got my refund.

Result….but I had to jump thru’ hoops to get it, I shouldn’t have had to and its left quite a sour taste in my mouth if I’m honest. Why offer a price match promise if you are going to move the goalposts when someone calls you on it? Disappointing customer service from the one company I thought would offer the best.

Get your act together Vodafone

I’ve been with Vodafone for years….I was actually one of their first personal contract customers when they launched the Christmas Cracker campaign in the run up to Christmas 1994 (I was working at Vodac in Newbury at the time), which gave me a Nokia mobile phone the size of my handbag!  However, I digress….just take my word for it, that I’m a long-standing loyal customer.

At upgrade time I’ve generally managed to get a decent deal by shopping around first and then asking to be put thru’ to Retentions and Upgrades to secure a discounted deal that’s competitive (As a rule, Vodafone are expensive compared to their nearest competitors).  The only issue with this, being that they agree a discount and then it’s never applied and you have to ring up to sort it out.  If you’re lucky, it gets sorted.  If you’re unlucky you’re told it’s been sorted and discover later that it hasn’t, resulting in another phone call, having to go thru’ the entire issue again.

Recently my eldest was having ongoing problems with his Sony mobile which was still in contract until October 2019, he’d decided that enough was enough and wanted a new phone.  He found one he wanted and  I rang Vodafone to ask how much it would cost to terminate his contract early.  I was told he could have a courtesy upgrade  if he paid £85 but with a £29 upfront handset cost and only 16gb data compared to no upfront handset cost and 50gb data for just £3 more a month, 02 had more to offer.

Vodafone were unwilling to discount their package or waive the upfront handset cost, as it was a courtesy upgrade which was fair enough.  So my son opted to cancel contract, pay it off and take out a new contract elsewhere, which he did but both he and I were contacted several times by Vodafone saying they didn’t want us to leave.  You had your chance, you blew it, move on and stop hassling!

The price given to end contract was £141 (his money, his choice, not mine) but when I went into Live Chat the following day I was told it was £241 😳😳😳 when I argued the cost vehemently I was told it was actually £111 however when I was put thru’ to Cancellations I was told it was £140 and that cancellation charges provided by customer services were ‘approximate’ and ‘may vary’….by £100?????  By £30????

Cancellations said they were sorry, the price of £140 was correct however as I’d been misinformed, I was to go back to customer services to have the difference in price credited.  This was easier said than done and I had to be put thru’ to a manager to have this agreed.  I was told the credit had been applied and THAT should have been the end of the story, it had only taken TWO hours to sort.  Alas, it wasn’t the end of the story, when I went online to check my next bill amount I could see immediately that no credit had been applied so back to Live Chat I went this morning.

The fact that I was able to quote date and time of my last Live Chat and confirm I had a copy of the chat transcript, meant there couldn’t be any dispute over what was said/agreed (something I’ve come to hate about Vodafone).  My agent today was able to clarify that the credit hadn’t been applied by previous agent, but they had applied it there and then.  Time will tell if it has, I’ll probably find out when they take their direct debit next week.  God help them if it hasn’t.

I’ve already emailed Ofcom regarding the 3 differing charges and the ‘approximate’ and ‘may vary’ comments, none of which were advised at time of asking for cancellation charges and I sincerely hope they investigate, as I believe they are conjuring figures from thin air and ripping customers off.  I’ve also emailed a complaint to Vodafone today and advised them that come renewal time for our 3 remaining contracts, I’ll be certainly looking elsewhere as I hate feeling that I’m being ripped off.

My advice is deal with them via Live Chat and have the chat transcript emailed to you, you’ve then got it in black and white, what was said and what was agreed thus your back is covered.

Thomas Cook – There’s Economy and then there’s ECONOMY!

We recently flew to Orlando International from Manchester Airport with Thomas Cook.  We flew Economy so I wasn’t expecting the lap of luxury however, given it was a 9 hour flight, I really did expect some level of comfort.  I expected but didn’t get!

Since when was it deemed acceptable to stick a bog standard shorthaul plane seat on a longhaul plane?  No extra width.  No extra padding.  Yeah, the seat pitch was better but that was it!  Expecting your customers to sit in one of these seats for 9 hours, is barbaric.  I’ve sat in similar seats going to Zante, which on a 4.5 hour flight, is passable but 9 hours?  No way.

The ‘free’ entertainment consisted of about 5 ancient films, leaving very little option other than to upgrade to ‘premium’ entertainment.  Believe me, there wasn’t anything Premium about it, probably 90% of the films on offer were old and the fact that you had to pay a fiver for the privilege, just added insult to injury.  Tui don’t charge and Virgin Atlantic don’t charge, so why Thomas Cook think it’s acceptable to charge customers extra for pitiful entertainment on a 9 hour flight, is beyond me,

The flight out to Orlando was the longest 9 hours of my life and I wasn’t looking forward to the return flight one bit.  Thankfully it was a night flight, which meant I could sleep altho’ that is more down to the fact I purchased 2 travel cushions in Orlando and took a Night Nurse prior to boarding!

Upon bringing my complaint to Thomas Cook, I was asked if I’d asked the crew for assistance with my seat issue during the flight, apparently they may have been able to help!!!  I don’t see how.  I wasn’t aware that cabin crew were also experienced upholsterers, able to increase the comfort of seats mid-air!!  No Thomas Cook, just sort your seats out and provide a bit of comfort.

I do plan on returning to Orlando however, I don’t plan on ever travelling longhaul with Thomas Cook again, I don’t think my back and hips would ever forgive me if I did.

The Great Travel Insurance Rip Off

You’ve booked your holiday but have you booked your Travel Insurance?  Travel Insurance is a must for any traveller, we’ve all heard the horror stories of the uninsured who have taken ill or had an accident whilst on holiday and had to pay thousands and thousands of pounds to get medical treatment.  We’ve also heard the horror stories of the insured, that omitted to declare pre-existing conditions and ended up paying thousands and thousands to get medical treatment because insurance companies refused to pay up.  It’s really not worth taking a chance.

The majority of us take out Travel Insurance when we book our holiday – we know enough now, to know that we don’t have to take out the policies offered by tour operators (usually at vastly inflated prices) and we can shop around and use various price comparison sites like ComparetheMarket.com to get the right level of cover at the right price.  Generally speaking it’s not that costly, if you have no pre-existing medical conditions and are travelling within Europe but adding a few medical conditions and a trip to the USA, can send your premiums soaring to ridiculous heights!

Take my Mum, 76 years young with several medical conditions (including heart and respiratory), wanting to go visit her Grandaughter in the USA.  We knew travel insurance was going to be costly but seriously, some of the quotes we got were so high, I thought I might have to sell one of my kidneys!  Talk about eye watering!  Mum wasn’t wanting to move out there, for Christ’s sake.

When we started looking several months ago, Avanti Insurance were actually the cheapest at almost £800 (a 20% discount code made this policy sound worthwhile until I discovered the 20% was applied to the base price without medical conditions) but with 2 recent conditions added that jumped to around £1200

Still not the highest quote….That award goes to ‘Good to Go Insurance’ who came up with the unbelievable premium of £3512, which when you consider it only had a 1 star Defaqto rating, was astounding!  Makesure Travel Insurance came in second at £2814 with 3 stars and in third place was Insure and Go’s policy which would set you back the princely sum of £2636…….see what I mean about making your eyes water!

The lowest quote I could find (and believe me I spent eleventy billion hours filling in eleventy trillion questions on eleventy gazillion (okay, slight exaggeration) Travel Insurance websites), was from SAGA who unlike the others, wasn’t charging a premium in excess of the cost of the trip.  Okay, £764 for an 11 night trip is still an eye watering amount, but it offered the right levels of cover, has 5 star Defaqto rating AND covers all pre-existing conditions.  So we are good to go…..Nana is going to see her Grandaughter for the first time in 6 months and God willing we won’t need to put the insurance to the test.

It really does grind my gears, that there is such big difference between lowest and highest premium.  I can’t help but wonder if the ridiculous quotes were ridiculous on purpose, so you didn’t choose them for cover as they thought it was too big a risk?  Or are some people actually paying that without questioning or shopping around?  Quite probably the latter, as the older generation generally aren’t computer savvy so if you’ve got an elderly relative who likes to travel, offer to search for the bets deal possible. Whatever the reason, Travel Insurance for the elderly with pre-existing medical conditions, is an absolute minefield and there is no doubt in my mind, that the majority of travel insurance companies are on the make big time.

My advice is:

• Shop around – I found prices fluctuated DAILY, which I don’t really understand at all.
• Try comparison sites but also try insurers directly as sometimes you’ll get it cheaper.
• Look for promotional discounts (several 10% off promotional codes came thru’ a few days after I’d completed and saved quotes with insurers.
• Specific health conditions eg heart and cancer, may have a list of insurers you can use (see below)*

*British Heart Foundation had an online leaflet about insurers who were willing to insure those who have or have had, heart conditions which on the whole I found very helpful.  They may need to give it an overhaul tho’ as ‘Able 2 Travel’ (who are in said leaflet), stated at the start of the quote, that they will NOT cover for ‘any condition relating to any heart related condition including angina, stroke, mini stroke or lung condition’ so I’m not quite sure WHY they are included in a leaflet aimed at those with such conditions!

*UPDATE* Holiday went ahead without any medical mishaps which got me to thinking, why don’t Travel insurers offer a partial refund if you don’t make a claim?

 

Lost my PATIENCE – Take That concert ticket fiasco!

 

Ohhh the excitement of discovering that Take That would be appearing at the Riverside Stadium in the Boro (my hometown) in June 2019 AND supported by none other than Rick Astley!  Whooo!  The excitement was fuelled further by the discovery of the Take That Offical Store, which announced that anyone pre-ordering the new album ‘Odyssey’ would get a pre-sale code which would give fans the opportunity to purchase concert tickets, 48 hours before general release on Friday 28 September.  CD album was duly ordered and pre-sale code received.

Big sis was at her computer for 9.30am when ticket sales opened on See Tickets website, only to endure half an hour of hell as tickets disappeared from her basket, cheaper tickets selling out in milliseconds, getting more tickets in basket only for them to disappear again…and again….and again, then there was the unspecified error messages resulting in NO TICKETS!!!  And then it said the pre-sale code had already been used to buy tickets (it hadn’t).  Frustrated doesn’t even cover it.

So I tried a bit later, tickets were available, more expensive tickets but I managed to get them and managed to pay for them, which was a result.  Then I got the email ticket confirmation and was FUMING….a charge of £2.50 Transaction fee, which is fair enough but EIGHT POUNDS BLOODY FIFTY PENCE per ticket booking fee, when I’ve got to print the chuffing things out myself at home, using MY printer ink and paper, is a flaming cheek if you ask me!!! £34 for doing nothing, zilch, nada, barring increasing my blood pressure!

And then I have a look on Viagogo and all the greedy shits are on there already, selling the tickets they bought a few hours previously, at vastly inflated prices!  The most expensive tickets on See Tickets were £108 (which to be frank I think is ridiculous, especially when there was NO seating plan, therefore not even a hint of where the stage is going to be, to gauge what your view will be like from chosen seats!  Imagine paying £108 and still needing a set of binos to see the stage!  Anyhoo I digress, the tickets that were sold for between £60 and £108, were being resold for between £137 and £476 EACH on a Viagogo, which is pure greed and quite frankly, obscene, stopping genuine fans from getting their hands on tickets unless they’ve got more money than sense.

And I’ll place a bet that Ticketmaster will be selling Platinum tickets at over inflated prices too, come Friday (just as they did with Shawn Mendes Glasgow tickets) when tickets go on general sale, under the guise of best seats in the house which from experience is a load of bollix….been there, done that and learned the hard way that their idea of best seats in the house, differed considerably to mine!

Ed Sheeran got it right….he pulled out all the stops to stop this happening to fans and it’s about time more artists and promoters did the same.  In this day and age there should be some software program that can be used to locate tickets being resold on secondary sites for profit, cancel them and release them back on sale at face value, so that genuine fans have a fighting chance of getting tickets.  As for Viagogo, it needs to GOGO!!!

 

 

When is an OPTIONAL admin fee not optional?

The last time I checked the dictionary, the word ‘OPTIONAL’ meant voluntary, not compulsory, not mandatory….in other words “Left to one’s choice”.  Unless of course you are an Evans Halshaw franchised car dealer, in which case the word ‘OPTIONAL’  takes on a whole new meaning!

To cut a long story short, our family car was written off after some eejit thought our car was wearing an invisibility cloak and pulled straight into the side of us whilst travelling at 60mph.  Thankfully, no serious injuries to us or the other party but as our car was 10 years old, it was deemed uneconomical to repair and was duly written off by our insurance company.  We needed to find a new family car and fast so I was a woman on a mission.

We visited eleventy billion car dealerships, looked at eleventy trillion cars, after searching what felt like eleventy gazillion websites before finding the one car that would fit 3 teens and a dog in, comfortably and within budget.  We found the car at Evans Halshaw, the ‘UK’s leading automotive retailer’ and barely noticed the little white square sticker on the windscreen if I’m honest.  It certainly wasn’t brought to our attention after the test drive by the salesman but we did spot the sticker on other cars as we were leaving and had a cursory read of it.  I’ll be honest, I completely missed the bit that said ‘OPTIONAL’ and thought it was a ‘must have’ until later that evening and the only reason I checked, was because there is not ONE single solitary reference to this admin fee on Evans Halshaw’s website, which I thought was a bit strange.

Like hell was I going to pay £99 for a vehicle status check (basically a HPI check) when I could do it myself for the princely sum of £20, so when I rang the dealership the following morning to say we wanted the car and could put a deposit on it, the salesman gave me a total figure which included the £99 admin fee and I told him I didn’t want to pay it.   He clearly wasn’t accustomed to having this admin fee questioned or declined.  I had to ask if I HAD to pay the admin fee or was it optional.  He replied optional and blustered away.  £99 for nothing as don’t tell me they haven’t run a HPI check on them before they stick them on the forecourt.  So, I said “In that case, I choose not to pay it” and that’s when I was told they’d have to check with the Business Manager first!!!  So it’s not optional then??

Confused,  I rang Evans Halshaw head office and was told that whether the £99 admin fee was charged or not, was down to individual dealerships.  I rang Evans Halshaw, Cramlington and was told it was optional and I didn’t have to pay it.  Leeds told me it was optional too but that they ADVISED that it is paid.  So I was kind of armed with ammo by the time the salesman rang back.  Before saying Yay or Nay, he asked me did I want their servicing and MOT package?  NO.  Did I want their gap insurance?  NO.  Having exhausted himself trying and failing to get me to buy a vast array of over priced add ons, he told me that the Business Manager had agreed to waive the admin fee.  Whoopyflamingdoo!   That was big of him!  So basically I was made to jump thru’ hoops to get this bloody admin fee taken off my invoice, that was supposedly optional in the first place.

I have some advice for Evans Halshaw….if you want your customers to cover this £99 fee, then either add it onto the cost of the car on the forecourt/saleroom OR make the admin fee compulsory to all, advertise the fact that you charge it and have it highlighted on each vehicle advert, as some other used car companies too.  The whole optional/not optional experience has left a bitter taste in my mouth.  No one likes to feel that they are being ripped off and that, I’m afraid to say, that I feel that’s EXACTLY what is going on here.

Losing my mind over the Menopause!

I am officially IN the menopause as opposed to peri-menopausal (it’s all very confusing).  There was no fanfare to herald this new chapter of my life, just the non arrival of the dreaded monthly curse for 18 months.  Have I missed them?  Why, not likely!!

I seem, so far, to have missed the worst of the symptoms.  Yes, I’ve had the odd hot flush but thankfully seem to have missed out the night sweats (and in the case of a friend, day sweats too) which I’m very grateful for.  My hair has gone thinner, but then I never had thick hair in the first place so I can’t say it’s very noticeable.  I try to combat the thin-ness by using Plantur 39 shampoo which I have to say, is the ONLY shampoo I’ve been able to use for the last year or so, that doesn’t make my hair feel and look like straw.

There are only two flies in my menopausal ointment……the first is the worst I think.  The testosterone fuelled chin hairs….well, I say chin hairs, it’s more like a full on beard and the moustache ain’t bad either.  I’d give Michael Finnegan a run for his money and I’m pretty sure if I gave up on the waxing and plucking, I could don a red suit at Christmas and make a rather convincing Santa.  Ho Ho Ho.

Secondly, my brain seems to have done a runner, altho’ some will argue it was never there to begin with.  For example, most of the time I have absolutely no idea what is going to come out of my mouth.  Usually it’s something completely different to what I had planned to say, it’s like the wiring between my brain and mouth has short circuited. It mixes words up to make new ones….’par cark’ (Car park) is just one of MANY examples I could give.  It’s embarassing.  But not as embarassing as not being able to remember the name of an object, name or place when you are mid conversation and end up saying things like ‘thingy’, ‘whatsit’ or ‘Ermmmm Ermmmmm”etc etc.  I come across as really intelligent….not!!!

And then there’s the memory loss.  I swear to God, some days I think I’m starting with Alzheimer’s.  I can remember the lyrics to nigh on every song I liked in the 80’s teenage years,  I can remember the name of every holiday hotel and resort I’ve stayed in since 1971, yet I can walk into the kitchen and have absolutely NO idea what I’ve gone in there for.  I look around helplessly asking myself “What did I come in here for…..What did I come in here for”?  Sometimes I remember but most of the time I don’t, I walk out again and 5 minutes later I remember I was going to check the calendar or some such.

And don’t get me started on talking to myself….I have blown conversations AND arguments with no one but me.  Worst thing is talking to myself in the supermarket “Right, I need bread….where’s the bread aisle”?   I know I’m doing it, God knows I try hard not to do it, but sometimes it just slips out AND those bloody self serve tills don’t help in the slightest.  How many times I’ve had an argument with the damned things “I HAVE put the bloody bottle in the bagging area, for God’s sake” although I did have the wind taking out my sails a few weeks back in Poundland, when the self serve till started talking to me as Elvis.  I shit you not.

Anyhoo, I’ve decided that women get the shitty end of the stick and next time,  I’m coming back as a man……or a dog!

 

MEACO DEHUMIDIFIER

We live in a mid terrace house and for years now we’ve encountered bad condensation on windows, black mould on walls, mildew on clothes in our fitted wardrobe etc etc.  I blame cavity wall insulation which was fitted before we moved in, as it doesn’t allow the house to ‘breathe’.  We have trickle vents in all windows and 2 vent fans which are supposed to extract moisture (tho’ I cant say I’ve seen any evidence of that) so I’ll continue to blame the cavity wall insulation, which we are stuck with.

I invested in several Unibond Aero units a couple of years ago and was amazed at how much water they ‘attracted’ however the refills aren’t very cheap (about £6 for 2) so with winter looming, we decided to invest in an electric dehumidifier.  I did an awful lot of research before making a decision on which model to buy.  Following our involvement with LiveLAGOM, I knew that whatever model we chose, would need to be as low energy as possible as well as affordable in terms of the initial purchase price.

Meaco dehumidifiers seemed to be the best for energy costs and we settled on the 12L model which set us back £160 from Amazon.  That sounds a lot and it is, but we felt if it worked it would be a worthwhile investment.  It arrived the next day (thanks to Amazon Prime),  I plugged it in and off it went and I was absolutely amazed at how much water was in the tank 24 hours later!!  I’m having to empty the tank every day as it’s FULL (and that’s only running 16 hours a day).  No longer are our windows covered in condensation, no longer are our walls damp.

My only regret is that I didn’t buy the larger 20L model, at £240 we felt that perhaps it was a lot of money to waste if it didn’t work but the 12L has worked far better than we could ever have anticipated so it would have been a good investment.

LIVING LAGOM – THE END??

I can’t believe it’s time to submit our last blog, we are at the end of our Live LAGOM project and it doesn’t feel like 6 months since we started!  What a fantastic experience it has been, we are so grateful that we were chosen to take part and would like to say Thank You for giving us such an amazing opportunity!

I think we spent the very generous £300 given to us, wisely….certainly we’ve put everything we purchased to good use.   I believe our purchases have helped us considerably with food waste, reducing our energy consumption and being more organised.

As of writing, we haven’t received an up to date energy bill so I’m unable to show a reduction in our energy usage which I had hoped to do.  As I mentioned in my last blog, our monthly energy direct debit HAD increased, however this was more to do with the winter months and the fact I’d come to the end of a MSE Collective Fix and there wasn’t a comparable tariff, I opted for the next best tariff but our monthly payment had still increased quite dramatically.  It’s not all about money tho’, I am quite confident that when our next bill does land, we will see a reduction in both electric and gas usage and that’s what’s most important I think.

We are continuing to use all of our purchases, with the exception of the Bellahare bottles.  They just didn’t work for us which was rather disappointing however I have purchased bottles elsewhere and touch wood, they are working well, so we are still keeping empty water bottles out of the recycling chain.

My TOP 3 purchases are:

1. Storhogen battery charger and batteries,which has resulted in us not having to buy any single use batteries in the last 6 months!
2. Kallax unit which has totally transformed my daughter’s bedroom, making it more organised and allows her to get her sewing machine out for small projects.
3. Koppla adaptors which have 2 USB slots and 3 plugs, allows for better cable management and used with timer means we never charge items overnight any more.

I really enjoyed our first workshop on Cosy Homes/Save Energy, making a draught excluder with my daughter but unfortunately couldn’t make the second workshop due to other commitments.  It’s a shame there weren’t more workshops to attend, I thought there would be more as I’m sure there is so much more we could learn altho’ I’ve found the Live LAGOM Facebook page a great source of information and advice so not the end of the world.

I think that Live LAGOM would be great if it was opened up to schools….get children involved from an early age!  My children all attend Discovery School in Newcastle, a new STEM school and I think this project would be fantastic for them and other schools.  When we did our initial store visit  with my daughter, she was really impressed with the recycling and said that it would be the sort of thing her Product Design class would benefit from as they looked into sustainable packaging.  Perhaps this is something for the powers that be could look into, should the project go ahead for another year?

Going forward, we will continue to do what we have been doing for the last 6 months months, to be more aware of how our actions can not only impact our purses and wallets but also on our environment!

Going forward