Shopaholic? Me?

I travelled recently and like thousands if not millions of people had cancelled flights – both ways. What really irked me was the fact that we thought we had protection but all we can get from our insurance is £20 for a “delay” despite the fact we had to buy new flights both ways and at an exhorbitant cost. At least term life insurance is a bit more basic and you shouldn’t be so easily screwed off. They have to pay at the end of the term or if you die! Just don’t stop paying or you lose everything cover and whatever you paid to date, but as I said better than travel insurance that you have to keep your mind at rest and then find out the worst!

A while back we decided to save up any money we would have spent on health insurance as a medical fund (in case we get sick). You know, we were playing the odds that we will maintain good health. What my hubby was not counting on was my dipping into the fund to go er shopping for Christmas. Hubby was not too pleased to say the least. Perhaps we should have gone with low cost health insurance rather than our savings. Well… as I said… better than a loan especially in the current financial economic situation.

Apparently it makes sense to double check your insurance online before renewing your annual subscription. The reality is that even if you renew with your own insurers, you might still make savings by checking it as a new customer rather than simply renew. I must say I am grateful to my brother for noticing that it makes sense to check, as every year we make savings just by checking our insurance quote. You would think that loyalty would count for something… but apparently not. And personally I also think that “no claim bonus discounts” are an excuse to over charge people… but that is just my opinion.

Since my post Helping Aids, I have been advised that people can apply for social security disability benefits which can help go towards the extra costs linked to disabilities. There are companies that can help you apply for the benefits or you can head to social services for advice.

I think it is great that you can get financial help for disabilities. My only fear is abuse of the system, but that is always bound to happen with benefits. People try to abuse where they can and as a tax payer, I obviously object to the abuse. I think I will just go shopping to take my mind off the fact that there is a bad side to life too!!

It is amazing how much you can save when you compare prices. Take my dad, he decided to compare life insurance and it actually saved him a small bundle. The thing is that, this is something you buy every year and so in essence you are saving that amount every year. It quickly adds up. Now if you compare your insurances every year and manage to get it further reduced every year, then you know you are saving lots of money to spend on other things. Cool Huh!

Now what should I spend them on?

Talking about travel, the one thing I truely believe in is having travel insurance. First of all if the worst happens at least you are covered and not stranded in some strange country. Trust me, I have been robbed in Amsterdam, sick in Hong Kong (food poisoning), and lost luggages in many a country!!

At least if you have insurance and either keep the receipts or have proof of all your purchases (credit card bill), then perhaps you stand a chance of being able to replace all your goodies. I know I would have been devastated if after my trip to Milan I lost all my shoes. Mind you my favourite pairs did travel in my handluggage to prevent them getting lost!! Still the thought of another trip to replace them would be of some condolence!

The important bit is having enough insurance. I mean having a £300 lost luggage allowance when it was a Louis Vuitton Bag and Manolo shoes simply won’t cover it. So do your bit and trawl for insurance quotes before choosing one. Last but not least… if you travel more than once a year, annual insurance is always a better financial option.

I can already feel it. The island of man is gearing up for the TT. Roads are being maintained, signs are being put up, there are adverts for motorcycle accident attorneys (which come in really useful especially for Mad Sunday) and people are already having trouble finding accomodation for the duration. The best bit about it is there is a buzz in the air. The place becomes alive with activity. Shops open solely for the 2 week period of TT (and some stay open for the summer too if we are lucky). It is a wonderful time around the TT in the Isle of Man. Now if it were only like that the whole year round. I heard it used to be in a time when it was popular to holiday at home!

I just wanted to advise you about taking precaustions with travel health insurance. My sister bought some annual insurance from Easyjet only to find out it only covers easyjet flights. So her easyjet flight was delayed and she missed her connecting flight which was non easyjet. And we don’t think she is covered. We need to fight it out.. but we are not holding our breathe. So make sure you read the t&c’s to be prepared for everything because there is nothing worse than being under insured. It wasn’t any cheaper than other insurances, so it was really easy to assume that is was annual travel insurance with all travel. Obviously not the case. At least now you have been enlightened.

Marks & Sparks as it is sometimes affectionately known is a well known huge department store. They are in my list of favourite shops.

You can say that Marksies is split into quite a few departments but mainly they do:-

• Clothing (Men, Women, Children & Babies) and Lingerie
• Footwear / Shoes (Men, Women & Children)
• School wear / uniforms
• Gifts & Flowers
• Books
• Toys
• Technology
• Garden, House & Home
• Furniture & Furnishings
• Wine
• Insurances
• Costume Jewellery
• Holiday Shop
• Technology

Both their quality and prices are really reasonable.

Their grocery section has a vast range of delicacies at reasonable prices. They also have ordinary food too. The biggest drawback is they generally tend to sell their own range only. For example they will only sell their own brand water, which is not particularly good. But over all the rest of the items are better than the average supermarket. However you cannot get groceries online presently. You have to go in store to buy them. Its well worth a visit. You can find an M&S on almost every high street.

They now offer Free delivery on orders over £30.00.

They have a loyalty scheme called the “& More”. It is credit card based. The more you spend, the more you earn in rewards to spend back at M&S. Its not a bad rewards scheme and you can use the card elsewhere to earn rewards for M&S.

 

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CIS specialises in UK motor insurance. They offer their customers different discounts on their insurance including the following:-

• standard no claims bonus discount of up to 70% depending on how many years of no claims you have
• booking online discount of 10%
• an introductory discount of 25% if you do not have any no claims discount

Their key benefits include:-

• Courtesy Car
• 24 hour emergency help line
• Europe Cover
• Legal Advice Helpline
• Uninsured loss recovery service
• Recovery of vehicle
• Up to £250 medical expenses
• Up to £250 personal belongings covered

To top it off, they claim to have a rapid claim settlement. Definitely worth a quote.