Saved this Week: £1362       Total Saved this Year: £4439.40 (week 4)

Wasted this Week: £14                 Total Wasted this Year: £53 (week 4)

This week I made good use of my Shareholder Perks, with a saving of £40 @£40 on Premier Inn breakfasts as a Premier Inn Shareholder and £14 @£14 for being a Mitchells & Butlers Shareholder. The Premier Inn reception desk guy called me ‘sir’ after he saw my shareholders card which made me feel fancy even if he was disinclined to do it a second time whilst I was recording for the purposes of me looking like a baller on Tik-Tok.

Also it is the new ISA season, and I want to exploit that as soon as possible. Up to £20,000 per year can be put into a Stocks & Shares ISA, and you are only supposed to open one ISA per year… the former the government enforce, the latter they do not to the best of my understanding so …I am using Topcashback to open 3 regular saver ISA’s.

I do love these “Friendly Societies” made for the benefit of their members, they seem to be unencumbered by the need to make money (so they can give it to me). Less happily however they are also unencumbered by the ability to perform effectively, which I grant you is not unique amongst managed funds.

Foresters Friendly Society @£400

Scottish Friendly @£410

Shepherds Friendly @£350

I am picking the maximum regular saver amounts of £1000 per month which will take me over the £20,000 allowance if left over the course of the year however I plan on maintaining them for 4 months and then reducing the regular payments to zero until the cashback becomes available. Once I have cashback for all three of these ISA’s I am planning on merging them into a more suitable ISA held elsewhere as I do not find the way these societies operate transparent enough to know what I am investing in and how it is performing. I have some worries about the wording of the cashback conditions, but I am happy enough to ride it out and see what happens – I will retroactively update if things do not workout the way I hope they do.

Slightly more mundane ebay bargains are some Soft Play tickets (£8 for a voucher for three visits which would have otherwise cost me £48 @£48) and the cost of my beloved L'oreal Men Expert Hydra Energetic Moisturiser, which affords me the complexion of a 12-year-old Greek boy instead of that of a rhinoceros, has become mega expensive at £12ish per 100ml. I therefore bought £100 of the stuff through eBay in 20ml sample tube at £5.50 per 100ml saving £100 @£100. I am reliably and spontaneously informed by my most treasured acquaintances and strangers alike that I am not getting any younger after all.

Footnote: I believe the emotional intelligence of a 12-year-old that I am inflicted by is an unrelated pre-existing condition not caused by the moisturiser.

This week I didn’t use the right card when paying for dinner which cost me £14 @£14 as Halifax has a 20% cashback offer for Stonehouse carveries – if I had set up my Curve card <placeholder for Curve article> I could have retrospectively rectified this problem, serves me right.