Zero-rated for VAT

In the UK there are three VAT (Value Added Tax) rates. The standard rate is currently 20% and applies to most goods and services. A reduced rate of 5% is payable on items such as children's car seats and gas and electricity for your home, and there is a zero rate too.

I've look at the products and services that are VAT-free in the UK and here what I found out:

Items that are zero-rated for VAT

Baby wear, children’s clothing and children’s footwear

Books, newspapers and magazines

Printed or copied music

Caravans (depending on their size)

Water supplied to homes

Donated goods sold in charity shops

Goods and services that are exempt from VAT

Betting and gaming

Bingo and lotteries

Physical education and sports activities

Burial or cremation of dead people, or burial at sea

Funeral plans written under contract of insurance

Medical treatment and health care

Postage stamps (UK and Isle of Man)

Financial services such as loans and other forms of credit

Insurance services 

(Courtesy of Which?)

When looking for deals and offers, I've realised that I should start checking my usual grocery shopping list which I might find an alternative items that are zero-rated VAT. Though I still have to pay for some products with VAT, at least I'll still make savings on some of it.

I found this shopping list comparison (Courtesy of The Telegraph) that might be useful when doing your grocery shopping.

VAT Shopping List

- Takeaway hot food £1.09

- Cereal bars £1.98

- Partly or wholly chocolate-covered shortbread £1.59

- Crystallised ginger £2.04

- Raisins packaged for snacks 70p

- Squash £1.09

- Potato crisps £1.69

- Ready-made popcorn £2.60

- Prawn crackers made from cereals £1.48

- Shelled roasted or salted nuts £1.15 for 100g

- Ice cream and ice lollies £3.99

- Chocolate-coated biscuits £1.25

- Gingerbread men with chocolate decorations 99p

Total: £21.64

Non-VAT shopping list

- Freshly baked food £1

- Flapjacks 73p

- Millionaires Shortbread (with caramel layer) £1.19

- Ginger in syrup £1.85

- Raisins packaged for baking 18p

- Milkshake and flavoured milk drinks 85p

- Crisps made of other vegetables and wheat-based snacks such as tortilla chips 89p

- Microwave popcorn £1.99

- Prawn crackers made from tapioca £1.62

- Roasted or salted nuts still in shells or packaged for home baking 65p for £100g

- Frozen ready meals and baked Alaska £2.97

- Chocolate chip biscuits 49p

- Gingerbread men with a few dots of chocolate for eyes 65p

Total: £15.06

I hope you find this topic useful and interesting. Feel free to share your thoughts with us and you can always share this with your friends.

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Paid Surveys

I can't remember how many times I have registered to do a paid survey. I've been doing this since for more than a year now. I reckon the survey website didn't allow me to redeem my points when I reached the minimum requirement that is why I stopped doing it. From then on I've lost interest in doing any paid surveys thinking that I'm just wasting my time till I found this website with a better offers and options on redeeming points.

MySurveyUK

         Basically, you can earn points by completing most surveys. Some surveys does not carry so make sure to check first, the website will clearly state it though. You can do surveys in any device that you preferred to use. I preferred using my mobile so I can always do the survey wherever I am and If I have a spare time. I am receiving emails in a regular basis inviting me to do the survey and it will suggest what device is needed for a particular survey. So far I've collected 80 points and 90 prize entries. I have to reach a minimum of 345 points before I can redeem MySurvey Points.

If you want to gain more prize entries points, watch for the mini poll for short surveys. Usually it's one question only that once completed and additional 5 points will be added into your account just what I did. 

CamSurvey

CamSurvey is another way to boost your points, it's a survey that requires a webcam. I'am still waiting for my invitation to do this one but I remember doing a similar thing on my previous subscription which I have to watch a video clip and answer the questions based on what I have observed in the video.

Refer a Friend 

You can also refer a friend to get more points, MySurveyUK offers +110 points per referral. 

Redeem Online

The points can only be redeemed online. There are different ways to shop using your points depending on the amount you've collected. For less than 1000 points, below are the shops where you can spend or exchange your points.

There is a better offer for you if you decide to keep earning points up to 2000 and spend it on the following shops. Most of them offers a voucher or gift card. Remember, you can redeem your points once you reached the minimum of 345 and there's no limit on how much you wanted to earn.

Below are the other websites that offers paid surveys, you're more than welcome to try them and recommend if you're already using any of it. Feel free to like and recommend this post to your friends. Thank you. 

YouGov

Top Paid Surveys

Valued Opinions

Survey Compare

Opinion Outpost

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Product Tester and Mystery Shopper

Have you been a product tester or mystery shopper at some point? I am receiving a lot of emails about becoming a mystery shopper or product tester. I did register in some of them but never heard back, not even once. I was thinking that I might not be lucky to be selected but the other side of my head is telling me that this is another tactic of getting my personal information that will then be used to contact and offer me different products or services.

I've looked up for real people who've been offered to be a mystery shopper or product tester which I found few and it's very interesting that they've actually done it. The first video is of Claire who's been given a £100 Boots gift card to spend and buy whatever she likes.

Part of this mystery shopping idea is for Claire to say something about Boots store layout, the over all quality of the product and service, value for money as well as the staff friendliness.

            

Claire seems to enjoy all her stuff from Boots, who wouldn't if it's for free!!! How easy it is to spend £100 on something that you like and just say few words about your experience? I want to be a Boots mystery shopper so I've looked up on how to do it and I've found this link Product Testing UK just after the video description uploaded in YouTube.

Actually the website is more about product testing, all you need to do is to select a product that you want to test and keep, then sign up. Below are the examples that you could test and keep. 

You need to sign after up by providing your details like name, email and phone number. The last bit is a bit tricky because you'll be asked to answer around 15 to 20 survey questions before you can actually get your chance of getting the product for testing. 

There is another website which is the UK Mystery Shopper with similar approach as Product Testing UK, but this time you have to select the shop that you're interested to be a mystery shopper. Some of the shops are shown in the photo below.

There's no harm in trying, there are people who've done it and might be worth doing if you fancy a £100 free gift card or £100 worth of voucher. Tell us your experience and you can always share this blog with your friends.

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Freebies Hunter

At first I was skeptical about freebies adverts but I won't know if it's real till I try getting one online. I got to this website Magic Freebies that's shows different kind of ways to get the freebies that you like but first it requires you to provide your name and email address to be able to start browsing the freebies.

I’ve seen this free iPhone 6s and clicked the link to that which leads me to another window where I have to answer questions to proceed on my ‘chance’ to get an iPhone 6s. I stopped there because some of the questions are either requiring you to subscribe on something that you need to pay for it and other question might lead to receiving lots of phone calls from different companies before you can even get to your 'chance' to get the iPhone 6.

Thought it would be as easy as that to they the phone but it's not, so I tried looking for a more realistic freebies. I am looking for freebies and freebies I will get.

I tried other offers in Magic Freebies and found this free Taylors Green Tea. I clicked on the link and redirected me to the Taylors homepage where I have to provide my first and last name as well as my email in order to print the coupon. Printer must be connected otherwise you’ll not be able to print the coupon. Tadah! I got my coupon printed and will get myself a free ‘box’ of green tea with the value of £2.29 redeemable in Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.

I tried another website that offers freebies and I found this Latest Free Stuff. Found this free Yazoo milk drink and gave it a go. The procedure is pretty similar to the previous one I tried where you need to register to get the offer and printer must be connected. I got an email for the voucher and successfully printed the free Yazoo 400ml voucher that can claim in any store selling Yazoo.

You can even get a free magazine or books, there are lots of freebies out there only if you’ll spend time looking for it. Don’t forget to read the terms and conditions to ensure you’ll not end up paying for anything after claiming the product.

Try the links below to find freebies that interest you and feel free to share your experience with us. 

Hot UK Deals

Wow Free Stuff

Free Stuff World

Freebies Site UK

Money Saving Expert

Student Money Saver

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Student Discount

One of the benefits of being a student (aside from learning a lot of things) is prompting your student card to get a student discount in shops, restaurants, cinemas and even on some services. I use UNIDAYS to get a discount from different shops especially when buying from Apple which they offer 15% student discount on IPad and Macs.

UNIDAYS can be redeemed in-store or online, all you need to do is to register and declare the institution you’re currently enrolled. You can get up to 30% student discount using UNIDAYS which is something that you should take advantage of.

If you are planning to travel to somewhere nice during the university break and looking for cheap flights, it might be worth checking Student Universe that offers good deals on flights. Student Rate with the same idea offers a wide range of options from hotels, summer wear and even car rental to the places that you might want to go.

The cinemas that I usually go for movies that do student discount is Showcase (Paisley), ODEON Braehead (Glasgow) and sometimes Cineworld. The advantage of the discount is I can get an extra popcorn or sweeties with my savings. RetailMeNot offers ‘student discount’ coupons such as coupon codes, sale coupon, free shipping coupon, printable coupons and expiring soon coupon. This is the same idea as UNIDAYS but with a different options of getting the offers.

Gift Card Granny offers different student discount for Computers and software, Movies & Entertainment, Transportation, Exercise, Phones, Subscription, Apparel and even Franchises. Voucher Cloud that I have mentioned in my previous post (Voucher Holic) also offers student discount code in different categories. Another good website that offers student discount is the Save The Student. They offer 25% on Krispy Kreme using your NUS card or 25% off on ODEON ticket and many more other fantastic offer.

You might also want to check National Rail spring sale on 16-25 rail card, this offer will end 28 March 2016. Might be useful if you’re planning to visit different places during spring break.

Here are other websites that offer student discounts and you might want to give it a try. Share your experience with us and let fellow students know how you enjoy student discounts!

NUS

Spotify

Statravel

Student Beans

Voucher Codes

Amazon Student

National Express

                                     

             

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Commission Through Cashback

TopCashBack

There are so many cashback websites that offers rebate to online shoppers and the one I use is the Topcashback. It's so fun using Topcashback, the more exciting about it seeing the earnings I made.

Don't miss a cashback

First thing to do is to look up for the merchant that you wanted to shop then topcashback will display the different offers that you can get. If you want to go ahead with your shopping, then topcashback will redirect you to the merchant's website so you can start shopping.

My only concern when using topcashback is the website timeout, I have to do and finalise my shopping as soon as possible otherwise it will not be recorded in my topcashback account. Sometimes I need more time to decide on what to buy ended up leaving the items in the basket till I make up my mind on what I really want to buy.

So, I've changed my tactics and decided to shop first and take much time as I need and once everything's ready for payment then that's the time I will log in to toipcashback, look for the merchant and wait till I'm redirected to the actual website to finalise the transaction and pay for my orders. That way I know that my transaction is successfully recorded in topcashback whilst I also keep a record of my own in case topcashback will missed paying me. After the successful purchase, all I have to do is to wait and monitor till I get paid.

Get rewarded through referrals

They used to offer £5 for any referral you'll make or they called it Tell-a-friend, now they've increase the reward and they're giving away £15 for telling a friend and an additional £5 for the friend you invited to join Topcashback.

In order to boost my earning I even encourage my husband to join, actually I registered him so that I'll get the £5 reward (ha! ha!) only thing is I have to remind him all the time to check topcashback first before buying something in case they have a good offer for the stuff that he's wanting to buy. Before you can get the reward, your referral must have a successful purchase first, so it's like a typical commission way of earning something from referring someone to buy something. 

My Earnings

So far I've got an earnings of £25.72 since I joined topcashback which is good, you'll not expect to get that amount by just doing normal shopping online. What's funny about doing the topcashback is when I realised that my husband has a higher earnings than myself and how he brag about it.

There are different payout methods when claiming the cashback earnings. You can either exchange it for a gift card, donate it or even transfer the amount directly to your bank account. I've decided to keep it for now till I reach £100 and then I'll enjoy spending my earnings. 

Below are the other cashback websites that you might want to check. Let us know what you think and don't forget to share your experience with us.

Fat Wallet
Befrugal

CashBackHolic

Cash Back

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"This couple earned £300 cashback for just a few clicks"

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