Ep 64: Ways we waste money

The PMG has always been careful with the show's resources but are the panel as careful with money or do they waste cash? Martin, Gareth and Andy discuss the top 3 ways they each waste money, but most listeners will want to contact Andy by the end of the episode after he reveals a stellar deal he negotiated!

Tell us how you waste money by interaction via our social portals on X, Instagram & BlueSky or via our e mail: thepick3show@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Three men with three decades of separation debate three tough choices every week. This is the Pick Three Show. Welcome to another episode of the Pick Three Show, where every week the Picmaster General selects a topic from the database and instructs the panel to select their top three applicable choices. Not everything follows logically thereafter, because with three decades of separation between the panelists, it is rare that we find consensus. Today's topic is to select the top three ways that we waste money, and I am intrigued to see what my spendthrift colleagues own up to. We already know that Gareth is a sucker for technology and gadgets, and that Andy collects plastic toys. But what on earth will the ever conservative Martin own up to as money wasting? With his rallying cry of cash is king and every pound is a prisoner, it is unlikely that the wily old fox allows money to be frittered away without consequence. To get the panel into a money conscious frame of mind, we have come to the old vault in the Danska Bank headquarters, now the staff canteen, from which a daring heist was executed in December 2004. Twenty-six and a half million pounds taken. Albeit I've said that last bit fairly quietly, because no one around here really wants to be reminded of that particular event. So morning, gentlemen. I am presuming that this is your first time down here in the former vault. If not, you may have to answer a few more awkward questions from the PSNI as we leave.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Well, uh, have you seen the film? The new film out? No, I haven't. So I would say it there a week and a half ago. No wonder that money was stolen from Spain say it is. It's not a great film. I wouldn't recommend going to the cinema. You might watch a Sky film. Oh, I can't even tell you. You've seen it and you can't tell me the name. It wasn't great. So it wasn't, but it was quite surprising how that money just got.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

I um I do some work with Danskal Bank. I was in there a couple of weeks ago, and uh one of the meeting areas we go to is right beside some of the vault stuff. That's great. I love it, it's a great building, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 2:32

It is a fantastic building. I did all the survey work and did stuff for the bank for years and years and years, so I was in and out of all of the bank branches, including the vault suspect. Many, many times. Well, uh they never found my umbrella bag.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

The I was guy who worked in First Trust Bank, and that will probably come at a later stage. But the I went first trust bank, and the two boys who worked down in the vault were white as a sheet. So they never saw sunlight. I was a student, and these two guys used to appear and go, whoo, where'd they come from? Game of Thrones, the land of the night walkers, brand new brand new cars every six months. Brand new cars, one for me, one for you.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Can I tell you that actually the thing that surprised me in some of the vaults around the bank, the things you didn't really realise, now in the main headquarters there was an escape route. There was an escape tunnel, so corridor out of there that if anything happened and they were sealed in, there was a a back way out of it. Because if the vault was sealed for any reasons, there was an escape available that was kind of a hidden. But everywhere else, and I only realised this once I started surveying the places, there were there are cylinders that you actually unscrew so that you allow air in. If you're locked in the vault for any reasons so that you won't actually asphyxiate, you know, uh you will actually be able to at least get air in. That's actually good. I like that stuff like that you you learn along the way.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Do you know what? This is why this podcast is thriving at the moment. Those little tidbits of information of what happens if you're locked in a vault.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

It's gonna thrive even more because you've got three tight asses here, not willing to spend a penny.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

So mine, I'll jump in.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

No, no, no. I'd just like to pick up on that point, which is I I appreciate you wear a fairly tight pair of jeans, but Andy is a Fubu man, so to refer to anything as tight is probably uh probably overstating it.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Someone asked me a few weeks ago, what is Fubu as I have no idea.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

It must be like some baggy It's a baggy skateboarder brand of jeans.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

I did like skateboard in my youth, but mine No, you didn't. Your skateboard got stolen from outside a shop. That's where my love diminished.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

But until that, it was up until then, you were you were the skateboard skater boy of banging.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

You forgot about that? I know, honestly, it's my actually don't even remember you talking about it. It must be all edits, he does, he sort of get turned in.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

But but my I listen because you two are interesting too.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

That's another thing to write down. But my things are things that I think our listeners will agree with to a certain extent. Uh, some of them are very much modern expenses that we've sort of fallen into a trap of.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Well, uh that is a fairly common theme that comes from my listener feedback is the the traps that we have all fallen into. Yes. So, Andy, you were about to hurdle athletically into the first one. So trip over yourself and tell us what it is you waste money on.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

This is one that I spent money on this morning twice, and we're at what is it, nine ten o'clock twice already this morning. One for you, actually, earlier.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Coffee. Oh, don't be saying that's one for me, because you know what the thing is, he's gonna get ripped on my you missed it. I came in here and I said, Andy, thanks very much for that coffee. And he didn't pick up on it.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

He did earlier, actually. No, to be fair, we had we had a meeting at eight o'clock with with another couple of associates. About the potential sale of pick three. And I said, Well, let's get let's keep excellent with with our legal and pr today.

SPEAKER_02 6:11

Purely selling, purely selling the management skill in the factory. There'll be left, there'll be redundancies at the factory.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

We've got the entire person coming in here now.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Stripping the assets away. That was a short exercise.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

I'd just like to point out the assets belong to the factory for quite clear. I didn't like those difficult questions.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Next question, please. But yeah, coffee for me is it's one of those expenses that creeps up every day. And I'm actually over the last few weeks trying to be better and make coffee at home and stuff, but it is this slight addiction driving past a Starbucks or someone calling in, oh, I'll get a latte there. On the way up this morning, 7 o'clock, need to get petrol. Oh, there's a Starbucks beside it. Call in £4.20. And I was like, I still go, £4.20 already. It's annoying. But that would be one of the vices and things I look back on over a week. But I justify it in a weird way. I'm like, yeah, actually, yeah, it's my little sparks throughout the day of excitement and otherwise sometimes very boring days. So number three for me.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

But isn't excitement too like that coffee or man Starbucks? Do you like that coffee?

SPEAKER_01 7:26

I liked it a lot more than the one we got on the Ravada show for it.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Okay. I know.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Um Yeah, sometimes those are a mistake. Yeah. It was like, oh, I have a latte place, and it was like foam over it. I looked at the one Chris got the cappuccino.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

I was like, yeah, he I I generally don't think a cup of coffee in 90% of places is worth it.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

I do know what was really interesting. We had asked Leon as a guest recently, our small luxuries episode. Yeah. So we're going to juxtaposition of small luxuries, is actually what you can waste money on. But he the way he explained it, measuring every ounce before he put it in the machine and seeing the drips come through. That's a level of he would say that's a great expense just to get that from me. When I did at home, I love it. But actually, even the beans at home, and this sounds like an old man ranting. Used to get 250 grams of beans for like a tenner.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

I bought some recently and they've reduced it to 200 grams and started charging 1250 in a lot of coffee shops. So you're charging more and getting less. I'm like, so yeah, my number three is.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

What's called inflation, Andy? It's a concept that most of us who lived through the 70s are very well aware of.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

And I will bring up inflation.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

I think it's what's it? Shrink fishing or whatever the other call. Shrinkflation is the other thing.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

Good effort though. You got most of the way there. You just left the L out.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Our listeners will know what I mean. So coffee for any number three. Yeah, big waste, I agree with you.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

I don't entirely agree. I think it's a big waste if you buy two or three a day. But I think if you're going out to meet people or interact outside, you know, whether it's a meeting, whether it's a meeting with friends, it's actually an expense that's justifiable.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Oh, well, well, that that's okay. Because that's the social you're paying for the social elementor. But Andy's driving past on the way to somewhere getting it.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

There is a lot of these American finance girls.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

He has coffee's by himself.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Do you know what? This is why he loves these therapy sessions with you and me because he it makes him feel like he has friends.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

They do feel like therapy sessions somewhere, but there is a lot of these American finance gurus who say, Stop buying the coffee a day and you can get your mortgage paid off early and all. And it is like what, four or five quid. But you're right, I think Martin, with regard to if you spend an idea, and one of our friends has said this to us many times, a lot of his staff will get a coffee in the morning, coffee mid-morning, go out for lunch, coffee mid-afternoon. 30, 35 quids worth spent in a day.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

I used to get into a bit of a debate with the guys in work because I would wander over at lunchtime and I would buy stuff for sandwiches that would last me two days. Yep. And so I would I would be having a sandwich and they would be going coming back in with these, you know, quinoa salads and various things. And I'm looking at there's not a food group in that I actually like.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Yeah, that's a different.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

But the whole point is they were spending more every single day, twice as much every single day as I was spending for two days.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

And I don't get it sometimes because then they'd all complain we're not paid enough, we're not paid enough. And I'm going, you waste money.

unknown 10:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

You were going out and buying ingredients for your sandwich or buying a sandwich?

SPEAKER_02 10:31

No, I would go out and buy a roll and a filling at Marks and Pension and use the filling for the next couple of days. And you'd make it on your desk? No, I'd make it in the kitchen. Oh, right, okay. I wasn't just sitting there putting with a little sandwich bar and selling them out to the rest of the staff. A sushi rota machine.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

You can just imagine him as we knife making at his desk. We waited here are those plastic cheese thing coming off.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

Anyway, that was and Andy started. By the way, you don't need to click those things. They they'll click on their own without you playing with it.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

I thought I was going to drop off there, shoddy workmanship.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Well, it's it's Dansk' maintenance team. I'm worried about already nervous enough about us recording down here. But anyway, Gareth.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

My rant. Cars. I think cars are a waste of money. And I think cars are lifestyle creep. As you get a better lifestyle, better salaries, etc., you buy better cars.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

And I do release them because most people don't buy.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

I lease mine now. Very closely.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Nobody wants to own a Tesla.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

And to tell you the truth, depreciation, etc., that type of stuff. Everyone wants to own a Tesla at the moment, Morton. Let me tell you, I'm laughing whenever I'm plugging in my electricity. Yeah, it's right, actually. And you're not laughing at the moment, no. No. So uh but it's real lifestyle creep uh creep. And I actually thought, you know, like and I I give the example of the Tesla. The only thing I changed in my Tesla in three and a half years were the tires and the water bottle for the windscreen wipers. Not one other service that I need to do, no brake pads, no oil changes, no nothing. Boom, in whatever. May not be the most exotic of cars, but it gets me from A to B, and that's all I need a car to do. A to B. Now I'm gonna give you an extra little thing, right? Because I did this calculation, being the old accountant that I was. A 20k saving on your car, right? And if you put that into your mortgage, that would save you 35,000 pounds in interest over 20 years. 35,000 pounds off your mortgage and reduces the capital early so every future payment has less interest. And I thought that would be good for you, Andy. And what's more, to add it more, people buy cars for the brands. And little do they know that the Volkswagen is the same as the Skoda, as the same as the Porsche, only a different I think there's a closer correlation between Skoda and Porsche than there is with Volkswagen.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Oh, yeah, probably. Because the Skoda is all the bits that Porsche couldn't use. Yeah. And then the Porsche is all the bits that they the expensive bits.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

But but it's all about people putting on the show. And you know, like my my previous job is you know people got into debt or whatever quite a bit. Uh trying to make fees? No, no, no, no, no, my clients didn't have to pay my fees. That's the best part of it. And people got into debt trying to keep up with the Joneses.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

I think the Joneses have a lot to answer for that.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Yeah, to answer for.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

You identified something earlier. I think you said as well, Martin. Leases for a lot of people, I find is a bad idea. And I'll tell you, I I've leased a car before, and it is that payment every month recurring, and then you get into that creep of after three years, oh, I'm gonna get another lease day here. And you do. I've seen people, friends of mine, who've got brand new cars every three years, and their husband and wife, they both get one of them I was playing golf with recently. I said, How much is your lease? Oh, it's 620 for that. As wife, what was your wife's one? 460.

SPEAKER_03 14:22

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

I say, What? Like in my head, like whenever I always get cars, I would pay them off and then just for feel like okay, that's done.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

And I think with that lease every month, if I was like, Well, I did do leases for the first time ever rather than buying the car. I did a lease, uh, apart from when it was in business or whatever, I did it, and it was not percent interest on the Tesla. That's quite good. So uh and I just thought it was too desperate to get that Tesla. Well, there were, there were, but let me tell you, I was happy enough to desperate to take that Tesla at that price. Let me tell you. And like I don't need to be flash with my cars, you know.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

That's no, to be fair to you, you're not.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

No. Well, you drive a Volvo, you know, which is equivalent to having a vasectomy. That's all it is.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

We've got a Volvo with the family as well.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

You're not gonna drive a Volvo whenever you're 20 years old here. I'll pick you up, Debs. Do you want to go for a date in my Volvo? It'll be the Martin, I'll see you later. So watch a good rom-com.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

I I think you're misjudging the standards. A Volvo is an excellent vehicle. In fact, so good, so good that on average I drive mine for about eight years at a time and then sell them. And I've done the calculations, a bit like you.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

And the calculation is that my average cost of motoring is about 1,500 pounds a year.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

But but the your prime example, Martin, you live literally in a castle, right? East wing, west wing, servants, all that type of stuff. And you don't care what your car looks like. It's not it's not a people use it as a status symbol. Did you get parked this morning because of all uh the help? Unbelievable. We're we're we're in Danskabank.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Oh yes, sorry. I've said Martin's help that's kind of like.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

No, I do care what my car looks like, which is why Seamus cleans it every morning. And I've explained that to you before. It it's not that I don't care, but the Volvo is an excellent choice of vehicle. Yeah. And uh you know, to be fair, they pull it round from the garages to the front the front door, the seats are heated, and I'm ready to travel smoothly down the driveway.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

I can understand cars, I can understand it as one that I always think from a lecent point of view it's a dangerous trap for a lot of people to fall into.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

I agree. On a serious point, I have owned every single car bar one. We went through a company car scheme at a point in time. I had more hassle trying to fulfil the requirements of that company car scheme and get it ready and give it back and not go over the mileage and all the rest of it. And I went, never again. I'm not doing that. So I've bought my own cars forever.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Yeah, makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

And in fact, what I have done a lot of the times, and here's a good tip, listeners, is if you can go buy a car that's six months to a year old, yeah, the depreciation's gone. Yeah, mileage is low, and the chances are it hasn't been abused, and you end up with a very, very good car for a substantially less amount of money, but it's not brand, brand new. No, no, no. Some people want that brand new car. They do. Good. Anyway, number three, Martin. My number three, and I think there isn't a listener out there that's going to disagree with me here. Paying tax. That is the biggest waste of money. Now let me explain for a second. I am not.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Hold on, like there's HMRC knockle already.

SPEAKER_02 17:55

No, I do pay my tax and all the rest of it, but why it's such a waste of money is have you watched any government in recent time not waste all of the hard-earned tax revenues that we pay them? You tell me at any point in time where logic has taken over and where you can see good use of the money collected in tax. So for me, paying tax is kind of a waste of time. Now I I had a very wealthy client at a point in time and he hated the concept of any tax schemes, as do I, because I think they really always fail. But the point is he said, I don't mind paying my taxes because they pay for the health service, they pay for everything that I might need. That's fine. Except I don't believe they do anymore. I believe that we are struggling so much on the tax revenue front that the government spend it badly, unwisely, etc. etc. So I view paying tax as a waste of money. I have to do it. I do do it. Yeah. But I view it as a waste of money because I don't think we get the true benefit from it. And that is why I'm using it as what do we waste our money on? Paying tax to people who patently don't know how to manage the country's economy.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Do you think it's got worse over the last few years?

SPEAKER_02 19:08

It's awful. And part of the reason was if you look back now, it is there are far too many politicians who are lifelong politicians. They haven't come from industry, they haven't come from life experience, they've worked straight in, they've studied politics at university, they've been special advisors, they get themselves elected. What do they know? And the short answer is absolutely nothing. The health service went to managers running the health service. In the old days, it was consultants and a hospital administrator, and they used to run much more smoothly than they do today.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

But do you know what the funny is? I saw a really big hedge fund guy has made a substantial donation to be a Lalandia guy then.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

That's a really big hedge.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Oh a big hedge fund guy has made a massive donation to develop a politics school at either Oxford or Cambridge. And then Oxford and Cambridge are matched money. And I'm talking massive money, I can't remember what it was. And he made a very good point to say I want people to be educated because I think we need to learn how to manage countries better. And there'll be this centre of excellence, you know, an actual school it's going to be called. I can't just can't go off of hand here. But an actual school of how to learn it properly. And I thought that's a good idea. And I I think they do need that. There's too many people who don't have the skills, let's read it. And then Northern Ireland being the best example of it.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

I seen a breakdown on Twitter, it must have been a year ago. It was a US date, I can't remember which one, but it broke down every year when you filed your tax return and all this is where your money is going, and infographic, your money goes to this wildlife percentage, national park percentage. And they said the whole experience of paying tax for people in that state, when they did an analysis of obviously they're happy or sad when they pay, was uplifted by 70% because they could see a transparency of where that went, where their money was used. Yeah, I think that's the unknown. Like you hear stuff on Stormont going the education budget slash the game, and you're going, but their salaries are up. Yeah, my taxes are up. They're getting paid more. I yeah, I get that more.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

And actually, just as the rates bills have just come in this week, which is a shock, dare knows what your rates bill is. We're listed. We're listed, are we right? Right, okay. So no rates. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

And the number two. Number two, right, let's go. This is by the way, we're not radio one.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

You don't have to go, right, let's go.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

You know, I do want to go, I think it's number two. I take that as a compliment. Yeah. Don't you be leaving the podcast? No, no, I think it's radio one.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

I know they t I know they talked about that today, where up two would go in the buyout.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

So number two to me is golf equipment. But for our listeners, this could be very much replaced golf with tennis, cycle ball, cycle. Anything. And it is something which I sort of fall in the trap of sometimes, but not as much as other people. And whenever I sort of was looking at this waste of money, I was like, I know, and I won't mention some of their names because their wives might listen to this podcast. Friends of mine who spend six, seven hundred quid a year on a new driver. Because it's a new model. I'm not saying a word. Morning run. I know friends of mine who recently had went to a golf shop and went, There's a new spider potter out there. What 400 quid? Morning, on wrong. Did you what it did you not get one last year? Yeah, I got another one, but another one. Well, but it's a different type, it's a variant. So for our listeners who mightn't be golf fans, it is people who aren't maybe the most skilled looking to increase their ability by maybe one or two percent. There's no noticeable difference for 99% of the population when you upgrade to the latest model of driver from year one to year two.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

I think that's entirely true, and I think we are all conned. And I would own up to the fact that every so often I feel I mean, I bought a new driver at a point in time because Callaway reproduced the epic range. And I went, oh, it's epic. I'm having one of those. And it was a great driver, and I've been I played it for seven or eight years before I I cracked the face of it because I hit the ball quite hard, as you know, Andy. Of course. And uh fluke win. The fluke win that just is on the record because I've been seeing it after.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

No, he was on the window.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

Oh, gentlemen, I am so looking forward to the summer when we stride the fairways together. Do you know? I'm worried though that Andy is going to take Tommy Fleetwood's new clothing line and go for these huge baggy trousers.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

I didn't like that.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

But well, it ties in with Fubu, anyway.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

I think it's a very good point, uh Andy, because it doesn't know the famous comment. First of all, the amount of stuff delivered to offices now rather than home is quite funny. And secondly, the wish that don't let my partner sell my my stuff for half the price I told her I paid it for. That's a great line. And look like you and the golf commitment as well. I'm a sucker for it, and it's only the professional in my golf club who says, Garth, you don't need to change. That is good. Actually, people want your driver as a ping driver now, rather than the new one.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

To be fair, having watched you play it, if other people want that driver, I'd sell it to them.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

I'm I'm wild with pickleball paddles, and I've two and a half years later, I think I've realized it, and I'm back to my old one, realizing I play much better. I bought a super duper one last week, right? 220 quid, including but shipped from America, taxes, all it, that type of stuff. I've used it once because it's too poppy.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

How much too poppy? How much does but you have a skippy step? So surely a poppy racket is exactly what you want. How much is pickleball equipment? So like a bottle's 220 quid? And has that gone up over the last few years?

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Oh, yeah. There's new ones every day saying that it's this or give you more power or whatever. Same as golf. Same as every sports line.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

And do you know notice in there's players that you're playing with, you go, they're not that good, but every few months new equipment.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

He's one of them.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

And then and then people who say, Oh, that new paddle.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Yeah. So number two, sports equipment, but golf was the example. Yeah, I agree with. Okay, number two for me. Money sitting idle and people not using the money. Either cash and low interest accounts, not using tax-efficient options, not investing at all, and pe or not getting compound growth. And what people don't realize you like that, that was quite technical, actually. I love it. Listen, I did copy that out.

SPEAKER_02 25:53

Welcome to the finance advice on the pick three show.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

I did copy that sounds good. So they did copy. But the I think we mentioned it. People don't understand the power of inflation, that your £100 of money this year with the purchasing power of £100 will only be 90 pounds of purchasing power next year. That means that if you don't invest it, you're not keeping up with time. And so many people, so many friends of mine say, Oh, I've got my money sitting in a 1% or 0.5% interest account, whenever the truth is, inflation's at 2% or 3%. Yeah, yeah. Their money's just going down and down, only because they can't be bothered switching it.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

I get that.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

Do you know what a deposit account is, by the way? Just you wouldn't have you won't have any of them, will you?

SPEAKER_02 26:45

I think Coots and Company have that.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

Which their new basic uh they're all they're outcryed at the moment because they will only invest people who have three million pounds or more. Surprised you had the low end fee money. Yes, but we're in the private section. That is the private section. Three million. It used to be a million, it's now three million.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

But one thing you have to admire the Joneses for is that they have always actually had their money invested properly.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

People don't see that though, do they? Yeah, they've they've kept up with the Joneses themselves. I I read something online earlier about how like currencies and investments in gold and silver at the moment are so volatile. Bitcoin and these things, which Martin loves, are the are the most solid investments at the moment because of the potential growth.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Yeah, it's a it's a difficult one, but it's just it's it's not the growth element of it, it's the sitting idle. Money in a bank account, which is depreciating as much, if not more, than your car.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

You know, my favourite thing with this, and we had this chat a number of years ago, and it was around cryptocurrency, but it could be about ICEs and everything else. When you get a an app that you can watch the growth of money on every day, and you go, Oh, that's good. I do that every day. It is the most addictive thing ever. Oh, I do. I've spoken to friends of mine, he goes, Really? Like ICEs are stocks and shares? And I was like, trust me, you will be on that ten times a day.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

First thing I do is wake up and go and look at my phone.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

And they go, Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

For those of you watching in black and white, Gareth actually gave an impression of waking up stretching whilst holding his phone and being to be seen on YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

So our our listen our listeners, if they want any advice on how to invest with compound interest. Oh, right.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Compound interest is a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

Seek proper professional advice. Do not just listen to the process.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Someone asked me what is compound interest. Yeah. You know, and most people don't know. I get it. I get it.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

And I mean, again, over the years, it's it's one of the reasons why your calculation you did about mortgages. Yeah. Most people say, Oh, my mortgage rate isn't too bad. I'm I'm paying four percent. And you go, Great. And how much did you borrow? I borrowed £250,000. And then you work it out for them how much that 4%, even if it stayed static for the whole 20, 25 years, you borrowed X, you repaid Y. How much? How much did I repay?

SPEAKER_00 29:04

The best thing, game changer thing that I ever did, which wasn't wasting money but made money was I had an offset mortgage where any money I had in a bank account just went in. Was offset against my mortgage. So it was so if I had had £10,000 in a bank account and £200,000 of a mortgage, I was only paying interest on £190,000. Because what people forget is they're taxed on their deposit interest and their mortgage is paid out of taxed disposable income. Good business lesson there.

SPEAKER_02 29:39

This is the thing about tax that if you actually do the full calculation on the taxes you pay, that will be another thing because most people say, I'm my income income tax, I'm on 40%, and so 40% tax. Yeah, but you paid VAT on a whole pile of things last year. 100%.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Or you paid tax or deposit interest.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

Then you paid car tax. Uh then you paid tax at the fuel pump. Then of course you you paid tax on um pretty much everything you've done.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

I haven't having an offset mortgage, I think reduced my mortgage term by about four or five years.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

I had one year, maybe our mortgage renewals up in June. And at the end of February, they sent down. Oh, well, you could have this option, Santander, to try to get us to stay with them. End of February, I was like, nah, these rates will drop. There's nothing going to change in the world in the world over the next month or so. Our rate at the moment is quite good. And actually, some of the rates they offered us were incredible when you look. But I got wait for a month or so. What happens then? Obviously, if you've seen mortgage rates are skyrocketed due to this.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

So well, look at it. Look at it, you're paying 5.8% in mortgages now, right? And your deposit interest you're getting 1.751%. Yeah. You're getting so the offset work.

SPEAKER_01 30:48

That's good. Yeah. On to yours, number number two, Mark?

SPEAKER_02 30:50

Okay. My number two is uh subscriptions to TV streaming services and particularly expired subscriptions that I don't remember I have. Yeah. I found a couple of those recently and I went, I didn't even know I had that. I suddenly saw a payment going through for £22. An annual payment. It's only £22 annually. And I'm going, what the heck was that for? And it took me ages to trace it. And it's an old Fitbit account. You're for the Fitbit app. The company's gone bust. And they're still collecting my 22 quid. When was the last time you wore a Fitbit? Three, four years ago. So it's been uh common for a few years. Yeah, but that's my point is it's 22 quid, and in the grand scheme of things, you know, you you tend not to notice it because you're not looking for it. But there's 22 quid that's just gone. But Martin, it's like a sort of 280 quid a year. No, it wasn't a monthly. It was an annual. Oh, annual 22, all right. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:47

But over those four years since you haven't worn it, but that's another four years, you know, what you go, that's actually crazy.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

It's just stupid because it's just you might as well just take money out of your wallet and throw it behind you as you walk down the street. Like for example, Dropbox.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Do you Dropbox? Oh yeah, I'd got a great story about Dropbox. No, you don't need to pay. No, you don't. The the the lower do you pay for Apple storage on your phone? No. Well, you might need to pay then. I pay at 99 a month for Apple storage for photographs and stuff there. But it's all automatically backed up on the cloud there.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

But isn't Amazon free for that backup now?

SPEAKER_02 32:20

And where is your cloud?

SPEAKER_01 32:21

Somewhere in America and somewhere. That's the point. But no, I take mine off to a drive anyway. Yeah, do you know what? You probably don't need to then if you have a manual way of doing it. I'm gonna jump in here. This is my number one.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Um and it's my number one of precisely what you said. It is subscriptions. I have put a total here based on Spotify, I pay 20 quid a month. Yeah, I pay Audible $6.99 a month, so 7 quid there. I pay Sky TV. Now I've got a good deal on Sky TV, it's uh 47 quid a month for everything. Incredible. How'd you get that? Oh, that's that's I looked at mine the other day at 71 quid a month. I was 102 pounds, and we dropped and we I had to cancel it and live without Sky for three weeks, and then they came crawling back. They made me they say, You sir, you have to deliver your box back by post. We've sent out the box to put it in and all. I was like, No problem, no problem. It was a standoff, cat and wise, cat and wise. And then 24 hours before I was supposed to send it back, I sent them a live message going, Look, I've been a customer for 10 years. I don't really want to send this box back. Can you give me a day low and make me change my mind? The guy went 47 quid, all in. But you have to get Sky Movies. I went, Well, I don't want Sky Movies. Trust me, just say you want Sky Movies. I want Sky Movies, 47 quid.

SPEAKER_02 33:33

Can I tell you my Sky subscription is way higher than that?

SPEAKER_01 33:36

Mine's 70 something. Oh, mine was 102. It's but but he's ripping now. But it is those subscriptions every month that I look coming out. Yeah, I got friends who was telling you he can't concentrate.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

I was telling you on talk to me. He's he's he's a he's come on back in the room, back in the room.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

You were asking me about Whip the other day. Yeah. A few friends of mine use Whip, and I was like, Oh, it looks really cool. The PR run is fantastic and all. And one of them went, Yeah, when my year's up, not paying my 35 quid a month. I was like, What? 35 quid a month? It's like, yeah, not paying it. Two people separately have said that to me recently. It's a great they give you the device free and you go it feels like it's great. 35 quid a month, minimum contract a year. You're not really getting the device free. It's you're paying that 35 quid a month to incorporate the and that's that's it.

SPEAKER_02 34:27

But I think I think in this sorry, on your Sky Are you on Skystream or anything?

SPEAKER_01 34:34

You're coming in on the on the box? It's multi-room as well. Multi-room, multi-room as well, multi-room HD, Sky Movies, all the sports channels. The only thing it does now is BT Sport, the add-on service there on BT, which is like 22 quid or something. But everything else.

SPEAKER_02 34:49

Can I say, listeners, we will give Andy's phone number out and his personal email address if you want to get him to negotiate your Sky contract? Because I suspect most of us listening to this podcast who have Sky are going, that's unreal. Oh, yeah. If you've got everything, including you upgraded, upgraded to movies. I had the the guy here uh recently just reconnecting uh my Sky following the move from the uh the small house to the the main estate, and uh uh it all works perfectly and it's it's great, but it isn't that sort of money. Anyway, uh I've been a I've been a Sky customer for 30 years, not friggin' ten.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

I'll send you I'll send you my breakdown lit later just it's funny how you get a mindset for it.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

I've got a group, uh a group chat I'm in with my friend Kev O'Neill and his wife Lisa and Angela, and me and Lisa are the ones who you know renegotiate electricity, renegotiate you know the SSE, and we call those two big note and big purse and big purse is paying out. They know renegotiation, just keep doing it no matter what.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

After seeing Kev's Instagram with his car page.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

He told me what his insurance he pays.

SPEAKER_01 36:04

But yeah, number one for me and jumping out.

SPEAKER_02 36:06

And I think we'll find when we talk to the listeners that this is this comes up from time to time.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

So we're gonna call Martin now Big Note on the on the sky.

SPEAKER_02 36:15

I think you're underestimating it. Should be an extraordinarily big note.

SPEAKER_00 36:21

Anyway. So what are we on number one? Number one for me. Okay, number one. Buy good buy once. And I have wasted money on bargains. Home bargains, Amazon bargains, you name it. I've done it where you use it, it's poor quality. Teamu. Ah I hate it. Bought it once, never will buy ever again. Never again. What sort of thing?

SPEAKER_01 36:51

What sort of things you buy?

SPEAKER_00 36:52

It was a bathroom cabin thing that fitted in it right to be spotlight. So didn't right anyway. So and I just thought very short chef life. And I I like good things that last. And tell you the truth, they become very cost effective. And I give examples such as, and this is sorry.

SPEAKER_02 37:11

I've had a great joke, but I'm just gonna. I'm even too even I'm too polite to crack this one as you're speaking to it.

SPEAKER_00 37:18

So the of some good purchases, so Apple. I even though I spend money on Apple, I always think it's good quality, it lasts, the computers last for a long time, a lot more than the all those other ones that are in curries and all that type of stuff. I always remember Rafa cycling gear, yeah. Uh was always great quality, lasted. I still have it 10, 15 years. And I still fit into it. They uh don't cycle more, you're right. But don't lend it for his cycling trip. And it lasts for his so if you buy good, you buy once, and that's my big thing. People waste money as we talk about teamu or Amazon purchase. I even a simple thing. I remember buying a toilet seat off Amazon, and it was the biggest waste of money. It fell apart and all at times.

SPEAKER_02 38:09

Oh, that's not the sort of thing you want. You want the toilet seat.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

You want a good ideal standard.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

Yeah, if you're gonna be reading there for a while, you want to do that.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

You do exactly there's uh reading there. Talking about buying once. There's this lovely night quarter zip I got six or seven years ago. It's by far my favourite bit of golf attire. Yeah, fits like a glove, fantastic quality. Quite a tight glove. No, no, it's a perfect glove. But honestly, it's at the time it was expensive enough, but it is quality. Yeah, and I think that's it.

SPEAKER_02 38:38

Yeah, I I and by the way, I'm in total agreement here. Yeah, uh, it's why I buy Volvo. And um, but realistically, buying good quality kit and using it. I was recently away and uh hiking again, and I was using a little backpack that I had, and somebody said, How long have you actually had that backpack? And I worked it out, and I think it's 23 years, yeah, and it's still functional, still doing what I need it to do 23 years on.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

I have Salamon hiking shoes, and yes, because you don't go anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 39:08

But I've had them for, as you say, 15 years. No, but you're extraordinarily lucky because your skippy step means that you're not gonna wear out the treads at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 39:17

You're dragging your feet so they're fine and sold.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

Tell our listeners, like you you would use uh have used vintage and stuff like that, of it. No, the old time, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:25

Do you get some good stuff on that? Oh, excellent. And but it's only it's only quality stuff that you get.

SPEAKER_01 39:35

Just that one time.

SPEAKER_02 39:41

Anyway, it's uh but that's your number one. Number one. Number one is don't buy bargains, buy quality and keep it for a long time. Okay, listeners. I I'm sorry about that. Okay, my my number one thing I waste money on generally luggage. Oh my dad was the same as me. He used to go away and he'd suddenly find a really cool bit of luggage. He'd go to the Samsonide shop somewhere somewhere else, and this is a this is the new best bit of luggage, and but you already have a suitcase, you came out with it. I know, but this is so much better. I am a sucker for buying good travelling luggage, whether it's roll-alongs, whether it's you know, backpacks or anything else. But I'm I'm saying as well, I still go back to using a backpack that I carry my camera and water bottle and various things in that I've had for north of 20 years, as I've just said. And I still go back to using it. And if you look in the cupboard, there's probably three or four other options that are all newer, but until the other one wears out, I'm not really gonna get to that.

SPEAKER_00 40:47

But but that's back to buy good, buy once. You know, because I bought the I had bought a bit of luggage, one out of TK Maxx, and at the end of the week, all the first stopped or whatever. And I'm now back to Samsungite doing it because we do. But I I'm gonna add an extra, I thought you were gonna go a different direction, and that was travelling and paying for that extra weight of luggage that you go on to do.

SPEAKER_02 41:12

No, no, no, no. I I'm actually quite good at making sure I hit within all the target weights. And how is Deb's with that? Uh generally, the reason I I come in under is because I'm going to need to carry some stuff for her. That's what it takes. Well, funny because some extra stuff ends up in my bag, yes.

SPEAKER_00 41:28

Angela said to me last week, I I go, so I was checking, I said, we're going on cruise or whatever, and either the way you're only allowed 20 kilogram luggage. She goes, Have you paid for luggage yet? I know that she wants to go over the 20 kilograms.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

I'm to nope, no way, no way. Have you tried, and this is not a sponsor linked, uh, any of the pricing through Send My Bag or other sites like that? Honestly, this is the thing. I risk my send my bag cruise stopping off, and there'll be an outfit waiting on the dock. No, no, no. I've I recommended a friend who's going a cruise last year, and there it was him and three kids, and their luggage increased for the two weeks. They were gonna have to pay, I think it was easy to get it, whatever they're connected by was about 350 quid. Yeah. Send my bag, stuff shipped to the port, pickup area, 75 quid. It was a fraction of the cost. And then they shipped it back with the shipping labels and all. You can track it all through their thing. How long does it take to get back? It depends when you do it. Four weeks, two days. No, no, dude. So cost effective. Friend of mine went to Florida last year as well. He knew his wife was going to be banned loads of stuff. They got their luggage shipped back through sent my bag. The guy came in the U all picked the FedEx truck, picked it up, was back before they were there.

SPEAKER_00 42:39

Well, funny, I would just you saying that, I read summer last, I can't remember where it happened is where a shop no, it was the masters. That's all it was. Reading about the masters. So 10 million pounds per day, merchandise sales. Merchandise sales are selling. But the one of their biggest things of why it's so good is they offer a service that the gear you buy, yeah, they will ship to your house to stop your current wrong.

SPEAKER_02 43:08

There was UPS or was it not just America though in the open? It might have been shipping back out to America, but the the option was there.

SPEAKER_01 43:16

So I mean their sales at the open shop. Because there was a little FedEx area of the shop. I was like, there was a queue of about 20 people there just on piece of paper.

SPEAKER_00 43:25

But see if shops, big shops had like you know, let's give the example Selfridges, Harrods or whatever, had an area where you just went and said, rather than me taking all this home with me, probably Harrods, Selfridges, places like that, probably do. And would it work? Say, for example, you were in a Zara or whatever, that type of stuff. You know, I thought the concept of we're we're we're so now used to paying for postage or or free shipping, for example. If shops did the old, here you don't have to do this anymore, there you are, go and leave it over there and we'll ship it to your home and it'll save you the extra luggage.

unknown 43:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

True. It's perfectly valid argument. What did our listeners think? Definitely a first world problem, though.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

Okay, you go first, I guess I have to find mine here.

SPEAKER_01 44:11

We had four wastes of money. Imported fruit and veg from Johnny, rates as a second one, and his third one, which makes me laugh, is a Virgil Van Dyck headed goal. He puts a bet on every Liverpool game of Fiverr, like it's like 20 to 1 or something. Working out back. But I thought it was quite funny there.

SPEAKER_00 44:30

That's good. Rodney Maxwell here has coffee shops, buying things and sales. Yeah, I totally agree with that one. And subscriptions for magazines or TV never used.

SPEAKER_01 44:40

I've just I've just seen one of Sorry that's McElham came up with that one. That was Rodney. I've just seen one of our listeners send one and I could have been on mine very easily. Peter sent in buy coffee in Starbucks when he's got a good coffee machine at home. Number two for him is paying additional subscriptions just to avoid adverts. And number one is owning two dogs. Oh wow. Um Lewis has jumped in, and this one is very pertinent. Food delivery apps. Oh, yeah. That is the biggest waste that I see across.

SPEAKER_02 45:10

Any of them ever.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

Sphinx kebab to be delivered to your house now 20 quid. That's incredible. Like you know you've had a sphinx car, have you? No. No, no.

SPEAKER_01 45:22

Lewis. No, no. Lewis also said being too lazy to shop around for homes through car insurance. Yeah. And then number one, upgrading car phone golf clubs every year in brackets. I obviously don't do this because of my golf. Ashley said then upgrading your phone every year. I've stopped that. Yeah, 100%. Expensive watches, buying expensive TV and being duped into O L E D, QED stuff as a brand. Terrible.

SPEAKER_02 45:51

Yeah, I got a new TVG, TV, an LGBTQ plus or something.

SPEAKER_01 45:58

Corin sent in rugs to go over carpet, especially when the dogs chew the corners. There's a theme here.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

Yes, rugs over carpets make no sense to me.

SPEAKER_01 46:06

Yeah. There's a theme here. Dog grooming, 60 quid to cut and bath a cocker spaniel, and a friend didn't even trim her tail. 60 quid. 60 quid. And then taxes. I'm not going to repeat what he said there about what taxes are spent on.

SPEAKER_00 46:21

Well, I've got Rodney Maxwell, not stopping direct debits we no longer need. Parking tickets and online shopping.

SPEAKER_02 46:28

Okay. Janet Williamson said one-off fashion items. In other words, they look good at the time. Yeah. Maybe not. Taster menus, where you go in and do taster menus and massages which were no good. Didn't want to go into debating that one overly. But uh anyway, her husband uh came back and said uh James, her husband said uh fuel, plastic carrier bags because he didn't bring his bags for life and buying his wife gifts she didn't want.

SPEAKER_01 47:00

Oh wow. I've I've had Patty sent in impulse purchases. I have a house full of stuff I never use. Number two is buying food that doesn't get eaten. Yeah. I have a three-year-old who gets tons of homemade food and she eats about 10% of it. And then number one, subscriptions I don't use. I subscribe to literally every streaming service on earth and end up watching YouTube for free every single night.

SPEAKER_02 47:26

Colonel Lou said digital subscriptions. You begin to see a pattern developing here.

SPEAKER_01 47:32

We're all trapped.

SPEAKER_02 47:32

Uh impulsive purchases and buying too much food when travelling. Now, what I think he means by that is you go somewhere and you go out to buy food if you've got an apartment or something else. Yeah. And you buy in so much food that by the time you leave, you're leaving a whole pile of food. So again, like you, I'm not a fan of that. Uh, Victoria De Nun, forgetting to cancel free trials, stroke subscriptions, not comparing prices with other providers when your contract expires, no annual review of bills for more competitive pricing. And my the one I liked that she sent was buying heating oil when you could spend the same amount going on a week-long all-inclusive holiday. She's good. You know, Johnny Kerr said uh going out for meals when it's just for the sake of it, it's now too expensive just to do that. Betting Gareth then I can beat him at paddle. He says that's a waste of money. Whatever.

SPEAKER_01 48:25

That's a waste of money.

SPEAKER_02 48:27

And buying Martin a bottle of whiskey, complete waste of money, which is absolutely true. But I normally donate it to people on the street. Sorry, poor joke. Courtney Thompson, uh, buying a bag in the shop every time you forget to bring one. Car parks, especially when there's a free one fairly close by. Yeah, car parks. And the subscription that comes out every month, but you cannot remember what it's for. Very much agree there. Ashley Parks.

SPEAKER_00 48:57

So just on car parks, nothing gets me more whenever you're with someone in the car and they say, just park at the Victoria Centre. And you've gone, no, I do'm my napper at a five or an hour.

SPEAKER_01 49:09

At more than five or an hour, probably now. Oh yeah, we park it all the time. Do you? Because the kids I love St. Ann Square. I love that because it's like two quid an hour and it's set to quid.

SPEAKER_00 49:20

Whenever the close SU park just park in Victoria, what do you do? Does it secretly do you boil inside?

SPEAKER_01 49:25

What I do now is because I worked out that if it's two hours, it's seven quid, but it has to be two hours. Right. Within that, if it goes over that, the next hour is 450 or something, so then it jumps to ridiculous. Then it's 450 after and sure. It's cheaper doing it than on the street. Trying to find on a Saturday afternoon somewhere when the kids are there. There's a letter.

SPEAKER_02 49:46

Would you two argue amongst yourselves over the next row here? Uh Ashley Parks, World Cup football stickers. I collect them every time, but rarely complete the set.

SPEAKER_01 49:56

That's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 49:56

Which is a lot of people do that. They start out with full of enthusiasm and then you can't get some player and you lose interest.

SPEAKER_01 50:02

Sports cards are big now, I say.

SPEAKER_02 50:04

Um gym memberships. Knew I had to cancel when I skipped the workout to go straight to the jacuzzi a couple of times. And cafe breakfasts with the kids. He uses a waste of money. He doesn't have coffee in his, I notice. He's a big coffee file as well.

SPEAKER_00 50:18

But do you remember he he was wasting money on coffee, and then what he did was he went and bought a halfers machine.

SPEAKER_02 50:24

And then my last one is Big Keithy, who said waste of money was misspent youth in Newcastle's amusement arcades. Oh, I love those.

SPEAKER_00 50:32

Love those nudge machines.

SPEAKER_02 50:34

Men going food shopping when they only need bread and milk, but come back with two bags of food. And then buying gifts for friends that really aren't appreciated, e.g. a powder blue or a baby blue t-shirt. And that's very much the reference to the Volbeat gig where he turned up for the powder blue t-shirt. But anyway, listeners, I think there's a common winner out of today, and that would be subscriptions. Yeah. And I think we're all caught in that trap to a certain extent. And certainly myself and the fine young gentleman who organizes Sky will need to have a conversation in the not too distant future.

SPEAKER_00 51:12

Um educational podcast, and we've always I've cancelled one subscription while we've been on there. Which one? Can you tell me?

SPEAKER_02 51:21

Yeah, that one. Anyway, you'll all have your own lists. Feel free to rage about whatever it is that you dislike and that you waste money on, and we'll be back to talk about something else in the not too distant future. But until then, on behalf of the podcast, my name is Martin.

SPEAKER_01 51:36

My name is Carl. And my name's Andy.

SPEAKER_02 51:38

And we'll see you all very, very shortly. And by the way, on the way, I don't lift any cash from the desk. I know what you did the last time. But anyway, we'll see you all very soon.