[Offers] Mostly legal and mostly pikey ways you have saved money

Cian · Apr 16, 2018

Years back there used to be an engineer code number that went straight to the Eircom (BT equivalent ex-govt owned telco in Ireland) dialup ISP, but for free. Worked great on landlines, but I used a new entrant mobile firm that just threw hard to handle numbers out to the local exchange to their HQ and charged you whatever they got charged. This was in the days before any form of mobile internet so I was using it for a 9600 modem connection. Dog slow but it was free.

Many months later I got a call on my mobile asking if I worked for Eircom and, if I did, could I please use my provided landline equipment in future as I was costing them rather a lot of money.

jackalbion · Apr 16, 2018

In my first year of university we went on a trip to the nestle distribution centre in York and they brought out an assortment of nestle products to eat while we had a talk. By the time we had left the entire selection had gone including the jar of complimentary coffee and an 18 pack of KitKats, and a box of quality street poured into a backpack by myself. We would have taken the chairs if they’d let us.

Midget · Apr 16, 2018

Back in the 90s, German vending machines used to think the old UK 5p coins were 1DM coins so you could get 20 cigarettes for 20p. Happy days.

The Maharajah of Sydney · Apr 16, 2018

Dog Track in the Seventies - Cheapside end, just before the mild frenzy when the dogs were in their traps and the hare was moving.
Stick 4 x £1 notes in my fist, fold the 2nd & 3rd note over and thrust it into the bookies hand, getting set for a Fiver instead of 4 quid.

BadFish · Apr 16, 2018

I am a bit haphazard with my self service scanning at the supermarket checkout and because i leave my headphones in sometimes i don't hear the lack of a beep.

Jim Van Winkle · Apr 16, 2018

When I was a teenager (before the days of internet porn) after finishing my paper round and putting the bag away the shop owner would leave the previous months magazines in the back. I would always go through them, liberate the adult material and sell them at school.

vegster · Apr 16, 2018

marlowe said:
Because of environmental concerns Waitrose are phasing out their takeaway coffee cups but they still want to provide their customers with free coffee so in order to do so they are asking customers to bring their own cups. I think you must have lost all sense of personal dignity if you are prepared to bring your own cup in order to get a free coffee. I'm not sure it sets a particularly good precedent in customer relations for a supermarket to be asking their customers to humiliate themselves in order to be granted that little reward. There is a bit of an unhealthy sado-masochistic undercurrent to the whole arrangement. All very venus in furs. Next they'll be asking their customers to turn up in a gimp mask and a straw.

Hilarious thought! .... It will be the middle class equivalent of the soup kitchen!

Return of the Rev · Apr 16, 2018

Midget said:
Back in the 90s, German vending machines used to think the old UK 5p coins were 1DM coins so you could get 20 cigarettes for 20p. Happy days.

Euro 88

DJ NOBO · Apr 16, 2018

My ex’s dad had a fool proof way of making a few hundred quid from the bookies.
It took advantage of signing up to various sites - so you can only do it once.
He bet on horses but Whatever he did , it didn’t matter which horse won.
Once he said to me “your horse actually won” but it wouldn’t have mattered if it didn’t .
I wish I could tell you the details but all I know is I gave him three hundred quid and he came back with eight hundred, and there was no way of it not working.
This was eight years ago , maybe whatever it was has changed.
Unfortunately the relationship ended badly and it would not go down well if I checked with him

Also - if you want to make £150 by switching your bank to nationwide give me a shout !

The Clamp · Apr 16, 2018

maffew said:
Times are tight for me and I find myself doing things I wouldnt normally do to save money, pretty pikey in fact . It's amazing how little you can live off when you need to

Here's mine, more tips welcome
100 coffee vouchers macdonalds. 20 quid from Ebay, clearly nicked by a member of staff
O'neills breakfast, 3.29. Add bottomless tea/coffee 1.25. So full English with 2 teas. Less than a fiver. Used the bottomless coffee to fill up my reusable starbucks cup, sit in Starbucks with it still hot and fresh and use their free wifi for a couple of hours. All under a fiver
Mate in Subway swipes my loyalty card on others purchases when I have lunch in there and abuse their free wifi

Anyone got any other tips? Mostly legal and totally cheapskate

Uhm, don't want to state the obvious but you've said you were in a spot and need to save money. Then you list all the places you eat out. Try going food shopping and eating indoors and making lunches.

Jesus Gul · Apr 16, 2018

vegster said:
There is a Waitrose near where I work and I sometimes pop in for a paper and a sandwich, nothing sadder than the cheapskates scrounging coffee. I once was behind a man at the checkout who's only purchase was a can of Waitrose Savers Vegetable Soup..... 27 p I think it was, and he waved his card and asked for his coffee.

Like his style!

Jesus Gul · Apr 16, 2018

The old 5p was indistinguishable to a old Deutschmark (25p) for the cigarette vending machines so my German exchange student got me to bring loads over for cheap fags

NooBHA · Apr 16, 2018

When we were kids me and 3 mates used to get the buss a short 5 or 6 minute journey to the swimming baths every Sunday morning.

We would always sit up the back of the bus. So by the time the Conductor came to us for our fares we were half way there. The when he asked A for his fare - He would say B has got it. B would say C has got it and the C would say D has got it, who in turn would say A has got the fare. Then by the time the conductor realised what was going on we had reached our destination, this saving 5p each which allowed us to pay for a second session in the swimming baths.

This lasted about 3 years until the Bus company brought in those damned Pay as you enter buses.

father_and_son · Apr 16, 2018

Arundel_Seagull said:
I still use a couple of little savers, but one I will divulge is now defunct. Back in the dial up era NTL offered a 5p per min internet service via an 0345 number. I managed to find a way to access the same gateway via a free 0800 number and got free Internet access for a good while until broadband came out. (so did a lot of those close to me)

* Not sure this was strictly legal

I can go one better... back in the early eighties, before home internet, I used to go with a mate to his mum's work on a saturday morning, pretending we wanted to use the photocopier (pikey in itself). We would then go out of the fire escape and break into the other office on that floor. One of the people in there used a thing called PSS (packet switch streaming) to get international calls from a local number. This was a data only service that allowed you to connect to certain servers overseas directly (this pre-dated the internet!). That person would keep their user ID, password and phone number written on a piece of paper sellotaped to their desk.

Using their PSS account we used to then access a server in the states (using my acoustic modem - that's how old this was!) running a game called MUD (multi-user dungeon) which was a pre-cursor to the massive online role playing games available now. We must have racked up thousands of pounds of debt on their PSS account calling US numbers to play an online game for hours throughout the night, while only racking up local call charges at home.

It was the second ridiculous quarterly telephone phone bill at home that eventually killed our fun and that was just for the local calls!

maffew · Apr 16, 2018

The Clamp said:
need to save money. Then you list all the places you eat out

Well most of us like/need to save money

And that's not all the places I eat out. I just run away from the more expensive ones or get someone else to pay (I thought these were too illegal and pikey to post - against the spirit of the thread). Except on a Wednesday when I wash up at the local chinese in return for a bowl of plain noodles. Oh and Tuesdays can be busy too as I have to sign on, but the job centre is next to a clinic so I go and get free condoms and tampons and swap them with people at the job centre for rolling tobacco or a real cigarette on a good day. It's always good to give David the chap at the job centre a couple of the 12p Macdonalds coffee vouchers too. I seem to have no qualms justifying my existence with him.

I'm especially liking the Waitrose tips but I think it's too posh for me

DavidinSouthampton · Apr 16, 2018

marlowe said:
Because of environmental concerns Waitrose are phasing out their takeaway coffee cups but they still want to provide their customers with free coffee so in order to do so they are asking customers to bring their own cups. I think you must have lost all sense of personal dignity if you are prepared to bring your own cup in order to get a free coffee. I'm not sure it sets a particularly good precedent in customer relations for a supermarket to be asking their customers to humiliate themselves in order to be granted that little reward. There is a bit of an unhealthy sado-masochistic undercurrent to the whole arrangement. All very venus in furs. Next they'll be asking their customers to turn up in a gimp mask and a straw.

They sell appropriate cups, complete with lids, and plenty of people already use them.

No loss of dignity. Are you on a wind-up?

mejonaNO12 aka riskit · Apr 16, 2018

Good thread.

I knew at Uni that perfectly good food was being thrown out at a certain time of the morning. I used to set my alarm for 30mins before this, get to the shop at say 4am and then stand there and buy food for pennies whilst they could still legally sell it..

The guy was about to throw roast chickens. I think I agreed to buy about 10 of the little blighters for about £2. Bang them in the freezer. Done.

The Clamp · Apr 16, 2018

maffew said:
Well most of us like/need to save money

And that's not all the places I eat out. I just run away from the more expensive ones or get someone else to pay (I thought these were too illegal and pikey to post - against the spirit of the thread). Except on a Wednesday when I wash up at the local chinese in return for a bowl of plain noodles. Oh and Tuesdays can be busy too as I have to sign on, but the job centre is next to a clinic so I go and get free condoms and tampons and swap them with people at the job centre for rolling tobacco or a real cigarette on a good day. It's always good to give David the chap at the job centre a couple of the 12p Macdonalds coffee vouchers too. I seem to have no qualms justifying my existence with him.

I'm especially liking the Waitrose tips but I think it's too posh for me

Righto. Just you said you were skint. Seems strange to be eating out at all.

Goldstone1976 · Apr 16, 2018

NooBHA said:
When we were kids me and 3 mates used to get the buss a short 5 or 6 minute journey to the swimming baths every Sunday morning.

We would always sit up the back of the bus. So by the time the Conductor came to us for our fares we were half way there. The when he asked A for his fare - He would say B has got it. B would say C has got it and the C would say D has got it, who in turn would say A has got the fare. Then by the time the conductor realised what was going on we had reached our destination, this saving 5p each which allowed us to pay for a second session in the swimming baths.

This lasted about 3 years until the Bus company brought in those damned Pay as you enter buses.

A career in creative accountancy awaits!

NooBHA · Apr 16, 2018

Goldstone1976 said:
A career in creative accountancy awaits!

LOL LOL LOL LOL - Indeed

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