A report from online car insurer swiftcover.com shows that british drivers would sacrifice many of their luxuries, like going to the pub, take-aways and eating out, rather then give up their beloved cars.
36% of those who participated in the survey said that they would run their cars on recycled chip oil if it meant that they could cut their motoring costs. When the law changed in July 2007 it allowed people to legally make up to 2,500 litres of their own biodiesel which would mean no tax charges. Some people turned to converting chip fat from pubs and restaurants into a usable source - so it isn’t as silly as it sounds and does actually work - although I think it is a rather complicated process.
But would you really give up your beer? Well according to 28% of respondees, you would. 28% said they would sacrifice going to the pub, 26% would stop buying ipods, TVs and other electrical luxuries and 21% would eat in and stop having the nice treat of a take away or restaurant meal.
But what would you do to keep your costs down? There may be other ways which won’t come as a huge sacrifice:
Shop around for the best car insurance quotes
Search for cheaper petrol
Get an MOT from your council
Drive green and save money
Cut out the junk.
For more helpful tips visit the whole article at swiftcover.com
Wednesday 25th March sees the long awaited return of The Apprentice. Love it or hate it, everyone talks about it.
It is one of those programmes that actually gives you a confidence boost. You watch it and think “I could do better than these people, why did they choose them?”. There are quite a few episodes that stick in my mind including the time that a team bought Cheese from Makro and tried to sell it in France at a French market - OMG!
The winner signs a 12 month contract with Sir Alan for a reported six figure salary. But what actually happens to the winners - do they stay working for Sir Alan Sugar for long?
Timothy Campbell was the first ever winner and he stayed working for Sir Alan for 2 years, being kept on after his 12 month contract came to an end. He has since left and set up his own company called Bright Ideas Trust, helping young entrepreneurs. Michelle Dewsbury worked for Sir Alan for a total of 11 months before leaving to set up her own company. Two who have remained with Sir Alan are Simon Ambrose who won in 2007 and Lee McQueen who won in 2008 even though he lied on his CV.
I was amazed to hear that one of the contestants from the new series has left already under the pressure. Apparently a staggering 20,000 people applied for the programme this year but who out of the last 15 will be the lucky winner?
I thought that The Apprentice for Comic Relief was fantastic, the funniest bit was when poor Alan Carr got fired. Watch it here - Alan Carr you’re fired
According to a report on the BBC website, the more friends you have the more you earn.
The US study follows 10,000 people over a 35 year period and found that
the wealthiest people are those that had the most friends at school.
The main reason appears to be social skills. If you have lots of friends then you are generally a social person which presumably helps when you are in the workplace and needing to network.
However, how many friends is too many. I know some people who use Facebook and have the main objective of trying to gain the highest number of ‘friends’ possible. But can you really class all these people as being friends. The online dictionary defines a friend as “a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard” so I doubt that someone with 800 people on Facebook really has feelings for all of them. One article on The Guardian website implies that if you have that many friends you can actually be seen as being ‘insecure’.
In such a competitive market car insurance providers are constantly looking to differentiate themselves from their competitors, and there seems to be a growing number of companies that claim to offer the best prices for lady drivers. But do they really?
According to an article in The Telegraph they do not. Statistics have proven that women tend to be the safer driver behind the wheel. 2006 government statistics revealed that 88% of all motoring offences were committed by men and of all the dangerous driving cases, a huge 97% were by men. This month The Association of British Insurers has published statistics for car claims and they show that the cost of claims made by women are considerably less then those made by men. For example, the cost of a claim made by a woman aged between 31-35 is on average around 26% cheaper than a man of the same age.
So in theory car insurance should be cheaper for women. However, according to an article by MSN women are more likely to get a better deal on their car insurance if they deal with mainstream motor insurers. This is backed up in an article by The Telegraph. They have published a table that shows what women would pay for their insurance at companies that advertise as being ‘female-friendly’ compared to other insurance companies, and the results are quite surprising. The table shows that if you use a female-friendly car insurer you could be paying on average almost £200 more on your car insurance and that’s an extra cost we could really do without. Insurance company Swiftcover have carried out their own research which also shows that women could be paying above the odd with some female-friendly car insurers.
So if you are a lady make sure that when your car insurance is due for renewal you shop around, you’ll probably be surprised at how much you will save.
The Telegraph has reported that men behave like Cavemen when behind the wheel.
Personally I’m a bit fed up with drivers who think that they own the road. Speed limits are there for a reason, particularly in certain built up areas, and whilst I admit that I don’t stick exactly to the speed limit, I try not to exceed it too badly. It really annoys me when other drivers feel the need to drive within 2 inches of my rear bumper trying to either make me drive faster or move out of their way. People have absolutely no patience or manners on the roads.
In a report for the Commons transport committee, Professor Geoffrey Beattie of Manchester University puts this down to our men’s caveman routes. He concluded: “Our 21st-century skulls contain essentially ’stone-age’ brains and this can help to explain the differences between the sexes in terms of their risk-proneness while driving.” He said: “Stone-age man did not drive. But the legacy of his hunting, aggressive and risk-taking past - qualities that enabled him to survive and mate, thereby passing on his genes to future generations - are still evident in the way in which he typically drives his car.”
However, I am not sure that it is just men that drive like Cavemen. I am constantly shocked to see some women driving like complete maniacs on our roads and often being verbally abusive. And it is often the younger drivers that feel that they own the road and have more to prove. Unfortunately it is this behaviour that leads to many tragic accidents on our roads today.
I, like many women I know have for many years struggled when trying to find a balance between shoes that look stylish and shoes that are comfortable. I love wearing high heels but if I know I am going to be walking some distance I always take a pair of comfortable shoes with me to change into.
Driving too can be a bit of a problem. Lots of women change their high heels for flatter shoes when they get into their cars so that they can drive with more control and limit the chance of accidents and having to claim on their car insurance.
I only realised a few days ago that a solution to this problem had been invented. I don’t know exactly who was the first to come up with the idea but back in 2004 a lady called Ella Kilgour, a 23 year old design graduate, was reported on the CNN website as having designed a shoe with a collapsible heel called the Declic, shown in the picture below. The Declic’s heel can be folded away into a recess under the shoe or can be extended to create a four inch heel.
Another student called Marte den Hollander designed a similar shoe naming her project ‘Footloose’ and there is an American company on the website called CAMiLEON Heels which offers customers the chance to buy heel adjustable shoes.
Wherever it originated, I think it is a great idea and one that I would definitely be interested in. As long as the shoes still look stylish then I can see these being a big hit and a wardrobe must for many women.
Is it something that you would wear? Do you think that there is a demand for ‘convertible shoes’? We would love to know your views.
If you’ve seen the film ‘Cars’then you might remember the scene where Lightening McQueen ends up caught up in power lines - an entanglement that finally enables the chasing police car to capture him.
Couldn’t happen in real life? Think again - as this news report shows. Far from it being for me to comment on this, but for the record, I will note that according to the police the driver was a woman, a senior citizen, an illegal immigrant and had neither a licence or car insurance!
Anyway, aside from the 4,000 local residents who temporarily lost power to their homes, there was no harm done. She was apparently unhurt and having been released from jeopardy by fire-fighters she was - according to the report - released from custody by the police.
Let’s hope that when she is eventually appears in court, she just gets the bus…
I saw this on Times Online via their blog The Click. It’s a public service commercial from Australia which seeks to persuade men not to speed when driving. Rather than persuade drivers that slower driving will protect pedestrians or other road users in case of a collision, this appeals purely to the self-esteem of the driver, seemingly suggesting that men from Down Under that speed are seen by women as somewhat less than adequate, er, Down Under.
Do visit The Click blog to view their other clips of weird and wonderful things including ‘Human Tetris’ but here is that Aussie ad - we’ve gone and found it on You Tube, so you don’t have to…
There’s a saying that “many hands make light work”. There’s another one that says “a woman’s work is never done”. A new report just out which I read about in the Independent on Sunday, reported gleefully that the French do less housework than anyone else. However, the article also noted that in Britain, women do 71% of all the housework - more than twice as much as men. I can’t say I am that surprised at this really, and I think it comes down to the fact that in essence women care more about it, so do more about it. Since I don’t actually know everyone in the UK , I’ll just have to rely on sweeping generalisations here, but I think it fair to say women do housework in case someone pops round, whereas men do it only if someone is coming round. And then only if that person is a prospective partner or their own mother. Or that prospective partner’s mother.
Of course, when it comes to housework, analysing the time spent is one way of looking at the issue, but of course this ignores the quesion of efficiency. One reader of the Independent on Sunday blog - male, French and writing in French, so excuse my translation - has suggested that if French people do indeed spend less time on housework, maybe it is because they work that much more efficiently. Top answer Pierre, and one I must remember next time my wife asks how many domestic hours I have put in!
Swiftcover car insurance has taken the pain out of getting cheaper motor insurance quotes. There are no queues, no unnecessary chat and no endless questions.
