On this weeks personal finance podcast John Rennie gives personal finance advice on:-

• Drinkstuff voucher code
• Orange deals
• H Samuel deals
• How to get free stuff

We want to hear from you, you can send your emails to walletwatcher@mevio.com. Be sure to visit the Wallet Watcher blog for articles on Naked Trader 2 by Robbie Burns, petrol prices in the UK, Ebay alternatives and saving on Royal Mail postage. This week we’ve found some secret promotional codes this week including Littlewoods Direct voucher codes, Easyjet voucher codes 2008, Hertz Discount Code numbers and Papa Johns voucher codes September 2008.

This weeks episode of Wallet Watcher is brought to you in association with GoDaddy and offers you discounts on hosting and domain names. Use one of the following Wallet Watcher August 2008 GoDaddy codes to save you money - wallet1 gets you 10% off domain name purchases and wallet2 gets you 20% off orders over £25. Some restrictions may apply, please see the GoDaddy offers site for more details.

Tags: drinkstuff voucher code, h samuel deals, orange deals, personal finance

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This week, we’re looking at getting something for nothing … ever more important in these days of high inflation.

It doesn’t seem so long ago that you had to shell out around £20 for ANY DVD, let alone the classics. The stock of classic movies is rather lower these days, with many of the Saturday and Sunday papers giving away classic films with each edition. Recent freebies include Brassed Off, Educating Rita and a raft of classic Dr Whos.

Of course it may not have occurred to you to watch Ring of Bright Water or Carry On Christmas, but think of it as a chance to widen your viewing horizons! I reckon it’s worth the price of the Mail on Sunday for the freebie, and you can always hide the newspaper under your coat on the way home!

There are rather more A-list offerings from the Free DVD Club. Sign up, choose your free DVD, complete a questionnaire, and it’s sent to you free of charge. No scams, no catches, and current titles include The Matrix Reloaded, The War Bride, Chopper and The Shawshank Redemption - more at www.free-dvd-club.com.

We’d love to bring you voucher codes for free mobile phone calls, but I’ve yet to see one. You can get free topup vouchers for the orange, o2, T-Mobile, Vodafone and Virgin networks though. Go to www.myfreerewards.co.uk. You earn points for playing games online, signing up for free offers and taking part in online promotions. You then spend your points on everything from those £10 phone top up vouchers to free Sony PSP handhelds.

Now we have to say that you’d have to take part in a great many promotions to earn enough points for the PSP … but it’s a bona fide offer. For any of these signup schemes, I’d recommend you set up a new gmail or hotmail account and apply from there - otherwise you could find your inbox filling with spam email.

I’m a big fan of www.last.fm, an online radio station which has revolutionised the way music is delivered. You tap in ‘Bach’ or ‘Arctic Monkeys’ and it will deliver a stream of tracks by or similar to that artist. They offer some 200 free downloads every week … a great way to expand your listening and your collection. And if you like classical music, it’s worth checking out your local concert hall, town hall or even library, as there are often free lunchtime concerts by up and coming musicians.

If you’re having trouble getting there, sign up for www.liftshare.org, which is an online database of people around the UK offering free lifts. It’s green, it’s sociable and it’s free … and it’s the modern safe way of hitch hiking.

www.silverjewelryclub.com offers free silver bracelets, earrings and more. All you pay is a shipping charge of $8.99. Again, it’s a loss leading promotion, and you can expect a raft of promotional emails to follow your application, inviting you to spend more money. So again, use that free email account as a receptacle for all the rubbish.

You’d be amazed what you can get free if you just ask for it. Test drives seem to have gone out of fashion, but car companies are desperate to shift their products at the moment. If you fancy borrowing a flash motor for the weekend, it’s worth asking your local dealership for an extended test drive. Now obviously this isn’t going to work with Fred’s Secondhand Motors, but we have friends who’ve blagged test runs of Saabs, Mercs, even a VW Camper Van for weekends recently. You’re practically getting a free holiday!

www.asda-photo.co.uk and www.photobox.co.uk are just two of the photo printing services offering you free prints when you register with their websites, a generous 50 prints with the latter. It’s well worth signing up to get your holiday snaps printed even if you never use them again.

And on the subject of holidays, how about a free stay in somebody’s Parisian apartment of New York loft? Check out homeswap websites such as www.homelink.org.uk. You pay a small fee to sign up and you could save hundreds on your vacation.

Finally, why not trust to luck. I’m not a betting man, but William Hill always has free bets for new accounts, currently a £25 online bet, and other bonuses such as £50 to play in its online casino - more at www.williamhill.com.

I’ve merely scratched the surface here … there is a HUGE amount of free stuff online and elsewhere. You just have to use your imagination and Google it.

Related articles: How to save money on shopping, Free haircuts and makeovers, Free dental treatment, Free tickets to attend TV recordings, Get free trades from Paddy Power

Tags: How to get free stuff, freestuff online, free

Deal of the week comes from long-established high street jeweller H Samuel. Again, not voucher codes but some startling reductions, with 50% off loads of gold, silver and cubic zirconia items. And unlike the famed Ratners quote, these ones are definitely worth more and will certainly last longer than a Marks and Spencer’s sandwich.

Related links: www.hsamuel.co.uk

Tags: H Samuel, deals, money off H Samuel, personal finance advice

The Orange mobile phone site is also a great money saver … all of it. We posted a great deal recently whereby customers signing up to a £35+ per month contract got a free iPod touch. That deal will have expired by the time you hear or read this but there is LOTS more onsite, with terrific reductions on handsets, talk and broadband contracts. Orange appears to be fighting the recession with some great clearance bargains on slightly older handset models … well worth a look.

Related links: www.orange.co.uk, Free iPod touch from Orange, Orange Wednesdays

Tags: Orange, mobile phone, deals, finance tips

Moneysaver number one is a voucher code from Drinkstuff. This handy site provides you with all the gifts, gadgets and gizmos you need to enhance your drinking experience - we’re talking cocktail shakers, swizzle sticks, comedy glasses, even a hot tub for the garden. Actually, all you really need is sufficient strength in your index finger to release the ring pull, but it’s all good fun stuff. Type in MYVOUCHER when you check out at drinkstuff.com.

Related links: www.drinkstuff.com

Tags: drinkstuff, voucher code, personal finance tips

On this weeks personal finance podcast John Rennie gives personal finance advice on:-

• Park Holidays UK vouchercodes
• Bathroom Heaven discounts
• Currys savings discounts
• Negative equity and avoiding repossession

We want to hear from you, you can send your emails to walletwatcher@btpodshow.com. Don't forget to read the articles on the Wallet Watcher blog including Free iPod touch from Orange, Guaranteed equity bonds, IKEA pay as you go phones and Avoiding the TV Licensing Authority. This week we've found some secret promotional codes this week including Comet voucher codes August 2008, Papa Johns promotion codes, Play.com voucher codes and August 2008 Comet voucher codes .

This episode of Wallet Watcher is brought to you with GoDaddy and offers you fantastic discounts on hosting and domain names. Use one of the following Wallet Watcher August 2008 GoDaddy codes to save you money - wallet1 gets you 10% off domain name purchases and wallet2 gets you 20% off orders over £25. Some restrictions may apply, see the GoDaddy web site for more details.

Tags: bathroom heaven discounts, currys savings discounts, park holidays uk vouchercodes, personal finance

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This week we look at how NOT to get repossessed. Here, first of all are the scary headline figures. The Council of Mortgage Lenders tells us that the number of homes repossessed in the first half of 2008 was 18,900, that’s nearly 50% up on the first six months of 2007. There’s also strong evidence that lenders are getting tougher on those in arrears. There are a number of reasons - with many people coming off fixed interest mortgages and finding new deals hard to come by. Shunted onto the lenders’ Standard Variable Rate they are pushed over the edge by a sudden hike in their monthly repayments. Add the fact that the cost of living has surged in recent months - we all know about the soaring cost of fuel and groceries - and some people have been pushed beyond their limits. Repossessions and negative equity are often talked about in almost the same breath. But though being beset by both at once is VERY bad news, it’s important to separate the two things out.

To clarify - negative equity is when the amount of your house is worth less than the mortgage on it. It’s an obvious risk with so many lenders offering mortgages that exceed the property value in recent years. The gifted deposit racket was one face of this, though Northern Rock’s infamous 125% ‘Together’ mortgages weren’t much smarter … being an instant turnkey introduction to negative equity. The insanity of these deals was easy to hide when prices were rising, but come the fall it all starts to look less clever.

But actually, negative equity doesn’t really matter unless it coincides with a need to sell. You may be left rueing the fact that you overpaid for a property that’s now fallen 10% in price … but unless you put it on the market, it’s irrelevant. Give it five or ten years and the surges and dips in house prices are forgotten. In fact, forget all about the putative market value of your home - it’s somewhere to live in, not a piggy bank.

But what if you ARE forced to sell. That could arise if you start missing mortgage payments, and some lenders are turning the screw after just a couple of missed payments. That’s because they know that things don’t miraculously just get better - the first missed payment is just the top of a very slippery slope.

So what should you do if you start getting into problems? Contact your lender before it gets out of hand. Although we all love to bash the banks, they generally don’t want to repossess homes - it’s not that they are softhearted, it’s simply an expensive business. The first month you THINK you may miss a payment, let them know first. It may be that they can offer a payment holiday, or put you temporarily on an interest only deal … though bear in mind these make the mortgage more expensive in the long run. Have a plan for repayment when you approach your lender - Financial Services Authority guidelines say that they SHOULD listen.

If things get really bad, you may have to sell. Better if you initiate the sale then have your home repossessed and lose the lot. But however you slice it, selling now could see you in negative equity … so take our preventative measures first. Type ‘avoid repossession’ or the like into Google just now, and you’ll find dozens of companies offering to solve your problem by taking your house off your hands for cash. Be VERY careful here - you are far better turning to Citizens Advice first. Short term cash fixes are unlikely to get you anything but a rock bottom price.

Assuming you’re not at this desperate pass yet … What pre emptive measures can you take? Good mortgage deals are hard to come by just now of course, but that shouldn’t stop you searching for the best possible deal. Amid all the angst about borrowers coming to the end of their fixed deals and having to go onto lenders’ Standard Variable Rates, many observers have ignored the fact that a lot of borrowers are on Standard Variable Rates anyway. Many of us are incredibly cavalier about overpaying for our mortgages, loans, credit cards and the rest. If you have a £100,000 mortgage at 6%, and you re mortgage at 5.5%, you’ll save £500 a year.

And don’t pay for mortgage advice. There is great free advice from brokers such as John Charcol and London & Country, and the web is full of best buy advice - see moneysupermarket.com or moneyfacts.co.uk for current best buy mortgages. Indeed, you may not even HAVE to re mortgage. Try your lender first, asking them what is the best deal they can offer you … it’s always worth a try. If you DO have any spare cash, overpay your mortgage as much as possible. You may have cash on deposit in savings accounts earning miserable rates of interest. Put it to work reducing your mortgage and getting you out of negative equity and into the black. People usually don’t realise how much they can save over time by doing this. For instance, overpay by £100 a month on a £150,000, 25-year mortgage and you’ll save more than £38,000 over the term. You’ll also pay it off nearly five years early.

And when you re mortgage, switch to a repayment from an interest-only mortgage if you can. Interest only become very popular when house prices were rising in double digits each year - after all, why worry about a debt that never went down if the equity was constantly rising? But stick with interest only in a flat market and you’ll just be servicing debt that never goes away - get it paid off. There’s another point about these hitherto unfashionable ideas of paying more each month. It’s the old saving principle of ‘paying yourself first’. Reduce your mortgage by £200 each month and you’re effectively saving that £200. After a month or two of higher payments you probably won’t even notice that you have less spending money after the mortgage is paid.

Cut the contingent costs of your home. Shop around (moneysupermarket.com again) for the best deals on buildings and contents insurance. Most of us just take the same deal from the same lender year after year. It goes without saying that you should slice any unnecessary fat from your monthly expenditure … do a budget now! But also consider making some money from your house. The ‘Rent a Room’ scheme lets you earn £4250 a year tax free for doing just that.

Related: Money Supermarket, Council of Mortgage Lenders, Rent a Room scheme, Financial Services Authority, Citizens Advice, John Charcol, London & Country

Tags: Negative equity and avoiding repossession, Negative equity, avoid repossession, repossession, mortgage, housing

We’ve found some great deals on printers, phones and other electricals from Currys. The electrical giant seems to be having an almost permanent sale just now. Again, you don’t need a code for these ones … they are just fantastic price cuts. A random selection brings up £100 off the Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop; 50% off the Hoover Freespace Cylinder Vacuum Cleaner, and £10 off the Lexmark Z1380 Inkjet Printer - which is now an astonishing £19.99 …. a great budget printer for the home office.

Related: www.currys.co.uk

Tags: Currys, electricals, sale, savings, personal finance advice

The DIY and home improvement stores are feeling the pinch. With fewer of us moving, fewer of us are fitting new bathrooms. Their hopes that we’d stay put and invest in our homes are looking very optimistic with most Britons stubbornly refusing to spend. Bathroom Heaven have taken an admirably aggressive approach with its Summer Madness sale. You’ll find reductions of up to 80% on mirrors, cabinets, bathroom lighting, wet room screens and much more. And we’re talking everything from pocket change basics to top of the range bathroom fittings costing thousands. Well worth a look at www.bathroomheaven.com, and no voucher code required.

Related: www.bathroomheaven.com

Tags: Bathroom Heaven, discounts, sale, savings, finance tips

Loads more of us are holidaying in the UK this year. With rising prices, increases in airfares and an expensive euro it’s perhaps not surprising that families are opting for the UK rather than Europe. And there’s apparently been a surge in interest in caravanning and camping holidays. Park Holidays UK have a great choice of caravan holiday parks in coastal locations across the south of England in Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Essex & Suffolk, and you get an extra 5% discount when you use voucher code PH05 on bookings before 31 August. Note you do need to book online.

Related: www.parkholidaysuk.com

Tags: Park Holidays UK discount codes, personal finance tips