the richest man in atherstone

This is just a quick update to show the results of the recent changes I have made to my telephone provider. To recap, I have taken the following actions to reduce my telephone bill:

1. Subscribed to over-ride provider Call18866
2. Downgraded my BT Line Rental from Option 2 to Option 1
3. Subscribed to CPS provider Just-Dial

Call18866 charge a flat 2p for calls to any landline in the UK. This was cheaper than BT's charges. It was also cheaper than paying BT an extra £5 per month on top of my line rental for free evening and weekend calls with BT Together Option 2. So I downgraded to Option 1. To cut costs further, Just-Dial offered a package with FREE evening and weekend calls with no monthly charge.

Having changed my providers from just BT to BT (line rental), Just-Dial (evening and weekend calls) and Call18866 (any other calls), I was keen to see how much i'd saved.

My previous 3 quarterly bills for telephone services (from BT only) were £85.85, £74.15 and £99.46. An average of around £86.

The most recent quarter (Sept to Nov) is broken down between the 3 companies:

BT………………£32.41
Just-Dial………£0.37
Call18866……£11.96

The total being £44.74. That’s a saving of a whopping £41.26pq or £165.04pa!

Needless to say, I am very happy with the savings I've made.

I've become a little disillusioned at work just lately and I'm not sure why. I feel like just taking a couple of weeks off but we're very busy completing projects ready for the year end and I've got a responsibility to carry them through to completion.

Flicking through 'The Richest Man in Babylon' I re-read the final parable in the book - 'The Luckiest Man in Babylon'. After I'd finished it, for some reason I found myself motivated and raring to go. Is there no end to this book's powers?

Anyway, I thought I'd write my favourite quote from the story. Maybe it will motivate me again in the future...

"Some men hate it [work]. They make it their enemy. Better to treat it like a friend, make thyself like it. Don't mind because it is hard. If thou thinkest about what a good house thou build, then who cares if the beams are heavy and it is far from the well to carry the water for the plaster. Promise my, boy, if thou get a master, work for him as hard as thou canst. If he does not appreciate all thou do, never mind. Remember, work, well-done, does good to the man who does it. It makes him a better man."

Following up from the post I made last month about the incentive I was offered by the Alliance + Leicester to open a current account with them, I have the following to report.

My mum upgraded her current account to the Premier Direct product and gave me a call. I then phoned the Alliance and Leicester and opened a Premier Direct account for myself. I quoted the code I had been given to get a £100 account-opening incentive. The paperwork arrived in the post a couple of days later, which I duly signed and sent back. For some reason they had given me a £950 overdraft. Because this is 0% for 12 months, I now have a £950 loan that won't cost me a penny!

The next day, I printed off a referral form from A+L's website. Myself and my mum filled in our details and posted the form off. This should mean that both my mum and I will get £50 for free in about 8 weeks. Fantastic! Who would have thought that simply opening a current account would earn me £150 as well as giving me the facility to borrow up to £950 free of charge?