Yahoo Finance Half-price days out and cashback battle: This week's deals and discounts
There’s a great bunch of money-saving deals and discounts for you to grab this week, including a mortgage cash-back battle, and half-price days out.
But don’t forget, a bargain is only a good deal if you were planning to splash out on it anyway.
Mortgage cashback battle
Lenders are raising the levels of cash handouts they give to borrowers.
For instance, Halifax is now offering £750 cash-back to first time buyers, home-movers and those who switch from another lender as long as they complete on a qualifying mortgage before 29 April.
Meanwhile Virgin offers up to £500 for first-time buyers and £300 to switchers and remortgagers, while there’s £250 up for grabs at NatWest and Yorkshire building society.
But it’s essential to check rates and charges to assess the total cost of the deals compared to loans without cashbacks.
Half-price days out and holidays
Buy something at DIY store Wickes before 15 April and keep your receipt – you’ll be able to use it to get a code for up to 50% off days out, hotels and holidays.
Deals include Segway days, Bungee jumping and paintball – and each time you buy will generate another code.
Full details at wickestrips.co.uk
£15 to spend at Superdrug
Discount website TopCashback.co.uk is offering all new members £15 to spend at Superdrug.
Join the site and you could choose a I Heart Makeup Palette (£8) and also cover the £3 delivery cost out of your £15.
The deal is offered until Monday 9 April.
Save £120 on water and energy bills
Cut the amount of time you spend in the shower and you could slash your water bill.
The average person spends 8.5 minutes in the shower. Reduce that any a minute every day and you’d save £15 in energy bills, and a further £15 in water bills, you have a meter.
For a family of four, that could add up to a saving of £120 a year, points out Tim Robertson of Save Water Save Money.
‘In addition, fitting a water-saving shower head will save a household an average 30 litres of water a day, totalling £40 per year on metered water and energy bills,’ he says.
25% off at Byron Burgers
You can cut the cost of a Byron Burger meal by a quarter by using a code from VoucherCloud this month.
The code must be used before 1 April but will take 25% off the cost of your total bill, including shakes and desserts.
Supermarket food deals
M&S is offering 20% off roasting joints, including lamb, beef and gammon, as long as you order online by Saturday 24 March.
At Lidl, the highlight of a range of new offers from Thursday 22 March is a pack of six Hot Cross Buns for just 85p.
Meanwhile Tesco has published 10 Fun Easter Bakes, to get your cooking ahead of the spring holiday.
More from Yahoo Finance UK
The rare camera that sold for £2.1m
Villagers save £1m to save pub from developers
Record numbers switch energy supplier
Amazon sale
Amazon has an Early Easter Sale until 26 March.
Prices aren’t that great but there are deals of the day to watch out for which promise some market-leading discounts, although they soon go.
To find out what deals are coming up tick the ‘Upcoming’ box on the left hand side of the screen. You can’t see prices or the level of discount in advance, but you can see the times they’ll go live.
Tip of the week
If you’re planning to drive abroad over the Easter holidays, take your own sat nav and child car seats, and buy standalone excess insurance before you travel.
It could save you a packet. The average charge for a child’s seat for a week, according to new research, is £54 while including a Sat Nav in a hire car could cost you an extra £77.
Excess waiver insurance, which most car hire companies demand you have, costs an average £153 a week if you buy it abroad.
Buy a policy online before you go and it should be around £30 a week.
In total, a little bit of planning could save you around £250.
‘The price of car rental extras varies enormously and is often where the rental companies make their biggest margins, so it’s crucial that drivers check in advance the prices of all the extras they want before they book the car hire,’ advises Ernesto Suarez, founder of iCarhireinsurance.com.
