Learn about computers

Anyone who has ever had to deal with a computer helpline will have a vivid picture of the job interview that the person on the other end of the phone will have been through.

'So. what do you know about computers?'

'Nothing. Absolutely, totally, unashamedly ****** all.'

'Great. When can you start?'

Now to be fair, I'm told that roughly about 99.99999% of computer-related problems are caused by the user. And I kid you not that in the early days on This is Money someone did get in touch with us because the site wasn't working. It turned out it was because they didn't have a computer. So I have some sympathy with the support people.

By why on earth can you never get a straight answer? That is I'm told not because they are monkeys but because there isn't one. Everything depends, you see, on things and stuff.

If all this sounds familiar here's a site worth a visit.

http://www.pc.com/learn

Obviously it doesn't answer all the questions, that would be asking way too much, and it is paid for by chip makers Intel so it's there to flog expensive computers, but all that aside it's one of the best easy-to-follow stabs at computers for normal people that we've found.

Supermarket price comparisons

We all know that supermarket promotions aren't always worth the vegetables they're written on but just how far these mega store groups are prepared to go in misleading customers is something that will always be open to debate. Adding weight to cries of foul play from the rip-off camp is the Office of Fair Trading, which is currently investigating allegations of price fixing. And today several leading brands such as Aquafresh toothpaste and Andrex toilet paper have been drawn into the investigation.

Clearly supermarkets compare prices and adjust them accordingly depending on what their rival is charging - they use such claims as part of their advertising spiel. But whether they collude is another matter.

It is easy to check prices at the big four supermarkets thanks to a great little website called mySupermarket.co.uk - one to spend some time on one lunchtime. Warning: it's addictive. It is fascinating to see how many price are identical. For example, in my experience Carte Noire coffee is consistently the same (£2.75 at the time of writing). Though it's on special offer at Tesco at the moment. Sainsbury's had it on offer last month and Asda before that.

Whatever the outcome of the OFT investigation it's a great game. Play now.

On another shopping note...

Money Shop - is the place to save money on everything financial.

Wii Fit - don't buy it (now)

Any money-saving articles worth their weight will explain that cancelling gym membership is one of the easiest ways to cut a big expense from the monthly budget. After all, why pay £500 a year for the option to use a running machine when you have access to the outside? In fact, in this office no-one who is signed up to a gym is getting their money's worth. It is therefore a waste of money.

But now, depending on who you believe, there is a £70 alternative to the gym - a computer game called Wii Fit.

Nintendo, its creator, is shifting 90 every minute and judging by the online commentaries it is fast becoming the dinner party conversation piece to replace the house in France.

It's life changing, says Daniel, fantastic, says everyone at Play.com with more of the same from Amazon.

Reassuringly, some people are able to see through the hype.

Unsurprising, perhaps, personal trainers aren't that impressed. But then Wii Fit threatens their livelihood. More rational is Michelle, who asks: How long does the fun last?  And that's the rub. Like the real gym and the house in France, you pay your money, talk about it for a while, use it a couple of times and forget about it. It's just a computer game.

So here's our advice. If you have a Wii console already and you want one of these games, don't buy it now! The touts are charging more than £120, you can afford to wait. In our experience, one site that may have stock when others are sold out (probably because the site hardly ever seems to work properly) is the oft-forgotten Dixons.co.uk. You can sign up now for an alert to tell you when it's in stock. Littlewoods.co.uk on the other hand guarantees delivery within 26 weeks - that's half a year.

If you don't have a console and you want this game you won't get much change from £300. And if you're the kind of person who signs up to a gym and doesn't use it, don't waste your money on this.

If you need more help read:

>> 50 ways to save money

Best anti-virus software?

As attempts by all the world's thieves, spammers, scammers and spinners to destroy everything that was great about the internet grow by the minute it is absolutely vital that we all have up-to-date antivirus and anti-spyware software installed. And that is expensive. But it needn't be.

If you don't have any protection yet there is no excuse. There is plenty of perfectly acceptable free software out there and the best, according to our trusted geek, is this one from AVG.

Related

ID protection
(free trial)

How to retire 10 years early

Books that teach you how to save money are the publishing equivalent of antimatter (don't read this unless you want a hurt head). Having to spend your money on a book that explains how to not spend your money is a bizarre concept and similar to the annihilation that occurs when matter and antimatter collide.

But there are exceptions are here's one that caught the eye of several people in the office. How to retire 10 years early.

On the face of it, the book has absolutely nothing going for it whatsoever. It's about pensions, it's written by a financial adviser and in the current climate the idea that you might be able to stop work a decade early is a cruel hoax. On top of this, the book is packed with tips on how to spend less money, thus defying the scientific logic as outlined above.

But if you want to pack up work early you need to have a cash pile to see you through to your coffin and not spending your money now is one way towards that goal.

Where this book stands out that it breaks the whole tedious, complex world of pensions into easy-to-grasp lists. And even if you aren't able to retire that early it may at least help you retire with enough money to have fun while you're young enough to enjoy it.

As I write you can pick up a copy for less than a fiver.

Related

Read free pensions guides

Find a pensions adviser

Cheaper Center Parcs

It's our 67th birthday. Not a particularly auspicious occasion in the scheme of things but here's the thing... since we launched This is Not Work we have posted 67 time-saving and money-saving tips to help you sort your life and your finances without you having to negotiate the entire internet maze to find he odd gem of information. We publish one a day. And today it's St George's Day.

So in one of those desperate tenuous attempts to tie a popular event to the daily proceedings let me tell you that of those 67 posts the most popular so far has been 'Center Parcs' for half the price.

It seems that holidaying in England remains as popular as ever and as St George is Patron Saint of England we have our tenuous connection and fans of Center Parcs may celebrate with today's must-read article. It's from our sister travel website:

Center Parcs on the cheap

Related

All money-saving travel tips

Cheapest travel insurance

The official Number One tip

No one should ever need an excuse to publish pictures of Elvis.

But until that law is passed here are a couple of justifications.

1. Today it is revealed that he did visit England after all. As a guest of Tommy Steele.

And 2. For this lunchtime here's a website to check out that everyone should have in their bookmarks. The official list of every UK Number One single since 'records' began.

It's one of those lists that can settle pub disputes in an instant - the 1,000th Number One was Elvis by the way - but above all it's a very quick way to keep up to date with the kind of music your kids are listening to, assuming they've not turned goth yet.

Related

Learn about music downloads sites

Get your own back on your bank: #2

There's nothing like that Monday feeling to make you want to take your bank to task for misdemeanours against your pocket.

So if your bank or specifically your credit card provider(s) has ripped you off with overegged default charges in the last few years, this lunchtime please read our Easy steps guide to reclaiming unfair credit card charges and start taking control of your finances.

And if you haven't done so already check out

Get your own back on your bank: #1

You've got the grannies, now get a solicitor

What do you get for the person who has got everything? Why racing grannies of course. Failing that why don't you get them a solicitor? Ok, this is absurd but the idea that solicitors exist purely for members of the I've-got-it-all elite celebrity people's club of Gloucestershire Garden Suburbs is one that needs quashing. They're for everyone (they must be otherwise, why are there so many of them?)  and they needn't be expensive.

If you think you might need some legal advice take a look at our Find a solicitor service. Or give them a call on 0800 1777 165. It's a free service that puts you in touch with one or more solicitors, who aren't free but they'll be very clear about how much they do charge. And if you don't like the sound of the first you can try another.

Related

Are celebrities loaded? Read their stories

Find a solicitor - legal work from conveyancing to criminal

Did you get an Isa?

So the mad last-minute dash to chuck spare money into cash-based Isa accounts is over for another year. But for the stock market based Isa, the interest has been subdued to say the least. This is hardly surprising given that the tax benefits are not nearly as beneficial as you might expect from a benefit as they were when the Isa first emerged. But some investors are sticking with it and here is a list of the current top selling Isa funds.

Share tips: Five recession beating shares

The illegal drugs trade in Britain is worth around £8bn a year and costs the country £16bn to deal with. But that's nothing compared to the cigarette company, British American Tobacco, which at the time of writing is worth a staggering £38bn. And, according to money experts, that is about to grow.

You see, when times are hard people turn to drugs. And Tesco. Read:

Our top five shares to beat the gloom

Please note: this article was written in February and should be read as a piece of very recent modern social history. To keep up to date with share performance you should try the following for starters:

Play the virtual stock market with our Power Portfolio

All shares tips

Extended warranties for cars and fridges and all that other stuff

Actually, if you read yesterday's tip on buying an ex-rental car or are considering buying a car from a car supermarket you would do well to check out our Extended Warranties service.

It is almost inevitable that a car salesmen will try to flog some kind of insurance, so go armed with all the information. Same in shops, where you face the hard-sell to protect and prolong the life of your sandwich maker. Just say no until you have checked out a specialist.

Buy ex-rental cars and save £1,000

Here's a tip if, like the readers who commented on this story, you think the idea of buying a brand new car is just daft. Have you considered buying an ex-hire car direct from the hire company?

I bought my car from Car Giant, the car supermarket. It was an ex-Avis rental car. The car has proved reasonable and reliable. My thinking was that people don't tend to look after hire cars as well as they would their own so everything that is likely to go wrong will have done so under more intense conditions than normal. And the problems would have been put right by the hire company. It worked for me. The mileage is capped at 13,000 before the car is withdrawn so the younger the car the fewer times it has been hired. Mine still had the radio tuned into a German station, that's maybe 3,000 miles for one return trip.

You can now buy cars direct from Avis and 'save £1,000'.

Related

>> Low-cost car insurance and breakdown cover

>> The great green car myth

The best place to eat in America?

You can't generalise about America because it has a population of 300 million fat people (right?) but, man, why is it impossible to get a decent meal over there? If anyone else feels this way about the Fast Food Nation's addiction to the deep-fat fryer then take a look at this...

Souplantation.com , is a chain of restaurants - known as Sweet Tomatoes in some states - that for around a tenner offers an all-you-can eat salad bar. Being America, there's also a pasta and pizza bar and a cake and ice cream bar and a soup bar and even some sweets - all included for your ten quid. It's brilliant and it's healthy and if you're off to Florida there are around 20 of them, including one at the top of International Drive.

The restaurants are easy to spot because there's often a queue right out the door. There's obviously an appetite for this thing called salad, a big one, so it's odd there aren't more of the same over there - and here. 

Related

>> How to invest in rising food prices

Wills aren't funny but...

Death isn't funny. Well that's not strictly speaking true. Have we forgotten the Darwin Awards already?

Wills, however, aren't funny at all. I know, I tried that one with my Alternative guide to wills. But even if you think your entire finances are about to be wiped out by the various crunches going on around the world, if you have kids you have to make a will. It doesn't cost much and could be the difference between a happy family upbringing for those you leave behind and being reared by strange Aunt Baglady, who is appointed to do the job by a court.

Check this out

>> Will writing service

- Wills aren't funny but...
(look, there's a comments box at the bottom of this post, complete the phrase and I'll arrange a prize for the best)

Best online bookshop

One of the greatest things on the internet has for a long time been Amazon.co.uk. Early on in its life you ordered books and CDs well in to the afternoon and they'd be delivered the following morning. The Post Office put and end to that. But still it offered a choice and service second to none. Colleagues and me used to buy from Amazon most weeks. Not any more.

As it increasingly becomes a shopfront for third-party traders and with its bizarre attempts to get customers to pay in advance for delivery, we hardly use the site any more. So where to go for a decent online bookshop these days? According to a recent nationwide survey, in which Amazon came third, the winner was this one.

>> Abebooks.co.uk

It's particularly good if you want to find copies signed by the authors.

But for fans of Amazon check out

Fantasy Island by colleague Dan Atkinson and Larry Elliot

It's particularly good if you're looking for an insight into the state of bull**** Britain. 

No time to watch movies?

One of the great things about being a parent is being part of the formative years of your children - the whole nurturing thing. The downside of this is not being able to go to the cinema to see films that don't have a big U after the name. It gets better as they get older, especially now the 18-certificates are now classified 12a, but if your children are young and you can't wait that long, check out this site:

http://www.themoviespoiler.com/

It gives away all the plot lines and endings for most popular films. It's a bit pop-up heavy but the main warning is that it is addictive especially if you've missed several years of movie-going and tend to fall asleep before the end of the rented DVDs.

Related

Profiting from film posters

Where to find the best mortgage

It's Monday morning and the mortgage market is in meltdown, which is bad news and a bad alliteration. Sorry on both counts. But if you have been following the news you'll realise how hairy the housing market is getting with brokers warnng: Act fast to get a mortgage. But where to get one?

According to colleagues on the Financial Mail on Sunday, our partner mform provides the best comparison service for genuine best buys and with time apparently running out it's worth a few minutes of your time checking out what's on offer - even if you don't need one right now.

>> Mortgage finder

Stop Windows Messenger popping up

If I've learned anything about the internet after a decade working in it, it is that everybody hates pop-ups*. Thankfully with the latest browsers you can just switch them off. One thing that's not so easy to prevent is the irritating Windows Messenger box that fires up every time you switch on your computer even if you don't use it any more.

But you can turn that off too for most home PCs. Here's how. If you use Outlook Express, then open it then:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the General tab. 
2. Click to clear the Automatically log on to Windows Messenger check box, and then click OK. 

And open Windows Messenger then:

1. Start Windows Messenger.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Preferences tab.
3. Click to clear the Run this program when Windows starts check box, and then click OK.

And sit back and enjoy pop-up free, chat free existence.

>> Where to find the best broadband

* Almost as much as traffic wardens.

Cheap flights: how to find them

I did a spot on local radio earlier in the week explaining how to save money on holidays. My top tip for finding cheap flights is: always remember to check the websites of national carriers because often they come out cheaper than not only the flight comparison sites but also the supposed low-cost alternatives.

My argument is that while the easyJets and Ryanairs have turned the flights market on its head for people willing to travel on any date when the prices are lowest, the big old-fashioned rivals are quietly fighting back. For families working around school holidays and bank holidays it's a tip you can't ignore. It's something I set out to prove in Ryanair's 1p vs SAS's £39. But I still have my doubters. So I've done it again.

This time I used every comparison site I know of, including the big ones, small ones, American ones and French ones for flights to the Moroccan capital, Rabat, over the May bank holiday. Suffice to say that the Air France website came out the cheapest.

>> 50 ways to save money on holidays

The challenge: A city break to Moroccan capital Rabat. Long weekend May Bank Holiday, Friday 3 May (morning) to Tuesday 6 May (afternoon). Just flights. Two adults, one child.

Sites on test: Expedia, Opodo, ebookers, Lastminute.com, Travelsupermarket, Kayak, Carrefour voyages (France), Orange (France) , Expedia.com, Bookingwiz, Orbitz, Iberia, Atlas Blue, Easyjet, British Airways, Air France. Sprice, Skyscanner, Travelocity, Cheap Tickets, Cheap Flights.

The method: Find which airlines fly to Rabat – or Casablanca, 50-odd miles away. Check Flightstats.com to see which airlines depart from Rabat and Casablanca for an idea of which airlines fly there. Get on to the websites.

The theory:  Much has been written about the benefits of comparison websites and lately, with the weakness of the US dollar, of using American websites such as Orbitz. But are they really all they’re cracked up to be?

The results: Easyjet and Atlas Blue don't fly to Rabat and best to Casablanca is Iberia via Madrid at £540.But return flight doesn't fit requirements. Direct flights with Air Maroc are out-of-the-question expensive. Opodo and ebookers as ever in my experience are not competitive, nor is Lastminute.com. Skyscanner advertises British Airways flights to Morocco. BA doesn’t fly there. The comparison sites are pointing to Air France as having the best prices. Kayak is a brilliant site - easy to use and offers almost all the comparison tools you need. Or at least it promises to. But with all of these ultra-comparison sites the ultimate results are the same as all the others. After much toing and froing, the best price for three Air France flights cost, from the US sites is $1,940 (£971) , from the European sites, 1,352 euros (£1,061) and from my benchmark Expedia, £1,072. But the conversions are based on the money market rates, which you and me don’t get. Reallistically the US site price is about £980 - from a site I'm not familiar with. So as I usually do I go to the airline's website and on Air France's site, the same flights are £985. And for £5 peace of mind I rest my case.

Shares: the winners and losers

Whether you're a seasoned investor, a complete novice or just came here to read about special fish food - that was yesterday by the way - if you've been following the fortunes of global investments you'll be aware by now exactly how much of it is one gigantic gambling operation. With, lately, more losers than winners.

If you're interesting in seeing which companies are the big winners and losers of the day, for starters take a look at these two pages of companies with the biggest rise / fall in share price.

>> Today's winners
>> Today's losers

And if you've caught the bug, there are loads more similar here:

>> All movers

What's the best, cheapest, easiest pet?

There's no manual for parents but there is one lesson that every prospective parent should be told as a matter of law: don't ever, ever, ever cave in to a child's demands for a pet, however cute (the pet or the child) unless you are prepared to look after it yourself. Ever. If your child promises to take it for walks, clean the tank, clip this, wash that, they're lying! You have been warned.

If, however, you cannot bear to allow your offspring to miss out on the responsibility of caring for a living creature - even if it will only be for 10 minutes - there is a small glimmer of hope in the misery tunnel of long-term pet care. It comes in the form of Aquarian Goldfish Flake Food.

Now, goldfish are pretty easy to look after in the pet hierarchy. They walk themselves, wash themselves, eat little and cheaply and technically you could eat them if this credit crunch turns really nasty. In fact the only grim part of goldfish upkeep is cleaning the tank. But this fish food miraculously does that for you. It has changed my life. Goldfish: the best pet bar none.

Find the cheapest pet insurance
- dogs & cats only, not goldsfish

Note: This is NOT a lame April Fool's joke, we're not like that. This stuff really does clean the fish tank water.