Pie in The Sky

Hello, It's me again, I have risen like a phoenix from the ashes, at least for this week any way. Thought I'd answer your lovely questions about Sky, although I don't know a great deal about it.

1. I am aware of the Sky TV/Broadband/Phone package. I happen to think it's quite a good idea, I think there a couple of other companies you can get a package like this from, Virgin being one of them. There are several reasons we don't have a package like this -

a. Neither Alex nor myself are sufficiently interested in television enough to be bothered about having more channels of bad programmes to watch. The only thing we would have got Sky for would be so we could watch Lost, but they don't offer that channel in their lowest price package.

b. We can't afford it. Sky's lowest priced package would be the equivalent of what we currently pay for our telephone and broadband, (tv is freeview) so would just be time wasting to change for no benefit. See above.

c. Neither Alex or myself are interested in football or boxing and have no wish to watch it constantly.

2. I have to say, I don't have much of an opinion on adverts apart from when I see them so often they become highly irritating, or they are very clever, in which case I appreciate them as a piece of art, not necessarily as an advert, or they have really cool music in, but I remember the music and not the advert. I don't really remember many adverts, that part of my brain obviously doesn't work.

So, speaking objectively, I think if I saw an advert explaining how much I can save with a Sky bundle, I could possibly be interested in finding out any benefits/savings I might make if I change, a bit like changing gas/electricity provider. If I saw an advert explaining what I could win through Sky, I would very sceptically probably laugh, and ignore it. I was brought up to believe you never get something for nothing, and if it sounds too good to be true, it is. If I see an advert with real people talking about how much they saved and what they spent it on, I would think they were actors for starters, and if they weren't, then I would think they were very sad individuals if they previously spent so much money that they saved enough to have a tangible amount after the change. It just gets absorbed into the big wallet in the sky. I think in that respect, the first option, even though on the face of it is very boring, would be the one that I would be most likely to feel positive about.

3. When do I tend to be thinking about value for money? Well, value for money is an ambiguous term. Someone told me a story once which I thought was VERY interesting, and VERY apt for my current situation. It goes something like this -

A rich man can afford to buy a pair of hand made Italian leather shoes, made to fit him. They are made from top quality leather and will cost a lot of money but will last him a lifetime. A poor man, can only afford to buy a pair of shoes made from cheap leather, which will rub his toes and wear out very quickly and need replacing every year. On the face of it, the poor man is getting better value for money, because he is buying cheap shoes, but over their lifetimes, the poor man has actually spent more money replacing the bad shoes, that the rich man.

My point is, value for money isn't actually about what you can afford. It is about quality, and what saves you money in the long term. Most people in my predicament can't currently afford value for money, because it means shelling out more cash in the short term.

My current mission, is actually to go as many days as possible without spending ANY money at all. At last count I have approx £20 to last me until the 20th of June when (fingers crossed) Alex gets paid, but that's another story.

So I think about value for money EVERY TIME I think about spending money. I weigh up whether I should a, be spending the money in the first place, b, can I afford it? c, is it poor value for money and am I only buying this one because it costs the least.

4. I think if I was likely to need advice about saving money, or looking for good value, I would generally use the Internet, and try a web site such as money saving expert, or just do a google search. But then I don't really have enough money to spend, to buy something that would require advice.

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