We’ve all had dreams and fanciful thoughts where we wonder what we would actually do if we won the lottery. Some would buy a boat, some holiday all over the world, others would give up work in an instant and I’m sure everyone would enjoy a fabulous time.
I have it all planned out. When I win the lottery or hit it big playing online casino games (unlikely as I can’t remember when I last had a £10 flutter) I only need to win a million pounds. More is always nice but a million would do me just fine.
Firstly, I would buy my parent’s house (I’ve told them this). It has so many fabulous memories that should they decide to retire to the seaside or whatever that I’d love to live there with Roy and the boys. Obviously my love of all things interior design would come into play here and I would redecorate and play with all of the things I’ve seen on DIY SOS and similar shows.
Obviously we would have a splurge, there would be new clothes, a better car for Roy and *stuff* but after that we would put some aside in a savings product so we wouldn’t have to worry about spending everything and like would carry on.
Would I stop working? No! I would certainly reduce my hours but I love writing, working with clients and getting to the end of a piece of work and thinking “I did that! And it isn’t half bad!”. No, I wouldn’t give up work although I suspect Roy would so that he could follow his dream of setting up his own business.
Would a million pounds in the bank change us? Hell no, we are who we are. We might have a shinier car and bigger house, and a few new gadgets but the boys will still go to school, we would still work in one way or another and we’ll still be geeks.
It would be nice to test the theory though!
What would be on your list of things to buy or do if you were to suddenly have £1m to play with?
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I posted previously about how the lovelies from Moneysupermarket had offered to send me a pre-paid Mastercard topped up with £100 to use for what I wanted, as long as everything I bought was under RRP. Obviously I wasn’t going to say no!
I decided to use the funds as my budget for tarting up my living room and my mission is complete. Not only do I have some lovely new and shiny items in my living room but I also have first hand experience of using one of these cards.
About pre-paid cards.
Despite coming from Mastercard and similar companies, these cards have no credit facility and are not linked to your bank account. They are a card that can be topped up online, via bank transfer, at the Post Office and at selected Pay Points.
Where can you use pre-paid cards?
You can use these cards pretty much anywhere you would use a normal debit card. You get your own pin number for use in shops, and the cards have the same information as you would find on a bank card so can be used online. I even added my card to eBay and used it without any problems.
You can also withdraw cash from your card at any ATM using your pin number.
Fees
There are many prepaid cards on the market and they all have different fees.
For the purpose of this campaign I chose the Pay As You Go option. Clearly if you use a card regularly for multiple purchases it is better to pay a monthly fee but for a situation like this, where you are setting a budget to do something i.e. a project or perhaps Xmas shopping, the PAYG option is probably best.
Ease of Use
I found the card very easy to use. The only issue I had was with one retailer where the name and billing address didn’t quite add up but I can’t blame the retailer or the card for this in truth, it was a circumstance of having a card registered by someone else and sent out rather than getting my own and registering it in my name. The one thing that is worth mentioning is that when this retailer put the transaction through again I was charged an additional transaction fee.
How can you keep track of what you have spent?
It is easy to check your ongoing balance online. I found that the balance was updated pretty much instantly after anything was spent and it didn’t take long for an itemised summary of what I’d spent, where and any transaction fees to be updated.
Are they worth using?
I would say absolutely yes. I am something of an interior design tart and find it easy to get carried away with beautiful things. Having my budget separate to my own account meant that I was much more careful with the spending, more aware of what I had spent and couldn’t “accidentally” go over budget. For a project such as a room makeover, new clothes, Christmas shopping and in fact anything that you want to budget for and not be able to easily dip into the savings or bank account (like many can do when putting money aside in an account) it is an ideal solution.
And the makeover?
You’ll have to wait until I have everything properly put together and tarted up to see it all so you can look forward to another interior design post but from my £100 I managed to get new curtains (thanks to CB Furnishings, Thirsk), 6 gorgeous coordinating cushions (From TerryFabrics who I have to say have fantastic customer service skills) and a lovely print from Unique Home Designs Framestore’s Ebay shop. All were very easy to deal with, provided great service and had items under RRP (or Best Price on eBay) so fitted in perfectly with this budget challenge.
Thanks to Moneysupermarket for asking me to run this mini-makeover challenge. Not only have I had enormous fun, I have learnt a lot.
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