British Gas launches cheapest dual fuel tariff plus £1.50 prosecco

British Gas customers save £130 and get free boiler cover, £1.50 prosecco, half-price Soap and Glory set and mortgage payments warning. These are our Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis’ Deals of the Week.

Remember, deals can change quickly, even while I’m on the programme. So always double-check the terms and conditions before spending. Plus, while I hope these deals will save you cash, don’t spend if you can’t afford it, don’t need it, or won’t use it.

New. British Gas hidden tariff - £130/yr cheaper AND boiler cover included

Anyone who listens to me, knows I regularly talk about switching energy provider. Yet most don’t listen. Around 60% of you are still on your provider’s standard variable tariff, yet many can save around £300/year by switching to the market’s cheapest.

I think the reason many don’t like to switch is because they’re confused by the number of tariffs on offer, or scared of an unknown provider. Yet there’s no real reason to be. Just do an energy comparison using Martin’s Cheap Energy Club or any Ofgem-approved site and scroll down the list of results till you see a provider you’ve heard the name of, or feel comfortable with as it’s got a good customer service rating.

Yet if you’re not going to do that (but you really should), then there’s a decent top deal from one of the biggest names – though it’s nowhere near the cheapest – so if you can, do a comparison. British Gas has recently launched its cheapest dual fuel tariff, called ‘BG HomeEnergy Plus Cover Jan 2019’, which costs £995/year (fixed till Jan 2019) for typical usage and included is 12 months free boiler cover (worth around £42/year). So if you’re already with British Gas it’s a no-brainer to switch to this tariff.

However you can’t just call British Gas up and get it. It doesn’t offer it direct, it is only available via a comparison site (like the ones listed above).

Six bottles of prosecco for £1.50 each trick is back – perfect time to stock up for Christmas

It’s back, and as always you’ll need to go quick with this one as they tend to sell out fast. There’s a corking trick to get six bottles of Prosecco for £1.50 each, through a code-stacking trick with Sainsbury’s – though to get the full discount you’ll need to be a newbie to online shopping with Sainsbury’s.

Here’s what you need to do (note due to alcohol promo laws this doesn’t work in Scotland).

1) Find reduced prosecco or champagne. Go online to Sainsbury’s where its Sainsbury’s Prosecco Frizzante is £6 a bottle. If not, there are other types of wine that this works with.

2) Buy any six bottles to get 25% off. Until this Monday, 11 December, order six bottles for delivery or to collect and you automatically get a further 25% discount (this works in store too, but the following doesn’t). So six Prosecco Frizzante cost £27 – that’s £4.50 a bottle.

3) Code for newbies. If you’ve never shopped online at Sainsbury’s before, at the checkout enter code SCSSEONOV18 and you’ll get £18 off when you spend over £60.

But the T&Cs say the £18-off discount can’t be on booze, so you’ll need to buy at least £33 worth of normal groceries to make it work (to get you over the £60 total spend). Then you’re effectively getting six bottles for £1.50.Stock is meant to be decent, but usually there’s heavy demand. In past incarnations of this deal Sainsbury’s has substituted it for a more costly version if it runs out. So select ‘no substitutions’ in your preferences to stop this happening (if you don’t, you can always reject delivery). Delivery is £1 to £7 or you can collect in store for free. And of course, please be Drinkaware.

Martin’s Quickies

£30 Soap and Glory set. Savvy online savers wait all year for this and get in a real lather about it. From tomorrow (Friday 8 December) go online or in-store to Boots, and you can get a Soap & Glory 'Spa of Wonder' body care set for £30 (normally £60) until 11.59pm next Thursday (14 December). This gift set, includes shower cream (500ml, norm £6.50), body wash (250ml, norm £7), body buffer (200ml, norm £7), body butter (300ml, norm £10), moisturising body milk (500ml, norm £10), facial wash (350ml, norm £8), face mask (34.6g, norm £4), mascara (norm £10.50), eyeliner (norm £6) and lip gloss (norm £9). So altogether individually the set would cost £78 – a cracking deal for £30. Boots wasn't able to give us an indication of stock levels, so go quick if you want this.

Warning - Mortgage rates for many will be going up this month. It’s been just over a month since the Bank of England increased its base rate form 0.25% to 0.5%. And many lenders waited until the 1st December to increase its standard variable rate on mortgages too (the default rate you go to after your deal ends). So for most, if you’re on your lenders SVR, this month your mortgage payments will increase, so be prepared.I know this isn’t the best month for this to happen, yet there are still very cheap deals out there, as cheap as 1.25% - which can mean saving thousands.