Martin says: Check your tax code NOW!
Warning. Check your tax code, flash Amazon Easter deals, 20% off railcards and £7.50 champagne trick. These are our Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis’ Quick Deals.
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.
20% off railcards code
Go online to National Rail and you can get 20% off four of the big annual railcards (it’s rare to get them all at the same time) when you enter the codeSAVE20 by 11.59pm Monday 28 March, so they’ll be £24 instead of the usual £30.
You can use the code on theses railcards:
Two Together Railcard: Two adults (16 or over) can share the card and get a third off travel if they go together after 9.30am Monday-Friday and all day on the weekends and public holidays.
Family & Friends Railcard. Up to four adults can get a third off travel and up to four kids (aged between 5-15) can get 60% off fares when travelling together. You can name up to two adults on the card – great for when parents might not be travelling together.
16-25 Railcard. If you're under 26 or a mature student aged 26 or over in full-time education you'll get one third off standard off-peak and advance fares.
Senior Railcard. If you're 60 years old or over, you can use this card after 9.30am Mon-Fri and all day at weekends to get one third off travel
Even if you don’t use the train that often it’s still a stonking buy as just one decent-length rail trip costing £75+ can usually save you more than the £24 railcard cost.
Flash Amazon deals
Everyday until Thursday 24 March, Amazon has ‘deals of the day’ on 1,000s of products – the only things is it won’t reveal what’s on sale until the day – so it’s a case of looking each day and seeing what’s on sale (so far deals have been market-leading but do check if it’s cheaper elsewhere before you buy). Each deal will only last the day from 12am to 11.59pm.
When I checked on Thursday, it reduced the De’Longhi coffee machine for £225, the next cheapest is £299 at Housing Units Limited. It also had the Sony Bluetooth headphones for £140, next cheapest is £212 at Bax-shop.co.uk. Today’s deals will be different.
It’s also got ‘lightening deals’ which’ll be updated everyday, as often as every 10 minutes, and lasting between two and six hours a day. Again it won’t reveal what’s in the sale till it’s on. Though if you’re a Prime member you have first dibs for 30 minutes at the start of some lightening deals. You can also click the ‘upcoming’ box which shows you some deals that are coming – though it won’t tell you the price it will tell you when it’ll go on sale.
On Thursday, there was a Canon printer for £103, next cheapest is £129 at John Lewis.
£7.50 Champagne trick (min six bottles)
Sainsbury’s is currently running three different promotions (not available in Scotland), which mean that if you have your order delivered/collected until this Sunday 20 March, newbies to Sainsbury’s online can effectively get champagne for £7.50 a bottle. Though you have to buy at least six. Even if you’re an existing Sainsbury’s online customer, you can still get it for £10.50 a bottle. Here’s how:
Step 1: Etienne Dumont Brut champagne is reduced from £18 to £14 a bottle. The same trick also works on the £18 Blanc de Blancs Brut (which obviously costs more).
Step 2:Buy six bottles of any of the promotional wine or champagne, before Sunday, and you’ll automatically get a further 25% discount. This makes the Etienne Dumont Brut £10.50/bottle if you buy six, plus delivery charges (or you can buy in store, or pick it up in store for free).
Step 3:If you’re new to Sainsbury’s grocery online, use the code SCSEFRMRM and you’ll get £18 off when you spend £60+. However you can’t use this just on booze, to make it work you’ll need to put £18 of other stuff in your basket too – just your normal groceries. This brings the effective cost of the champagne (if you assign all the discounts to it), to £7.50 a bottle, plus any delivery charges.
In the past stocks on the cheapest champagne have run out quickly, so if you want this you’d need to be quick. Please be drinkaware.
Warning. Check your tax code
In the next few weeks, 12 million letters will be dropping through letterboxes, telling you your new 2016/2017 tax code (your employer uses these to calculate how much tax you pay).
The most important thing to understand is that it’s your legal responsibility to check your code is right, not your employer’s or the taxman’s. And millions of codes tend to be wrong, especially if you changed jobs during the year, retired or have two incomes – you could be overpaying by £1,000s. Use Martin’s ‘Free tax code calculator’ to check if yours is correct.