Motivating Mum UK

I’m very lazy when it comes to insurance and the like. My husband works in financial services, and when we bought our house we happily accepted the insurance policy that came with the mortgage, with its “staff discount”. Part of me knows deep down that this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the cheapest price, and yet, each year, when the renewal comes round, I tell myself I will look at it and revisit it, but somehow I never seem to find the time – it renews automatically and I let it.

OK, this isn't really my house, but I can dream....

This year of course, I am trying to build a name for myself as an authority in money saving, and have launched my website Money Minding Mum, which aims to show you all how you can save money. So when UK comparison website Moneysupermarket.com invited me to try out their home insurance comparison page, I thought it was about time that I got my own house in order.

At first glance, when you get onto the Home Insurance comparison page, there are an awful lot of questions to answer, although at the end of the day it is probably a good thing that they know everything about you – maybe this will allow them to tailor the insurance more exactly, and not have you paying for things you don’t need.

I had a bit of a hiccup with stating my occupation – they want you to use their definitions but they won’t show you what the definitions are until you start entering some letters as a guess. After a few false starts, I managed to come up with Consultant in the Health Products Distribution sector for my Cambridge Weight Plan business, but couldn’t find anything that would cover me for “editing and running a website that provides support and advice to mums in business”, nor for “media star and acknowledged expert in the field of extreme couponing”.

Oh well, I figured that those didn’t include any other risks to my home than my health business does (insurance of stock, protection of people coming to my house, protection of computers and office equipment), so I decided to just leave it at that…

After that I had a bit of a shock when they came to calculate the cost of rebuilding my home. I know what figure the current insurers use, but it seems the new insurers would calculate the cost to be at least double that. I’m glad someone has told me about that – I would have hated to have a total disaster, only to be told by my insurers that they could only afford to build us a garage where the previous 4 bedroom house had stood.

Then of course there was the contents part. Once they started listing the kind of things that you should declare separately on an insurance policy, I soon realised that we have picked up one or two more insurable bits since we settled down to married life with two kids in one location.

What can I say, I’m a gadget lover, and technology improves and multiplies, and now it’s all so small, I want to take all of it out of the home…. Even the general insurance contents cover needs to be a bit higher now we are 4 independent-minded individuals each with their own clothes, toys, books, hobbies and gadgets. It’s frightening how much you take for granted and I have made a mental note to revisit this area much more frequently in future.

So to the moment of truth. Having adjusted upwards my estimates for all the things I wanted to cover, to such an extent, I was expecting quite an unpleasant shock. I was shocked, but not in the way you would expect. In fact, even with all the extra things to cover it seems that I am going to be able to save 2 or 3 hundred pounds on my annual insurance premium. A few more bits and pieces to tie up with a new insurer and we will hopefully be off and running, with piece of mind and a few extra pounds in our pocket. I will freely admit to being amazed…

So I would like to say a big thank you to the folks at Money Supermarket, for prompting me to write this article. You have done me an enormous favour, and I would thoroughly recommend the service.

Disclosure – I have received payment for writing this blog, however the views expressed are entirely my own and totally honest.