The cost of living is believed to have increased by 18% over the past year. Much of the increase in our supermarkets is due to the decline of our currency on the exchange rate market against other major currencies. Goods and services are today more expensive than twelve months ago. Household budgets look to be squeezed even further this month, the 1st of April was the trigger date for more price hikes.

This month’s cost of living increases

The postponed fuel duty has come into effect this month and fuel now costs a further two pence a litre more.  The average driver will see an increase of £104 a year. Turning on our water tap has become more expensive by over 4% with the average water increase being £300 a year. British Telecoms has increased it line rental up to £138 to £150 a year and increase of £12.00 a year. Prescription charges for medicines has increased from £7.10 to £7.20 Television Licence fee has gone up from £139.50 to £142.50 a year

There is very little that most of us can do to avoid these increases unless you stop using these services. How can you beat the squeeze and saving money?

Well you should start looking at your own finance within your own household and start managing them in a lot ore concerted and focused way. During the good times we don’t look at these kinds of savings but when the bad times arrive we need to take control of our spending and start to save money where we can.

Here are some Grocery Shopping tips:-

Use own brands from the supermarkets Look at shopping later on during the day when the bargains are on Use internet shopping to avoid transport costs – coupons for free delivery are available by googling free supermarket delivery. Shopping online means that you don’t impulse buy the items you would have bought as you walked around the store.

Free People Finder Search Engines – Using Search Engines to Find Someone

There are many different companies out there who will find someone for you but lots of them are not really privy to anything you are not, a lot of them use the same free resources as anyone else they just know how to use these free people finder search engines to obtain all the information they can from them. There are some exceptions such as 192.com who buy in information and FinderMonkey.co.uk who have access to data that is not in the public domain but many of the smaller people location companies use free people finder search engines to find people on your behalf.

This guide is to help you get the most from these people finder search engines; you can use them in different ways to find the people that are missing from your life for whatever reason.

Finding people on-line

We live in a technology driven world but also the world of celebrity, combine these two and believe it or not you end up with an improved chance of finding that old friend or relative. Let me explain this and our first method of online people location in one word….. FaceBook!

Facebook is without doubt the best way to find someone online. Going back to the world of celebrity, Most people like to talk, most like to talk more about themselves or their families, they want you to see (like a celebrity in the paper) their wedding/holiday/party photographs, they want you to see their house, their car, their dogs. This does not make them bad people but it makes them easy to spot, all of a sudden your needle in a haystack is bright pink and is jumping up and down.

Over 6 million people in the UK have a Facebook account, if you knock off the over 80s and the under tens that’s nearly everyone.

To use Facebook as a people finder tool, simply register on the site, this is free to do. Once you are on the site you can use the search box to type in the name of your old friend and see if you get a match, it is particularly useful if you are looking for someone abroad because Facebook operates worldwide. Most people have a photo of themselves so you can identify the person through this. Once you see your friend you “add” them as a friend on your own Facebook account, once they see this they “add” you as a friend and you are back in touch. Facebook has moved a long way towards replacing other social networking sites such as MySpace and friends reunited but these are also worth checking out and are still highly recommended ways of finding people online.

The second method is another big American search engine called Google. Most people have used Google at some stage and recognise the simple home page layout, white background with a logo and search box.  Here is how to find people online using Google.

Firstly, if the person is in the UK, search “pages from the UK” this is an option under the search box, this will keep the information relevant. Secondly, Type the person’s name in quotation marks “their name” this will make Google search for the name in that order and not reverse the name or split the name. The list of results will usually be huge but the most relevant ones should be at the top, what you are looking for is a story with your friends name in it, maybe they got a promotion at work and their company put it in their online newsletter, hey presto you just got your friends work details. Maybe they play in or manage the local football team again you can contact them through this. You are unlikely to get a friend with their own website listing all their contact details, what you are looking for is a mention of your friend so you can contact them through this, maybe they did some good community work and it was put in the local paper who have a website, that’s the way Google will help.

Another free people finder search engine is 123people.com. Again you have a search box and you enter your friends name, this site will give you a list of email addresses, photos, social networking profiles that match the name you entered. From this you must try to ascertain if the information is relevant as there are many Americans on this site. You may feel it best to narrow down a few social networking profiles and contact them or maybe you take the email addresses and send emails to those asking if they are the correct person. 123people.com is good stepping stone to locating your friends but can be time consuming because of all the American entry’s it is still recommended though.

My final free people finder search engine has to be British Telecom’s online direct enquiries service. It is free to use and is really good at putting you in touch with people, maybe not directly with your friend but maybe their parents or family member, let me explain.

Like the other people finder sites you have a search box, in fact you have two. One is for the person’s name, this can be their surname. The other is for the area. So you went to school in Leeds but moved to London 10 years ago when your friend was still living at home in Leeds, search the surname and area of Leeds that you came from, this will hopefully give you your friends name, address and telephone number but maybe she got married?  You don’t know but her parents will, you can look on the list and see if they are there. Sometimes you only get an initial so you need to call to see if it the correct person, there is nothing wrong with doing this as long as you are polite and explain the reason for your call, if the person you speak to can’t help you just be polite and end the call, make sure you make a note of the fact you called them so you don’t end up calling them again the following week.

Finding people online can be good fun and very rewarding, good luck with your own search and remember to write everything down, you may devote a few hours on a weekend to finding your friend, if you have to go back to it the following week make sure you have a clear list of what you have already done and who you have already called, this will save you lots of time. Again good luck and happy hunting.