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The brilliant concept of Ziferblat

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Everything inside is free – all you pay for is the time you spend there.

Discovered Ziferblat on a trip to Liverpool last week and I’m hooked!

Once inside this fabulous cafe come meeting place, everything is free, from coffee and cake to wifi, papers and even a stack of board games.

The original version opened in Moscow, founded by Ivan Meetin as a ‘tree house’ for adults and since then these little meeting places have taken off with 14 locations around the world.

All you pay for is the time you spend there. At the Albert Dock in Liverpool you pay 8p a minute. So spend an hour there and you’re looking at £4.80 which is probably more than a coffee and a cake in Starbucks. And as the food and drink is unlimited – you can help yourself and make toasted sandwiches, munch on biscuits and cake and stock up on cheese snacks, you could pop in for a lovely feed all for under a fiver. And while I’m not suggesting you whizz in, scoff and run, let’s be honest you could probably manage a coffee and snack in 15 minutes which would only set you back £1.20.

Did spot a couple of folks there who seemed to be piling their plates high, clock watching and running off but most people were there enjoying the relaxing surroundings and making the most of a brilliant concept. Totally sold!

If you fancy trying one in the UK there’s venues in Manchester, London and Liverpool.

http://www.ziferblat.co.uk

Why do some folks seem embarrassed to save money?

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How you can save £5 in one minute…..

It always amazes me when people seem to willingly pay over the odds for something, especially when you tell them how they can save money.

If you pay to park at my local station before 10am it costs £8.10, but from 10am onwards it’s £3.30. So that’s a big difference if you bowl up just before 10 and don’t check the charges.

So yesterday morning, there I was standing by the machine at one minute to ten waiting for it to tick over and a fellow traveller approached.

So I explained that he was welcome to go first but if he waited less than a minute he’d save a fiver on his parking which was exactly what I was about to do.

He seemed taken back and blustered on about the fact he wasn’t worried about that and went ahead to pay. Now whether he was paying from his own pocket or putting it on ‘company expenses’ wouldn’t the logic of saving £5 make it worth waiting that extra minute? Especially when the next train in either direction was a good ten minutes away?

Funny enough we both ended up on the same platform waiting for the London train; me a fiver richer and him a fiver poorer! Smug, me? Never…….