Save time and money finding what you need with Bidvine

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With a new year ahead of us, it's a great time to start thinking about what you want to get out of the months ahead. Whilst I do believe that you don't need to wait until 1st January to decide what you want and go for it, it is a good time to reflect and set some goals and I find that doing this makes me feel organised and positive - even when this time of year can be hard. Getting back into work and counting those pennies all means we have less time to get things done, and we want to get the best price for everything we do buy too.

There's lots of things we would like to do this year, from updating the house (we WILL replace our tatty old carpets!) to documenting our family life, so I decided to have a look at Bidvine - a handy website that connects you to lots of services, where professionals 'bid' for your brief - to get some ideas of costs and services available in my area.

I started by searching for 'Portrait Photographers in Birmingham'. We have had a few family photos over the past four years and I think we're due for another one this year. I like having professional photos as they know far more than I do about taking a good photo and the ones we have already are so lovely.

The Bidvine proposal submission was a really easy process to follow. You start by typing your general term and selecting an option that pops up, then you enter your postcode. On the next page, you're then given a series of questions which take just a minute to answer, simply by ticking the boxes that apply, before clicking 'submit'.

You're emailed a summary of your request and quote submission, and notified how long it will take before you get a full list of responses, plus this information is available on Bidvine at any time to review.

And that's it - the quotes, and contacts, come to you.

I was really surprised how quick it was to set up a new request and there's a lot of different local services in your area that you can tap into. The fact that you can send out your job and wait for people to come back to you with competitive quotes is really convenient and handy too; last year when we needed an electrician, we had no idea what cost to expect and Bidvine would have given us the chance to benchmark quotes and make an informed choice.

Now that I've experienced the Bidvine quote request service, I can start thinking about all the other things we may want or need this year... floor fitters, landscape gardeners, reiki therapists...