Showing all posts tagged utilities

In General

5 budgeting tips which will ultimately save you money.

Author Nicki CawoodPosted on

*This is a sponsored post.

After my eldest was born I gave up my very well paid job so I could work from home instead and still be with my son. Needless to say our finances took a hammering as a result of this and as a consequence we had to become pretty savvy when it came to budgeting and cutting costs. These five tips are what we found saved us the most money.

  1. Don’t skimp on insurance, by taking a few minutes to compare home insurance, car insurance, and even pet insurance you can make sure you have the cover you need. As much as we all balk at paying out for insurances we all kick ourselves down the road when something goes wrong and we end up paying bulk amounts to repair or replace something that could have been covered by our insurance.
  2. Don’t assume the best deals are for new customers. Mobile phone companies especially have their own retention teams. If you aren’t happy with what you are paying it is worth giving them a ring and seeing if you can switch tariffs. It’s not always possible and it depends on your contract but I’ve saved as much as £10 a month by taking the time to ask.
  3. Keep an eye on your usage. Send in your own gas and electricity meter readings so that your bill is more accurate, bills are estimated otherwise and you can end up paying out more than is necessary. The same goes for broadband usage. Your provider can tell you how much of your download allowance you are using each month. I have previously been on an “all bells and whistles” unlimited package (because I assumed I needed it) but as we rarely download I wasn’t actually using much at all and reduced my package cost by £15 a month!
  4. Grocery shop online. I used to think this would cost me more as I had to pay for delivery. In actual fact I save an average of £14 a week shopping online, rather than in store. Grocery shopping online gets easier and easier, the items you use regularly are stored online for you to add to your basket, you can keep an eye on exactly how much you are putting in your basket and you can say goodbye to impulse buys. Online food shopping is also good for the waistline!
  5. Cancel the un-necessaries! When starting a diet the first thing you do is cut out the rubbish, stop eating cake and stop buying crisps. When giving your budget a makeover you do pretty much the same thing. Cancel the magazine and newspaper subscriptions (you can read them online most of the time anyway), downgrade the Sky package (how often do you watch the Movies?) and make your own takeaway food rather than having it delivered.

I refuse to pay more than I should so take a few minutes to think about the above and make sure you don’t have to either.

 

 

In General

There is no excuse to pay too much

Author Nicki CawoodPosted on 15 Comments

As many of you know, I am a keen money saver.  A dramatic change in budget after I gave up full time work after Kieran was born meant I had to look very closely at my budget and basically pull my head out of the sand. I very soon realised that I’d become complacent when it came to bills, often just accepting the first price given and getting on with it. I wince now to think of how much I could have saved over the years!

Since then I have altered my spending and money awareness a lot!  I now have a proper monthly budget to work from. This is a realistic budget which includes money for things such as birthday and treats, the small spends that you make without thinking but which can really add up over a month.

Food has always been a huge expenditure, and never more costly than what it is now! I do a meal plan for the week to incorporate leftovers and do one weekly online shop (excluding meat which I get from the local market) buying everything I need for 7 days. Even the milk and bread I buy in bulk and freeze it as I’m very aware that a quick top up shop for bread always seem to cost £25` (This is one of life’s mysteries, I’ve no idea how I always get so close to £25 when going to spend £1!).

Every six months I do a review of all my outgoings, for example, like using a comparison site to compare car insurance. Armed with the best rates I then know I have access to, I ring my providers, moving if I need to, ensuring that I get the best service at the best price. There really is no excuse to be paying over the odds nowadays when the info to help you save is literally there with a click of a mouse! 

We save. Sounds silly but with so many people relying on credit in these tough times, saving for something seems to have become a forgotten art! We have recently returned from holiday; theme park tickets which would have cost £80+ were paid for with Tesco Rewards using my vouchers, the food, treats and petrol from money saved since January and the accommodation (a Travelodge), I booked at the beginning of the year  in the sale, using money left over from our Xmas budget!  A fantastic holiday that we enjoyed all the more knowing that we wouldn’t be left penniless for the rest of the month on our return!

My eyes have been well and truly opened when it comes to money over the past five years and it’s become a personal challenge almost to cut spending without cutting back on quality or depriving ourselves. I get satisfaction out of knowing that I’ve saved money! Have you had to change your budget dramatically? How did you find it? Do you have any money-saving tips to share?

 

I have received remuneration for the post however my views are still true and my own. To see more about this see my disclosure page.

 

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