Published on:
19 January 2021
Disposable income goes pretty quickly. Once you’ve paid your rent or mortgage, you might not have much money left over from your take home pay. With a survey showing household bills average £586 a week, it doesn’t leave much money for other essentials (and some fun). But there are ways to lower what you pay on your bills, and give yourself a little extra cash to spend.
Gas, electricity, phone, TV, broadband,… these bills all add up. For example the average household spends £25 per week on energy according to this 2020 report from the Office for National Statistics and that figure is only likely to increase over the coming months.
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Are you spending more or less? If it’s more, there’s a good chance you can find some big savings. Here’s a quick guide to lowering what you pay on your day-to-day bills.
The easiest way to bring down the cost is to compare prices with other providers and see if switching and / or fixing can get you a cheaper deal.
You might also be able to save by choosing a dual gas and electricity tariff and by paying by Direct Debit.
You can also lower how much you pay by reducing the amount of energy you use. Here are a few quick tips that can make a difference:
Again, comparison sites are handy to see if there are better prices available. You can often make a saving if you switch to a company providing both your phone line and broadband in a “bundle”.
It’s worth checking you aren’t paying for more than you need. This could be an unlimited download usage when you use a lot less, or a superfast connection when standard will do the job. You might also have extra features such as call waiting and internet security you don’t use. Downgrade these and you’ll pay less each month.
One or two year contracts tie you into a fixed price. But when you get to the end of your contract, it’s always worth haggling with your provider to see if they can offer you a reduced tariff or free handset. You might also find it costs less to chose a SIM only deal rather than one combined with a new handset.
Some mobile contracts are also now being offered cut price to phone and broadband customers, sometimes cheaper than going with one of the bigger networks.
Most people have to pay their TV licence, but there are ways you can lower your monthly subscription costs for satellite, cable and streaming packages.
You might be able to bundle a service with your phone and broadband, often drastically cutting the price – or even providing for free – of one of the elements. Just remember when your contract ends as prices could shoot up.
It’s worth a quick audit of what you are watching for a week or two. Just write down what you watch. If you don’t watch much on certain channels, see if you can cut your subscription costs. You might be surprised to find renting a single movie or two each month works out cheaper than an unlimited monthly movies package.
