Made any New Year’s resolutions yet? Me either! So why not make 2017 the year that you finally take back control of your finances and, once and for all, tackle all that switching and saving you keep hearing about. Here’s my top five ways to save money in 2017:
1. Switch energy provider
Sounds an obvious one, yet many people still haven’t switched. It’s so easy and the savings can be huge, when I moved from British Gas standard tariff to a EDF Energy fixed tariff I saved over £300 a year. All you need are a recent bill, meter readings and ten minutes free time to enter a few details on to a comparison website. I recommend comparethemarket.com as you will get free cinema tickets or meerkat toys if you buy through them.
2. Switch bank accounts
People used to stay with their banks because of a relationship built up over the years with their bank manager. Always makes me think of Mr. Mannering in Dads Army! Or they think it’s too difficult or time consuming, they would miss payments and suffer penalties. Fear not, banks have dedicated switch squads to take care of everything. The best deal I’ve found today is a £125 reward for opening an account with First Direct through moneysupermarket.com.
3. Find a cheaper Sky TV alternative
Write down which shows you like to watch and on what channels. You may be surprised how little Sky you actually watch. But if you aren’t able to cut Sky out completely, consider swapping to Now TV for £5.99 a month where you can watch your Sky shows without a contract, take their 14 day free trial first to see if you like it. You can add Sky Sports and Cinema passes too, all paid monthly with no contract. Also I recommend taking a look at Netflix if you haven’t before, they are offering a 30 day free trial.
4. Save Money At Home
Fix leaking taps, bleed radiators, fit draft excluders to bottom of doors and behind the letter box, cover bare floors with a rug, move furniture from radiators. There’s plenty of inexpensive ways to save money and keep your home warmer at the same time. Declutter too.
Go right through cupboards, garages and garden sheds, you may have forgotten you have unopened products. Go through the freezer and see how many meals you can make with the food already in there.
5. Go mobile sim only
Keep your current handset and go sim only, this was especially appealing to me after the iPhone7 came out. It looks like the 6 but doesn’t have a headphone socket, I could see no reason to upgrade! I reduced my monthly bill from £43 to £9.
So that’s my top five ways to save money in 2017, I hope you find them useful!
Mini Bio:
Anthony is an SEO, social media and personal finance blogger at www.daddydeals.co.uk. Father and husband, he likes to give the Duracell Bunny a run for his money!
All great tips on saving money 🙂 it seems like a lot of people want to cut down on their expenditure this year, which is so encouraging to see!
I agree Francesca, with food prices set to rise by 10% this year, a lot of people will need to do the big expenditure cut !