Tips to help you save at least £100 a month

Money saving is so easy but it does take a little bit of work

Once you are determined to save some money, the 5-10 minutes it’ll take you to look through your finances will be so rewarding.

Following these tips could help you save at least £100 a month which could be used to pay off any debt you have or even be put towards a holiday.

• Turn off lights when you’re not in the room. Yes, you will have heard that one hundreds of times before but did you know it actually costs you around £30 a year when you leave lights in empty rooms?
• Brand swap. Next time you head to the supermarket why not swap your cornflakes for the stores own brand version? You may actually be pleasantly surprised! Give it a try in Asda, swap a large bar of Dairy Milk with a large bar of Asdas own brand 32p chocolate – you can thank me later, it is delicious! Brand swapping can save you around £700 a year.
• Pick up free magazines and newspapers. They often contain coupons for money off your favourite foods or there may be a voucher to try the latest deodorant for free. This could save you around £10 a month depending on how extreme you take it.
• If the weather is cold and you need the radiators on, only have them on in the rooms you need/use. Turning radiators down in spare bedrooms, bathrooms, etc and just having them on in your sitting room and bedroom. This can help reduce your heating bill.
• Check out the discount section at your local supermarket. They often reduce products that have changed their packaging, being discontinued or have damaged packaging.
• Check out the discount section in the fridges at your local supermarket. You can get joints of meat much cheaper which can be frozen for a later date.
• Have you ever thought about renting out your drive? It may be cheaper for someone to rent a space on your drive and walk 5 minutes to work rather than pay high car parking fees. Justpark.co.uk
• Try using your tumble dryer less. This is one of the most expensive appliances to use in your house so the less you use it, the more money you can save.
• Check your bank statement. You could be paying direct debits that you have forgotten about or it may give you a reality check when you see just how much you are spending on your mobile phone bill. Make a list of your bills and work through them all trying to get the price down. Haggle, use comparisons websites or threaten to leave and take your business elsewhere – this should bring down you payments.
• One of the biggest rip-off bills we are paying is our mobile phone bill. May people pay X amount for unlimited texts, 600 minutes and 1GB of data allowance – however, they may only use 200 texts, 100 minutes and always on wifi each month, meaning you are paying far too much each month for your mobile plan. Click here to check you are getting the best deal for you with your mobile phone…
• Check every year that you’re on the best gas & electricity tariff for you. I do this every year and the difference this year was huge! I have saved £600 a year by switching supplier. Again, you can check you’re on the best tariff for you here…

I hope these tips help you start saving £££’s – feel free to share them with friends and family and help them too.