As the cost-of-living crisis really starts to bite, the average amount people spent on utilities increased by more than a third last month, according to new figures from Barclaycard.
As a result, many people are looking to cut their spending quickly, so they can at least afford the basics. But what are the best ways to reduce your spending fast?
“Our discretionary spend is reducing month on month, so we need to think even harder about how we spend our money,” says Jasmine Birtles of MoneyMagpie.
“If we can look at all the aspects of our day-to-day lives and try to cut back a little on lots of different areas, that will help us have more money going forward.”
Top tips to save you money
Here are six money-saving tips Birtles says can make a difference straight away:
Use up freezer and store cupboard contents
“One thing I like to do every now and then is use up what I’ve got in the kitchen,” says Birtles. “You might have tins and packets sitting in your cupboards for years. The same goes for your freezer – a lot of people stick stuff in there and it sits for a few years, and ends up inedible. So set a time when you use up what’s in the freezer and store cupboard, and only buy food that goes with what you’ve got in.”
Check you’re not being scammed
It’s important to keep checking your bank account to make sure all the transactions are genuine, warns Birtles. Scams are very common, and may only be for small amounts that you might not notice are taken from your account every month – but it all mounts up.
Cancel unnecessary and unused subscriptions
“Are you using the gym you pay for, are you reading the magazines you subscribe to? And subscriptions to things like Netflix and Sky – are you really using them enough to justify what you pay, and could you cut down to just one of them, or get rid of them completely and just use Freeview?” asks Birtles.
Consider vouchers and cashback sites
There are also discount voucher sites like vouchercodes.co.uk, topvouchercodes.co.uk, hotukdeals.com, vouchercloud.com and myvouchercodes.co.uk, where shoppers can get discount vouchers from a wide variety of well-known brands.
Is it worth cancelling home services insurance?
Birtles says it may be useful to visit a comparison site like uswitch.com or gocompare.com as there are many different providers of these services. “It’s quite possible you could get a better value version of it, if you do want to keep the service.”
Think about how much you use your car
With fuel prices so high right now, it may be worth thinking about how often you use your car, and whether some journeys at least could be made on foot, by bike or on public transport.
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