Pay freezes, pay cuts, short time or unemployment means that people are looking for ways to slash their monthly bills. These are worrying times for millions, but do not despair there are many ways that you can slash your bills.
First look at what you spend money on each month. Look at monthly bills to see whether you are getting an appropriate service for your money.
Look at things such as mobile telephone contracts. Are you getting the right deal for you and your use? If you are paying for services that you do not use, you are wasting money each month. It may be that you only need your mobile to summon help in an emergency. For example, “V” was paying 65 euro per month for a mobile telephone contract, she only ever used the mobile for texts and very short messages and realized that she was paying for unlimited calls and various other services that she never used. V then contacted her provider, and now has a contract limiting her outgoing calls to one hour per month and pays nine euro per month so is saving 56 euro per month.
Do you really need the satellite or cable television subscription that you have? Do you watch all the channels on your current subscription package? You might want to either downgrade the subscription or give it up altogether. Talk to your supplier, they may have a better value deal to match your use.
Also look at your bills for utilities such as electricity, gas, water and telephone. Utility companies have many different tariffs and you might not be on the correct tariff for your household. For example, many telephone companies have special tariffs for infrequent users or deals for people who make international calls, and for those who do not.
It might prove cheaper for you to bundle two bills together. For example, many domestic gas suppliers in the United Kingdom also provide domestic electricity and British Telecom, and other fixed telephone line suppliers, provide internet services. It might be worth changing your suppliers completely.
In any case, look at price comparison web sites but do not rely on them completely, contact the supplier and see what they have to say before you decide to do anything. Never be pressurized by salespersons cold calling at your home, some power companies in the United Kingdom recently received attention from Trading Standards for their “misleading and illegal sales tactics”. You may not get the best energy deal from a doorstep salesperson.
People have become very used to using energy and other resources without thought during the boom years. Look for waste in your home. This applies to food, power, telephones, and all resources. Switch out lights in unoccupied rooms. The family will not notice if you turn down the heating by one or two degrees, but it will make a difference to your monthly fuel bills. Many electrical appliances have stand by settings, for example, many people leave their television on stand by overnight, over time, not only does this habit waste much power, it is also a fire risk. A recent study found that the average British home has twenty appliances on stand by settings at any time. Do not leave appliances on stand by.
You can slash the bills, even when you are doing ordinary household jobs by thinking a little differently. Never switch on the washing machine until you have a full load. Tumble driers are very convenient, but they use a huge amount of electricity. Sunshine is free; consider pegging laundry outside when weather permits. In winter, during bad weather consider using an old-fashioned airer, you are spending money heating your home, why not make that energy do two jobs at once.
Only fill your coffee machine or kettle with sufficient water for the number of hot drinks you wish to make. Filling a 1.7 litre or 3 pint kettle for two cups of coffee is a waste of electricity.
Daily thought about using water will help you slash your monthly bills. For example, a daily bath uses around 10-15 gallons of hot water, whereas a shower uses much less, unless you are using a power shower. If you have metered water supply, how much water you use in total is also a consideration.
Look at your credit cards and bank accounts. It may be that you can get a better deal with lower monthly charges by changing your account or supplier. Changing your credit card for another with a no interest deal for six months will cut your monthly bills. Consider using this grace period to pay off debt. This too will eventually cut your monthly bills, the faster you pay credit card debt the less interest you pay.
Food is a large monthly expense for everyone. You can save money on grocery bills by buying generic, or private label, brands rather than expensive branded goods. Use grocery coupons for items that you usually buy. Convenience foods cost money and they are not usually very healthy. Consider cooking from scratch. Packed lunches for work reduce the money that you spend for lunches. Coffee shops charge fortunes for specialty coffees do you really need to buy them every day?
Slashing your monthly bills is easy when you think about your daily life,your monthly bills, and how you use things. If you are paying for something that you do not use, think about giving it up. Can you get a better deal from a supplier? Think about how you live your life and how you could do things slightly differently, and save money on your monthly bills. There is no magic bullet, but a multi-directional approach will help you to slash your bills.