Everyone should take some time to look at their finances. Spending a small amount of time now will save you or make you a small fortune. Go on you know you want to! I promise, just a couple of hours could net you hundreds, and when would you ever earn a few hundred pound for a couple of hours of paper work and phone calls?
It is perfect timing now with the new year resolutions of improving things for the future. Maybe you overspent in December and have some money to pay back in January? I was certainly not perfect and although I managed to not overspend (too much) on pressies I certainly overspent on food and grocery goodies. I know that my January credit card bill (that is paid off in full every month) is around £600 higher than usual. Many of us felt pressurised to spend more than we could afford over Christmas so now with a possible credit card debt looming its time to cut back a bit and get those finance under control.
I like to divide things into where you can make money and where you can save money. So here are my top tips, where if you did them all, you could be saving and making £100’s.
Mrs Mummypenny Money Saving Tips
Get a tight grip on where you are at with your money. Go through all your accounts and credit cards if you have them and work out how much debt & savings you have. Add up the debt and face the reality, then things can start to improve. In 2017 it took me until the April to do this and when I added my credit cards up it came to £16k. A plan was needed.
The next step is to go through your current/bills account for your regular monthly bills and have a good look at where you can save money.
- Check that you recognise everything leaving your account by direct debit, do you 100% need all of it or have you stopped using the service? Insurances for appliances that you maybe are not getting your moneys worth, boiler insurance. Really think if you actually need the service you are paying for.
- Gas and Electricity should be reviewed once a year. Grab your latest bill and enter the details into Uswitch. This brilliant comparison site will check what you are currently paying and will recommend a cheaper alternative. Or head on over to Octopus energy , I use this company and rate them very highly (so much that I stayed with them this year rather than switching) for value for money, renewable energy tariffs and customer service. Plus if you switch using this link both you and I get £50!! Win-Win.
- TV subscriptions, I often chat to people who have several on the go. Maybe Sky TV, Netflix and Amazon Prime at the same time. (Um that us, I will cancel Netflix right now!) Assess what you really need and cancel the subscriptions! With the more expensive packages such as Sky or Virgin phone them up and threaten to leave them/or to switch. Give them the opportunity to see what they can do to reduce your monthly bill.
- Is your mobile phone contract up for renewal, are you due an upgrade? You could save a lot by keeping the same phone that you were using and were happy with and moving to a SIM only contract. Mobile phone companies will not chase you to remind you that your upgrade is due, why would they when they are still getting their £60 per month for that 3-year-old iPhone??!
Mrs Mummypenny Money Making Tips
- Have a good sort out of your household. And sell, sell, sell. eBay is great for branded clothes and smaller items. Find your local Facebook selling sites for bigger items like toys, bikes and furniture. Maybe you have bags and bags of clothes and for less hassle take them to a local clothes recycling site who will normal pay around 60p per kilo of clothes.
- Join a cash back site like Topcashback, I use these all the time when buying anything online. Great for this time of year when renewing things like broadband, utilities, insurance. And for when you buy anything online such as furniture, holidays. Its simple and really reliable just find the service you are wanting to purchase on Topcashback and click through from their website to your site of choice. Simple. I have had an account for 6 years and I earn around £400 per year in cash back.
- Whenever I buy anything I buy it with my American Express Credit card, this card is paid off every month in full to avoid any interest payments. Every year I get a nice chunk of cashback of around £250. If you would like one please use this link to sign up and we will both get a £25 boost of cashback.
There you have it, if you did all of these you could save/make yourself easily more than £1000 per year. Go on give it a try and give your finances an overhaul.
