I really dislike January, not only is the weather miserable, but it is also the month where we have to wait longer to get paid, as most companies move their December paydays to just before Christmas.
It is also Eliza’s birthday and finding the perfect birthday treat is tricky thanks to the inclement weather and lack of new products in the shops.
January is also the month I normally choose as my money saving month, where I look at our household outgoings and work out if we have the best deal on everything.
It is possible to save £100s on broadband, fuel, food etc by simply using comparison sites to do the work for you!
Firstly, sign up to a cashback site such as Top Cashback or Quidco as these will often pay out when you use a comparison site to switch providers. I have been using mine for two years now and have earned around £200 per year, which is effectively free cash back in my pocket.
Home Phone, TV and Broadband Packages
Our biggest saving recently has been our TV package which includes home phone and broadband. Broadband providers can offer some fabulous combined deals but have a good idea of your requirements by knowing what broadband speed you need and which TV channels you actually watch. We tend to use Netflix and Amazon Prime for TV these days, so have cut back to the basic TV package which has saved us £100’s per year.
Gas and Electricity
You can cut your energy bills and get cashback on top in minutes and gone are the days of painful transfers between energy providers, with them doing all the hard work for you.
Energy bills move all the time, so it is worth checking regularly and be careful not to get tied into one with an early release fee, as we have made that mistake before.
Home Contents and Building Insurance
I am very lucky that my daughter works in home insurance, and I always task her with getting us the best deal and contrary to popular belief, you can switch at any time throughout the year.
My biggest tip is – never, ever leave your insurance to auto-renew. We would be paying double what we do now if we had!
Shopping
I used to work for a well-known supermarket and know some of their tricks for getting you to spend more money, and still fall for it.
The quickest way of saving money is to switch from brand names to own brand, but do check the shelf edge labels when you shop as they can show you the best value products.
If you have the time, shopping around can save you a lot of money as supermarkets tend to rotate their offers, but if you are time poor, do try and visit somewhere like Home Bargains for toiletries as they can be half the price of supermarkets.
Have you got any tips for saving money in and around the home?
January goes on forever doesn’t it! These are great tips and you’ve reminded me that I need to look at my utilities! I’m long over due a change I think
I always assess everything in Jan as well. This year we are hoping to move so I am trying to save money where possible and questioning every spend. So far it feels like we are spending less but I won’t know until I tally it up at the end of the month.
Hi ChelseaMama – we just “cut the cord” in November 2020, from cable to streaming. One issue that we already have is adding a-la-carte streaming services for certain shows, it’s kind of self defeating. Example: We have Hulu, Netflix, Prime – NOW we just added Disney Channel for our 4 year old. Any recommendations for the best combination of streaming stations and exercising discipline? 🙂