Save £1,000 in 12 hours
Early in my career, I was pitched a TV programme idea called Can This Man Save The UK A Billion Pounds? After pondering, I realised that showing a million people how to save a grand was easy – the diffi cult bit was getting them to do it.
Offer someone £100 for fi ve minutes’ work, and most would salivate. Tell them all they need do is help someone use a comparison site to switch energy provider and they’d jump for joy. Yet suggest they spend the same time changing their own energy provider, which can save more than double that over a year, and many can’t be bothered.
So here’s my day’s diary, peppered with tweets, forum posts and emails I’ve received, to prove the scale of possible savings…
7:30am SAVE £100s WITH A WATER METER
While brushing your teeth, ask yourself this simple question – does my home have more bedrooms than people, or the same number? Yes? If you’re in England or Wales, you could save hundreds by switching to a water meter.
Water bills are based on your home’s rateable value, roughly equivalent to how much it’s worth – so the more bedrooms, the bigger the water bill. Yet low occupancy means you’re likely to be overpaying.
Use the calculator at www.ccwater.org.uk to see likely savings, then contact your water company to switch free of charge.
Tweeted proof from Helen Bevington: ‘Thanks, we’ve water-metered. Monthly DD down from £80 to £25.’
8:15am DO YOU WEAR A UNIFORM?
As you get dressed, ask yourself if you wear a uniform to work – it could be simply a branded T–shirt. If you do, and you wash and repair it yourself, you may be able to reclaim hundreds of pounds worth of tax, going back up to four years.
Proof from Michael King: ‘Thanks. Just received £409 for cleaning my work uniform over the last few years.’ Full step–by–step help at www.money savingexpert.com/uniforms
8:35am MISSING £1,000s IN CHILDCARE HELP?
The school run is a good time to think about the cost of looking after the little ones. If you pay for childcare, including after-school or summer clubs, you may be entitled to childcare tax credits.
To get a decent amount, you need a total family income of below £41,000, and each parent must work 16 hours or more. Average payouts are £3,000 a year.
Failing that, check to see if your employer offers childcare vouchers. This government scheme can be worth more than £1,000 a year because it lets you pay for childcare from pre–tax income.
9:30am ANALYSE YOUR FINANCES
Easy question: how much do you earn in a year? Tough one: how much do you spend? Unless you can answer both, you can’t accurately manage your finances. Don’t just do it from a snapshot of a month’s fi nances, either – that doesn’t take into account things like Christmas, summer holidays or a new sofa.
Sit down, gather your paperwork and examine everything. If that sounds stressful, let my hardcore www.budgetbrain.com tool do it for you, then analyse the result.
11:15am BITE £100s OFF FOOD BILLS
During elevenses, rummage through your fridge, cupboards or even larder, to check how many ‘Finest’ brands there are. If there are lots, try this Downshift Challenge. On your next shop, swap ‘Finest’ goods for branded, branded for own–brand, and own– brand for savers’. Then, ignoring the packaging (taste with your tongue, not your eyes), see if you can notice the difference. If you can’t, drop to brand level permanently.
For a £150 weekly family shop, dropping one brand saves £2,400 a year. In blind tests I’ve done, people can only tell the difference half the time, saving £1,200 – www.mysupermarket.com has lots of handy tools to help.
11:55am SPEND A PENNY
I can’t help you there.
12pm GAS AND ELECTRICITY: SAVE £200+ IN 10 MINUTES
Easy one, this, as Leah proves: ‘You’ve just saved me £400 per year on my gas and electricity, plus [as she was in credit] I now have an unexpected refund of £327.’
To find the cheapest option, put your postcode and usage into a www.consumerfocus.org.uk approved comparison site.
Better still, go via my site’s www.moneysavingexpert.com/energy and the same sites will give you up to £30 cashback or a crate of wine if you switch. And while they may not be the cheapest, keep an eye out for EDF Blue and Scottish Power’s long-term fixed deals, guaranteeing no price hikes or early exit fees.
12:10pm HAGGLE £100s OFF SKY, BROADBAND, THE AA…
This tweet I received last year from Stumpyian says it all: ‘Threatened to leave Sky, said I couldn’t afford it and it halved bill.’
Do not be afraid to negotiate – especially on mobile phone contracts, vehicle breakdown, broadband and digital TV providers.
1pm OWED £1,000s IN PPI?
(Lunch is for wimps, by the way.) If you’ve had a loan or credit card in the past 10 years, spend your break checking if you were mis-sold PPI (payment protection insurance). Don’t assume you don’t have it; it might have been added by deceit.
Every day my Twitter feed is filled with proof: here’s a tweet from Steverandall1965: ‘Inspired to claim. Put it off for ages, then downloaded the template, sent it off and got £12,225, no fuss or bother.’
No need to throw 25% at claims firms, either; do it yourself. If you don’t have the paperwork, full help and templates are available at www.moneysaving expert.com/ppi or www.which.co.uk
2pm SLASH CREDIT CARD COSTS, OR SOUP UP YOUR SAVINGS
If you have savings and high-interest debts, you’re throwing cash away. Pay off costly debts with your paltry-interest-earning savings, and you’ll be massively up. Then…
Boost your savings: yes, rates are pitifully low, but every penny counts. See www.postoffice.co.uk for the best savings deals. If you’ve got £3,000 to £20,000 to save, you can get 3% in the 123 bank account at www.santander.co.uk (there is a £2 per month fee, but this can be more than offset by the account’s up to 3% cashback when it’s used to pay bills like council tax, energy, or home phones). Full information on bestbuys, including cash ISAs, at www.mse.me/savings
Slash credit-card costs: if you’ve got expensive debts and a decent credit score, do a balance transfer. That’s where you get a new card that pays off the debts on your old cards, so you owe the money at a cheaper rate.
The three cards I’d pick out are: www.barclaycard.co.uk which offers the longest 0% deal: 25 months, with a one-off 2.9% fee of the amount transferred. If you can repay quicker, then try www.lloydstsb.co.uk at 21 months: 0% but with a lower 1.5% fee.
If you need a lot longer, the Rate For Life card from www.mbna.co.uk lets you lock in at 5.9% until all the debt shifted is repaid (1.5% fee). Find full help and best-buys for these at www.moneysavingexpert.com/bts
2:45pm SLASH CAR INSURANCE BY £400 IN 30 MINUTES
Don’t just automatically renew. Many people fi nd that even their current insurer gives a cheaper quote if they apply as a new customer. So, as a bare minimum…
1 Combine comparison sites. They search different firms, so try a few. My current top picks are: www.moneysupermarket.com www.tescocompare.com and www.confused.com
2 Comparison sites miss out www.aviva.co.uk and www.directline.co.uk so check them, too, and if you have two or more cars, add www.admiral.co.uk for its multi-car insurance. If you have the time, and really want to slice costs, see my full tips at www.mse.me/carinsurance
As proof, RedMikeKite says: ‘Followed your steps after a slight mishap, which put my renewal up to £594. Got it down to £193 – couldn’t believe it, £401 saved.’
3:15pm DRIVE PETROL COSTS DOWN 20%
Four rules:
1 Dejunk your trunk (lighter cars save fuel) and ensure the tyre pressure is correct.
2 Bear in mind that better driving can boost effi ciency by 20%. Speed up gradually, change up a gear earlier, and watch road positioning so you can brake earlier.
3 Use www.petrolprices.com to find the cheapest forecourt near you.
4 Consider a petrol cashback credit card such as 123 from www.santander.co.uk which pays back 3% every time you use it to buy petrol (more than offsetting its £2 per month fee). However, ensure you repay the balance in full each month so that there’s no interest.
4pm CHECK AND CHALLENGE YOUR COUNCIL TAX
It takes five minutes to check whether you’re in too high a council tax band. If you are, not only can you get what you pay reduced, you can get a back-dated payout from when you moved in (often £1,000s). Don’t just challenge willynilly, though, or you could find your band hiked. Full checking system and free tools are at www.moneysavingexpert.com/council
5pm CUT ALL SPENDING BY UP TO 5%
The www.capitalone.co.uk Aspire World MasterCard and www.americanexpress.co.uk Platinum Everyday card are both fee-free cashback credit cards, which pay you when you use them.
This isn’t an excuse to spend more; just use them for all your credit-card spending. Provided you always fully repay to avoid the 19.9% APRs, you can make £100s. Both cards pay 5% for three months (maximum £100 cashback), then up to 1.25% thereafter.
Proof from Nursey22: ‘I love this. I got one in December, booked a holiday on it, got £60 back on my Jan statement and paid it off in full = no interest.’
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Why not look at your own expenditure to see where your big outgoings are. Whatever you spend your money on, there’s usually a way to save. Good luck.
Martin Lewis is a broadcaster and creator of www.moneysavingexpert.com
To join the six million people who receive his weekly tips by email, visit www.moneysavingexpert.com/tips
Deals correct at time of going to press but may change.
© Telegraph Group Limited.
Offer someone £100 for fi ve minutes’ work, and most would salivate. Tell them all they need do is help someone use a comparison site to switch energy provider and they’d jump for joy. Yet suggest they spend the same time changing their own energy provider, which can save more than double that over a year, and many can’t be bothered.
So here’s my day’s diary, peppered with tweets, forum posts and emails I’ve received, to prove the scale of possible savings…
7:30am SAVE £100s WITH A WATER METER
While brushing your teeth, ask yourself this simple question – does my home have more bedrooms than people, or the same number? Yes? If you’re in England or Wales, you could save hundreds by switching to a water meter.
Water bills are based on your home’s rateable value, roughly equivalent to how much it’s worth – so the more bedrooms, the bigger the water bill. Yet low occupancy means you’re likely to be overpaying.
Use the calculator at www.ccwater.org.uk to see likely savings, then contact your water company to switch free of charge.
Tweeted proof from Helen Bevington: ‘Thanks, we’ve water-metered. Monthly DD down from £80 to £25.’
8:15am DO YOU WEAR A UNIFORM?
As you get dressed, ask yourself if you wear a uniform to work – it could be simply a branded T–shirt. If you do, and you wash and repair it yourself, you may be able to reclaim hundreds of pounds worth of tax, going back up to four years.
Proof from Michael King: ‘Thanks. Just received £409 for cleaning my work uniform over the last few years.’ Full step–by–step help at www.money savingexpert.com/uniforms
8:35am MISSING £1,000s IN CHILDCARE HELP?
The school run is a good time to think about the cost of looking after the little ones. If you pay for childcare, including after-school or summer clubs, you may be entitled to childcare tax credits.
To get a decent amount, you need a total family income of below £41,000, and each parent must work 16 hours or more. Average payouts are £3,000 a year.
Failing that, check to see if your employer offers childcare vouchers. This government scheme can be worth more than £1,000 a year because it lets you pay for childcare from pre–tax income.
9:30am ANALYSE YOUR FINANCES
Easy question: how much do you earn in a year? Tough one: how much do you spend? Unless you can answer both, you can’t accurately manage your finances. Don’t just do it from a snapshot of a month’s fi nances, either – that doesn’t take into account things like Christmas, summer holidays or a new sofa.
Sit down, gather your paperwork and examine everything. If that sounds stressful, let my hardcore www.budgetbrain.com tool do it for you, then analyse the result.
11:15am BITE £100s OFF FOOD BILLS
During elevenses, rummage through your fridge, cupboards or even larder, to check how many ‘Finest’ brands there are. If there are lots, try this Downshift Challenge. On your next shop, swap ‘Finest’ goods for branded, branded for own–brand, and own– brand for savers’. Then, ignoring the packaging (taste with your tongue, not your eyes), see if you can notice the difference. If you can’t, drop to brand level permanently.
For a £150 weekly family shop, dropping one brand saves £2,400 a year. In blind tests I’ve done, people can only tell the difference half the time, saving £1,200 – www.mysupermarket.com has lots of handy tools to help.
11:55am SPEND A PENNY
I can’t help you there.
12pm GAS AND ELECTRICITY: SAVE £200+ IN 10 MINUTES
Easy one, this, as Leah proves: ‘You’ve just saved me £400 per year on my gas and electricity, plus [as she was in credit] I now have an unexpected refund of £327.’
To find the cheapest option, put your postcode and usage into a www.consumerfocus.org.uk approved comparison site.
Better still, go via my site’s www.moneysavingexpert.com/energy and the same sites will give you up to £30 cashback or a crate of wine if you switch. And while they may not be the cheapest, keep an eye out for EDF Blue and Scottish Power’s long-term fixed deals, guaranteeing no price hikes or early exit fees.
12:10pm HAGGLE £100s OFF SKY, BROADBAND, THE AA…
This tweet I received last year from Stumpyian says it all: ‘Threatened to leave Sky, said I couldn’t afford it and it halved bill.’
Do not be afraid to negotiate – especially on mobile phone contracts, vehicle breakdown, broadband and digital TV providers.
1pm OWED £1,000s IN PPI?
(Lunch is for wimps, by the way.) If you’ve had a loan or credit card in the past 10 years, spend your break checking if you were mis-sold PPI (payment protection insurance). Don’t assume you don’t have it; it might have been added by deceit.
Every day my Twitter feed is filled with proof: here’s a tweet from Steverandall1965: ‘Inspired to claim. Put it off for ages, then downloaded the template, sent it off and got £12,225, no fuss or bother.’
No need to throw 25% at claims firms, either; do it yourself. If you don’t have the paperwork, full help and templates are available at www.moneysaving expert.com/ppi or www.which.co.uk
2pm SLASH CREDIT CARD COSTS, OR SOUP UP YOUR SAVINGS
If you have savings and high-interest debts, you’re throwing cash away. Pay off costly debts with your paltry-interest-earning savings, and you’ll be massively up. Then…
Boost your savings: yes, rates are pitifully low, but every penny counts. See www.postoffice.co.uk for the best savings deals. If you’ve got £3,000 to £20,000 to save, you can get 3% in the 123 bank account at www.santander.co.uk (there is a £2 per month fee, but this can be more than offset by the account’s up to 3% cashback when it’s used to pay bills like council tax, energy, or home phones). Full information on bestbuys, including cash ISAs, at www.mse.me/savings
Slash credit-card costs: if you’ve got expensive debts and a decent credit score, do a balance transfer. That’s where you get a new card that pays off the debts on your old cards, so you owe the money at a cheaper rate.
The three cards I’d pick out are: www.barclaycard.co.uk which offers the longest 0% deal: 25 months, with a one-off 2.9% fee of the amount transferred. If you can repay quicker, then try www.lloydstsb.co.uk at 21 months: 0% but with a lower 1.5% fee.
If you need a lot longer, the Rate For Life card from www.mbna.co.uk lets you lock in at 5.9% until all the debt shifted is repaid (1.5% fee). Find full help and best-buys for these at www.moneysavingexpert.com/bts
2:45pm SLASH CAR INSURANCE BY £400 IN 30 MINUTES
Don’t just automatically renew. Many people fi nd that even their current insurer gives a cheaper quote if they apply as a new customer. So, as a bare minimum…
1 Combine comparison sites. They search different firms, so try a few. My current top picks are: www.moneysupermarket.com www.tescocompare.com and www.confused.com
2 Comparison sites miss out www.aviva.co.uk and www.directline.co.uk so check them, too, and if you have two or more cars, add www.admiral.co.uk for its multi-car insurance. If you have the time, and really want to slice costs, see my full tips at www.mse.me/carinsurance
As proof, RedMikeKite says: ‘Followed your steps after a slight mishap, which put my renewal up to £594. Got it down to £193 – couldn’t believe it, £401 saved.’
3:15pm DRIVE PETROL COSTS DOWN 20%
Four rules:
1 Dejunk your trunk (lighter cars save fuel) and ensure the tyre pressure is correct.
2 Bear in mind that better driving can boost effi ciency by 20%. Speed up gradually, change up a gear earlier, and watch road positioning so you can brake earlier.
3 Use www.petrolprices.com to find the cheapest forecourt near you.
4 Consider a petrol cashback credit card such as 123 from www.santander.co.uk which pays back 3% every time you use it to buy petrol (more than offsetting its £2 per month fee). However, ensure you repay the balance in full each month so that there’s no interest.
4pm CHECK AND CHALLENGE YOUR COUNCIL TAX
It takes five minutes to check whether you’re in too high a council tax band. If you are, not only can you get what you pay reduced, you can get a back-dated payout from when you moved in (often £1,000s). Don’t just challenge willynilly, though, or you could find your band hiked. Full checking system and free tools are at www.moneysavingexpert.com/council
5pm CUT ALL SPENDING BY UP TO 5%
The www.capitalone.co.uk Aspire World MasterCard and www.americanexpress.co.uk Platinum Everyday card are both fee-free cashback credit cards, which pay you when you use them.
This isn’t an excuse to spend more; just use them for all your credit-card spending. Provided you always fully repay to avoid the 19.9% APRs, you can make £100s. Both cards pay 5% for three months (maximum £100 cashback), then up to 1.25% thereafter.
Proof from Nursey22: ‘I love this. I got one in December, booked a holiday on it, got £60 back on my Jan statement and paid it off in full = no interest.’
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Why not look at your own expenditure to see where your big outgoings are. Whatever you spend your money on, there’s usually a way to save. Good luck.
Martin Lewis is a broadcaster and creator of www.moneysavingexpert.com
To join the six million people who receive his weekly tips by email, visit www.moneysavingexpert.com/tips
Deals correct at time of going to press but may change.
© Telegraph Group Limited.