Top tips to cut costs and boost savings.

9th October 2017

WEALTH at work, a leading provider of financial education, guidance and advice in the workplace, shares some of its top tips for individuals wanting to cut their costs and boost their savings:

1. Do you know where your money is going?
Individuals should check their bank statements and make a list of what they are spending each month. It is helpful to divide these into utility bills (gas, electricity and water), mortgage or rent costs, council tax, supermarket shopping, monthly contracts for TV, broadband and mobiles, insurance, regular subscriptions, and other spending. This will highlight where your money is going and where savings could be made.

2. Compare utility providers
Individuals should consider visiting comparison sites to find out which providers may be the most cost effective for them. For example, Ofgem found that customers who switched supplier saved around £200 annually.*

3. Look for discount vouchers
There are great discounts available for online supermarket shopping, holidays, restaurants, broadband providers and computers etc. For example, many supermarkets have offers such as £20 – £30 off a first online order and we found that £52 could be saved on £240 worth of groceries **.

4. Is the latest mobile phone really needed?
Individuals could consider a SIM only deal rather than upgrading to the latest phone if their phone contract is coming to an end. With a contract, individuals are effectively borrowing money for the phone, and repaying this loan through a monthly bill. Also, tariffs should be checked as there are some very competitive deals available.

5. Regular contracts should be reviewed
Are you making the most of the subscriptions you have? Could you cancel music and other services that you’re not using? It may be worth calculating how much you spend on these types of contracts and see how much of a difference cancelling these may have on your finances. For example, savings of £210*** a year could be made by cancelling a couple of subscription services.

6. Watch out for auto-renewals
Many insurance policies for cars, homes or holidays, automatically renew each year but individuals may not be getting the best deal if they allow this to happen. For example, it’s estimated that £2.37 billion a year is wasted by individuals ‘auto-renewing’ their car insurance ****. To get the best deal and to avoid any potential price hikes with auto-renewals, make sure you shop around and either switch or haggle where appropriate.

7. Staff discounts
Are you making the most of any staff discount schemes? By signing up to a workplace discount scheme, you could get discount codes to high street stores or buy reloadable store gift cards, which would allow you to buy the credit at a discounted price.

Jonathan Watts-Lay, Director, WEALTH at work, comments; “Nobody should pay more than they need to on what are often generic services such as utilities. Getting into the habit of checking what you spend money on and making sure you spend wisely is a great way to help free up cash for those little extras, or indeed to invest for the future.”