8 ways to save money each month that are easier than you think

Slashing the cost of your monthly expenses can often start to feel a little impossible. You manage to reduce the cost of one bill only to find that another one is going to rise. While some of your monthly expenses like your mortgage, rent, council tax, and water rates might be non-negotiable, there are some savvy things that you can do to significantly reduce the amount of money that you spend elsewhere and save money on almost every purchase that you make. 

Whether you have been feeling the pinch recently due to the COVID19 pandemic or simply want to be smarter with your money and save more, we’ve put together some tips to help you spend less on the essentials and put more money aside. 

Reduce Your Food Bill:

There are many strategies that you can use to reduce the amount that you spend on food each month. Rather than opting for the convenience of going to your local supermarket, spending some time shopping around for the best deals can help you save a significant amount. Low Price Foods is the cheapest online supermarket offering items from short dated food suppliers in the UK. You can get seriously cheap food online if you don’t mind buying items that do not have long left before the best before date or are slightly out of date but still safe to consume. 

Loyalty Schemes:

Signing up for some loyalty schemes could help you slash the cost of the things that you spend money on the most. For example, if you shop at the supermarket Tesco, it’s well worth signing up for a free Tesco Clubcard that you can use to earn points on every purchase and take advantage of lower prices exclusive to Clubcard holders. You will be sent vouchers every few months earned from the points that you have collected that can be used to get money off when shopping in-store and online. Sainsbury’s Nectar card also allows you to earn points that you can put towards your expenses; this can also be used in other popular stores like Argos and eBay. 

Switch Your Gas and Electric Supplier:

These days, there’s really not much point in sticking around with the same energy supplier for a long time. Once your minimum time is up, it’s well worth shopping around to see if you can get cheaper prices elsewhere. The price of energy fluctuates on a constant basis and even after switching it might only be a matter of weeks before there is a cheaper price available from another supplier. You might want to consider signing up for a service like Look After My Bills, which is designed to automatically switch you onto the cheapest energy tariffs to ensure that you are never paying any more than is absolutely necessary. 

Get a Water Meter:

If you don’t use a huge amount of water at home and are on a fixed monthly rate, you may be able to save money by having a water meter installed. Rather than paying a set price each month, this allows you to only pay for the amount that you use, so you can save even further by being savvy about saving water and using a range of strategies to reduce water waste at home, like fitting a water-saving showerhead or reusing water for things like watering plants or cleaning outdoors. 

Consolidate Your Debts:

If you have several smaller lines of credit like store cards and short-term loans, you might be able to cut back your monthly expenses by getting a debt consolidation loan. This type of loan is taken out for the sole purpose of paying off all your existing debts in full, leaving you with just one debt to repay rather than several. They are a good solution if paying off several different debts is taking up a huge chunk of your expenses each month. And, repaying your debts in full this way can help to improve your credit rating, making it easier for you to save money when borrowing in the future by taking advantage of lower interest rates. 

Pay for Car Insurance Annually:

Many people pay for their car insurance on a monthly basis, especially with the cost of insuring a vehicle on the rise. However, the downside of this is that while monthly payments are often easier to manage, they do tend to cost more as it is classed as a loan with interest payments added on. And if you already have a lot of monthly outgoings, car insurance is just another one to worry about. Instead, saving up throughout the year until your car insurance needs to be renewed can be an ideal way to save money. Not only do you not have to worry about paying insurance again for another twelve months, but you’ll also save overall without the need to pay interest. 

Downgrade Your Entertainment Package:

Do you really need the fastest broadband available and tons of channels for your TV? If you’re paying a lot of money for entertainment but always end up watching Netflix anyway, it might be worth saving some money by downgrading to a lower package. Streaming services like Netflix, NOW TV and Amazon Prime Video are excellent alternatives to an entertainment package that includes TV since you are not tied into anything and can cancel at any time if you don’t feel like you’re getting your money’s worth. And most expensive broadband packages have speeds that are totally unnecessary for use at home, so unless you work from home and need really fast broadband, don’t get taken in by the hype. 

Save With Round-Ups and Account Skimming:

If you’re looking for ways to save more money each week or month, there are plenty of excellent micro-saving strategies that you can use to put away more money than you might have realised. Rounding up the pennies every time you spend is a useful strategy that is offered by more and more banks today, pioneered by online banks like Monzo and Starling that are growing in popularity. If you use one of these online banks, set up a savings pot and set it to round up the pennies into there each time that you spend. Another strategy that you can use is skimming your bank account - each time you log into your online banking, round the balance down to the nearest ten or five by putting the extra pounds and pennies into a savings pot or savings account. For example, if your balance is £1567.40, put £7.40 into your savings to round it to the nearest ten or £2.40 to round it to the nearest five. While it doesn’t seem like a large amount to save at the time, if you do this on a regular basis you can quickly start to see your savings grow while barely noticing it. 

When it comes to slashing the cost of your monthly expenses, things don’t have to be as difficult as they seem. With these savvy strategies, you can save money each month for something nice or a rainy day.