It’s always good to do as much as you can to minimise your household bills. Now that the cost-of-living crisis is biting many people hard, it’s become more important than ever. With that in mind, here are seven top tips on how to save money on household bills.
Commit to sticking to a shopping list
Outside of emergencies, never buy anything unless it’s on a pre-written shopping list. If you do find yourself making emergency purchases, think about how the emergency happened. In other words, was it genuinely an unforeseeable event? Alternatively, was it something that you could have planned for?
Try to avoid taking young children into shops with you
Even if you’re on a budget, it can actually be more economical to pay for home delivery than to take young children into shops with you. No matter how good they are normally, you can never be sure how they’ll behave on any given day.
Cook from scratch as much as you can
If you’ve already cut out (or cut back on) eating out and takeaways, your next step is to cook more of your own food from scratch. If you’re not confident in your cooking skills, there are lots of free tutorials online. If you’re struggling for time, learn about meal planning and batch cooking.
If you’re dealing with picky eaters (or you are a picky eater), then work on balancing pre-planning with spontaneity. The key to making this happen is having a stock of staple foods in your kitchen and knowing how to combine them in different ways. This can be learned with practice and it can save you a lot of money.
Invest in smart light bulbs and plugs
We all know that turning off lights and appliances saves money. At the same time, we’re all human. What’s more, if you have children, then you have to accept the fact that they’re human too. Fortunately, smart light bulbs and plugs are very affordable. Once you’ve fitted them, you’ll be able to turn off light bulbs and plugs with just a few button presses.
Use only the heating you need
This applies particularly to people working from home. Try wrapping up rather than putting the heating on. If you really need extra heating, try using a plug-in heater or electric radiator rather than turning on the central heating.
Wear your clothes more than once before you wash them
Certain types of clothes do need to be washed after each wear. That automatically includes underwear and workout wear. For some people, it will include workwear. In many cases, however, clothes can be worn more than once between washes. In fact, if you give them a steam, you might be able to go even longer without washing them.
Once you do wash your clothes, try to leave them to air dry. If you find you regularly don’t have time for this, then consider investing in a dehumidifier. A dehumidifier can dry clothes much more quickly than the air alone but costs much less than a tumble dryer.
Mark your contract-renewal dates in your calendar
Never rely on your ability to remember when a contract renews. Likewise, never rely on your provider to prompt you. Frankly, it’s in their interest to roll you over automatically or at least give you minimal time to renew.
Instead, mark your contract-renewal dates in an electronic calendar (i.e. one you can access from your phone). Then set a reminder for at least a month to six weeks before you have to renew or cancel.
When you get these reminders, make sure to act on them. Firstly, ask yourself if you still really need whatever it is. If you do, shop around for the best deal. That doesn’t necessarily mean changing your provider. It could just mean changing to a new tariff.
