4 Hacks To Help You Save Money On Your Household Bills

*This is a collaborative post 

We’ve all got bills that need to be paid every month. Some come out on the same day, meaning hundreds of pounds can leave our accounts in one go. Some come out on different days, meaning we feel like there’s a constant stream of money leaving our accounts! 

It’s a constant battle that we don’t think we can win. In most cases, bills are unavoidable. You have to pay them, or you lose out on lots of important things. So, we become resigned to the fact that we’ll have to depart with this money every single month. 

However, you can save money on a lot of your household bills. Some might be fixed – like mortgage payments or council tax – but others are variable. This means that you can definitely reduce them if you know-how. 

Lucky for you, I know how! Here are a few ideas and tricks you can try to lower your monthly household bills:

Use price comparison websites

No matter what you’re paying for, you should use price comparison websites to make sure you’re getting the best deal. This works for pretty much all of the household bills you can think of. It’s particularly effective at slashing the cost of your energy bills, insurance, and even your TV/phone bills. 

Essentially, these websites show you a list of providers and how much their services cost. Here, you can go through the list and see which one offers the best deal for you. It’s a simple way to avoid overpaying for a service that’s available for a much lower price from a different provider. 

Switch suppliers every year

With a lot of your household bills, you’re put on annual rolling contracts. This means that you pay a supplier for a service, and they provide this service for a year. When the 12 months are up, the contract rolls over, and you continue paying for the service. This is a problem as you’re still paying the same price for the service, but there could be cheaper ones out there by this time. 

Instead, you need to notify your supplier that you’re cancelling the contract at the end of the 12-month period. Now, you can look for a different provider that may have a better deal. I was reading an article called Personal Development Perfection: 10 Ways to Improve Your Life, and it mentioned how you can switch car insurance and broadband providers every year. These two bills, in particular, can change dramatically over the course of a year. Car insurance can go up or down, depending on so many factors. As such, the price you’re paying now could be slashed in half by next year. It’s important to shop around and switch suppliers as you’ll often find much better deals elsewhere. 

Part of the reason for this is that companies offer new customer discounts. So, you can take advantage of them year after year by switching suppliers! It will surprise you how much you can save by making an effort to look elsewhere. Most people stick with the same provider because they’re used to the service and can’t be bothered to change. Don’t fall into this trap as you will definitely end up overpaying! 

Threaten to leave

Sometimes, you don’t need to switch suppliers to save money. While it can often be the best course of action, it’s worth trying to bluff your way to a better deal beforehand. All you need to do is ring up your provider and tell them that you want to leave. Instantly, they enter into panic mode. They don’t want to lose a customer, so they basically beg you to stay. This usually means they ask about why you’re leaving. As such, you tell them you have a better deal from another company. 

Now, they will try and convince you to stay by offering a deal that’s similar to the one you’ve found elsewhere. It’s amazing how many service providers magically have the ability to slash their prices when you threaten to leave! If they do offer a better deal, then you may as well stay. It saves you the effort of switching providers, but you still save money. 

Obviously, if they can’t give you a better deal, then stick to your guns and leave!

Only pay for what you need

It’s amazing how many of us will pay for bills and then only use a fraction of what we’re paying for. The best example of this is with a TV or internet package. Let’s say you pay for a Sky package, but you rarely watch half the channels you’re paying for. Maybe you only bought it to watch one show or one set of channels. Essentially, you’re wasting a lot of money on something you’re not taking full advantage of.

Review your habits when going through all the different household bills. Do you really need to pay for a Sky TV package? It could be cheaper to get Now, TV and only pay for the specific channels you want to watch. The same goes for things like your internet bill. If you pay for unlimited data – but you only use around 30gb a month – then what’s the point? It would be cheaper to pay for a plan that only gives you 30gb. 

If you start paying for what you need/use, then you’ll soon see how much money you can save. It will probably surprise you to learn how much you’ve been wasting on services that you simply aren’t getting the most out of. 

Clearly, there are loads of ways you can save money around the home. Still, your household bills are the best place to start. If you can reduce the amount of money that has to leave your account every month, then you’re in a better place to start budgeting accordingly. The four ideas detailed above are all so easy for you to implement. Mostly, it’s all about being a bit savvy and understanding what you’re paying for and how you can pay less for the same service.