Are You Spending More Than You Need To Be?

How often do you check your bank statements or do a comparison to make sure you are on the best tariff?

Have you heard the saying “If you looks after the pennies they will look after the pounds”

Below I have included some things that you can do to start making savings NOW!

• Car Insurance — When was the last time you checked your car insurance and what you were paying for and if you needed it? I recently renewed my car insurance and due to covid I’m now driving a lot less than I was last year so I reduced my mileage slightly and searched around for the best insurance company that still offered everything else I needed….

By doing this I’ve saved over £40 a month! £480 a year! I have still made sure I have enough mileage included as I know I will be doing some driving but no where near what I was and I have still have the full cover I need.

When is your car insurance up for renewal? I would suggest looking at what you’re paying for and check what mileage you are paying for, do you need all of that mileage? Then do a search and look around for the best deal, you might have a really nice surprise!

• Other insurance — I would recommend doing this for all of your insurances, my business insurance was recently up for renewal and the company that I was with and had been with for years decided they wanted to double what I was paying each month (I had made no claims so there was no reason for this) so I searched around and saved myself £10 a month (£120 a year) on what I had been paying.
• Gas & Electric — This goes for electric and gas as well, when was the last time you looked around to see if you were on the best deal? I moved a couple of years ago into my Dad’s house after he passed and when I went through all of the bills he was on one of the highest tariffs with the company he was with because he had just let the contract roll, I imagine he didn’t even realise he was on the highest tariff as he had always been with them so knowing my Dad he would have presumed they were looking after him and would have kept him on the best tariff……I saved over £30 a month just by spending a hour searching around and comparing what he was paying to what was available.
• Phone Contracts — Do you negotiate with your phone company when your phone contract is up for renewal? If you don’t upgrade your phone each time are you still paying for a contract that includes paying off the phone that is already paid off or are you on a sim only contract? If your contract is due for renewal and you don’t want to upgrade your phone then speak to your provider about going onto a sim only contract you will save a lot of money each month by doing this.
• Subscriptions — Do you use everything that you pay for on a monthly/yearly basis? If you haven’t used something since signing up is there a reason that you keep it?

I recommend doing these every year.

Some other ways to make savings if you are struggling to see where you can save money are:

• Fuel.. How often do you just drive into the nearest petrol station and fill up when you need fuel? If you live near a supermarket that provides fuel they are usually A LOT cheaper than the main petrol stations. I know you might be thinking it’s only a couple of pence per litre that you’re saving but when you add that up over the months and year it can work out to quite a lot of money.
• Unconscious Spending — How often especially this year have you been looking at something on your phone got caught up in the moment and then bought it…then when it arrived it hasn’t been used? Do you have a buying strategy where you see something and then wait 24–48 hours and if you’re still thinking about it you buy it if you haven’t thought about it do you really want it?
• Food Shopping — How often do you go to the supermarket to do your weekly shop and come back with a trolley full of things that you don’t actually want but they looked good on the shelf? A good trick to do for this is write a shopping list of everything you want from the shop. While you’re in the supermarket and you go to pick up those things that you don’t really want if they’re not on your list stop and ask yourself if you REALLY need it or if it’s an impulse buy. Another trick is never go food shopping hungry!

Another trick you can use in supermarkets is looking at the supermarket own brands compared to the branded food. You wouldn’t notice the difference on most of the items and you can really cut down your weekly shopping bill. An example here is Tesco crumpets are about 49p for 6 whereas the branded crumpets are £1 for 6 when they’re on offer, they taste exactly the same so why spend an extra 51p for the name?

• Coffees — If you work in an office how often do you pop out to buy coffee to get a break from your desk? Or if you work out on the road how often do you stop to pick up drinks and food on the go? Have you ever added up how much you spend over a month? Could you go for a walk around the block instead or make up a pack lunch and take your food and drinks with you?
• Budgets — When was the last time you looked through a couple of months of your bank statements and added up all of the non-regular purchases? Can you set yourself spending budgets each month or create your own cash flow and monitor your spending? Not just businesses have cash flows and they are an amazing tool to use to keep track of your spending and what you’re spending money on.

Vikki Amour — Money Mindset Coach at A.M.O.U.R Coaching