You may have heard me on BBC Radio Lancashire with Graham Liver this morning for Thrifty Thursday. Here are the top money saving tips and deals I talked about.
This week it’s all about Spring cleaning your finances, finding the best prices and getting rewarded for the services you need. Oh, chocolate too!
Energy Bills
We’re within a month of the new April price cap kicking in. We’re all going to pay more, there’s no way around it. We know those price cap rates that will come into play from April 1st:
- GAS | 7.4p unit rate | 27.2p daily standing charge.
- ELECTRICITY | 28p unit rate | 45p daily standing charge.
The bad news is that there is likely to be another rise in October 2022, analysts are now predicting by 47%! If you can find a tariff around the April price cap, up to about 25% above that, you can protect yourself from those future rises. There have been 1 year fixes available for some current customers with the likes of Eon. These aren’t available on price comparison sites. Go direct or speak to your current supplier. If you’re a current customer & have had a letter, the rates still seem to be honoured even if the plan has been pulled.
If there is a tariff you’re happy with, you can also ask for it to begin from April 1st so that you can still taken advantage of the current cheaper prices throughout March. A lot of these have ZERO exit fees so you’re locking in for a year at around about the price you’d be paying anyway, protecting yourself from rises and if things do get cheaper, you can move without a penalty.
Where Is Your Money?
Switching your current account can get you a bonus. Banks offer a cash incentive to switch your bank account to them. £150 is available from First Direct, RBS and Natwest. £140 from Santander or £125 from Nationwide. Take your pick!
There still isn’t that much interest knocking around to make your money make money. However any savings you do have you might as well put them in the best place. New customers (you don’t have to switch to it) to Virgin Money M Plus account get access to a linked savings account paying 1% interest on up to £25k.
If that isn’t for you, there is 0.82% available with Yorkshire Building Society, you can open it online with just £1. You can get 0.75% with Atom Bank, open it on the app with no minimum deposit. Both of these have unlimited withdrawals.
Broadband
Broadband doesn’t have a cost a lot anymore. Many of us are overpaying for basic broadband when we could get better speeds for less money. For example, you can get unlimited Super Fibre Broadband including line rental with anytime free calls for £20 a month with NOW Broadband. It was cheaper for me to switch to this than what I was previously on and I got faster speeds. Go through a cashback site like Quidco and you can get £100+ in cashback, making it even cheaper.
£20 x 12 months is £240, minus the £100 cashback brings it to £140. Works out at £11.66 per month for line rental, anytime calls and fast broadband.
If you are on Universal Credit, you might qualify for heavily discounted broadband deals from a number of broadband providers, including Virgin Media.
Mobile Phone Contracts
If you’re happy with your current mobile phone and it’s paid off, you don’t need to pay over £10 a month for your mobile phone contract. Change to a 30 day rolling SIM only contract. You’re looking at around £6-£8 a month for unlimited calls, texts and 10GB of data. Look at Plusnet and GiffGaff for good deals.
If you already have a SIM only contract, some of these are increasing in price. I had an email from EE earlier this week saying mine is going up by 9.3%. Time to look for a new offer.
Prescriptions
If you pay for your prescriptions, you could save money with a ‘season ticket’. It’s actually called a prescription prepayment certificate, or a PPC.
Prescriptions are currently £9.35 each. An annual PPC, giving you as many prescriptions (including NHS dental) as you need costs £108.10. This means if you have more than 11 prescriptions in the 12 month period, you’ll save money. There is also a 3 month certificate available for £30.25. You’ll save money by buying that if you have more than 3 prescriptions in those 3 months.
The savings can be huge. If you get 4 prescriptions each month, you can save £340.70 with the annual PPC. These certificates can be backdated by one month.
Get A Head Start On Easter
Lastly, let’s finish with a great chocolate deal and get you a head start on Easter. Large Easter Eggs are £1.99 at Morrisons until 7th March. Eggs on the offer include Yorkie, Crunchie, Smarties, Oreo, Mars, Rolo, Wispa and Terry’s Chocolate Orange. The question is, can you leave them on top of the wardrobe for 6 weeks without eating them?
I hope these Thrifty Thursday top tips save you some cash.
*all prices & deals correct at time of publishing
