Make sure you have the best deal available to you….
With the ever rising cost of gas and electricity, we should all be making sure that we’re not only getting the best deals available to us but also that we’re only using what we need to use and making the best of what we do use.
It sounds like a lot of work but it’s really not and to be fair, you’re probably already doing a lot of it and the Summer is a great time to make sure that you’re doing as much as you can so you’re ready for when the cold weather kicks in.
The first step is to make sure you’re paying as little as possible for the energy that you do use. The best way to do this is by visiting a comparison website to make sure that you have the best deal possible for your gas prices and electricity prices. Have your most recent bills at hand if possible as this will make the results more accurate. Once the comparison website tells you what the best deal for you is, clear your cookies and then go to a cashback website like Quidco to see if you can get cashback if you switch to the company offering the best deal. If they do and you decide to switch, click through from the cashback site so you not only get the better deal, you also get cashback for changing.
In case you didn’t already know, you’ll usually find that the best deals involve taking both gas and electricity from the same company and there’s often discounts available if you pay by Direct Debit or manage your account online so make sure that you’re getting as much off your bill as possible.
When you’ve chosen the best deal, it’s actually really easy to switch suppliers – I put off doing this for ages as I didn’t think the savings I’d make would be worth the hassle but it was loads easier than I thought it would be and the savings I made were pretty substantial.
And, even if you changed suppliers in the past, it’s still worth regularly checking in case there are better deals available to you now.
Make the most of what energy you do use….
Even when you are certain that you have the best deal, you can still save even more money by being energy efficient and you’ll find that even little changes can quickly add up to big savings. For example:
- Kettle: only boil as much water as you need: this can save up to £7 a year.
- Washing Machine: if you wash at 30 degrees you will use 40% less energy per cycle and a lot of washing powders these days are designed with this temperature in mind.
- Tumble Driers – Tumble dryers, especially older models can eat money and can cost over £100 a year to run. Dry your washing outside wherever possible to save money – I have an airer that I dry my clothes on inside the house when it’s not possible to dry outside as we got rid of our tumble drier when we moved house to save money.
- Chargers: Unplug your chargers when you’re not using them – if they’re plugged in and switched on then they’re using power whether they’re attached to a device or not.
- Energy saving light-bulbs: use 80% less energy and last up to 10 times longer, I have been told that they can save £6.00 a year each so a house with 10 bulbs will save £60 a year. Why not buy one bulb a week when you do your shopping?
- Cooking: Try not to use the oven to only cook one thing, cook double portions and freeze one for next time or even better, use your slow cooker which is really cheap to run.
- Switch off appliances: leaving them on standby costs you around £37 a year; also remember to unplug chargers when they are not in use.
- Turn down your thermostat: lowering the temperature by just one degree will save around £65 a year.
- Fit a cylinder jacket: a cheap, easily installed jacket on your hot water cylinder will cut heat loss by up to 75% and save you £10 year.
- Insulate your loft: 270mm of insulation could save you £205 a year.
So there are loads of ways to reduce your energy bills – all you need to do is put them into practice and you’ll start saving.
