Hi guys! I wanted to start August off with an informative and also inspirational (hopefully…) post! If you’re trying to sort out your finances, make extra money, pay off debt or just review your budget then it’s a good idea to periodically assess your income and outgoings. And although it’s not the most exciting task, it’s pretty exciting when it all pays off and you can see that money in your bank account! I’m going to share with you how I saved over £650 in July!
I’m constantly on the lookout for ways to make
How I saved an extra £650 in 1 month:
1. Shopped around for Home Insurance
We received the auto-renewal quote from our current provider and as usual, I expected this to be a bit higher than we paid previously as we’re no longer shiny new customers waiting to be lured in by the attractive low cost and ‘new customer’ discount. I kid you not, the renewal cost we were quoted had sky-rocketed to over £400 more than it had cost us the previous year.
The lesson to be learned? Never, ever auto renew!! Even if you only have a spare 15 minutes in your day (come on, I’m sure you can spare more than that!) run your details through a comparison site; I can pretty much guarantee you that you WILL beat that renewal quote!
If you’ve never done this before, don’t worry as it’s ridiculously easy. I owe all of my price comparison skills to the great Martin Lewis (aka. f
- Start with Money Super Market
- Then search Confused.com
- Then
try Compare the Market - Followed by GoCompare
The above is a tiny snippet of the full article, which you can check out here, where he goes into much more detail about getting the best quotes and how to save money on home insurance.
Total Quoted: £550
Amount Paid after comparison: £148.37
Total Saving: £401.63
2. Cashback for Home Insurance Renewal
Once I’d finished
I’ve used Top Cashback for years, and so far have racked up a total of £1661.10. So if you shop online and aren’t claiming cashback, then you’re seriously missing out
If you sign up using my referral link then you’ll get a £5 Tesco e-gift card once you’ve earned £10 in cashback and I’ll get a bonus as well. Sharing is caring, right..?
Total Earned: £24
3. Switched Bank Accounts
I’ve had the same current account for a few years now, so did a bit of research on
I switched from my old account to the HSBC Advance account using the Current Account Switch Service (CASS). They were offering a £175 reward to switch to them, so after reading all of the details of the account and a few reviews on HSBC, I decided to go for it.
The switch went seamlessly, and I’m currently happy with the Online Banking services as well as the Mobile Banking App.
The deal was really too good to miss, and I’m glad I switched when I did as it looks like that offer is no longer available but there are other banks offering perks as well.
If you’ve not heard of the Current Account Switching Service before, it’s basically a scheme which over 40 providers have signed up to which guarantees an account to be switched within 7 days. This means all of your direct debits and standing orders will be transferred to your new account as well as any payments which are due to go in to your account, like your wages.
You’re also covered for 3 years so any payments which happen to go to your old account will automatically be transferred to your new one.
Plus, it’s free money! What’s not to like?
Total Earned: £175
4. Switched Energy Supplier
Something happened here, which has never happened to me before… I was at home, minding my own business and enjoying some free time while my son had a nap when there was a knock at the door.
Usually, I’m one of those people who
Not surprisingly, there was a salesperson at the door. A young, well
She was from Octopus Energy, and she asked me a few quick questions about my current energy supplier, typed a few figures (my usage details from my existing supply’s latest bill) into her iPad and showed me that I could in fact save money and be paying a lot less per month.
Having never heard of the company before, after she left I did a bit more research and decided that I liked what they had to offer.
Octopus Energy
Their contracts don’t tie you in so you can leave anytime you like without penalty, and they’ve got a 5-star rating on Trust Pilot. They’re really eco-friendly, offering 100% green electricity as standard on all tariffs (without extra costs, like some other suppliers). They also offer the option to carbon-offset the gas that you use, if you’re looking to lower your environmental impact.
If you’re thinking of switching, you should definitely consider this company. If you use this link, you can get £50 credit to your account and I’ll get a bonus as well.
Existing Supplier: £125 per month
Octopus Energy: £79 per month
Total Saved: £46 per month
5. Cancelled a Subscription
I’ve been loyal to Spotify for a very long time, but I’ve found that recently I’d not been using it as much as I used to.
This is because I’ve found other free apps, and my listening habits have changed a lot over the last 6 months. If
One good thing about Spotify is, it’s really easy to cancel or pause your subscription. They don’t make you jump through hoops, and it can all be easily done online once you’re logged into your account. The other great thing about Spotify is, it’s also super easy to reinstate your membership. Just log back into your account, and you can reactivate your account instantly.
So what other apps have I been using for entertainment?
During the day, I’ve been mainly using the free BBC Sounds app. It’s free to download, and you then have access to all the BBC radio stations, as well as hundreds of podcasts and countless DJ playlists. It’s really easy to navigate, and is a great option for free streaming.
As well as this, I’ve started to tune in to YouTube a lot more! There’s so much free content on there, and I like having it on at home for background noise while I’m busy or linking it to our Smart TV if there’s something I actually want to watch.
YouTube is great if there are things that you want to learn about, such as building a brand or setting up your own blog! I’ve got many YouTubers to thank for helping me to get this far, and I plan on sharing those with you all very soon.
Monthly saving: £ 9.99
GRAND TOTAL FOR JULY: £656.62
So now that you’ve reached the end, I hope you feel a little bit inspired to review your own finances if you haven’t done it in a while. It’s worth it, and it’ll help you to save and make extra money
Sometimes people think this sort of thing is a massive effort, but really this is stuff that I do while I’ve got my feet up with a gin in the evening and Netflix on in the background.
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