Four Ways To Save Money On Your Monthly Bills Before Christmas
Whether it's because you get to spend some precious time with friends and family
, manage to have something to eat and a drink with people you don't often see or simply because you get a week or two off from work, everyone enjoys Christmas.Yet although it is such a fantastic time of year, it can leave many feeling the pinch, as they splash out on food, drink and presents for their friends and family - and that's without taking into consideration things such as Christmas meals with your work colleagues or buying new outfits to keep you warm over the winter period.
To ensure you don't have to take out a loan, put extra money on your credit card or go further into your overdraft than you would like, take a look through these ways of saving money on four of your monthly bills which could allow you to have over 100 pounds available to spend at Christmas.
1. Combine your TV, broadband and home phone - if you have a cable or satellite TV subscription, broadband and home phone, it's strongly recommended that you combine these packages together.
Separately, you could be paying between 15 and 20 pounds a month each, especially if you haven't changed them in several years.
Combine them all together, however, and you could reduce your monthly payments to around 20 pounds a month.
2. Write a food shopping list - most people around the country, once Christmas Day and Boxing Day is over, have an abundance of food left over. There's no doubt some of it will get eaten, but there's also a good chance a lot of it sits in your fridge or cupboard until it's expiry date has passed.
The easiest way to combat this - and therefore save your money - is to write a shopping list before you go to the supermarket.
You'll no doubt pick up things that aren't on your list whilst you're shopping, but if you've got a list you can work off, you instantly reduce the likelihood of you buying things because you think you need them or buying too much of a certain product.
3. Shop online - Christmas shopping can be great fun, as with all of the festivities in your local town or city, it can make Christmas seem that extra bit more magical.
However, when you take into account car parking costs, eating out during the day and the simple fact that most items are more expensive, even just marginally, in retail stores, it's strongly recommended that you carry out most of your Christmas shopping online.
4. Lower your gas and electricity usage - your utility bills are likely to make up a substantial amount of your monthly outgoings and therefore one of the easiest ways to reduce your monthly bills is to lower how much gas and electricity you use.
This doesn't mean you have to live in a cold, dark house, but instead you just have to be a bit more careful with how and when you use it.
For instance, if you get in from work at 5.30pm but have the heating timed to come on at 4.00pm so that the house is warmed up, you could save an hour's worth of energy - and therefore money - by making the heating come on at 5.00pm, as most houses should be warm enough after just 30 minutes of being heated.
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