Recent Ways You’ve Reduced Your Outgoings

[RabbitsRock]

DH has swapped our Broadband & TV package to another provider & we’re paying less than half what we were previously. BT was so expensive! Now with Vodaphone & not only is it cheaper but the quality is better too.
Foodwise, after Christmas I used up a lot of stuff in the freezer & now I try really hard to stick to a shopping list. Also avoid top up shops if at all possible as sometimes I only need one or two items but end up spending £40 say. I’ve started to buy 2 loaves & freeze one, for example. No idea why I never did this before! Also as a family we were shocking for wasting food so we’re working hard to avoid that.

Buy less branded food.
Meal plan and then shop online for what I need.
Haggle with providers whenever anything comes up for renewal (broadband, insurance etc)
Very rarely eat out
Changed my car for something smaller
Cancelled any TV streaming services I wasn't really issuing

DH checks the fuel prices often and moves to a cheaper tariff.
The biggest thing was downsizing our house, which means that car and house insurance and council tax are cheaper.
Changed the car to a cheaper one.

Move house from the countryside to somewhere less rural.
I know that sounds dramatic but we lived rurally so weren’t on mains for gas, also no shops etc so always in the car. By moving we’ve halved our gas/electric bills and use the car much less. Also by moving from that very desirable village we’ve also managed to get a bigger house for less money, so were able to pay off our mortgage, which has been a massive savings. We don’t regret it at all.

Yes I forgot to mention by moving that our car and house insurance and less. I was not expecting that!

When its just me in the house I frequently have 'no spend' weeks where I live on whats in the cupboards. Makes for very boring and repetitive meals but as I struggle with control and frequently spend £10+ on chocolate, biscuits and other crap I don't need every time I shop, removing the action of going into the shop helps me.

I shopped around for car and house insurance last year but whilst I got the price down considerably, I neglected to appreciate the added flexibility that paying more got me. Things like not being able to add someone on to the car insurance for only a month, vastly increased excess on the home insurance for water damage.

We've recently swapped from a landline we were paying for separately, to getting the phone with the internet (VOIP) - no loss of quality and a massive saving.