Tips to reduce household bills?

[LastTwoBraincellsFightingFor3rdPlace]

I’ve just been reviewing my household bills and I’d greatly appreciate any tips to reduce our household bills.

We had new loft insulation put in last month for free through the Great British Insulation Scheme, so I’m sure that will help a lot.

Our electric and gas costs £116 per month and we pay £76 per month for water.

Thanks in advance.

more detail needed. Number of people, ages, lifestyle, rough idea of income, Other expenses - etc,etc,etc

As above need to know more details.
Are you on a water meter?
Do you have any disability that means you need more water?
Are you on means tested benefits/low income? Because this may mean your entitled to capped water bill and warm home grant for electricity/gas.

Other ideas reduce water by timing showers, only using washing machine when full.
Reduce temperature of boiler.
Reduce temperature of washing machine.
Don't use the tumble dryer.

So sorry!

We’re a two adult household and we live in a two-bed property. I’m in my late 20s and my partner is in early 30s.

My partner works full time and I am currently on disability benefits (ESA - LCWRA). Our combined income is around £1,900.

Yes, we’re on a water meter

My partner just told me that he hasn’t taken a water reading since we had our dishwasher (around a year ago). Needless to say, we’re taking a reading now…

We had new loft insulation put in last month for free through the Great British Insulation Scheme, so I’m sure that will help a lot.

Thank you for mentioning that as the house I will be buying doesn't have any.

You’re welcome! We had to provide our EPC rating and council tax band. It took a while for us to be allocated a provider, but it was certainly worth the wait. They’ll provide extractor fans too, if your house hasn’t already got them. Trickle vents too.

I bought a roll of metallic polystyrene sheeting, to cut to size and stick to the walls behind each radiator. It reflects heat back into the room.

I checked how much hot water we were actually using. In the winter, our water heating needs to be on for 20 mins in the morning to give two generous hot showers. In the summer, when the ambient temperature is higher, it only needs to be on for 10 mins. That cut my gas bill by £8 a month.

If you are in an old house with open flues, use chimney balloons to reduce draughts.

Thermal linings for curtains and blinds are useful, and quite easy to fit. If you have a north facing sitting room, interlined curtains are great for keeping heat in but are expensive if you can't make them yourself.

Weird one, but if you have those bathroom taps that are a single lever that you turn one way for hot and one way for cold, ensure they are always turned to cold. Otherwise, every time you quickly wash your hands, you’re firing up your boiler but unless you’re actually waiting for the hot to feed through, it’s completely wasted. With a family of 5 washing hands every time they use the toilet, we could easily be firing up the boiler 30+ times a day. (It’s just as effective washing hands in cold water as long as you wash properly using soap)

my other tip is if you’re drying indoors, always do a 2nd spin only cycle on the machine, it cuts drying time in half.

Submit regular readings if you don't have smart meters then you'll see what you're actually using rather than what the utility companies forecast you're using, which is often way more than you actually are.
Shop around for better rates with a different company.
Shorter showers and less baths.
Make sure the washing machine is full before doing a load.
Wash up only when you've got a decent sink full.
Don't leave the tap running while you're cleaning teeth.
Make sure the dishwasher is full before running it.
Turn your heating down a degree or two, or reduce the time it's on for.
Turn off appliances at the wall so they're not on standby.
Don't tumble dry.
Boil water in the kettle rather than from cold in a pan when you need it for pasta etc, it's so much quicker and no doubt cheaper.
Use an airfryer rather than the oven.

£76 for water for 2 people in a 2 bed property sounds insanely high to me - we pay half that amount, 2 people in a 4 bed property, dishwasher daily, washing machine daily, 2+ showers a day etc.

It’s criminal, isn’t it? I think it may be our fault though because we haven’t taken a water meter reading in quite a long time. We’ll be taking a reading later on today, though

These are perfect, thank you.

We have been thinking about getting an airfryer, do they really pay for themselves in terms of reducing energy costs?

To be honest, I've not done a controlled test to compare the oven against the airfryer but i would assume it's more energy efficient - things cook quicker on a lower temperature and it doesn't need to pre-heat to get to temperature for as long as the oven does.

How much are you spending on food/drink each week?

I always remember some advice on the moneysaving expert forum about the level of brand you buy. Basically, whatever level you’re on (assuming that the start point isn’t already a supermarket’s basics range!), drop down to the next level. e.g. if you’re buying Tesco Finest, drop down to Tesco’s standard range.

Regardless of level, each drop down will save you around 30%.

And if you’re still buying brands, have a look at own brand equivalents. They’re generally just as good - sometimes even better than the actual brand, as well as a lot cheaper.

Some brands are insanely expensive, and you’re clearly just paying for the brand name. A tin of Heinz baked beans, in Tesco, will cost you £1.30 whereas their own brand is just 43p. That drops to 28p if you buy their budget ‘Stockwell’ brand.

If you have one near you, switch to Aldi and/or Lidl for your shopping.

I would do an assessment of ALL of your outgoing and incomings. For instance, I always take a flask of tea to the university I work at rather than buying there. Even just a £3 saving a day adds up to £480 a year saved. Check your mobile phone contract, I was always going over the data limit and paying for extra bundles, when I was actually out of contract and am now on a £9.99 a month with loads of free data, which will save me about £100 a year, price check on AA/RAC renewal when it comes up, we saved £40 on that. Etc.

you might be entitled to a social tariff for broadband if you have it, if not a SIM only deal with loads of Data and phonecalls should be under £12 max ( if you need loads of data if you don't have home broadband )

most people when they drop a brand are happy with 70-80% of the non brand items, there are a few things I don't like generic but they will be different for everyone

In some cases - and I know this because I used to work in marketing - the own brand is actually better quality than the brand. So it’s always worth at least trying them. Fair enough if you don’t like them, but definitely worth a go!