Every little helps - reducing direct debits!

[iamdivergent]

Just got BT down by £6 pm and cancelled National Trust as we haven't been in over a year and Amazon Prime.

Already saved us £5.80pw - that's £301 a year! That's crazy, been looking at insurances this morning too and when renewal time comes we will definately be switching as we could be paying £20pcm less for both life and buildings/contents!

Any other tips?

Now I've moved council tax to 12mth rather than 10mth so another £20pm 'saving' but no two month break unfortunately

Check gas and electricity as well as insurances.

Also, use a cashback website like Quidco for making money on products you would have bought anyway, especially insurance and household costs.

Try a water meter - we've gone from £98 (9 months of the year) to £23 a month. You've got 2 years to try it out and it was fitted really quickly.

Also, we pay £24 per month to EE for home phone and unlimited broadband. Cheapest deal I could find.

We're in Scotland so unsure if we could get water meter? We probably use loads so doubt it'd be a good idea for us used to be with EE and hadlots of issues so wouldn't use them again. But thanks for that.

I'll have a look at Quidco- didn't think of thatm

Topcashback is good, Kidstart does CB for Amazon and John Lewis which the others don't.

Our buildings and contents worked out at £100 after CB, I over insured slightly too.

If you enquire about a water meter you usually get a year to change your mind. Waters not expensive in wetter areas compared to the south east of England.

In Scotland water and sewage charges are included in your council tax so you don't need a meter.

How did you get bt down ? Mine has gone up recently, as have my gas and electric.

BT are the most expensive provider. Switching is a hassle ( a day without phone or internet) but can save a lot.

Electricity unit prices are up 30% so your bill will increase.

Thanks special. I wonder if you can negotiate the price with bt so you don't have to change.

You can sometimes - I've done it for relatives. Give them a call on the 'query about bill' option and say the bill is unaffordable. Going rate for unlimited broadband is under £25 inc line rental, add about £8 if you want anytime calls from the landline. The other providers include calls to mobiles in this although BT don't.

Also frequent special offers from sky via moneysaving expert for broadband and line rental, latest one was a tenner a month for a year.

BT service is no better than anyone else and if they are still using the offshore call centres, worse!

Are you paying a fee for your bank account?

Even if you have "benefits" from your bank account like insurances - they generally cost less to buy stand alone than they do as part of your bank account package. Switch to a fee free acount (nationwide flex direct is fee free plus 0% on overdraft transfers)

A lot of things are A LOT cheaper to buy annually than monthly. Car insurance is one, my gym membership costs less as an annual payment than it does for a year of monthly payments (annual works out similar to 10 monthly payments not 12) but of course you need the money there in the first place.

Check that your council band is correct (how to do that on moneysaving expert)

Quidco is good, I forget to use it half the time though. I've made a couple of hundred quid out of it (always use it when I'm ordering flowers for delivery etc)