Are you one of the millions of people in the UK who find themselves seeking out their money for a week or even more before payday? Ever wonder where your money actually goes, especially as there’s no big, fancy car or expensive holiday booked? Ever wonder why that person on the same salary as you always seem to be that little bit better off and seem to be able to afford the nicer things in life?
One excellent thing to do is to look at some of your regular monthly outgoings and see if:
1. Do you actually need them at all?
2. If you do, is there any way of reducing them?
We take a look at some of these monthly payments where savings can be made.
TV packages
Whether you have Sky TV or Virgin, have you considered Freeview? You may be surprised just how many channels you get on it now. Undoubtedly, there is a great choice of entertainment if you have one of Sky’s or Virgin’s packages. Many people now find that a combination of Freeview and a service such as Netflix, Amazon Prime TV, or Now TV gives them all of the TV entertainment they need. They’re not fixed into a contract either.
Mobile phone contracts
If you’ve not changed your mobile phone contract for a while, then it can be really worthwhile checking out what deals are out there. Don’t forget to look at your actual usage. If you always pay for unlimited texts, for example, you may be wasting money if you only actually use a handful every month.
Mobile phone insurance
One of the most common expenses that many people may not actually need is mobile phone insurance. Whilst it can be a good idea to have your mobile phone insured in case of loss or theft, many people’s phones are already insured under the terms of their home insurance policy. Therefore, if you are paying out for mobile phone insurance, it’s worth checking if you are actually already covered.
PPI
When you take out a loan, you may be offered and agree to payment protection insurance. In some circumstances, this can be a good idea, but it may not be necessary for others. If you have loans it may be worth looking at whether you have payment protection insurance on them and whether you need to be paying it.
Amazon Prime
Many people sign up for a free trial of Amazon, then forget to cancel it and then get hit with an unexpected payment of £79. You can also now pay monthly for Amazon Prime, which means if you forget to cancel after your free month, you could be paying out £7.99 per month. If you use Prime a lot, then this can be a great saving, but if not, it could be spent better elsewhere!
By taking out half an hour or so to check these smaller payments, you could end up saving yourself a significant amount of money over the course of a year.