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Dont buy expensive coffees from the likes of Starbucks on the way to work
If you can wait till you get to work to grab that first coffee in the morning, you will find it much cheaper or for most people free. This will save you at least £2.50 per day, not to mention the time you spend queing up to get that expensive coffee. If you didnt buy that coffee every morning (what about the one you buy at Lunch time!!) you would save:-
Monthly saving = 20 days at work@£2.50 per day Total Saving £50 per month

Take your own Lunch to work
Most of us are lazy and buy sandwiches for lunch. Now if you look at what you are paying for these overpriced sandwhiches I will bet you that it is at between £2-£4 per day add in that little snack bar or bag of crisps to go with it and thats another pound gone.
Monthly Savings = 20 days at work@£3.50 per day Total saving £70 per month

Do you buy a newspaper everyday?
If you bought a newspaper everyday, thats between 50p and 80p a day. How many times have you bought a paper and either just scanned the headlines or not even read it!!. I used to buy the Guardian everyday and found the only reason I bought it was because I liked the crossword, thats 80p a day for the crossword. Why not get the free papers such as the Metro or just read the news on the Internet in your Lunch break.
Monthly saving = 20 days at work @50p per day Total saving £10 per month

Do you go to the Car Wash?
I used to take my car every sunday to the car wash. I worked out this was costing me about £4 - £6 depending on weather I went for the basic was or the super duper deluxe wash shampoo and dry. Then once a month I went for a full valet costing me another £10. Buy washing my car myself ( and its more fun with the help of the kids!!) I saved quite a lot of money. It only needs a bucket some soapy water and a bit of elbow grease and the job is done for free. I am also getting a bit more exercise to boot.
Monthly saving = Once a week @£5 total monthly saving £20

Dont buy Branded goods at the Supermarket when you go shopping.
We have all been brainwashed into Brand Power. Take Heinz Beens for example. We all swear that they are the best beens you can get but when people blind taste them against cheaper alternatives most people cant tell the difference. Something else that most people dont know is that factories that produce these branded goods also produce the cheaper non branded alternatives. Many moons ago I worked for a large multi national company and was involed in production line automation. I used to see different packaging used for exactly the same product. So you would have one packaging line for Marks and Spencers and another packaging line being used for a much cheaper non branded version. Same product just a different box! By changing your shopping habits you can save a fortune and still use quality products. By doing this you can reduce your weekly shopping bill by 20-30%, this is a massive saving on anybodys bill. I have noticed that the discount type stores such as Aldi and Lidel are booming at the moment and other retailers are seeing reductions in turnover. This is because people are looking at saving money and the Weekly shopping Bill is one of the families biggest commitments. Another tip is shop online, why, because you will find that you end up spending less even with the delivery charge. We shop at Tescos and my wife has started shopping on line. She has set up a weekly shopping list for all the essentials such as Toilet paper, bread, milk etc and then shops to a menu so she knows what we needs. This has vastly reduced the amount of food we throw away and we dont get sucked in with all the impulse buys that we used to spend on. If you have children you will know that you end up buying stuff because of pester power, this has now gone and our weekly shopping bill is much lower.
Monthly saving (conservative) £40 per month

So what could you save per month?
Coffee saving   = £50
Lunch Saving    = £70
Newspapers      = £10
Car washes      = £20
Weekly Shopping = £40
Total possible savings £190 per month

Now just think what you could do with £190 per month, pay off your mortgage quicker, save it, pay off some credit cards the list is endless.

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Top Tips on on how to change your Gas and Electricity supplier.

Follow these top tips to give you confidence to switch your gas and electricity supplier.
Before you begin, get together your last few energy bills, add up the amount you have spent or work out how many units you have used. If you don’t have these and you pay by direct debit work out your monthly payments and hence your yearly payments.

Tip 1 - make sure you look at summer and winter bills as they will be different.This will give you a balanced view of your yearly spend spread out over different seasons.

Tip 2 - If you do pay by monthly direct debit then make sure when you look at the pricing you tick the box saying you pay by direct debit as you will get even bigger savings by paying by direct debit.

Tip 3-  when looking at different suppliers you are obviously looking for a supplier with lower costs and the biggest savings but also look at the customer services as some Uk suppliers have much better customer service ratings than others, this may have an effect on who you choose as lousy customer services may be a problem if something goes wrong. You can look at these ratings at www.energywatch.org.uk
 
Tip 4- Are you looking for a Green energy product. Most suppliers have a green energy option. Some suppliers offer this at no extra cost and some charge a little extra. By taking the green option you can reduce your carbon footprint and help protect the environment.

Tip 5 - Consider an online managed account. Most of the UK suppliers have online managed accounts. This means you can submit meter readings online, get paperless billing and contact customer services via the internet. This again saves paperwork and you are in control of your meter readings.

Tip 6 - Try to steer clear of Pre payment meters. This is by far the most expensive way to pay for your energy and if you want to change the new supplier may want to change your meter. As said before the cheapest way to pay is by direct debit.

 
Tip 6 - When changing supplier be aware that you have a statutory cooling off period which is 7 days from the date of your application.If you are going to change supplier and you are going to pay by direct debit you will need your bank account details handy.

Tip 7 - when you have completed your registartion for your new supplier take meter readings so you can give these to your new supplier, make sure you pay any outstanding bills to your old supplier. If you have overpaid your current supplier you will get this money back.If you don’t clear any outstanding bills your new supplier will not be able to make the transfer.

Tip 8 - Always use more than one comparison site. They may have different deals on offer on each site. Having looked at all the sites out there the two reccomended are shown below as they cover 90% of the market.

Tip 9 - Ignore the win back teams who may call you if you switch unless they can beat the new supplier you have chosen ( sometimes it does happen). It does gaul me that if you switch supplier and a win back team offer you a better deal from your current supplier why were they not offering you the same deal before. Loyalty in this market counts for nothing as all the energy companies will never tell existing customers about any special deals for new customers.

Take a look at these two comparison sites and see if you can save money on your gas and electricity Bills.

Comparison site 1. This is Uswitch.com you will have seen them adverting heavily on the TV. They specilise in Gas ann Electricty and there system is very easy to use. They cover virtually all the suppliers out there depending on your postcode.

Comparison site 2 This is Moneysupermarket.com. Most people have seen them on TV and they are a well respected comparison site that although they do not specilise in the energy market they sometimes come up with better deals than Uswitch.

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