December and January are always expensive months, so if you’re a tenant in Cheltenham who’s trying to save money, we have some great tips to help you to reduce your outgoings.
Saving money on heating
Your heating is one of your biggest outgoings, but it’s quite easy to lower it a little:
- Turn off your heating 15-20 minutes before you go to bed
- Move any furniture away from radiators to make sure the heat doesn’t just go into the fabric
- Lower your thermostat by just one degree as you won’t notice it and it could save you up to 10%
- Put up some heavy curtains around doors and windows to keep the heat in and prevent draughts
Your appliances can save you money too
White goods like fridges, freezers, dishwashers and driers can use up a lot of energy, so:
- Leave food to cool to room temperature before putting it in the fridge or freezer
- Make sure your washing machine and dishwasher have full loads before running them
- Use low temperatures or eco settings whenever you can because they’re much less expensive
Spend less on groceries
We don’t mean that you should exist on beans on toast until March! By shopping a bit more smartly you can reduce your food budget quite a bit:
- Make your meals with staples that you already have in stock – rice, pasta, tinned tomatoes, lentils – so that you only need to buy the additions to make them more interesting
- Avoid takeaways if you can and cook from scratch – there are so many recipe sites out there so give them a go
- Bulk cook and freeze leftover or store them at the back of the fridge for later in the week – batch cooking also saves energy as you’re only cooking once for two or three meals
- Reduce your meat intake – lentils and beans are cheaper than meat and work really well in curries; you can also use them to bulk out beef mince in cottage pies
- Meal planning is a great money saver – if you buy some mince, use half in that cottage pie and save some for a Bolognese later in the week
- Go hunting for yellow stickers – you never know what you’ll find – and if you find reduced meat or fish, cook it or put it in the freezer immediately
Think twice before spending
Although Cheltenham is known for its variety of independent shops, you don’t have to hit them up just because:
- Don’t splurge on payday because you’ll find the month suddenly and mysteriously becomes a few days too long
- Start thinking about ways to get rid of that credit card or overdraft because you’re spending money on interest
- Designate one day a week as a no-spend day and put the saved money towards a house deposit or towards paying down your card or overdraft
