5 Ways To Manage Your Household Bills Effectively

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Published on Friday, 14 June 2019 09:58

Last Updated on 14 June 2019

Monica Costa

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If you feel that every month the wages go in and no matter what then you seem to be back to zero at the end of the month then you’re not alone, many of us struggle with the budget. But what you really need to do to get on top of it is properly analyse where you are going wrong with your financial life.

Make A Monthly Income & Outgoings Spreadsheet

This may be a time-consuming task that you don’t really see where you will find the time to complete. But that in itself might be an indication of where things are going a little bit wrong, lacking time leads to convenience and impulse purchases a lot of the time. But here is where we start correcting any errant behaviour, list absolutely every purchase including cash and certainly any payments on credit cards (this is the first thing to cut down).

Identify Non-Essential Spending

Once you have made a spreadsheet have a look at it and identify any non-essential spending. Then look to see if any of this non-essential spending is actually useless, look for things such as gym memberships or other subscriptions that are not utilised and be sure to cancel all of these. It is well known that many companies rely on this forgetting of direct debits out of your bank account to make money without even doing anything at all.

Look At Recurring Bills & Switch

There are certain things such as insurance, domestic bills and rent/mortgage that cannot be cut but there are ways of reducing them. You could reduce energy use with better heating systems, more insulation and monitoring your usage. You can also compare energy prices and get on a better tariff to save some more money.

Identify Savings On Your Grocery Shopping

Food is for ever getting more expensive and can be a huge dent in the family budget and although we all need to eat, of course, but there are ways of saving money on the weekly grocery shop. First thing to do is to check if you are buying the most expensive brands of everything, then why not try a cheaper alternative or a supermarket own brand and see if you can taste the difference? If not then stick with the switch. You should also cut down on ready meals and convenience foods if possible as cooking from scratch is much cheaper not to mention much healthier as well as they contain so much salt, fat and sugar.

Consider Any Changes To Your Social Habits

What are your social habits? Are they expensive and, if so, do they need to be? Have a good look at what you do and consider if there are any cheap or free alternatives. In good weather then it always possible to visit nature reserves or national parks with the family and walk or cycle through some lovely scenery at no financial cost. If you are looking at nights out why not consider taking the car and not drinking alcohol which is often by far the biggest expense on a night out.