How to Make the Month More Affordable

If it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get your rent in on time, or you just would like some more disposable income left at the end of a month, perhaps it’s time to start monitoring your bills. You can save money and dramatically reduce your gas, water and electricity bills by putting a simple plan into place.

Being mindful of your electricity, gas and water consumption not only helps you to save significantly on bills, but makes you a greener tenant as well. The following are some tips on how to get the savings ball rolling:

1. Get a roommate

Living in a house with more people means reduced rent and bills all round. For example, you use the same amount of electricity leaving the lights on for one person as you do for two, three or four people. Shacking up with friends is a great way to save money by consuming less gas, electricity and water and by clubbing together to share all of the monthly bills.

2. Invest in a lagging jacket

By covering your hot water tank and insulating the surrounding pipes with a lagging jacket, you will immediately start saving on heating bills, as the covering helps to keep in the existing heat. According to experts, the most effective pipes to keep insulated are the ones between the boiler and the hot water cylinder as this is where most of the heat is lost, resulting in additional electricity.

3. Standby

Another simple fact worth remembering is not to keep appliances on standby when they are not in use. Appliances on standby often don’t use significantly smaller amounts of electricity when they are on standby compared to when they are in full use. It just makes better sense to switch them off altogether. The same goes for devices that are left charging. If a device has been charged, switch the charger off at the plug point, you are simply wasting electricity by leaving a charger plugged in. Along the same line of though is shutting down your desktop if it isn’t in use.

4. Put your thermostat on a timer

You can save significant amounts of gas and electricity by putting your thermostat on a timer. Most people are away from their homes during the day and have little need for hot water during these times. By setting your thermostat on a timer during the week you can have hot water in the mornings before work and again in the evenings when you come home, as well as avoiding unnecessary heating costs during the daytime when nobody is home.

If you are away for the weekend or away on holiday, you can set the timer to ensure the thermostat is off altogether whilst you are away.

5. Cold Wash

Being smart about laundry is another great way to reduce electricity bills. Generally speaking, anything that heats up will use larger amounts of electricity or gas. By washing your clothes on a cold cycle, you will make some significant savings, every time you do laundry.

6. Energy saving light bulbs

This is an old tip which most people know about but conveniently forget to implement. Don’t underestimate the value of this little trick, it can save you up to £80.00 over the lifetime of a bulb, which really does all add up in the end.

So those are just a few of the major ways you can start making some steps to saving on your bills and helping yourself to free up some additional funds.

Hopefully some greener living can help contribute to paying the rent a little easier every month. However, if you still find yourself in a bit of a tight spot, you could always opt for a quick cash loan to help you through until your next pay day.