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How to avoid the Budget blues

How to avoid the Budget blues

Are you worried about what impact the budget will have on your households finances? This video runs through the savings you can make in your personal finances that could free up some much needed cash...

Felicity Hannah: Are you relieved the Budget wasn’t worse or worried about what it’s done to your spending power? Whatever you think about George Osborne’s cuts, it makes sense to cut back on your household bills where you can.

We looked at a number of different household expenses and worked out that the average home could save an extra £2,400 by switching to the best deals on all their bills.

That’s a decent-sized cushion for any household. So here are the five top ways to save so that you can beat the Budget…

Mortgage

For most people, the mortgage is the most important outgoing… and also the heftiest. That makes it really important to be sure you’re on the best deal.

The average SVR is 4.74% just now. If you moved a moved a £150,000 mortgage from that rate to the current market-leading two year fix at 2.79%, you’d save £1,030 a year, even with the application fee.

It can be hard to decide if you need a fixed or variable rate, or whether you’re better off remaining on your lenders’ standard variable rate, so do seek help from a qualified mortgage adviser if you’re not sure.

Car insurance

I know we go on about car insurance a lot at moneysupermarket.com, but it really is one of the easiest ways to save money compared to your renewal offer.

By comparing a number of different insurers through moneysupermarket.com, you’ll save an average of £282 and it can take just three minutes to get a list of quotes.

With petrol costs through the roof, that’s time well spent!

Home insurance

The same can be said for home insurance. If you let your policy automatically renew, you’ll never know if you could have found a better deal elsewhere.

When your renewal hits the doormat, compare the price against other insurers online and you could save an average of £124.

Just don’t skimp on the cover you need to bring the cost down – that’s a false economy.

Energy

Switching energy providers is much simpler than many people think, so why pay more than you need to? The gas and electricity is exactly the same, no matter what you pay.

By switching to the cheapest online tariff, the average dual fuel customer can save more than £213 a year.

The money is definitely better in your pocket than theirs.

Savings

Savers probably feel like tearing out their hair at high inflation and low base rate. But if you’re one of them – could you do more to help yourself?

The average easy access account pays just 0.76%. Move to one of the market-leading accounts paying over 3.00%, and you could earn over £225 in extra interest on a deposit of £10k.

And if you follow the other tips we’ve outlined here, you could even have a little more to add to your pot.