Saving Money After Christmas

I don't know about you but I have the Christmas blues and so does my bank balance apparently. I love giving and receiving presents but it would be nice if we didn't have to spend money on anything else over the festive period, a nice month off from paying bills.

It has been particularly hard for me this year as we moved into our new house in the middle of December so the bills have already started to pile up.You know those dreaded brown envelopes that come in the post, the ones that want to take all your hard earned money, yep those pesky things.

And I'm sure you've noticed the prices of household utilities seem to go up year on year but I don't feel like I'm getting anything extra for the money that I'm paying.

A survey conducted by Santander recently actually revealed some quite shocking results when it comes to paying household bills. Just take a look at the infographic below :

Those are big numbers right there!!

I can put my hand up and admit I underestimate some of my bills, especially the gas and electric, I mean how are we meant to predict how much we are going to use, especially with our wonderful British weather. 

However I'm honestly shocked by the first finding. I know bills can reveal some scary numbers but not opening them won't help matters, they are still going to need paying, this isn't a case where you can ignore and it will go away!!

So I've been thinking about ways that I can save money this year, not just on bills but in general terms too so I can avoid panicking when I get to the end of the year.

Three ideas that I've come up with so far :

Taking a good look at what I'm paying on bills and putting them into comparison sites so I can see whether I'm getting not only the best price but the best service too.

I also spotted a brilliant way to save money too. It's called the 52 week money challenge. The idea is that each week you put some money aside eg week 1 you put aside £1, week 2 £2 aside etc. You can print of a sheet like the ones I found on google and then you can either follow it week by week or pick a random amount each week, ticking it off as you save. By the end of the year you would have saved £1378.

The third idea is to do with banking. There are certain current accounts that give you the means to save money ie open a savings account or earn interest as you put money into your normal bank account. I spotted the 123 bank account from Santander that can actually utilise your household utility bills to not only give you cash back but also earm you interest at the same time. Sounds like a win win to me, making open those bills seem like a less frightening prospect.

What's the catch?

Well I've done my research and as far as I can see there isn't one. The amount you can earn is dependent on how many household direct debits you have and how much you pay into your bank each month. I have a fairly big family and with 4 children bills are only going to go up so why not get something for my money.The only slight negative I could see was that you had to pay £2 a month for the current account itself but in the grand scheme of things it really isn't a lot.

Now all I need to do is put my ideas into practice!!

I'd love to hear if any of you have some good money/bill saving tips. Feel free to comment below if you'd like to share.

xxxx

This post is in collaboration with Santander