Cash is going to be tight for a some time, so belt tightening is in order. Here are some ideas:
- Don’t do online shopping-cos-I’m-bored. If you must go on Amazon’s website, explore the free Kindle books
- Claim refunds on travel season tickets and on Pay-delays you never got around to
- Review all direct debits, standing orders and other regular payments. Cancel the ones you don’t need or cannot access, unless they are with an organisation you want to continue to support (charities for example)
Things that might warrant the chop include gym memberships, streaming service subscriptions, appliance and other peripheral insurances (eg travel), mobile phone contracts (switch to PAYG). If out of contract, call the Sky cancellations department and see if you can get a better deal out of them - Now might be the time to look if you can get a better energy deal
- and cheaper insurances (note I am not recommending any platform for these to try and sneak an affiliate fee from you)
- If you won’t be driving a car for a whole calendar month or two, complete a SORN for a Road Fund License rebate
- If you have a good relationship with your bank, treasure it. If not, some banks pay a reward for switching to them – google is your friend
- Order online and plant some seeds of parsley, sage, rosemary, rocket or whatever you fancy, rather than buying pots and jars from the supermarket. Taste will be better too.
On the other side of the ledger, you may finally have time to sell stuff you don’t use and convert it to cash. Facebook ads, unlike eBay are free and can be effective. There are websites that specialise in buying those pensioned-off mobile phones. Bear in mind though, that we are in a ‘buyers-market’.
The end of the tax year is looming (5th April). If you have an accountant do your tax return for you, how about collating everything they need now, rather than on January 30th? it has to be done at some point and, don’t tell them I said so, but you’ll almost certainly get a fee discount.