The top 10 cutbacks to make this weekend!

Now's the time to spring clean your finances, cancel those unnecessary direct debits, and boost your savings!

When was the last time you checked out how many direct debits and standing orders you have on your current account? Can you even remember what they are all for? And do you even need them?

Direct debits can be far too easy to set up and far too easy to forget to cancel. In fact, according to recent research from MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, two thirds of Brits admit to having memberships and bills they do not make use of. This is costing the average Brit a whopping £210 every single year in uncancelled contracts!

So now that spring is in the air, perhaps it’s time you gave your finances a spring clean and took a closer look at your direct debits, to see whether you can make any cutbacks.

Getting started

To get the ball rolling, it’s worth registering your bank accounts on the lovemoney.com online banking tool. Then, every time you make a purchase – no matter which bank account or credit card you use – the tool will record it for you, and allow you to categorise all your transactions so you know exactly what you're spending your money on every month.

This should help you see whether you’re spending too much in certain areas, and where you need to make some cutbacks.

However, to give you an even bigger helping hand with this, I’ve come up with 10 top cutbacks you could consider:

1. Your supermarket spend

Food is, unfortunately, an essential, so it’s not one you can simply slash from your direct debit list. However, there are ways you can cut back on your spending.

• Adopt our goal: Cut your food bills

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For a start, why not pay a visit to deep discounters, such as Lidl, Netto and Aldi? Because they keep their shop overheads low, they can offer lower food prices than the major supermarkets.

It’s also worth checking out your local market for bargains on fruit and vegetables. And you’ll also save money by eating the seasons, or by simply growing your own!

Shopping online, using mySupermarket.co.uk, can also save the pennies because you’ll be able to track how much your shopping would cost at each of the UK's four major supermarkets (Sainsbury's, Tesco, ASDA and Ocado/Waitrose). And you can then go for the cheapest basket!

Another great way to slash your food bills is to shift down a brand! So instead of opting for the big brand names, go for the supermarket own brands instead. These can taste just as good, if not better, but they will cost less!

• Watch our video: The big food brand taste test

2. Your morning coffee

Get out of the habit of popping into Costa/Starbucks/Caffe Nero for your caffeine fix every morning. It may not seem like a lot each time you buy a coffee, but a £2 coffee each day will work out to be around £46 a month (based on 23 working days).

If you simply can’t live without caffeine, invest in a flask and make your own coffee at home to drink on the way into work.

3. Your fancy lunch

Similarly, stop heading out at lunchtime to buy your Pret/M&S/Boots sandwich. Make your lunch at home instead – you can easily do this for roughly £1 a day. So compared to your £6 bought lunch, that’s a saving of around £115 a month (based on 23 working days).

4. Your mobile phone tariff

Do you really need to spend that much on your mobile phone bill? Do you really use all those minutes and all those texts, or could you swap to a cheaper deal? Is it really that important to have the latest phone model?

As always, it's well worth taking the time to shop around and see whether there's a better/cheaper deal out there for you. And if you’re happy with your current mobile phone and you’re no longer tied into a contract, you could consider a SIM only deal as these offer great value for money. What’s more, you can choose to be on a 30-day rolling contract – so if something better comes along, you can switch at a month’s notice.

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5. Your takeaways

Sometimes there’s nothing better than putting your feet up after a hard day at work, and ordering in a takeaway. However, if you’re doing this on a regular basis, this can work out to be very pricey.

So try to cut back on your takeaways and cook up something in the kitchen instead. It doesn’t have to be a feast fit for a king, but there are plenty of quick and easy meals you can make which won’t cost a fortune.

Check out our Frugal Recipes blog for inspiration.

6. Your socialising

If you’re frequently paying visits to the pub, or you’re often out at the cinema with friends, it’s time to cut back. You can still go out and have fun, but try to vary it with nights in with friends as well.

Staying in can work out far cheaper. You can buy DVDs for just a few pounds these days (check out shopbot find-dvd.co.uk to find the latest bargains), or even signing up to a service such as LoveFilm can be worth it. Packages start from just £3.99 a month – and if you sign up now, you can enjoy a free 14 day trial.

And when it comes to food, why not host a ‘pot luck dinner’ party, where each guest brings a different dish?  You can find more great ideas in Staying in is the new going out.

7.  Your gym membership

Gym memberships are expensive. £50 a month is the equivalent of £600 a year. So are you really getting your money’s worth, or have you simply failed to remember to cancel your membership? If you’re not using the gym on a regular basis, there’s no point in paying for it.

And even if you still want to keep fit, there are plenty of other options where you can get fit for free.

8. Your smoking habit

Not only is smoking bad for you, it can cost you more than £2,000 a year! By quitting smoking, not only will you save money due to no longer buying cigarettes, but you will also save money on your life insurance. Find out more in Quit smoking and save £143,233.

9. Your petrol bills

With the average price of a litre of unleaded petrol costing £1.20 – an all time high – it’s time to cut back. The ideal way to fight back against rising petrol prices is to leave your car at home and start walking or cycling to work.

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However, if this isn’t possible, see if you can lift share. It's also worth signing up to petrolprices.com which will email you a list of the five cheapest filling stations in your area. That way, you’ll be able to get the best price for your fuel.

10. Your TV package

Do you really need that Sky/Virgin package? Or is there a cheaper package you could downgrade to? If you’re not getting the most out of your package, shop around for a better deal or cancel it all together.

And finally...

Not strictly a cutback, but it’s worth seeing whether you can also get better deals on your gas and electricity tariff, as well as your home insurance and car insurance. You may be surprised how a little shopping around can easily save the pennies!

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