Money challenge: pocket more than £16,000 this year in 17 simple steps
Challenge accepted
Take our money challenge and see how much you could pocket in the next year.
We've calculated that someone who completes all these steps will pocket more than £16,000 in a year!
And even if you've made a few of them already you could still be thousands of pounds better off.
So, what are you waiting for?
1. Switch to a SIM-only deal – pocket £335 a year
Once you reach the end of your mobile phone contract, you will have paid off the cost of your handset.
But some mobile phone users may be paying the same as when they first signed up. According to uSwitch, switching from a bundled contract to a SIM-only deal could save you around £335 a year.
You can compare mobile deals with Carphone Warehouse today.
2. Ditch your broadband deal – pocket £162 a year
Most broadband contracts last 12-18 months so if you’ve not switched in the past year, you could be paying more than you need to.
Price comparison site uSwitch estimates the average household pays £162 more a year when they fail to switch to a new contract when their current broadband deal ended.
Find a new broadband deal today using comparison websites like Broadband Genie and Compare the Market.
3. Try streaming TV – pocket £474 a year
On average, we spend £528 a year on paid TV subscriptions that we barely use or only have for some channels.
You can save by switching to a streaming service like Now TV, which allows you to watch Sky TV, movies and sports channels without a contract.
Right now for example, the entertainment pass costs £4.99 a month for the first six months, and then £9.99 a month, so for a year you'll pay £89.88, which means you could save £474 compared to a traditional subscription.
4. Shift debt onto a 0% card – pocket £540 a year
The Money Charity estimates the average credit card debt per UK household is £2,409.
Assuming the balance attracts the average credit card interest rate of 23.8% APR, you're going to be charged around £45 a month in interest, or £540 a year, if you're only making minimum payments.
You can therefore make big savings by shifting debt onto a fee-free 0% balance transfer credit card.
You can view our roundup of the best fee-free 0% cards here, while the longest (fee-charging) 0% cards can be found here.
5. Earn while you shop – pocket up to £345 a year
Cashback websites like TopCashback and Quidco allow you to earn money on purchases when you shop via tracked links.
Quidco claims the average annual cashback per member is £300, while TopCashback says members typically make £345 a year.
6. Use family subscriptions – pocket: £311.64 a year
Save on individual monthly subscription fees by switching to a family package.
Spotify Premium, for example, costs £10.99 a month, but with Spotify Premium for Family up to six people at the same address can share for £17.99 a month.
Assuming you have four separate accounts, you'd save £311.64 a year.
7. Take in a lodger – pocket £7,500 a year
Thanks to the Government’s Rent a Room scheme you can currently earn up to £7,500 in rental income free of tax if you have a spare room and take in a lodger.
That means a lodger paying up to £625 a month won’t cost you a penny in tax!
8. Stop buying lunch and coffee at work – pocket £1,456 a year
It’s an age-old trick that can work wonders for your finances.
If you spend £2 a day on coffee and £5 a day on lunch, you could be wasting £35 a week or £1,820 a year.
Bringing in your own from home could mean you spend £7 a week instead, taking your costs to £364 over a year and saving you just under £1,500.
9. Rent out your parking space - pocket £1,560 a year
If you have a driveway outside your home that you don’t always use, you could rent it out through a site like JustPark.
If you charged just £6 a day, five times a week, for a year you would make £1,560.
10. Switch your mortgage – pocket £2,148 a year
Mortgage rates are undoubtedly higher than they've been in previous years, but that doesn't mean you won't save by switching to a best buy deal – especially if you've recently reverted to your lender's Standard Variable Rate (SVR).
On a £150,000 repayment mortgage lasting 25 years, a deal charging 6.5% would cost £1,013 a month.
Remortgaging to a 4.5% rate would reduce that to £834 – saving you £179 a month or £2,148 in a year. Just watch out for Early Repayment Charges and high product fees when weighing up how much you could save.
11. Stop hoarding gadgets - pocket up to £350
Got an old mobile or gadget that you don’t use? Don’t leave it gathering dust, flog it online!
You can sell on eBay, or use a recycling site and see who will pay you the most.
One of the best prices for an old iPhone 13 128GB handset we found was £246 from MusicMagpie and on eBay there are many on sale for around £350.
12. Quit auto-renewing car insurance – pocket up to £301 a year
A great way to save money is to make sure you don’t fall into the trap of auto-renewing on things like car insurance.
Price comparison site MoneySuperMarket recommends that you don’t auto-renew your car insurance, estimating that you could save up to £301 by shopping around for the best quote.
See if you can get cheaper car insurance at MoneySuperMarket.
13. Switch your current account – pocket up to £200 a year
Take advantage of the cash bribes banks are pushing to encourage people to switch current accounts.
The most generous includes one from Nationwide, which offers £200 to switch.
You can find out more about the best bank switching incentives on offer here.
14. Detox ‘zombie’ subscriptions - pocket £468 a year
People are spending an average of £39 a month on subscriptions they don’t use or need, according to research by NatWest.
Unwanted regular payments included things like magazine subscriptions, gym memberships, apps, wine club membership and charity donations. Over a year, these ‘zombie payments’ could be costing you £468 so it could be time for a spring clean.
15. Chase the best rate for your emergency savings – pocket £53 in a year
The rates on offer from savings have improved greatly of late, yet some providers still pay less than 1%.
On a pot of £1,000 that means you would earn just £10 in a year.
By contrast, you could get up to 5.3% from a one-year fixed-rate bond today, meaning you would earn £53. Miles better!
16. Save on prescriptions – pocket £120 in a year
If you have to pay for a lot of prescriptions, you could save with a prescription prepayment certificate (PPC).
A prescription costs £9.65 an item but with a PPC you pay a one-off £31.25 for three months or £111.60 for 12 months for as many as you need.
The one-year PPC makes sense if you need over 12 prescriptions a year and a three-month PPC makes sense if you need four or more. Someone that needs two prescriptions a month would save £120 with a one-year PPC.
17. Shop around for a cheaper loan – pocket £98 in a year
The average rate on a £5,000 personal loan is around 10.8%, based on Which? data from October. However, the best buy personal loan rate for that amount is just 7.3% (from Tesco Bank).
Assuming you borrowed over three years, you'd save almost £98 a year in interest by shopping around for a cheaper loan.
See our roundup of the best rates available today in our personal loans roundup.
Congratulations! You’re £16,421 better off
Congratulations! You’ve completed the money challenge.
If you’ve managed to do everything in our list, you have saved an average of £16,421 this year. Share with friends and family to help improve their finances.
*This article contains affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission on any sales of products or services we write about. This article was written completely independently.
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