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Rising interest rates and the highest inflation for 40 years made 2023 a tough year for UK households. If like many you’re hoping to spend less and save more in 2024, Forbes Advisor has compiled 24 life hacks and habits to help.
1. Shop cheaper
Don’t be a supermarket snob. Prices on everyday items – such as kitchen towel, toothpaste, biscuits and washing-up liquid – can vary wildly from one high street name to another. Money saved on canny purchases can add up considerably over the course of a year.
2. Be online-savvy
When shopping online you may be able to save money by adding items to your basket, proceeding to the checkout, but clicking away before completing the purchase.
Online retailers often try to ‘lure back’ would-be customers by sending them discount codes or freebie offers.
Just be sure to enter your email address before navigating away. You can always unsubscribe from the communications later.
3. Arm yourself with a loyalty card
Grab a loyalty card or download the loyalty app for shops you use frequently. There may be some jiggery-pokery with prices to exaggerate the savings but they’re still usually worth having.
And don’t be shy – if the person in front of you at the checkout doesn’t have a loyalty card, offer yours. They get the savings, you get the points: win-win.
4. Buy gift cards at a discount
Websites such as Cards 2 Cash and Card Yard allow you to buy other people’s unwanted gift cards at a discount. By the same token, you can sell your own unwanted gift cards on these sites for a portion of their face value.
5. Audit your subscriptions
Make a list of all your subscriptions and cancel the ones you don’t use.
If you can’t live without your favourite newspaper or magazine subscription, wait until renewal time and request a better price or threaten to pull your custom. There’s usually a deal to be done.
6. Make use of the local library
Not everyone is lucky enough to still have a local library, but they can be an extremely valuable resource.
Many stock the latest children’s books and films (on DVD), as well as fiction and nonfiction bestsellers. If you have a family of keen readers it can save hundreds of pounds over the years on the cost of buying new books. Just remember to return books on time to avoid a fine.
7. Get paid for surveys
Got some time to kill on your commute or at the weekend? Websites such as Swagbucks or Survey Spotter will pay you to take surveys for market research purposes. You can earn anything from 5p to £25 per survey, depending on who’s conducting it and how much time it takes.
8. Get ‘appy
It can be easy to lose track of discretionary spending. Use budgeting apps to track your spending and identify areas where you can cut back. Small habit changes could mean big savings over time.
9. Make printer costs ink-consequential
Find out if your printer manufacturer has an as-required delivery service for ink cartridges. Not only is it convenient, it can work out much cheaper because it monitors your supply and automatically sends out only what you need. And remember to adjust your settings to ‘print both sides’ to save on paper.
10. Be flexible with travel plans
Overseas travel is expensive but if you can be flexible about the time and date of your departure, you may be able to snag a better deal.
SkyScanner, for example, allows you to compare prices between airlines and departure times for the same journey – you can even set alerts to be notified if cheaper flights become available.
If you’re travelling by train, check whether you’re eligible for a railcard. These cards cost about £30 a year, and can save up to a third on rail fares. There are a range of types available, such as for the under 30s, over 60s, for veterans and those with a disability.
11. Check car tyres and lighten your load
Save fuel by checking your tyres are inflated to the correct pressure – it’s safer, too. And while you’re at it, empty your car’s boot and footwells of anything you don’t need for the journey so you’re not lugging around extra fuel-draining weight.
And if you need to de-mist your windscreen, put your sun visors down when you turn on the heater-blower on its dashboard setting – you’ll trap and recirculate the air and get the job done quicker.
12. Put the brakes on parking costs
Parking is the kind of niggling cost that is easy to overlook. But typical train station parking costs are around £10 a day according to operator APCOA’s website, while parking in a town or city centre for just a couple of hours can cost £5 or more.
Rather than head for the well-known but costly car parks, check Parkopedia’s local maps for free or cheaper options even if it means a short walk.
Make use of local supermarkets too, which often provide free parking for one or two hours.
13. Buy pre-loved
Buying second hand is a great way to get quality items at a discount – and reduce your environmental impact to boot. If you don’t want to rifle through charity shops, check out apps such as Vinted or Depop, which allow you to filter items by size and style.
14. Get organised on insurance renewals
Don’t leave insurance renewals to the last minute. Once you get within a couple of weeks of your renewal date, the price starts to edge up. And insurers bank on you settling for what’s offered because you’re running out of time.
Once you get your renewal notice, use a website such as Forbes Advisor to see what deals are available. Around three weeks ahead of renewal is generally thought to be the optimum time to test the waters.
15. Use a browser extension
Browser extensions such as Honey and Mino automatically scour the web for discount codes whenever you shop online. There’s no guarantee of a discount every time, but any saving here or there can help.
16. File your tax return on time
It won’t be the most exciting task on your to-do list, but completing your 2022/23 tax return before the 31 January 2024 deadline can spare you a nasty fine.
If you’re unsure whether you need to file a tax return, this tool from HMRC will tell you.
17. Make use of your ISA allowance
As the new tax year (6 April) approaches, use up your annual ISA allowance, if you can. UK adults can deposit up to £20,000 into ISAs each tax year, and any returns are exempt from tax.
The ISA allowance resets with the start of each tax year, and an unused portion does not carry forward – use it or lose it.
18. Claim work-from-home allowance
A growing number of employees are expected to work from home since the pandemic, and you can claim specialist tax relief.
Since April 2020, you can apply to claim up to £6 a week (£26 a month) in tax relief from your employer to cover the extra costs of working from home, such as energy use. Find out more about how to apply and if you’re eligible at HMRC’s website.
19. Be scam savvy
The start of a new year is prime time for fraudsters, who jump on January sales and the tax return deadlines to part victims from their cash through so-called Authorised Push Payment scams. Be on your guard for deals that seem too good to be true and assume any cold call you receive is fraudulent.
20. Check for benefits
According to government figures, about £15 billion worth of means-tested benefits go unclaimed every year. If you’ve never claimed benefits before and aren’t sure what you might be entitled to, you can use a tool such as the Entiledto benefits calculator to check.
21. Make your savings work
According to Bank of England data from May 2023, around £250 billion is sitting in bank accounts that don’t pay interest. If you leave your cash in one of these accounts, it will lose value over time due to inflation. Check the raft of high interest savings accounts available and make your cash work harder for you.
22. Avoid paying credit card interest
If you have a credit card balance, switch it to a card with an introductory 0% interest rate so that monthly payments only go towards clearing the actual debt.
Bear in mind you’ll need to pass a credit check to be accepted for the new card, and will have to pay a balance transfer fee (between 2% and 4%) of the amount you want to transfer. Do what you can to clear the debt before the end of the introductory interest-free period, which could be around 24 months.
23. Switch your current account
If you’re in the market for a new current account, you may be able to nab some extra cash by choosing a provider offering a switch incentive.
To be eligible, you’ll generally need to be a new customer, and may have to deposit a minimum balance into the new account.
24. Ask for a payrise
Despite pressure from rising prices, only four in 10 Britons who have ever been in paid work have asked for a pay rise, according to a survey by YouGov from earlier this year.
Start by checking how much people are paid for similar roles to yours on salary checker’s such as that on Linkedin. For inspiration on a total career change for 2024, check out the UK’s highest paying jobs.