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5 Easy Ways To Reduce Your Monthly Outgoings

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Today I’m sharing 5 easy ways to reduce your monthly outgoings. Last year, my husband and I separated. As well as taking on a “fixer upper” house, I also took on sole responsibility for an overdraft and two credit cards. To begin with, I was really stressed about the prospect of making ends meet, but I managed.

With that in mind, today I am sharing some easy ways to reduce your monthly outgoings. Read on to find out what I did to help reduce monthly payments, without resorting to high interest loans.

*This is a partnered post.

Easy Ways To Reduce Your Monthly Outgoings

When looking for easy ways to reduce your monthly outgoings, the first thing I did was sit down and work out all of my monthly outgoings. This included all of my bills, direct debits, fuel and a realistic food budget. Once I had done this, I realised that I’d need to reduce my monthly outgoings by a fair amount to take the pressure off me each month. When you work from home, your monthly income can vary massively from one month to the next, so keeping outgoings low is a massive help.

Check Your Interest Rates

At the time, I had a sizeable overdraft with my bank, which was costing me £60 per month in fees. Additionally, I had two credit cards. One was offering 0% interest on balance transfers and cash advances for 2 years, and I was repaying £200 per month on that. The minimum repayment was only £125, though. I also had another credit card, which I was paying £100 per month on, and £25 of that was interest.

Streamlining Finances

Checking the amount of interest you pay on all debts is essential when looking for easy ways to reduce your monthly outgoings. I contacted the 0% interest credit card and asked for them to increase my limit, which they agreed to. Then I transferred enough cash to clear my overdraft. This cost me £160 in fees, but I figured that everything after 3 months was clearing my outstanding balance, rather than lining a share holder’s pocket.

Next, I did a balance transfer to clear my second credit card. This cost me £140 in fees but again, I figured that it would balance out quickly. Once all of what I owed was in one place, I decided to increase my monthly repayment to £250 per month. This meant I had freed up £110 per month of money, and would be paying off my outstanding balance faster as well. So it was win – win.

young woman sat at laptop looking for ways to ways to reduce your monthly outgoings

How Carina Advisors Can Help

If you’re not in a position to use credit cards to streamline your finances, you can always use a company like Carina Advisors. They offer low interest rate loans to allow you to reduce your monthly outgoings via a single monthly repayment. It’s worth considering all of your options when looking for easy ways to reduce your monthly outgoings – some will cost you more in the long run.

Switching Energy Suppliers

Switching energy suppliers is often one of the easiest ways to reduce your monthly outgoings. My new home had prepayment gas and electric meters, and they were costing me a fortune to run. I was putting £50 per week on the gas and £20 per week on the electric. Thankfully, my previous energy supplier was providing the energy in my new house, and knew I was reliable.

So they switched my meters over to direct debit payment for me. This took a good 10 weeks to happen, so it didn’t save me any money in the short term. Now it has transferred, I am paying £108 per month less than I was on prepayment – That’s £252 less per month! I do plan on shopping around to switch suppliers soon too, so that should save me even more.

Water Meter

In our family home, we had 2 adults, 2 kids, a dishwasher and a never ending laundry cycle. Despite this, we were paying £42 per month for our water. The new house has no dishwasher, half the number of residents and half the laundry, but the generic fee was £59 per month. I decided to get a water meter installed, and am happy to report my monthly bill is now £31 – £28 less per month than the generic amount. It’s one of the easiest ways to reduce your monthly outgoings.

Total Saved

By making these small changes, I have managed to save myself £390 per month. As well as that, I know I’ll pay off what I owe faster and will finally be able to put a little away each month in savings.

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