Yesterday, the Chancellor announced his plans to tackle rising energy costs with a £100 cash boost – but this is how you take even more off the bill.
John Healy has delivered his first budget with a focus on tackling rising heating expenses.
Twenty million households in council tax bands A to D will receive a £100 cash boost to help give families “breathing space”.
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The equivalent funding is also being allocated to governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland so they can implement the matching schemes.
Additionally, 23 million homes will see the standing charges in household gas bills be completely abolished.
Whilst this is a great boost to many, a few Brits have shared additional advice for how to slash bills further.
MAXIMISE HEAT
One woman shared a clever hack for saving money that involves a cheap household staple.
Claire Douglas, 40, from Tunbridge Wells, has used a DIY homemade radiator reflector – though she warns it won’t look pretty.
The home interiors buff, who has 189,000 Instagram followers(@clairedouglasstyling ), strategically placed tin foil behind her radiator to help maximise the heat being blasted in the room and reduce heat loss.
To create the reflector, she sticks the tin foil onto a strip of self-adhesive vinyl.
“I was so impressed with the effectiveness of this hack,” Claire told Need To Know.
Six-minute showers
Brits could also save another £300 by using the “six-minute shower rule”, says one expert.
The simple money-saving hack involves nothing more than playing a song while you wash to time yourself.
Emily Robertson, from Gloucestershire, an expert at Mira Showers, says washing yourself to a song that runs four to six minutes could dramatically reduce bills.
“If you are being conscious about your water usage, your average day-to-day shower shouldn’t last longer than 4-6 minutes,” she said.
“In this time you will use anything between 24 and 90 litres of water, depending on your shower type.”
Keep your kids in check!
Al Baker, 48, from Aldershot, Hampshire, is a well-known super saver and runs The Penny Pincher blog, having made headlines for revealing how he stashed away £10,000 with cost-cutting methods.
He has tried everything from reusing toilet rolls to drying tea bags on his washing line for a second cuppa, but one of his key tips is to educate children on energy use to cut costs.
Al said: “I showed my son how much heat was produced by our TV and how much power must be used to generate that much heat, and just got a shrug of the shoulders.
“So I tried showing him by removing a £10 note from his money box and saying that ‘If you left the TV on all day without watching it, would you be happy for me to keep the £10?’
“He said no, and so I said, ‘Well, by not turning off the TV you might be costing me a £10 note every day, so do you think I would be happy if the TV wasn’t being watched?’.
“I think he finally grasped it!
“Kids don’t really understand what goes into earning that £10 as it doesn’t affect them personally, so for them, it’s quite hard to comprehend.”
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