Many households saw their bills hiked from April 2023. There’s a list of household bills that we have put together as Love Discount Vouchers to help you manage your average household bills per month and ensure that you are on top of your bills. The average electricity bill for a 2-person household in the UK will also have significant changes. Now is an excellent time to review your finances and check where you can adjust.
In this blog post, we will discuss:
[]Planned changes to staple bills within households []How To Manage These Changes & Your Finances [] How to keep track of all expenses [] How Love Discount Vouchers can help through these price rises
Planned Changes To Staple Bills Within Households
TV Broadband And Mobile Telecoms
Telecom companies are following rules, and they are allowed to increase their prices by around 4% with the CPI inflation. Since the CPI inflation was 10.5% in December, added to the 3.9% this means that companies could hike their prices by 14.4%. How much your package will increase will completely depend on the type of package you took.
[b]Shell Energy offers customers renewable electricity, as well as gas, smart home technology, and broadband, to British homes. To get a discount on Shell Energy or fibre click on the link above.
Energy Bill
The energy will remain at £2,500 per annum for the typical household from April - July. As of April, the £400 discount came to an end. This means that there will no longer be compensation for the energy bill and now all that is charged will come out of your pocket.
To help reduce your energy bill you can enquire about electricity that is 100% carbon neutral at OVO Energy for affordable pricing. If you have a boiler, depending on the type of property you live in, and the boiler you currently have, you could make considerable savings on your heating bills. See how much you could potentially save with E.ON for all the boiler essentials you need for a safe and cosy home, at a competitive price.
Council Tax
This is another bill that increased from the 1st of April with the majority of the local authorities increasing by 5% on the monthly payments. This is solely dependent on where you live. You can use the council calculator to check how much your bill has increased.
Water Bills
The water bill has gotten the biggest hike this year. From April 1st, an average household of 2 persons will increase by £448. The 7.5% increase means that customers will pay an average of £31 more than what they were paying last year. This will completely be dependent on where you stay and your service provider.
Prescriptions & Medication
NHS prescription is rising by 30p, from £9.35 to £9.65, as of April 1.
Car Tax
Car tax must be paid for all UK-registered vehicles. You can choose to pay upfront, every 6 months or monthly. The vehicle excise duty increased to 10.1% by April 1st. How much you pay depends on when your car was registered.
To help you save and ensure that you live within your means is to revisit your monthly budget and see how much more you are now paying than before and prioritise the most important things and work around your wants. This will help you to stay afloat during the inflation. You can check out British Gas to use energy efficiently, and help to build skills for a bright future.
How To Manage These Changes & Your Finances
The annual average food cost per household in the UK is about £5,924 in 2023. This is based on the average of 2.4 persons per household. This amounts to about £114 weekly which has increased by 15% from a year ago.
How to keep track of all expenses
Keeping track of our expenses can be difficult but important. When trying to live within your means, you need to know where the money is going. Keeping track of your expenses is the way to go. How can you do this? Let’s see…
- Make a list of household bills that you have so you can work out your expenses altogether.
- Check your bank statement. This is where you will see how bad or good your spending habits are.
- Once you’ve scrutinised your statement, make note of how much you are paying for all your monthly bills and what your spending habits are.
- You can do this by categorising each expense ie. food & takeaways, groceries, medical expenses, utility bills etc. Doing so will help you see where most of your money is going.
- Once you have a good idea of your spending habits, you can then start looking to see if you can’t get better deals elsewhere than where you normally shop. Especially when it comes to retail stores, takeaways or miscellaneous items.
How Love Discount Vouchers Can Help Through These Price Rises
Budget! Budget! Budget! Nothing screams saving more than budgeting! A lot of people hate it but it helps. Here at Love Discount Vouchers, we have put together a few tips and tricks on how to beat inflation.
How To Save On Food
Food uses up a chunk of many households’ income. ‘Food is life’ some say. True, but takeaways aren’t life. They are the biggest culprits in having us overspend! How can we combat this? Try incorporating the following methods in your family budget and see if it will at least help.
- [b]Cook At Home - Some may argue that this is ancient living and it takes up a lot of time. Yeah, well one can argue that, but the fact remains this method SAVES MONEY! Think of it this way, The cost of a plate of food that you pay at a restaurant is actually less than a third of what you pay for it. So for example, if your meal costs £20, a third of that which is about £6.7 is the actual cost of your meal. The rest which is £13.3 goes to overhead costs and labour. If you had cooked at home, you would’ve spent just your meal cost and pocketed the rest!
- [b]Buy In Bulk - buying in bulk saves a lot of money. Supermarkets usually charge less if you buy in bulk and there are many discounts you can score. If you live near a store like Makro or Costco, register to become a member and you will get discounted prices when buying in bulk.
- [b]Swap Pricey Proteins Or Goods For Cheaper Ones - Opt for Ground beef because it costs less per pound than steaks. Chicken thighs cost less than chicken breasts and are juicier because they are on the bone. Include lots of dried beans into your meals to add protein and fill your family.
- [b]Reduce On Alcohol Drinks - Another option to reduce your budget is to be careful when spending on alcoholic drinks. The average UK family spends a whopping 8% of their at-home food budget on store-bought water, juices, tea, coffee and sodas. Buying cappuccinos at Starbucks or Costa every day, while it might be convenient can easily total £1,000 a year.
Don’t forget to register with Love Discount Vouchers to get exclusive deals on the following categories: Technology & Electrical, Mobile, Tv & Broadband and Finance & Insurance.
