Ways to save
It is quite a common experience for most people at some time in their lives to have difficulty making ends meet.
Having a mental health problem can compound this if your problem means that you are prone to periods of excessive spending or if you are feeling too low to concentrate on paying bills or finding the best utility deals.
If you are finding that you have little or no money left at the end of the month you will need to find ways to reduce your spending or increase your income. Here are some tips for reducing your spending and energy bills, as well as winter fuel payments, grants to help reduce energy bills and comparison websites.
Not much money left over?
If you find that you're regularly struggling to make ends meet, you will need to find ways to reduce your spending or increase your income. Mind's booklet Looking after your personal finances describes some ways you might be able to save money.
Top tips for reducing your spending
These tips may help you to start saving:
- Consider making small cut-backs on non-essential items. For example, skipping a morning coffee from a coffee-seller chain store could save you £10 a week or over £500 per year.
- Consider using supermarket 'own label' or 'own brand', or just a cheaper brand on some items. You may find that the cheaper washing up liquid is just as good as the expensive one.
- Consider switching your electricity, gas or phone supplier. Try Energywatch, the gas and electricity watchdog's, which helps you to compare prices. There are also various internet switching services or search engines you can use.
Top tips for reducing your energy bills
- Don't leave appliances on standby; turn off your television, video and DVD player when you're not using them. Leaving appliances on standby wastes £37 a year for the average household.
- Turn off your mobile phone charger at the wall when you're not actually charging your phone.
- Switch off the lights when you leave the room and don't have more on than you need.
- Buy energy saving light bulbs. They are more expensive but use less electricity and last about twelve times longer. One bulb could reduce your lighting costs by up to £78 during its life time. Sometimes its possible to get energy saving bulbs cheaper or even free if you are in receipt of Welfare Benefits.
- Don't heat more water than you need when boiling a kettle.
- Use lids on saucepans as the contents heat quicker.
- Use the half load or economy cycle if you're not filling up your dishwasher (if you have one) or washing machine.
- Turn down your cylinder thermostat to 60 degrees if your water is too hot.
- Fix leaky taps and make sure they are properly turned off. A dripping hot tap wastes enough water in a week to fill a bath.
Top tips for reducing your energy costs
In the winter:
- Keep active (if you can). Even doing some housework will raise your metabolism and make you warmer.
- Pull the curtains when it starts getting dark to make your home feel warmer and more snug.
- Tuck your curtains behind your radiators when they're on. If you don't, the heat will warm the window instead.
- Reducing your room temperature by as little as 1 degree centigrade could cut your heating bills by up to 10 per cent. You could save around £40 a year.
- Tumble dryers are very expensive to run and produce a lot of heat. So, if you have to use one do it in the winter when you want your home warm.
- Wear an extra item of clothing. Just something as simple as a sleeveless jumper might be all that you need to stop you feeling chilly and will save on other forms of heating.
- Turn the heating off if you go out. While it's nice to come back to a warm home, it only takes 20 minutes to warm up.
- Keep the room you're in most nice and warm, not your whole home but keep some warmth in all the rooms to prevent damp and mildew.
In the summer:
- Don't use the tumble dryer unless you don't have anywhere to dry your clothes.
- Don't use an electric fan to keep you cool unless you have to as they are very expensive to run. If you have to use one, turn it off if you're not in the room.
If you want to find out more about reducing your bills and saving the environment call the Energy Saving Trust on 0800 512 012.
Winter fuel payment
If you're aged 60 or over you may get a Winter Fuel Payment to help pay for keeping warm in winter. The tax-free annual benefit is normally paid directly to you along with your pension for November and December.
You may get a Winter Fuel Payment if:
- you're aged 60 and over and
- you normally live in the United Kingdom.
For more information on whether you can get Winter Fuel Repayment see the Directgov website.
Grants to help reduce utility bills
Some energy companies offer grants to individuals on low income to help reduce their utility bills. Contact your utility company or phone the Change hotline on 020 8535 2960.
Comparison websites
There are a range of money saving websites including Moneysavingexpert, Thisismoney, Frugal and Utility Warehouse that can offer you ideas about saving money on all sorts of things. Most comparison websites are run by commercial businesses. Some promote particular products because of commerical arrangements. Most sites will give information about whether they cover the whole of the market for certain products or just a selection, but not many give details of their commercial arrangements. Mind is not responsible for the content of external websites.
Avoiding debt
- Don't ignore debt. It won't go away, it will get worse.
- Get independent advice before you are tempted to borrow money to pay off your debts.
- When drawing up a budget, be honest, and don't try to hide debts. If you hide or leave existing debts out of your budget then the budget won't help you clear your problem debts.
- Take it one step at a time and sort out your most important debts first.
- Let everyone you owe money to know you are having problems. If you do not speak to them, they may start court action against you. If you do speak to them, they may be able to offer you a break from making payments or come to an agreement with you (for example, allowing you to pay back the debt in instalments).
- When talking to a large company, keep a record of names and the reference number for your case.
- Keep copies of all letters you send and receive.
- If you arrange to pay back missed payments in instalments, you should keep to the agreement, so make sure you agree to instalments you can afford.
- Check you are claiming all the benefits and tax credits you are entitled to.
- Don't try to deal with this alone. There are independent organisations that can offer you advice and support.