Christmas can be very expensive. As such, saving money between now and then could be a great idea and one way of doing just that is to fix energy bills. That’s because the price of gas has come under pressure in recent months as the oil price has fallen and, as such, there could be a much better deal available than the one you currently have in place.
Of course, changing gas and/or electricity supplier is very easy and can be done online via a price comparison website, for example. Furthermore, fixing an energy deal makes budgeting much easier and could protect against increases in the cost of energy in the months ahead.
Similarly, there are a number of price comparison sites for petrol and diesel. While most motorists simply use their local petrol station, it is relatively straightforward to quickly search for the price of petrol and diesel within a specific radius of your location and shave a few pence per litre from the cost of filling up. This could equate to a saving of £3-£5 per fill-up and, over the course of the next 99 days, could make a major difference to your finances.
Additionally, using cashback credit cards continues to be a very easy and highly lucrative way to make your money go further. For example, cashback of over 1% per transaction is still available on multiple credit cards and, while there is often an annual fee, the cashback received will usually more than offset this.
The great thing about using cashback credit cards is that once the card is applied for and obtained, there is no additional work to do. The card is simply used to pay for things and the cashback balance keeps moving upwards.
Meanwhile, savings accounts are starting to reflect the expected rise in interest rates. It is now possible to obtain over 2% from a wide range of banks for a one-year fixed rate bond or 1.65% for an instant access account, for example. And, with these rates likely to move higher in the months and years ahead, it can pay to invest time in keeping tabs on them and being willing to open new accounts when an improved rate comes along.
Similarly, the commission paid on buying shares can add up – particularly if you stick to the sound advice of diversifying. For example, buying 25 stocks at £15 per trade can mean commission costs of £375 which, depending on the total amount invested, can represent a significant proportion of the entire portfolio.
Investing via aggregated orders, though, can reduce this cost by over 86%, since it costs around £2 per trade. Certainly, there is less flexibility on the specific time of day at which a trade is executed but, with £13 per trade in potential savings, it could add up and boost your financial outlook ahead of Christmas.