I slashed my gas bill by £25 a month with a simple boiler tweak & genius item that’s perfect for the shower
‘I’ve saved £1,500 just by haggling and looking for bargains’ GAVIN GILMAN cut his Sky TV bill by £180 a year just through haggling. The 29-year-old civil servant lives in Newport, South Wales, with his partner Sam Faulkner, 28. Gavin says: “I am quite canny. I always look for a bargain and love to haggle. […]
‘I’ve saved £1,500 just by haggling and looking for bargains’
GAVIN GILMAN cut his Sky TV bill by £180 a year just through haggling.
The 29-year-old civil servant lives in Newport, South Wales, with his partner Sam Faulkner, 28.
Gavin says: “I am quite canny. I always look for a bargain and love to haggle.
“I said I was going to leave Sky, for which I was paying £56. After haggling, they came back with £51 a month.
“But I said it wasn’t good enough. I got it down to £41.”
The bargain hunter has also saved cash on his car insurance with smart negotiating.
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He says: “I rang up our insurer and said another company was offering me a cheaper price and I was going to leave.
“They came back with a £180 cut in our insurance.
“Sam gets embarrassed at me haggling sometimes but I reckon it has saved us £1,500, just from making a few changes.”
‘Clever deals app has cut our outgoings by £1,300 in a year’
SELF-CONFESSED “savings geek” Sebastian Huschner, who lives in South East London, reckons money-saving app Snoop has helped him out to the tune of £1,300 a year.
The 40-year-old management consultant, who lives with his husband Dante, 48, says: “It is a very clever app.
“Snoop scans the market for all the best deals, that are perfect for me. It has made quite a difference.”
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The app, which is free to use, connects to your bank account and suggests ways for you to save money.
Sebastian, right, explains: “If there is a free coffee at Costa going, it will let me know.
“If there is a deal for two cinema tickets for £7, it will tell me.
“It says, ‘This is your BT deal this month – why don’t you switch to Sky because it will save you £29 a year based on the package you have?’ ”
‘Small changes have lowered our bills, now I feel I’m in control’
MUM Kirsty Devine, 36, and husband Darren, 41, have made tiny tweaks to their lifestyles to make savings.
The couple, who live in Halifax with son Jack, 14, suffered a shock when Darren was made redundant from his job as a mortgage adviser in December – just as their bills went up by £150 a month.
Self-employed Kirsty, below, who runs home decor store simplydivinethings.co.uk, says: “I knew I had to do something to take back control of our finances. Straight away, we cut out takeaways and eating out.”
She also turned down the heating by 1C and bought a shower timer from Amazon which she set to three minutes.
Kirsty says: “Those two simple changes have already lowered our gas bill by £25 a month, which is significant. The water bill is annual but I’m hoping that will be less too.”
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She adds: “Instead of driving to work, I walk. I live quite close, so that probably saves me 50p to £1 a day on fuel – but small savings add up.
“I’m much happier since making these changes and feel I’m the one in control of our finances.”