Food and groceries
Switch to Aldi or Lidl for your weekly shop. Research consistently shows households can save 20-30% on comparable products. You do not need to buy everything there — focus on staples, fresh produce and own-brand products where the quality difference is minimal.
Meal plan for the week before shopping. This single change reduces food waste (which costs the average UK household around £700 per year) and prevents impulse purchases. Write your list and stick to it.
Use the Too Good To Go app and Olio for surplus and free food. Supermarkets and restaurants list end-of-day items at heavily reduced prices. In some areas, this can provide significant savings with very little effort.
Energy and household bills
Register for the Priority Services Register with your energy and water suppliers. It is free, takes five minutes and provides protections including advance notice of outages and a free annual gas safety check.
Ask your energy supplier about the Warm Home Discount if you are on benefits or a low income. It provides a £150 credit on your electricity bill annually.
Turn down your boiler flow temperature to 60°C. The Energy Saving Trust estimates this alone can reduce heating bills by up to 8% with no change to comfort.
Subscriptions and recurring costs
Audit your subscriptions. The average UK household spends over £800 per year on subscriptions, and many go unused. Check your bank statements for recurring payments — video, music, gaming, software, gym and delivery subscriptions all add up.
Cancel, pause or downgrade subscriptions you are not using. Most streaming services offer a way to pause rather than cancel, which is useful if you want to return.
Use the Ask Fin Financial Leak Detector to find subscriptions and spending patterns you might have missed.
Benefits and entitlements
Check whether you are claiming everything you are entitled to. Billions of pounds of benefits go unclaimed each year in the UK. Universal Credit, Council Tax Reduction, Child Benefit, Carer's Allowance and many other payments may be available to you.
Use entitledto.co.uk or the Ask Fin Benefits Checker for a quick eligibility overview.