Laura Howard Save your own bacon
If two of your New Year’s resolutions were to spend less and eat fewer calories, Morrisons might just have the answer. Until January 29, the supermarket is offering half price on Weight Watchers unsmoked bacon, so you will pay £1.29 rather than £2.58. The perfect start to a guilt-free fry-up...
Don’t be fooled by energy price cuts
Three of the Big Six energy providers – EDF, British Gas and SSE – may have slashed costs of fuel at the time of writing, but the discounts are still from extortionately high prices. Make sure you are on the cheapest deal by shopping on a comparison website such as MoneySupermarket.com, and clicking on energy.
Try before you buy at the gym
Even though your intentions may be good, jumping into an annual contract for gym membership can see you waste hundreds of pounds if you don’t maintain the good habit. Look at local council gyms instead which will charge per visit instead. Or at least negotiate a free trial so you can see what you are getting yourself into.
Insulate your home for free
With colder weather forecast to be on its way, it’s worth calling your energy provider to find out if it offers any grants or discounts on the cost of insulating your home. If you are aged 70 or over for example, and are in receipt of receive pension credit or disability living allowance, British Gas will provide loft and cavity wall insulation free of charge.
Think hard about your mortgage
Base rate stayed put again at 0.5% in January and some experts predict that there will be ‘no change’ until as late as the end of 2013. But according to mortgage brokers, the cost of new tracker deals is starting to edge up regardless in light of the eurozone crisis. If you are coming to the end of your mortgage deal, consider carefully the pros and cons a fixed and tracker rate. You can play around with the figures on an online calculator - see
http://www.charcol.co.uk/mortgagecalculator/mortgage-repayment-calculator/