How to make £2,026 in an HOUR: From energy to car insurance, our expert guide can cut all your bills with minimal effort
It might be the last thing you’re thinking of as the festivities begin, but give some thought to your finances over the next week.
Because that hazy time warp between Christmas and the New Year is a great opportunity to review all your bills and savings to ensure you step into 2026 on the front foot.
After the expensive Christmas period, many people pledge to tighten their budgets and rein in spending.
It can be daunting to even think about, but if you set aside a solid hour, you canget the ball rolling on cutting costs across the board.
So, pull up your bank statements, make a cup of tea (or maybe get a pot going) and sit yourself down at the kitchen table to go through your household expenses.
Once you know what you are spending, you can use Money Mail’s sister website This is Money or comparison sites to see if you can get a cheaper deal on energy, phone, broadband and TV packages, and more.
To get you started, Money Mail lays out the ways someone could save £2,026 on their household budget in 2026, from energy, to car insurance and savings.
How can you save money in 2026? Read our guide to cutting all your bills – and boosting your savings interest
FIND A NEW ENERGY DEAL: £188
Energy prices remain high with energy regulator Ofgem’s price cap set to rise 0.2 pc from January, from £1,755 to £1,758 for a typical dual fuel household.
Around 34million customers are still on a variable tariff. This means that their gas and electricity bills rise and fall in line with the price cap, which is set every three months based on wholesale energy prices.
But you could save and get peace of mind by fixing your energy bills. There are currently 25 fixed deals cheaper than January’s price cap. The best is a 12-month deal from Outfox Energy, which could see homes save £188 in a year at the current price cap level.
This is because with a fixed rate deal, the price you pay per unit of power remains the same for its full term – usually one or two years.
Bills are forecast to fall in April but not by much. Analysts at Cornwall Insight suggest the price cap will fall to £1,675. The top fixes beat this too and you can find them at our regularly updated best fixed energy deals round-up.
You can also find a link there to comparison website Uswitch, which allows you to enter your postcode and energy usage to find the best new deal for you and switch to it hassle free. Other comparison sites to consider include MoneySuperMarket and Compare the Market.
SWITCH BANK: £275
Switching current account can prove lucrative. Three banks now offer cash sweeteners worth up to £200 including Santander (£200), Nationwide (£175) and First Direct (£175)
Nationwide Building Society’s Flexdirect current account comes with 5 pc interest on balances up to £1,500 for 12 months and 1pc cashback on debit card spending over the same period, up to £5 a month.
Nationwide has also made a £100 Fairer Share Payment for the past three years, where it has given back some of its profits to members. To qualify, you needed need at least £100 in a Nationwide savings account or £100 left on a mortgage – with payouts made last June.
If you were to get Nationwide’s switching bonus plus a Fairer Share payment (which isn’t guaranteed to happen, remember) you’d gain £275.
You need to join through the Current Account Switch Service (Cass) by agreeing to transfer over your old bank account rather than just opening a new account and changing direct debits and standing orders. This happens within seven days and everything moves over without you lifting a finger.
HAGGLE WITH YOUR INSURER: £64
You could save £64 on average if you haggle with your car insurer at renewal, according to consumer group Which?
While insurers are no longer allowed to offer new customers better deals than existing ones, prices often creep up at renewal time.
Which? says that three in five drivers who haggled found they got a cheaper deal.
Alternatively, you can switch your car insurance to a new provider if they offer bigger savings.
Simply put your details into a comparison website to find the best car insurance prices. Next, call your insurer and ask it to explain the cost of your quote and whether it can beat the price you have found elsewhere.
Be prepared to threaten to leave if they say they can’t, as this should spur them on to better the offer. Make sure you compare quality as well as price, read our ten tips to save on car insurance.
You can also do this on home insurance for extra gains. Premiums have fallen 4pc in the past year from £384 to £369 on average, according to the ABI. If your home renewal quote isn’t at least 4pc lower this year, you should look for a better deal.
Paying more than you need to on investment charges is money down the drain
SLASH YOUR INVESTMENT FEES: £171
Investing platforms tend to charge an account fee and may also pay you to buy and sell investments.
Some investment platforms charge a percentage of your investments held, for example, 0.25 pc annually with AJ Bell, or 0.45 pc on investment fund holdings with Hargreaves Lansdown. Others have a flat subscription fee. For example, Interactive Investor’s £11.99 per month charge on its Investor plan for those with pots above £50,000. Some platforms charge no account fees at all.
You can cut the cost of investing by making sure you hold your stocks and shares Isa, self-invested personal pension, or general account with the most competitively priced platform for your circumstances.
Hargreaves Lansdown’s charge of 0.45 pc may not sound like much, but on an £70,000 pot of investment funds it is £315 a year. This compares to a £144 annual cost on Interactive Investor’s £11.99 monthly subscription. Switching between the two platforms could save £171 a year.
Some platforms, such as Trading 212, Prosper and InvestEngine, even have no account holding fee and do not charge to buy or sell investments, although they do offer a more limited range.
Learn more and compare investing costs in our best and cheapest investment platforms guide.
CUT YOUR WATER BILLS: £100
Households now pay £603 on average a year in water bills after they rose 26 pc in April. Unlike energy bills, you can’t shop around to get a better deal on your water as usually just one company will supply your area.
However, there are ways to limit the financial pain.
Some households could also save costs by installing a water meter. Those who switch typically save up to £100 a year.
With a meter you are charged for the water you use, rather than incurring a set cost based on your property – known as its rateable value. That means you have an incentive to use less and get rewarded for doing so.
Most water companies also have a social tariff for customers who are struggling or who receive certain benefits such as Universal Credit or Pension Credit – ask yours if you think you might be eligible.
FIND A NEW BROADBAND PROVIDER: £203
You can make big savings by shopping around for a better broadband, phone and TV deal.
Broadband, phone and TV customers who let their fixed-term contracts lapse are often rolled onto more expensive rates, which can be up to 70 pc more costly.
Comparing costs and switching broadband provider could save you £203 a year, data from Uswitch shows. You can do this via a comparison site. You can find the latest top deals and get advice on switching and saving money in our best broadband deals guide.
CUT PETROL COSTS: £79
You could save at the pump if you shop around for petrol or diesel. To help you do this free app PetrolPrices shows you fuel prices at filling stations, which can differ substantially.
It’s not unusual for fuel prices to vary by 5p per litre between petrol stations. Meanwhile, the difference between paying at a motorway service station or getting cheap petrol at a supermarket can be as much as 20p a litre, according to motoring organisation RAC.
A driver with car that averages 40mpg covering 8,000 miles per year, could save £34 annually if they filled up for 5p less each time for 6,000 miles of normal driving, plus £45 annually by filling up for 20p less over 2,000 motorway miles. This would bring a total saving of £79.
Make sure you do not wipe out any potential savings by driving too far afield in search of cheaper fuel!
DITCH YOUR PHONE CONTRACT: £321
Many people keeping paying for their mobile phone beyond when they need to, without knowing it. When you take out a bundled phone contract – which combines the cost of the phone and airtime and data into one bill – you are effectively paying off the handset in the monthly bills.
Once your initial contract ends, you’ve paid off the cost of the phone. But for many customers this is not reflected in their monthly payments, according to Uswitch, and they continue to pay the same amount as before for a phone they now own outright.
These contracts have become less common but mobile firms still offer them, according to telecommunications regulator Ofcom. Companies must now tell people when they are out of contract, but Ofcom’s latest figures show 19 pc of people on these contracts were outside their minimum contractual period.
Moving to a SIM-only deal once your contract ends can slash costs. Switching from a lapsed 24-month bundled contract to a SIM-only deal could save a customer £321 a year on average, according to Uswitch.
Even if you are not one of these customers, you should check your mobile contract costs and see if you can move to a cheaper Sim-only deal, or whether you are paying for an expensive service you don’t need, such as far more data than you use each month.
Savers are being squeezed as the Bank of England cuts rates but you can move to a better deal
MOVE YOUR SAVINGS: £625
The Bank of England cut the base rate to 3.75 pc last week and banks and building societies are responding by lowering savings rates.
But many savers are guilty of leaving their cash in old or uncompetitive accounts that banks can pay poor rates on when they could move to a better deal elsewhere instead.
For example, NatWest’s Flexible Saver easy access account pays just 1.05 per cent on balances up to £25,000. In contrast, Paragon Bank’s Spring app-based easy access account pays 4.11 per cent.
A saver with £20,000 in the NatWest account could get £213 in interest annually, whereas one in the Spring account would get £838. Moving their money could gain them £625 a year.
Check the best savings rates in our independent best buy savings tables.
