Money Saving Amy: An 'easy to do' guide for energy saving amid cost-of-living crisis

•Turning the radiators off or very low in rooms you aren’t using, you don’t want to be spending extra money on heating rooms that are hardly, or never used. And keep the door to that room closed, preferably with a draught excluder on, to stop the cool air of that room drifting through to the warm house.

•Don’t fill your kettle every time you boil it, only fill it with what you need. Filling the kettle to the brim will inevitably mean the kettle is boiling for longer and therefore using more energy.

Alternatively, if you do boil a full kettle, or boil more than you need, put the left over boiling water into a flask to make a hot drink with later on. I find this a handy tip because not only does it save on boiling the kettle multiple times, but when I want to grab a quick drink the hot waters ready for me and I don’t need to stand and wait for the kettle. A good insulated flask can keep the water hot for up to 12 hours so they’re worth purchasing, you can get flasks from most supermarkets and stores such as B&M at affordable prices.

•Don’t leave technology items on standby, even things such an TVs being on standby is using electricity. I think we’re all probably guilty of this one, and it’s not always easy to turn items off at the socket, but the savings can soon add up over the course of the year.

•Turning your heating down by just 1 degree can reduce your bill. The 1 degree may be hardly noticeable in how you feel in your home, but could make a significant difference to your bills over the course of winter.

•Putting the timer on your heating to come on slightly earlier or later, even half an hour could help to reduce your bill.

•Take shorter showers, of course it’s nice to enjoy a warm, hot shower on cold days, but if you can encourage everyone in your household to reduce their time by even a few minutes, again, it will soon help to reduce the cost of bills over a few months.

These tips have all been things that we can easily do day to day to help reduce bills, but here’s a couple more tips that may require a little more effort, but will save you even more.

•Switching to LED bulbs can also help reduce your electricity costs. These are readily available in supermarkets and other stores for low prices. LED bulbs can cost as little as £2 each (Tesco price). When you’re buying the bulbs, don’t forget to get discounted gift cards from apps such as Jam Doughnut, TopCashback or airtime rewards, to save even more money on the bulbs.

A tip with LED bulbs is to use cool white bulbs in areas that you work in and perform tasks in such as the kitchen, or office spades. For areas that you’d like to be cosy in, try warm white bulbs.

•Another way to keep heat in a room, is to use draught excluders. Again, these can be reasonably priced to pick up from shops like Matalan or Dunelm. Also radiator reflectors will really help to bounce the heat back into your rooms, and these are very affordable from Amazon, Screwfix or Dunelm.

•To keep cosy without needing to put the heating on as often, or as hot, you could invest in “snuggle hoodie”, most stores now sell a variation of these, including affordable shops such as Primark and these are so warm and cosy and great for keeping warm, I find mine so helpful as I really feel the cold in winter so this means I don’t have to have my heating on too hot all the time. Hot water bottles are a lovely way to heat up your bed before getting into it, or snuggle up with one on the sofa on cold days. Then there is also electric blankets, please ensure you follow safety guidelines with these, but these are a low cost way to keep warm.

I hope that these tips help to save you all some money with the temperature dropping and the nights drawing in.

Money Saving Amy