How to make positive changes through your home budgeting

In association with Compare the Market

These days, if you want to save money on your household bills, you have to be proactive. Whether it’s home insurance or broadband, it never pays to be a passive consumer.

What do we mean by “proactive”? Well, we mean you need to take household budgeting into your own hands, rather than trusting that the companies supplying your services will always give you the best deal. They won’t. By shopping around, you could save hundreds of pounds every year.

Many of the companies in the home insurance and broadband sectors rely on the fact that too many of us let our contracts roll over from one year to the next. By doing so, we almost always end up paying more than we need to.

The only way to get a better deal is to shop around regularly as part of your household budgeting. Switching suppliers and moving from one discount deal to the next is simply the easiest way to cut bills.

Money and more

Important though it is, shopping around isn’t just about saving money. It can also mean making positive changes to the services you consume.

By regularly comparing offers and prices, you can keep abreast of changes in the market, and any new or better deals that are coming online.

For example, broadband technology isn’t static. By shopping around you might find that you can now get a much quicker fibre service for the same price as your old standard service. Fibre makes it far easier to stream on-demand TV and movies and play online games.

Similarly, regularly comparing home insurance options might remind you to add any expensive new purchases to your contents plan. Passive consumers often find that, when it comes to making a claim, the contents cover that has been rolling over from one year to the next no longer matches their circumstances, leading to a disappointing payout.

Compare, contrast and save

So what does shopping around actually entail? These days, thanks to comparison sites that collect tailored quotes from a wide range of suppliers in a few clicks, switching to a better deal has never been simpler.

But the best sites are now far more than just quote aggregators. Compare the Market, for example, not only helps you find great deals, it provides lots of tools and services to help you keep on top of changing markets.

You can find all of Compare the Market’s time and money saving tools on its new Good Things hub.

When it comes to home insurance and broadband, Compare the Market has another handy trick up its sleeve. Its neighbourhood bills calculator lets you search for cheap deals in your area.

The free calculator couldn’t be more straightforward to use. Enter your postcode and a few details about your house and it will use quote data to show indicative home insurance costs, for homes similar to yours, and great broadband deals in your area.

In effect, it’s a sense check to give you an idea of how much you could be saving, so you know if it’s worth starting a quote to find better deals. It’s just one more way to easily keep on top of household costs.

Household budgeting made easy

The fact is, regularly scanning the market for better deals on utilities, broadband and home insurance is now a vital part of your household budgeting to-do list.

Happily, technology has made the process easier than ever – with a range of handy tools that take the boring bits out of budgeting, giving you the information you need to make informed choices and start saving money straight away.