Good budgeting starts with household bills

Everyone likes to keep costs down when they can, but one area that people often neglect to keep on top of the best deals is the one that covers those day to day household bills. These are the things that we all need and treat as necessities, but don’t bother to keep tabs on how much they’re costing us.

What we’re talking about here is the basics in life – electricity and gas, the mortgage, insurance and telecommunications. Generally we all fall into a similar pattern. We start up a contract with the supplier offering the best deal when we move into a house, and then stick with them. As long as it works, shopping around for a better deal always feels like something you should do when you have more spare time, and let’s face it, when you do have spare time, is that really how you want to spend it?

But today it’s so much easier to get new quotes for the essentials in life like household insurance and electricity and gas. You simply tap all your details into a comparison website and see what prices come up. It’s a good idea to look at a couple of companies’ websites directly as well, just to make sure you get a full range of options to choose from.

The same goes for your broadband connection and how you pay for your TV and phone calls. You can often end up paying more than you need to by having each service brought into your house by a different provider. Most people will have had a landline longer than they’ve had the internet, for example, and satellite TV might be something they’ve only recently added.

But you can get a much better tariff by choosing a bundle that includes all three – TV, broadband and calls. Just take a look at the Sky broadband offers in Ireland as an example. Depending on how much you use the phone or the internet, or how many TV channels you like watching, you can choose a package that most suits your household. For example, you might be someone who lives alone and only uses the internet at home rarely. Your needs are going to be quite different from a family with teenagers under the roof who are likely to be on the internet and phone more than their parents and at all times of the day and night.

How often you use the internet connection will influence what kind of monthly usage allowance you want to choose as an option. You don’t want to pay for unlimited broadband if you hardly ever use it. The main broadband providers will often have promotions running where you get free unlimited internet for the first six months when you take on a bundle. It’s worth doing your homework and shopping around to make sure you grab the best deal that’s on offer.