It is clear to see from all the articles that are coming out, we are in for a tough time when it comes to the rising living costs. Across the board, everything is going up and we are all going to be feeling the pinch when it comes to our everyday outgoings but what does this mean for our plans to clear debts and retire early?
The simple answer is, I am not too sure!
Just like everyone else, we are feeling the pinch this year as things are going up in price across the board and our payrise we have just been given is soon to be cancelled out by the increase in NI contributions so we are not actually even going to benefit from that. However, we are going to still try and keep going with the overpayments and just take each month as it comes.
If like us you are thinking of ways to cut your outgoings in the midst of the rising living costs, here are the few changes we are starting with to help cuts the costs.
Cutting our living costs –
- Reduce our car usage – The cost of petrol and diesel is soaring at the minute so we are minimising the use of our car when possible. If we can walk to town or the local supermarket etc then we will do. This should just help the petrol go that little bit further.
- Cutting our food spend – I know I have discussed this before in this post, so I won’t go into too much detail here but I am trying hard to cut our food budget down a little each month to help with the rising costs.
- Watch our gas and electric spend – The direct debit for our gas and electric has jumped £70 a month, with this in mind we are trying hard to reduce our gas and electric. The first thing we changed was the temperature of the thermostat, just by changing it a few degrees, we should save on the gas a little where it does not kick in so quickly in the evenings. We are also going to be using our washing line more now that the weather is changing to spring-like temperatures. I try to get a wash done in the morning before work and pop it on the line during the day so it is ready for when we get home.
- Cutting out unused subscriptions – We all know what it is like, we sign up for something with the plan to listen to or maybe watch something with it, then over time we no longer use it like we used to. If this sound familiar to you, why don’t you take some time to go through what you have as outgoings and make sure that you trim out the things you no longer use. It might not save you a fortune but even £5-£10 will soon start to add up.
These are the starting points for us looking to save some money, once I am confident we have done what we can with these I am then really going to focus on the debts that are costing us money every month. With each small debt I pay off, it will free us up some spare cash every month. Using things such as cashback sites also helps to bring in a little extra income, if you don’t use things such as Quidco etc, here is a post for the benefits of doing so. You can sign up to Quidco here and earn a bonus of £5 when you earn your first £5 cashback!
I am hopeful that with these small changes, we will still be able to get to where we hope to be in the next few months, however, who knows what the future holds. With so much uncertainty around the world at the minute and the prices in the UK fluctuating like they are, we just never know what the next few months may bring us. All we do know is that we need to do what we can to keep our living costs down to make our goals.
