The 5 ways to bust your bills and save £2.3k EVERY year – including cheapest energy deals AND subscription refund trick

HOUSEHOLD bills seem to be rising across the board – but there are still steps you can take to bring them down. You could save £2,314 a year across your energy, water and mortgage bills. Just make sure you act quickly to make the most of the savings. It’s especially important now as experts from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) have warned this could be the most expensive winter since 2022/23. Sign up for the Money newsletter Thank you! That’s because energy bills are shooting up in October and it’s likely mortgage rates will rise too if the Bank of England increases its base rate. To make sure you don’t get caught out, here’s everything you should do… Fix your energy bills – £184 Cut your energy bills by moving onto a cheaper fixed deal Credit: PA Energy bills will soar to the highest level in three years in October. It was revealed last week that the energy price cap, which is the maximum amount providers can charge per unit of energy, will rise by 4% this autumn. It means a typical household will be facing a yearly bill of £1,729, up from £1,663 – an increase of £66. Furthermore, they are expected to rise by another 9% in January according to experts at Cornwall Insight. This would take the average household bill to £1,872. Most read in Money If you’re on a fixed energy tariff, you won’t see your bills go up straight away – but you could be in trouble if you’re about to roll off your contract. You’ll also see the bill rise immediately if you’re on a tracker tariff, which changes regularly based on either the cost of wholesale energy or the price cap. Make sure you don’t get hit with a huge increase in October by fixing your energy bill now. Sabrina Hoque, energy expert at Uswitch.com, said: “There are currently 21 fixed energy deals on the market that beat the new October cap, with the cheapest offering a typical household around £184 in savings a year compared with standard rates. “Locking in a fixed tariff means you’ll start saving against the current price cap today, and you’ll shield your bills from any future rises for the duration of the tariff.” The cheapest fixed deal currently is Fuse Energy’s August 2026 Fixed (18m) V11 tariff. It costs an average of £1,539 a year, which is £124 below the current price cap and £184 below the October one. It’s fixed for 18 months and you can get the deal from Uswitch, Confused or directly from Fuse Energy. Just remember that if you’re on a contract already, you may need to pay an exit fee. These can range from around £50 to £75, which could eat up any savings if you’re not careful. Subscription refund trick – £80 You could get a refund from Google or Apple on an unwanted subscription payment You probably know the feeling when that pesky subscription you forgot to cancel comes out of your account. But most Brits don’t realise there’s a simple way to claim a refund on some subscription purchases. Jez Samuel, mobiles expert at Uswitch, says you can get a refund from either Apple or Google if you bought an app subscription you didn’t want. If you’re an Apple user, head straight to reportaproblem.apple.com and sign in. Simply choose “Request a refund”, pick your reason and select the charge, then hit submit. There’s no official deadline for claiming, but the sooner you do it the better. Android users can also get a refund from Google but you have to do it within 48 hours of your purchase. Tap your profile, head to “Payments & subscriptions”, find the unwanted charge and hit “Report a problem”. You could save a hefty chunk of money by doing this. For example, if you forgot to cancel your Calm Premium subscription you could be billed up to £79.99 for the year. Cut your water bill – £190 Making a few simple lifestyle changes could help you cut the cost of your water bill Credit: Alamy Customers of Southern Water, Wessex Water, Thames Water and Severn Trent Water all face rises on their water bills from next year. That’s because water regulator Ofwat has approved extra charges for five suppliers. However, making simple changes to your lifestyle could save you hundreds of pounds if you have a water meter. As a general rule of thumb, you’re likely to save money with a water meter if your home has more bedrooms than people living in it. Households that do save money by switching to a water meter typically cut their bills by £190 a year, the CCW says. To cut down on your usage, you should fix any leaking taps or running toilets as these can add to your water bills. This could save you a total of £330 a year if you fixed both. You could also cut down on your shower time. Dan Lintell, sustainability manager at Triton Showers, says: “A family of three using a 9.5kW electric shower with 11-minute showers could spend around £562 per year. “Simply reducing each shower to eight minutes could lower that cost to approximately £423, saving about £139 annually.” Another trick is to be careful to fill your kettle by the right amount – overfilling it could cost you £60 a year. Fix your mortgage deal early – £708 Lock in to a cheap rate as early as you can to cut down on your mortgage bill Credit: Getty Markets believe the Bank of England could increase interest rates in the coming months – likely in early 2027. This would also push up mortgage rates, and some lenders have already been hiking their rates in anticipation. The average two-year fixed rate is now 5.59%. In January, before the war broke out in the Middle East, the average rate was 4.83%, according to Moneyfacts. Someone who took out a £200,000 mortgage with a 25-year term in January would be paying £1,150 a month. But the same homeowner taking out the loan now would be paying £1,239 – an increase of £89 a month, or £1,068 a year. If your mortgage is coming to an end in the coming months, you should start looking for a new deal now. It’s usually worth looking from about six months before your current fixed rate ends. That means you can lock into a good deal early, and if you find a cheaper rate before you have completed then you’re usually able to switch. If you get a deal that’s 0.5% cheaper than the current average, you can save yourself £59 a month or £708 a year. It’s worth talking to a broker as they often have access to better deals and can keep on top of whether something cheaper has come up. You should ideally go for a fixed deal right now, as if you go for a tracker deal your payments will rise if interest rates are increased. Cut your food shop costs – £1,152 You can cut the cost of your food shop with the 6-1 method or by buying yellow-sticker items Credit: Getty Supermarkets are competing hard for customers right now and you can make the most of it. Most shoppers have noticed the cost of their food shops going up dramatically in the last few years. Official figures show food prices rose by a massive 38.6% between November 2020 and November 2025. But you can take advantage of deals to cut your food bill. For example, if you’re over 60 then you can get 10% off your shop at Iceland every Tuesday. If you had a weekly shop worth £75, that means you’d pay £67.50. Over a year, that would save you £390. You can also make use of reduced yellow-sticker items – it’s worth finding out which days and times your local supermarket starts discounting products. How much you can save depends on how often you use the yellow-sticker deals but one man claims he saved £3,400 in a year. You could also try the 6-1 shopping method, which involves buying six vegetables, five fruits, four proteins, three starches, two sauces/spreads, and one treat to create a week’s worth of meals. The idea is that by sticking to this rule, you won’t be tempted to overspend on food and goodies you don’t need. Our reporter Laura McGuire tried this method and it cut her food bill in half – which she estimates could save her £1,152 a year. “I was astonished at how much I had saved,” she said. “If you’re feeling skint just like me, I would definitely recommend giving it a go – even just for a bit.” Comment now