Saving money isn't the easiest thing to do when you have a family, mounting debt and bills to pay and although I am by no means some sort of money saving expert, I am however savvy enough to realize that making cutbacks and paring back on unnecessary spending is one of the most helpful things you can do if you have money problems. Now unless you are a Banker or Politician I would think that almost everyone, within reason will have some sort of money issues whether its not being able to find an extra 10k to get the next buy to let property or more likely, not being able to find enough money to cover all the bills at the end of the month out of a decreasing pay packet.

Its a sad fact that between the state of the economy and the necessity for food, electric, water, heating, etc, etc British households are becoming more and more reliant on finding ways to save money in order to get by, whether thats by making cutbacks on luxuries such as smoking and eating out or absolute requirements such as electricity and water.  If you are in any way having issues making payments at the end of the month then you need to be taking  look at on what and where you can make cutbacks and save money, even if its just a few pounds.  How does the old saying go -"look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves"

Utilities:
Since the privatization of the energy industry in 1996 the market has opened up , offering the consumer more choices when it comes to picking their energy supplier.  In terms of saving money, changing supplier doesn't save you a fortune but any savings made when you are in financial difficulty are a godsend. The type of saving made, although not huge can still be as much as 150GBP a year. Comparison sites such as www.uswitchcom are the best choice when looking to compare energy companies.  They also offer the chance to sign up through the site, a one stop shop, as it were.

Water:
The next thing to look at when making considerations on where to save money, would be the water bill.  Water bills are one of the largest a household can expect so if you can make savings somewhere, it can most definitely be appreciated.  One of the ways to do this is to get a water meter fixed although the rule of thumb when checking if it would be a viable saving is, if there are more bedrooms in your property than people its worth looking into.  With a water meter you are literally just paying for the amount of water used rather than paying a standing charge based on the 'rateable value' of the property and it is surprising how much can be saved for some households, between 58GBP and 104GBP in some cases.

Telephone and broadband:
Almost every modern household now has a telephone line, if not for the telephone itself then for broadband usage.  Its the same as everything, its worth shopping around to get the best deal.  Companies are fighting for your custom out there and they are jumping all over each other to offer the cheapest, fastest and best value deals.  There are packages that can be tailored to your individual usage dependent on which you use more of and its worthwhile taking a look at your quarterly bill to see if it cheaper to pay by direct debit say, or whether it would be better to switch from one provider to another.  The actual switching process is painless and quick now and what you might find is that your current company offer you a more competitive package to retain your custom, therefore saving you some money in any case.

These are just three of the things to consider that could save you up to 300GBP or more a year in some cases.  Any savings you can make when experiencing debt issues or money problems are not to be sniffed at and 300GBP a year is not by any means, a drop in the ocean and is money that could be used elsewhere or even saved.