North West

The average person in the UK could give themselves a massive 25% pay rise just by being more savvy, and not cutting back their lifestyle.

This isn’t about giving up cappuccinos or buying value bog roll, it’s about systematically working through all bills and products to ensure that you’ve the best deal on everything.

Food shopping can eat into your budget.

The first step to overhauling your finances is to accurately assess your spending. To calculate your genuine annual income and find out exactly how much more you spend than you earn, use my Budget Planner.

Then, once you know where your finances stand, you can work out how robust your savings must be.

Money saving is about cutting your bills without cutting back – changing your finances not your life.

Yet if after that, you’re still spending beyond your means, cutting back your lifestyle may be necessary too.

These are just the tip of the iceberg, but here are my starter suggestions for quick savings with big payoffs...

Cut existing credit card debts with a balance transfer

Do you have credit or store card debts? Shifting them to a new 'balance transfer' card can save you hundreds or thousands of pounds.

This is where one credit card repays debts on other credit or store cards, so you now owe it the money instead, hopefully at a special cheap rate.

Check 'n' challenge your council tax band

If you live in England or Scotland, your council tax banding is based on a flawed system and you may have overpaid thousands without knowing it.

To grab a rebate, simply check if you're in too high a band, and if you are, challenge it. Many have had their bands lowered and got backdated rebates of thousands of pounds.

Slash £1,000s off your supermarket shopping bill

As a nation we’ve been hypnotised into thinking that things fall into four different brand levels - no frills/value; supermarket own brand; mainstream; and premium.

Yet, the next time you shop, do the "downshift challenge" - swap one of everything to something just one brand level lower. Drop a brand level on everything, and the overall price drops by a third – yet most people only notice the different on half the products.

Find your cheapest gas and electricity - and get £30 cashback

It only takes five minutes to compare energy providers, find the cheapest and switch, possibly saving hundreds of pounds.

Watch your energy costs.

Plus the scale of consumer power has forced a price war - if you switch through to a special link, they’ll pay up to £30 cashback or give you a crate of wine.

Speedily find your cheapest car insurance and get cashback

Whether you’re at renewal or not, you can sever the cost of your car insurance in 10 minutes, possibly to under £100.

The trick is to harness every web comparison service in the correct order, massively increasing the number of quotes, and then sneakily get cashback on top.

One money saver managed to get his car insurance for a tiny £26 this year.