Cost of living tips from 5 Live listeners

The cost of living crisis is seeing more and more people looking for money-saving advice ahead of the summer holidays.

Radio 5 Live has been hearing advice and tips from experts on how to reduce your energy bills, make your money go further in supermarkets and how to find an affordable holiday.

Energy bills are growing and becoming “overwhelmingly high” says personal finance journalist Faith Archer.

She recommends calculating your total expenditure for bills, by looking through any bank statements, direct debits and standing orders.

Contracts may offer “wiggle room” with renewals, but Faith says consumers could “pocket a bit of extra cash” by switching suppliers and signing up via a cash-back site.

More and more people have signed up to streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ since the pandemic, but Faith suggests “now is the time to review how many of these services you still use”.

How often do you drive your car? Faith recognises working life may have changed since lockdown, so look at cheaper alternatives to driving.

Car insurance is a “competitive market- never auto renew”.

Lorna Cooper runs a Facebook page aimed at helping parents feed their family for £20 a week, she says it’s important to “ask for help” if you’re struggling.

Her top tips for saving on food bills include planning meals ahead, writing a shopping list, recording how much items cost, eating seasonally, and making your sauces from scratch.

Lorna also recommends checking the price per kilo, as two packets on special offer can sometimes be cheaper than one large bulk-buy packet.

She says if you can’t afford, or don’t think you’ll use up a big packet of something, “share with your friends or family… chip in and buy a big sack of potatoes and then split them up”.

Lorna says it’s important to “ask for help” if you’re struggling to put food on the table and recommends searching for food locally in places like community markets, pantries, foodbanks, organisations, and charities.

Finding an “affordable” holiday doesn’t always mean choosing the cheapest deal available, says travel expert Chelsea Dickenson.

She says saving money on your holiday could mean “moving away from those traditional summer destinations” and instead looking at places like Poland, Germany or even Croatia as cheaper alternatives.

“Your money is going a lot further when you’re going to the places that are less popular,” she says.

Chelsea suggests people use prepaid travel cards while abroad to avoid added fees or losing out on the best exchange rate deal.

For UK staycations, she recommends finding less touristy destinations, adding that people shouldn’t be “afraid to haggle” when using sites like AirBnB so that they get the best deal possible.