Now that the winter – and the poor weather that accompanies it – has disappeared, you’ll likely be looking to make some cost savings when it comes to your gas and electricity bills. This is easy enough to do with gas as you won’t be using as much of it to heat your home; I actually turn my heating off completely between March and October, choosing to use blankets instead! Electricity usage can be pretty static throughout the year unless you are using it during the winter for electric and room heaters. This makes it slightly harder to reduce your electricity bills, but there are a few tips that you can use to try and knock a few pounds off here and there. Here are my own tips, so let me know if you’ve found them useful…

Turn off the light

With longer days at this point in the year, you’ll find that you need to use room lighting a lot less; sometimes it can just be habit turning them on even when there is plenty of light flooding the room. This is especially true in the morning when you wake up, as well as the evening when you get home from work. Try and encourage this behaviour in your kids too and you might find that you’re suddenly getting cheap electric bills as well as doing your bit for the environment.

Open the window

We all like a way to cool down when the temperature rises. Many of us turn on the air conditioning, or we might instead turn on a ceiling or room fan. It might be stuffy indoors, but consider the conditions outside. If there is actually a breeze – no matter how small – it may actually be more cost effective to simply open the window instead. If you’re able to create a cross-draught, you should cool down in no time.

Eat differently

Summertime is a brilliant time to review what you eat and to try something new. Many of us enjoy barbecues, which would reduce your reliance on your electric oven or microwave – again, reducing your usage and therefore your bill. Then again, you might not even need to cook anything at all if you prefer to eat lighter meals such as salad when the sun is shining. You’ll also find that food takes less time to defrost in the summer, meaning you shouldn’t need to use your microwave to speed up the process.

Change your beauty routine

Another quick change you can make is to adapt your beauty routine. Embrace a new style this summer and quit using your hair straighteners or curling tongs on a day-to-day basis. You may not even need to use your hairdryer if it’s hot enough outdoors!