With 2025 inspiring many to start afresh, renew past goals and set their sights on new ones, it’s a time of planning for a better year ahead.
One of the most popular New Year’s resolutions is to save more money – and with home service charges and energy costs continuing to rise, what better way to do so than to take steps to save money on your utility bills?
Finding ways to cut costs is more important than ever. From bundling services to adopting energy-efficient practices, here are some practical tips to make 2025 your most financially efficient year yet.
1. Assess your current utility costs
The best way to start seeing where you can make more savings is to understand how you’re billed for energy. Costs like tax, VAT, wholesale costs and standing charges (the fixed daily amount your energy supplier charges you) can’t be controlled by you – but the amount of energy you use can.
Wholesale energy prices are what suppliers pay to buy the energy that they sell on to their customers. When wholesale prices change, the unit rate of gas and electricity that suppliers charge their customers often changes too, rising or falling accordingly to account for the change in wholesale prices. Unit rate is the rate a supplier charges per unit or kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity or gas you use. While, again, you can’t control the unit rate, you can control the amount of energy you use.
2. Switch to bundled utility services
With most home services, you have to choose different suppliers and set up different accounts with them. Utility Warehouse (UW) works differently in that they’re a multiservice supplier, and they offer discounts to customers who bundle more than one service with them.
They currently offer gas, electricity, broadband and landline, mobile and insurance, and customers can unlock lower energy tariffs and multi-SIM deals by adding more services to their bundle.
UW also offers a cashback card that’s exclusive to their customers. Cardholders simply use it to pay for anything from their weekly shop to their next holiday, and the cashback earned from each transaction is automatically deducted from the next monthly UW bill, effectively shrinking it.
3. Follow energy-saving tips for 2025
Finding ways to cut down on your energy use is a smart way to reduce your monthly energy bills, and can be as simple as changing a few daily habits. For example, turning lights off in rooms you’re not using, turning your thermostat down by just one degree, and blocking any draughts coming from doors and windows to keep the heat in.
Electronics left plugged in can also be a culprit when it comes to wasting energy – ‘phantom load’, also known as ‘vampire load’ and ‘standby power’, is the small amount of energy that electronics use while plugged in when they’re not on. This includes things like TVs and computers when in standby mode, but also when they’ve been completely switched off. This is why it’s important to switch all electronics off by the mains to prevent them from using this extra little bit of energy – it’s just a small amount wasted, but the cost adds up over time.
4. Leverage technology for better utility management
Thanks to technology and smart tech, managing your energy use is getting easier and easier. Smart thermostats let you adjust your home’s temperature based on your habits and daily schedule or adjust it remotely. For example, rather than having the heating on all day so you don’t come back to a freezing house, you can set it to come on an hour before you get home.
Similarly, smart plugs let you control your home electronics remotely, so you can turn things off when you’re not using them from wherever you are.
Smart meters are also a great way to save energy. While having one won’t automatically reduce your energy bill, the near-real-time energy use insights it gives you can help you have more control over how much energy you use.
Mobile apps like the Utility Warehouse app can also help you keep track of your home services, bills and cashback all in one place.
5. Explore renewable energy options
Setting up your home to generate its own energy can come with a big initial outlay, but can end up paying for itself many times over in the long run. For example, installing solar panels enables you to generate your own electricity, which you can then use alongside your supplier’s energy – meaning you use less of the latter.
Another green energy option that’s becoming more and more popular in the UK is the installation of heat pumps. Heat pumps work by extracting and absorbing heat that’s naturally in the air or ground and pumping it into the home.
Make 2025 a year of savings
With more than just energy bills rising this year, the earlier you can make changes to save money, the better. Every small change you make can potentially add up to hundreds of pounds in savings over time.
If you need more advice on how to save energy at home, you can also take a quick, free assessment on www.gov.uk to show you how to make your home more energy-efficient here.
