How to Save Money as a Renter?

We all become happy when we move to a new place and buy an apartment especially for those people who are moving for work to big cities, renting is the preferred way of living for them. Living in a rented house or apartment is very difficult and you face many problems especially if you are a student or working person. When you are renting for first time you need to make plans on how to manage your budgets and how to live within the budget. There are many ways through which you can reduce your cost of living, simple rent negotiation or less use of the thermostat can help you reduce the cost. So, it is the time to limit your budgets and start looking for the ways to cut your spending.

 

1. Location

Location is one of the important factor to keep in mind when you are looking for a rental property. Consider about the fact that how much you would have to travel from your house to your workplace or university. Is your office, university or the supermarkets near the rented property? Because cutting down transport costs is one of the best ways to save money. It is even better when your office or school is close so you can easily walk or use cycle to reach office. If you are far away from all these things then living in a cheaper property would not work for you because you would have to pay more for the transport.

If you rented already then think about the ways from which you can save money. So, location is very important so try to find the one that will reduce your cost.

 

2. Rent Negotiation

Before renting a house, you must do negotiation. Whether your apartment is out of your price range or your landlord is asking for a higher price, you should ask for rent negotiation. If your landlord is not reducing your rent, then ask him to fix a rent for two to three years this will reduce your bills and landlord will not be able to increase the rent annually.

If you are hit by a job loss or your income is reduced then you should talk to your landlord about that so that he could offer you something. If you are able to explain your problem clearly, your landlord will give you a relief. This goes the same for the Corona pandemic, you should ask your landlord to not to take the monthly rent and also to reduce the rent for a longer period of time, so that you could get back on track.

You can start negotiating your rent by understanding the intentions of your landlord and positioning your offer in a better way that will benefits you and the landlord.

 

3. Try to Reduce Energy Bills

As you moved to your new apartment paying your own energy bills costs a lot. So you need to find ways to reduce your energy bills.

Shop for the cheapest energy and gas suppliers if the utility bills are on your name or if not then help the landlord to find the cheapest service provider.

After that follow the advices bellow to reduce your energy cost, try to watch less TV and stop forgetting to turn off the lights when you leave your room. Keep your thermostat at auto so that it can automatically turn on and off.

Try to switch to devices that consume less electricity like the LEDs, although these devices are expensive upfront but they amount of money that you can save from them is much more than you think.

Laundry expenses are also one of the important expense of a home, to reduce the laundry cost, reduce the number of laundry days and only wash cloths when you have full cabin of cloths to wash.

Insulating water tank can save heat energy that escapes, so you can ask your landlord for this. If you will not do that then you will be paying £15 to £20 extra. So, by insulating your tank you can save a lot of money over years.

Another amazing tip for you is that you can get a free boiler if you are a renter and have a low income, many communities have this scheme where they grant renters free boilers if the boiler is 7 years old and the best part is that the landlord doesn’t have to pay for that. Although you will need permission from the landlord about the replacement.

 

4. Save Water

Saving water is good for your community and your budget. By simply using water saving device you can save money. This can save a lot of water and help in reducing your bills. Certainly your water supplier is the place to get free water saving devices and you can simply ask them to get the devices for free.

You can request a water meter from your landlord. Water meters are good for one to two people but not for a big family which uses a lot of water. You could be able to save hundreds of pounds over a year by using a water meter.

 

5. Find A Roommate

One of the easiest ways to save money is to find a roommate with you. There are many pros of this but the best one is that you can split your rent in to half. Check your agreement that whether you are allowed to share your room with someone else or not and if you can then go for it, this can increase the cost of utility bills but as they will be divided among two, so they reduce gradually.

If you are not allowed to keep a roommate then ask your landlord about this. Make sure you keep your liabilities different from your roommates so that you won’t face any issue in the future.

 

6. Tenant Insurance

The insurance designed for the renters is commonly known as Tenant Insurance. If you are renting a house or a flat for the first time, then you must know about it. Tenants insurance helps you pay for any accidental damage caused by fire or theft. It is another way for renter to save cash. Tenant Insurance protect their personal property if it gets damaged. Landlord have their own personal insurance to protect their building, but that insurance does not belong to tenants.

Just like any other insurance, tenant insurance also have different plan and packages for a person, so shop around and find the one which is the best for you and like other insurances do not go for auto-insurance and always shop around to find the cheapest one.

 

7. TV licence

If you are watching a TV alone in your own rented space than you must have a TV licence. Those people who share their house has a setup where the renter has its own space where he or she can have their own TV. Incase you have your own rented space where you can watch TV, then first think about that whether you really need a license or not? Because many a times a laptop and a Netflix subscription can be a better alternative. So if you have a TV license that you does not use, then you should think about losing that.

 

8. Share Your Subscriptions and Memberships

We all have subscriptions like Spotify, Hello Fresh, Amazon Prime or Netflix. The best way of saving money on these accounts is to share them with your roommate or someone else residing near you. This will simply reduce the cost of all these subscription and almost all these companies allow you to share these subscription with one or two persons, so you can simply reduce the cost by finding a partner.

 

9. Buy in Bulk

Buying in bulk is a simple trick that can help you save some euro on the things you use daily. If you have space to store some items then you should be looking for the items that can be stored for a longer time. Many a times, when you buy an item in bulk, you can simply reduce the cost of it. Sometimes, the item you use the most is on sale, so at that you should go for buying in bulk. But always remember, you should not be going for the things that you cannot store because in that way you will end up losing your money.

 

10. Improve your Credit Score While you are a Tenant

As a renter, many people have a plan to buy their own house and if you have a good credit score you can get a lower mortgage rate. A good credit score have many benefits and there are ways through which you can improve your score as a renter. CreditLadder is one of the company that will help you in this regard. This company will collect your rent every month and then they will transfer the rent to the landlord. As you will pay on time, they will mark that as an on time payment and send it to the concerned bureaus. This will help you get a lower interest rate when you will apply for a mortgage in future.

 

11. Get Free Furniture or Buy it Cheaply

When you move to new place you want new furniture and it can cost a lot. However, you do not need to to buy expensive new furniture as there are many ways through which you can buy the furniture for a lower price or could get it for free.

You can use different apps like Freecycle, NextDoor App and gumtree. These apps can help you get free furniture or at a lower cost. You can use that for now and if you are ok with it, you can simply shift that furniture to your own home.

 

12. Save on Council Tax Band

There is something that you need to know about your property Council Tax and that is that your Council Tax Band was based on the evaluation made in 1991 and the evaluation team did not accessed each house. So there are chances that you will be paying more than your property’s worth. So first thing you need to do is that you should evaluate what others are paying around you and what you are paying and if you think that you are paying than you can challenge the council. But for this, you will have to be a resident of the house for at least 6 months and the permission of the home owner.

To find out what are the council tax rates, use the Government Online checker tool and I have told the second method above that you will also have to ask your neighbours about it. After you have accessed about the property tax, then you can challenge the council but you cannot do it directly, you will first have to apply for Valuation Office Agency. You need to have all the information that will be required and after that you have to wait for a decision but keep in mind if your property is worth more tax, then you will have to pay more.