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Martin's money makeover checklist - 22 ways to save you £2,022(a) in 2022

(a) number made up for effect, many will save far more, many less

Childcare, bills, debt, mobiles, marriage, water, WFH, uniforms, banks, tax, savings, mortgages & more

It's January, bills are coming in, and the cost of living crunch is on. So it's the perfect time to give yourself a pain-free money makeover. Pain-free as it isn't about cutting back (though some may need that too), it's about cutting costs without lifestyle change.

Lynn emailed me last week: "Thank you for your brilliant website. I did the money makeover over the last two days - so far we are saving £1,595 cancelling TV channels and subscriptions and renegotiating a new mobile phone contract for Sim-only. Next job is the weekly shop."

Either take a full day to do it - likely the best paid day of the year for most - or do the big & easy ones now, save this email, and the rest gradually as each bill arrives.

1. Bag a free £150 by switching bank. A few banks PAY new customers to switch. It's easy to do. Within 7 working days they move all direct debits and standing orders for you, close your old account and all payments to it are forwarded. Full info including key eligibility criteria in Best bank accounts. Here are the big payers... 
   
   - HSBC Advance free £150*, the biggest upfront cash.
   - First Direct free £130*, £250 0% overdraft & TOP service.
   - Nationwide's FlexDirect £100 and 1yr 0% overdraft.
   - Virgin Money's 12 bottles of wine* or £150 experience voucher.
   
   
2. On universal credit or tax credits? Help to Save gives an unbeatable 50% boost. There's no savings account like it, it gives a 50% boost on the highest amount you have in over two years. See Help to Save.
   
   
3. Beat Virgin Media's price hikes (similar Sky savings too). Virgin's writing to people announcing it's hiking prices by roughly £56/yr from March. You've 30 days after it tells you to be able to leave penalty-free - a great opportunity to haggle down the price.
   
   I'm delightfully drowning in successes on this, like Bryn's email: "Following Martin's advice to haggle, I rang Virgin. Now saving £35/month - £680 over the 18-month contract. It all helps when you're a pensioner. Thanks." Full help and tips in How to haggle down your cable & satellite bill - similar techniques work for Sky too, when you're at or near your contract's end.
   
   
4. Cut your council tax bill? There are two ways. a) Use my check & challenge system to see if you're in too high a band. b) Check if you're eligible for a discount, eg, if you're the only adult in the home, have a disability or mental impairment, are on a low income, have a carer and more.
   
   
5. Cut ALL debt costs, many to 0%: overdrafts, cards, loans and more. I went through this in step-by-step detail in my Debt cost-cutting masterclass in last week's email, so please read that.
   
   
6. Do your savings pay at least 0.6%? The first thing to do is ask should I pay off my debts or overpay my mortgage with savings? If not and it's paying under 0.6%, move it to where it pays most.
   
   As a minimum, shift it to the Family BS 0.72% AER (min £1,000) no-notice account, but you can only put money in until 7 February. For the top simple account from just £1, it's Goldman-Sachs owned Marcus* at 0.6% AER variable.
   
   Yet you can earn far more if you can lock money away in a 1yr fix at 1.36% or a 2yr fix at 1.62%. Far more info and options in our Top savings and Top cash ISAs guides.
   
   
7. Employee or pensioner? Check your tax code - you could be owed £1,000s. Tax codes are the short number like 1257L that tell employers how much tax to take from you. Millions are wrong each year, and the rules say it's YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to check it's correct (not your employer's or HMRC's). So use our Tax Code Calculator to check if yours is likely right or wrong.
   
   Lesley kindly emailed to tell us: "I read Martin's advice to check your tax code. I'd never bothered to check as I was paid the same each month, but when I looked into it, for the past four years I was on the wrong code. Nice £5,000 refund on its way."
   
   
8. Delve into your Direct Debits and scan your Standing Orders. These two, plus hidden recurring payments (where you give firms permission to take money each month from your debit or credit card) can leave money unwittingly dripping from your bank account. So view now what you're paying, check if you need to or whether you can do it cheaper, and cancel if not. Some recover £100s. Full help in How to do a direct debit audit.
   
   
9. Every mortgage holder check NOW if you can switch and save £1,000s. UK base rates increased to 0.25% in Dec, and with inflation rocketing, more rises are likely this year. Yet the rate of the cheapest new deals hasn't yet rocketed, so it's worth every mortgage holder checking now if they're on the best deal. Our 64-page Remortgage booklet PDF has tons of help, but quickly...
   
   - Check if cheaper rates are available via a mortgage comparison.
   - Ask your existing lender for its cheapest deal.
   - Use our Ultimate Mortgage Calculator to compare deals.
   - Speak to a mortgage broker to find a lender likely to accept you.
   
   As Chris tweeted me in Oct: "@MartinSLewis SUCCESS - completed on our remortgage yesterday. 4.29% down to 1.48% on a 5-year fix. £200 a month saving [£2,400 a year] - all thanks to your advice, we planned ahead with our rate ending and found the best we could get on the market and lined it up ready."
   
   
10. 'Tax-Free Childcare' means a gain of up to £2,000 a year. If you pay for childcare (and work, or are in a couple that both work), then you may be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare, which can substantially cut costs. It's also worth noting if your child is aged 3-4, you're due at least 15 FREE childcare hours a week - depending where you are in the UK.
    
    

11. Want a house one day... put at least £1 in a Lifetime ISA. A Lifetime ISA is a savings account that gives first-time buyers (aged 18-39 on opening), who are buying a sub-£450,000 residential property, a 25% boost - as long as it's been open a year. So open one with £1 now to start the clock - or if you're closer to buying, start putting real money in. Full info in Top Lifetime ISAs.
    
    
12. Employee required to work from home, even for ONE DAY? Join the 2 million+ who've claimed up to £280. The pandemic has meant a new simple, speedy, online claims process. I go through it in detail in my Working-from-home tax back blog.
    
    
13. Grab tax back if you wear a uniform to work (even a branded T-shirt). If you're responsible for washing your uniform, you could claim a uniform tax rebate covering up to five years of expenses.
    
    
14. Can't afford to clear your credit card in full? You can't afford not to check if you can get 0%. A balance transfer credit card lets you shift existing debt to a new card, so you owe it instead, but interest-free. Acceptance is the problem, so spend two minutes on our balance transfer eligibility calculator to see which top cards you're most likely to be accepted for.
    
    Right now, up to 35mths 0% (2.94% fee) is available with Virgin Money*, the longest we've seen since 2018, though it's 21.9% rep APR afterwards, so do ensure you clear it before then. If you can repay quicker, you can beat it with up to 22mths 0% no-fee. Far more help and options in Top balance transfer cards.
    
    
15. Slash broadband & line rental costs to '£12/mth' all-in. Many people are paying £30-£45 a month, yet use our Broadband Unbundled tool and you'll see how much you can cut it to in your area. It's all about short-lived deals. Currently these include...
    
    - 10Mb broadband & line: BT-owned Plusnet equiv '£12/mth'
    - 38Mb fibre broadband & line: Vodafone equiv '£15/mth'
    - 63Mb fibre broadband & line: Shell equiv '£16/mth'
    
    

16. What a Water saving! Some can save £100s. My rule of thumb, for those in England and Wales where water meters are free, is...

    More or the same number of bedrooms in your house than people? Check out if you can save with a meter.

    To do this, use a water meter calculator to see if you'd likely save. As LordSnuff tweeted me: "@MartinSLewis My [annual] bill dropped from around £700 to £250 after fitting the meter." Can't get a meter fitted? You may be able to cut costs with an assessed charge. Full help including freebies in water saving.

17. Breakdown, home start & onward travel for two £54/yr. Newbies going for our long-time pick AutoAid* pay £54 (after £6 auto cashback) for a year's cover for them and their partner if the car's under 16 years old. Similar from the big names is £150+/couple. More options in Cheap breakdown cover.
    
    If you want to stick with the AA/RAC, either go via cashback sites or do a breakdown haggle at renewal. Success rates of those who tried are over 80%, like Joe who emailed: "Thanks for the tips. I'd let my RAC breakdown cover cost slide for a decade. One 20-min call and I saved nearly £200."
    
    
18. Can you halve your mobile bill but keep your signal? If you're out of contract, as nine million people are, just use our Cheapest Sim comparison to see if you can slash the cost, including the ability to filter the best deals that use the same signal as now - many can fill their boots with data for well under £10/mth.
    
    
19. Married or in civil partnership - are you due £1,220? The marriage tax allowance allows a non-taxpaying spouse to shift 10% of their annual tax-free allowance to their basic-rate (20%) taxpaying partner. It's worth £252 this year, and backdating can net a cheque for an extra £970.
    
    As Reva emailed us a few weeks ago: "Just got a cheque for £970.59 from HMRC for backdated marriage tax allowance, I can't thank you enough. It only took about a week for the money to come through, an absolute godsend just before Christmas..."
    
    
20. Can you save £100s on car insurance? New rules ban insurers from charging existing customers renewing more than newbies, but savings are still possible by comparing and switching.
    
    - Diarise 23 days pre-renewal to compare, it can halve your costs.
    - Use as many comparison sites as there's time for, as they search different firms, and do check their perks. Our order's currently: CompareTM*, Confused*, MoneySup* and Goco* (see how we order).
    - More than one car in the house? Will multicar win for you?
    
    As Sylvia emailed: "My car insurance renewal was £615, up nearly £250. Checked the comparison sites which I normally do, but not as early as this, and got it today for £196, plus £145 in vouchers. Thanks Martin." See our full Car insurance cost-cutting system, and Cheap young drivers guide.
    
    PS: Save £100s on home insurance too. It works just like car insurance. See the Cheap home insurance cost-cutting system too.
    
    
21. Use over 12 prescriptions a year? Consider a 'season ticket' to cut costs. Pay for a prescription in England and it costs £9.35 a time. Yet 100,000s could save with an NHS prepay 'season ticket', where you can pay £10.81/mth over 10 months for ALL annual prescriptions.
    
    
22. Had a PPI payout since 2017? Time's ticking to get £100s back in taxes. With successful PPI reclaims, you get what you paid back plus interest, yet the interest has 20% 'savings' tax automatically taken from it (with savings, it's not auto-taken) and as 95% of people needn't pay that, most can reclaim.
    
    As Carly tweeted me: "@MartinSLewis Hi Martin, brilliant show. Just wanted to say thank you for all your advice. Received over £16k in PPI in 2019, then just received another £680 back from tax paid on PPI." See my Reclaim PPI tax blog for help on how to do it.
    

And finally... struggling with serious debt? Get free help ASAP. If you can't meet your minimum repayments OR your debts (not mortgage or student loan) are bigger than a year's after-tax income OR you're having sleepless nights over debt.

Then please go to a free non-profit debt advice agency ASAP (though admittedly they're rammed this time of year), including... Citizens Advice, National Debtline, StepChange, which also runs an online debt advice service or, for emotional counselling too, CAP. Full info in Debt crisis help.

For far more things to save on, see the full Money makeover guide.