How I remind myself about annual bills {and save money}

If you’re anything like us you’ll have annual costs associated with your house that perhaps, if you’re not careful, can cost you extra money.

For example; our current gas and electricity pricing contract comes to an end on March 1st and our very kind utility company wrote to us about 6 weeks ago informing us that they will transfer our payment plan to another one of their ‘offers’ and we don’t have to do a thing……..which would be lovely if it didn’t involve a big price increase!

Now they’re probably hoping that I’ve forgotten this and will have me on some super expensive plan before the sun is even rising on the first day of March.  But little do they know, I have a system to stop this ever happening.

So how do I do it? 

Well to keep us from missing any dates [or renewals] I have all the dates recorded in a Google Calendar; as below. 

This is a screenshot of my calendar using our contract ending Gas and Electricity as an example; the contract is due to change on the 1st March, and my research day for a new price plan is 6 days before, on the 23rd February. On the 23rd I’ll check every price comparison site and get us the best deal. 

You could use a paper calendar just as easily; the important thing is to keep the dates prominent, so that you’re the one in charge of the whole process.

To get started on this system;

1. List all your annual/renewable bills
2. List expiry dates to all the bills
3. Add all these dates to Google Calendar
4. Add the date for research to Google Calendar {I go approx a week before}
5. When adding dates ’edit event details’ and set email reminder as well.

Let me know, what system do you use to track your annual bills? 

For further information on shopping around visit Money Saving Expert {UK}