Barter and bargain - save £600
We are getting better at haggling in this country. Add that to our increasing love of vouchers and the savings are incredible. The average person saves £50 a month by driving bargains, adding up to £600 a year.

Make your savings work harder - save £310
With interest rates at a historic low, the average instant access account is paying just 0.15% according to the Bank of England.Someone with £10,000 saved could make £310 more in interest a year by moving to a higher paying account - Egg's Savings Account is paying 3.25% on balances of £1 or more.

 

Free Up Money and feel the difference

TIP 4. Open a new current account - save £115
If like millions of others, you've not moved your current account for years, you'll probably be earning little, if any, interest. Yet you could earn as much as 6.0% - pretty impressive, given the Bank of England base rate is just 0.5%. Alliance & Leicester's (A&L) Premier Direct account is paying a rate of 6.0%, fixed for 12 months, on balances up to £2,500. So, if you have a balance of £1,500 in a Barclays standard account paying no interest at all and shifted it to the Premier Direct Current Account, you'd be £90 richer a year. If you then recommend a friend and they open an account, A&L will give you both £25, pushing your gains up to £115. Another option would be to switch your current account to the 1st Account from First Direct using its Easyswitch service. Pay in at least £1,500 a month for half a year and it will reward you with £100 - First Direct doesn't pay interest on current account balances though, so this is a one-off gain. next tip.

 

Turn the thermostat down a notch - save £65
We're not suggesting you freeze, but when you put the heating on again in the coming months turn the thermostat down by just one degree centigrade- the Energy Saving Trust reckons you could save as much as £65 a year.