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We’re set to see our water bills rise by an average of £8 a year from 1st April so here’s my five easy ways to save money.

Switch to a meter 

If you don’t have one, you could save around £100 a year switching according to the Consumer Council for Water   As a rough guide, if you’ve got more bedrooms than people in your property, you’re more likely to save.

And good news is, if you switch and don’t find bills are cheaper, you can switch back for free.

Fish for freebies

Lots of water companies offer free water saving packs with gadgets to reduce the amount of water used when you flush the loo.  Have a chat with your water company to see what’s on offer.

Go green

Use the ‘eco’ cycle on your dishwasher or washing machine to use less water and try and wait till you’ve got a full load.

Jump in the shower 

Swap baths for showers.  A quick shower uses half the amount of water and saves around £50 a year if you’re on a meter.

Sign up to WaterSure

This caps bills if you’re on a meter, claim certain benefits and need lots of water due to medical conditions or if you’ve got a large family.  Contact your water supplier for details.

There’s been a big debate over the last few days over whether we’ll end up being a ‘cashless’ society.

And in an age where we can wave a card to pay for our daily take out coffee, cough up by phone or punch in a ‘PIN’ number do we really need to carry the folding stuff any more?

Well I say yes.  And carrying cash can save you money too!

Here’s my latest piece for LoveMONEY  on why I always carry cash

Dining out on Valentine’s Day may not be great for your bank balance, as you can’t whip out any of the usual vouchers, deals or discounts to knock down the bill.

But there are some offers on the table and  I’ve been checking out the Valentine’s menu from Bella Italia which can be a real moneysaver.

3 courses with fizz for under £20

Bella is serving up a 3 course menu with a glass of fizz for £19.99 on its Valentine’s menu.  For that you get a choice of 5 starters, 6 mains and 4 desserts, which includes a mix of some of the classic Italian dishes that are also on the main menu along with a few new ones that come with a romantic twist.

I’ve done the sums and dining out this way can save you over £10 compared with  standard menu prices.

Plus it’s not just available on Valentine’s Day, as you can snap up this deal from Saturday 9th February through to Sunday 17th.

What’s on the menu?

As well as some of its regular dishes, there’s also specials like heart shaped Ravioli Amore, (stuffed with spinach and ricotta and drizzled with Sicilian red pesto), or heart shaped Bruschetta,  (loaded with red peppers, onions and crumbled goats cheese), and a fabulous looking sharing dessert board.

How the savings stack up

Obviously the Valentine’s menu is a fixed price so I’ve done my sums based on the price of some of some dishes that appear on both the Valentine’s and  standard menu.

Most starters cost around £6, including Calamari and Chicken Wings, which are both options on the Valentine’s menu.

Mains are usually around £12 upwards and once again there’s a couple of the standard menu classics like Pollo Funghi, (grilled chicken breast with creamy mushroom sauce), and Polpette Americano, (spaghetti & meatballs in a spicy sauce), on the Valentines’s menu.

Desserts come in at around £6 a pop on the usual menu including Tiramisu, usually £5.99 and Sicilian Lemon Cheesecake, usually £6.19, that are also on the Valentine’s Menu along with a special ‘Quattro Dolcetti’ sharing board, (pictured  on the right!) , which is for two people.

So tot up your 3 course meal and by the time you add in a glass of fizz, (standard price £5.99 for 125mls), you’re looking at over £30 for three courses with fizz so worth going for the deal at under £20!

Black Friday ‘deals’ kicked off last week with the likes of Amazon and Argos fighting to be first in the queue and now most of the big high street names are setting out their stalls.

There’s so much retailer hype surrounding this annual event, it can be hard to spot a genuine bargain.  And while the stores are eager to whip us up into a mad spending frenzy, as I was saying on Sky News on Saturday morning, Black Friday isn’t the only day, or week, of the year you can save money.

In fact two separate bits of research from both the consumer group Which? and the price comparison site Idealo claim 9 out of 10 items are actually cheaper to buy at other times of the year.

So if you’re still tempted to go bargain hunting on Black Friday, here’s my top tips to get the best price you can..

Don’t panic!  Black Friday isn’t a ‘once in a lifetime’ chance to save money.   Sales, promotions, deals and discounts happen at other times of the year.

Be prepared.  Do your homework.  If there’s something specific you want, like a new camera, shop around now to compare prices.  This way you know the deal to beat.

Be first in the queue.  Sign up to your favourite websites or stores for email alerts about what’s on offer and when.

Use Amazon’s handy ‘price tracker’ tool.  This is a great trick as it tracks prices all year round so just pop in what you want and this way you can check if today’s deal really does mean the best price.

Stockpile vouchers.  Most can’t be used on reduced items, but you may find a glitch at the online checkout to get ‘double discount’.

Check returns policies before shelling out.   This way if you regret any impulse buys, you may be able to get your money back.

Don’t eat your savings!   If you save £50 but spend all day on the high street and rack up £30 in car parking, coffees, cake and lunch to keep you going, is it really worth it?

I read a great blog recently on why meetings can be tough to tackle on the BBC Business website 

Everything from colleagues bursting in late, to nothing being decided, (think  classic ‘W1A’ BBC comedy for this!),  or endless handouts being passed round,  are all bound to have you snoozing in your seat.

And I’ve one more to add to the list……eating at meetings!

If there’s free food on offer in the form of bacon butties at a breakfast meeting or a buffet spread at a lunch meeting, then it can be tempting to pop along on the chance of getting a free feed, especially if you’re on a tight budget.

But do munching and meetings really mix?

I never munch at meetings

However amazing the spread on offer, when it comes to munching at meetings, I make a rule that I never eat.

Let’s be honest, there’s nothing worse than thinking you can take a big bite of a sandwich during a quiet moment, only to find the attention’s suddenly back on you and everyone’s waiting for you to speak!

Frantically trying to gulp down a huge mouthful of sandwich is never a good look quite frankly.  After all who could forget the classic Ed Miliband bacon sandwich eating incident a few years ago?

A ‘working’ sandwich

I was once invited to one of these.  Last time I looked, sandwiches certainly didn’t do much in the way of work, but it was ‘PR’ speak for a casual lunchtime meeting.

I was invited along as I was about to work on a media campaign with one of the company’s clients and we were chatting over the final details.  

Learnt my lesson that day as no sooner had I decided it was safe to tuck into a sandwich, than someone decided to ask me a couple of questions.  So cue much hand waving, silence around the table along with world record breaking eating!

Since then I’ve adopted the ‘no eating’ rule which seems to work quite well, though can mean you miss out at times.

Goodbye to afternoon tea

On another occasion I spent an hour hosting a round table event one afternoon with the most amazing spread of cakes and scones laid out over the table.  During the event I could see people around the table starting to tuck in, and the cake display rapidly diminishing.

Ok so I had been told that the event was very informal, but still, let’s be honest, being caught with jam and cream round your face after diving into an overfilled scone is never a good look, however informal the event!

So liquid lunches all round for me at meetings from now on………

Missed the Budget?  Still scratching your head over what it all means for the pound in your pocket?

Here’s my one minute guide to five things I’ve pulled out that’ll make a difference…..

You’ll pay less tax from April

Right now you can earn £11,850 a year before the tax office take a bite.

But from next April you’ll be able to earn £12,500 before paying a penny in income tax.  Means an extra £130 a year in your pocket.

And for higher rate tax payers, from April, you’ll be able to earn £50,000, (instead of £46,350), before the 40% tax rate kicks in.

Beer, cider and spirits frozen

Duty is frozen on this little cocktail of drinks but expect to pay a few pence more on a bottle of wine.

Pump prices

Fuel duty is frozen for the 9th year in a row so you won’t pay more at the pump.

But of course with the competition out there, it doesn’t mean prices will stay the same and you’ll still need to shop around for the best price.

Save on car repairs

Ok so the £420 million the Chancellor’s setting aside to cover sorting out the nation’s potholes won’t go directly in your pocket.

But, if the roads get fixed, (and clearly this won’t be overnight!), then it could well save you money on tyres and car repairs.

Cheaper premium bonds

Savings rates are still pretty pants, so you may well be tempted to stash  your cash in Premium Bonds for a chance to win a million.  And if you needed more persuasion then any winnings are tax free!

£100 was the minimum you could put in, but yesterday the Chancellor slashed that to £25.

Have I missed anything out?

This is just a very quick look at the stuff you might want to know instantly.

But of course there was an awful lot of other promises including money for the NHS, Air Ambulance, money for schools and more, plus help for the high street with a third off business rates for small businesses and money to help implement Universal Credit…..

I’ve just waved goodbye to Vodafone.  Regular billing problems coupled with the fact they couldn’t come close to competing on the best deal I’d found all contributed to the breakdown of our relationship.

To be fair to Vodafone, the one person in the company who does get problems sorted promptly is their chief executive, or one of his team.  When I’ve got fed up with Vodafone’s customer service I’ve mailed their chief exec direct, after finding his contact details on this wonderful website which shares names and emails of heaps of top company bods.    Once I’ve mailed things always seem to be sorted on a very speedy basis.

The sums don’t add up

One problem I’ve found is that whatever deal you agree, it never seems to tally with what’s on your bill, so last time round I took to asking for text confirmation of the deal as proof of what we’d agreed.

So it wasn’t without a smile on my face that I rang Vodafone’s ‘disconnections’ department to finally pull the plug as I’m now happily out of contract.

Told them I was leaving as I was unhappy with the service and got my ‘PAC’ code to transfer my number,

Just let me go…….

But despite being elusive and hard to get hold of when I’d had problems, Vodafone took to mounting a ‘Keep the Customer’ campaign with several phone calls.  Missed them both, but traced them back to Vodafone plus a further email sharing the neews that they now had a ‘better’ plan for me.

If ever I needed proof that Vodafone can’t do its sums, this is it.   The ‘deal’ they  were offering was twice the price I was paying before I left, but not for double the data or anything else.  In fact it’s a worse deal in terms of what I’d get for my money than the one I was on before deciding to switch.

Funny enough Vodafone’s email tells me that they’ll ‘transfer’ me on to this new deal by August; so good luck with that as I’ve already left and taken my phone number with me!   So that’s a double no thanks Vodafone and goodbye……..