Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

Martin's 19 Green MoneySaving tips, incl
Free water-saving gadgets | Get paid to recycle | Are solar panels worth it? | Green savings | £5,000 boiler cash | Easy ways to cut energy use | Plant a tree with your ears
It's a Greta read...

It's not as easy as it was to go green. The energy crisis has put paid to some key routes. Yet as the UN climate change conference COP26 is on, I wanted to try.

The team and I have been putting our (green) thinking caps on. Our prime focus is easy change where cash and planet saving intersect. Yet while sometimes going green saves you money, there are times the two conflict. The ecologically sound options can sometimes be costly and involve lifestyle sacrifice.

So the list is far from an exhaustive one. Issues such as whether you fly, what you eat, and whether you over-buy imported consumables all matter too. Yet I'll stick within our consumer finance expertise and leave hardcore eco-change to those who specialise in it.

After all, what defines green is far from clear-cut. There are a myriad of factors, so ultimately this isn't about preaching, it's about options. The judgement and choice must be yours.

1. Free water and energy-saving gadgets (£20 shower heads, £5 tap inserts). Reducing water usage can cut bills for those on water meters, help the environment, and crucially reduce energy costs too, as when you use less water you usually heat less water.
   
   Currently, there are over 600,000 free water-saving gadgets available from water firms. What you can get depends on where you live - see free water-saving gadgets.
   
   And if you're not on a water meter, you can get one fitted for free in England & Wales. Some - especially in homes with fewer residents than bedrooms - can save large. See water meter calc to see if you can save, like John who tweeted: "@MartinSLewis We're saving around £500 a year, wish we'd done it years ago."
   
   
2. Get 'PAID' to recycle old clothes, make-up and more. Many high street stores now offer incentives for recycling their old clothes and beauty containers - from £5 for old clothes, to 'free' MAC lipsticks and more. See our Recycling rewards list.
   
   
3. The new NS&I Green Savings Bond is best of breed, but only for those who want green trousers, as the rate is pants. The Chancellor's new NS&I Green Savings Bond lets you save £100 to £100,000, and the money funds green projects. It sounds a great idea, yet we've now learnt it pays just an annual 0.65% and you must lock the money away for 3yrs.
   
   As straight savings, that's weak. Even the top easy-access account from Cynergy Bank at 0.66% AER variable pays more, and big-name, Goldman Sachs-owned Marcus* pays 0.6% AER variable - only a fraction less. And, if you're willing to lock cash away for three years, you can almost treble the Green Bond rate with JN Bank's 1.81% AER (min £1k). All these have the full UK £85,000 savings safety protection.
   
   So if interest is your core focus, the Green Bond is likely a no-go. Though those with huge amounts of long-term savings using NS&I for safety may want to use it, as it has higher rates than NS&I's alternative accounts.
   
   If green is your main focus, then the NS&I bond does reasonably well. Ecology BS 0.8% AER regular saver (min £25) may beat it (the society uses savers' cash entirely for sustainable purposes), but you can only put up to £3,000/yr in.
   
   There's also Triodos Bank's 1yr 0.4% AER fix (min £500). It pays less, but you lock in shorter. These two are the only savings providers to score more than 15/20 on Ethical Consumer's ratings (though green credentials only make up part of this rating). More analysis and options in our Green savings guide.
   
   
4. Buy a £1 reusable cup to get up to 50p off Pret & Starbucks drinks EVERY time. Of course, filling a kettle (making no more than you need) and using a flask is cheaper and better. Yet if you like a barista brew, our coffee cup trick info shows where to get the cheapest cups and what you'll save.
   
   
5. Sadly, if you're not already on green energy, the energy crisis means you'll need to pay a shed load to switch to it. Over the last few years, it's been easy to switch to a green energy tariff and slash bills. Sadly, the energy crisis has mostly kiboshed that.
   
   Regular MoneySavers will know my current energy mantra is DO NOTHING, as that means you'll either be on, or auto-moved to, your provider's price-capped standard variable tariff, where it's forced to sell you energy below its cost price - there's nowt cheaper.
   
   Thankfully, some of the big names do offer 100% renewable electricity on their standard variable tariffs - E.on (incl E.on Next), Octopus and Ovo do, while British Gas and EDF say they're 100% zero carbon (meaning some / all is nuclear generated). Scottish Power and SSE don't. None of these offer renewable or even offset gas.
   
   Yet actually the definitions of green energy are murky. Firms can claim to be green by trading off green certificates, rather than by generating energy from renewables.
   
   To go closer to true green on gas & electricity, the lowest-priced switchable tariff would be Green Energy UK's (GEUK) 16mth fix (link goes to our 100% renewable elec comparison, you might need to scroll to find it). Yet that is at a huge 40% premium to the price cap - £500/yr extra for someone with typical use. More info in our Green energy guide. MSE UPDATE 4PM THU: GEUK has pulled the tariff above. Its cheapest deal is now fixed for 22mths, but is a typical £900/yr above the price cap.
   
   
6. Refill your water bottle for free. An app shows which cafés, shops etc let you fill up your bottle for free.
   
   
7. Solar panels - are they worth it? It's a big answer, so COMING NEXT WEEK... we're working on our full, updated, very detailed 'Are solar panels worth it?' guide. Here are our preliminary thoughts, but much more to come...
   
   The good news is panel prices have dropped a touch over the years, from over £6,000 for a decent-sized 3kW system eight years ago, to under £5,000 now. Plus with high energy prices, the benefit of using your panel's power and not paying the grid for it is increasing.
   
   However, the other reward for having panels has fallen rapidly. The old feed-in-tariff (FIT) scheme paid a (generous in the early years) rate locked in for 20 years from when you started for all the electricity you generate, even if you used it yourself.
   
   That's been replaced by the smart export guarantee (SEG) scheme, where you're only paid for the energy you don't use and pump back to the grid.
   
   Yet you're better off to set appliance timers so you use up what you generate. You pay around 21p/kWh for electricity on a price-capped tariff - but only earn up to 5.5p/kWh from big firms for supplying for the grid (in the very early days, the FIT payout was many times this).
   
   Taken all together, the payback time for panels, depending on where you are and where your home is, is 15 to 30 years. There will be more on that, your rights and what if you move house in the guide next week.
   
   
8. Go 'paperless' with bills and bank statements - use less paper, pay less too. Switching to online-only communications often reduces your bill (eg, BT broadband is £3/bill cheaper), plus the very cheapest deals across a range of sectors are often online-only.
   
   

   Easy ways to use less energy at home Cutting energy costs isn't just about cheaper tariffs, which are tough to find right now anyway, it's about using less too. So see if any of these suit (savings based on someone with typical use): - Turn your thermostat down. The easiest thing to do on this list. For each degree you cut the thermostat, expect to cut bills by 4%-ish, so £55/yr. Try it and see how it feels. - Fit a water-saving shower head. Free ones are available - see point 1 above. For a family having 20 showers a week, it's a 2%-ish saving, so £30/yr. - Don't assume all energy-saving light bulbs are equal. LED uses about half the energy of the bigger fluorescent spiral 'energy-saving bulbs'. Obviously turning 'em off when you're not in the room helps too. - Turn draught detective. Walk round your home spotting window and door draughts. You can even make your own sausage dog draft excluder. Decent draught-proofing can cut 2% off energy bills, so £25/yr. This applies to chimneys too, where you can get a 1.5% further reduction. - Cut your shower time. For each minute less in the shower, a four-person household could save 2%, so £30/yr. Some MoneySavers even turn the water off to lather and back on to rinse. - Wash more clothes less. Try to do one fewer load a week and make sure you fill it up each time. The savings aren't huge, around £8/yr for modern machines, but can be much more with old ones. - Think 'how many cuppas am I making?' Be conscious about this when filling the kettle, so you don't over-fill. - Standby isn't the problem it used to be. It's EU law that TVs and other devices made since 2013 can't use more than 0.5 watts in standby mode. To show the scale of it, a TV watched 4hrs a day would cost 77p/yr in standby. Switching off is better, but it isn't quite the issue it was. - Use radiator thermostats. Installing thermostatic radiator valves and using them with your thermostat allows you to control temperature room by room, and could save you almost 6%, so £75/yr, although an initial outlay is needed.

   
   
9. Old mobiles can be noxious - get paid to recycle yours, eg, £150 for an iPhone 8. If your phone is still usable and you're out of contract, don't upgrade, use our Cheap Sim Finder to find what Sim-only package you can get to keep it super-cheap and best for the environment.
   
   Yet if you've moved on to a newer, younger model, there are sound environmental reasons to recycle your old mobile handsets, given there are potentially noxious substances as they decay.
   
   You could pop the handset on eBay, or for ease, use one of the dozen mobile phone-buying companies out there. To find the best payer, there are comparison sites including Sell My Mobile*, Compare My Mobile* and Compare and Recycle - use at least a couple for the widest possible search.
   
   Payment is usually promised via bank transfer within one day of it receiving your phone. If something goes wrong, sadly you've little protection, so do check reviews first. More info in our Recycle my mobile guide.
   
   
10. Free loft and cavity wall insulation for some - worth up to £1,000. If someone in your household receives benefits including universal credit, pension credit, carer's allowance or disability living allowance, then there are firms that may provide totally free insulation to homeowners and those in rental properties.
    
    Do check it's right for your home though. There are a few horror stories of major damp and mould problems emerging after poor or inappropriate installation (more info in the link).
    
    
11. Return excess plastic bags for 10p each. Two big online supermarkets, Morrisons and Ocado, reduce your bill by 10p for each bag of theirs you return (Ocado will also recycle other brands' bags). So if you've a cupboard full of bags you don't reuse, hand them back for a discount off your grocery order.
    
    

12. Homeowners: get prepared to apply for £5,000 towards replacing boilers with low-carbon heat pumps (Eng & Wales). A new scheme is designed to help cover some of the costs of installing low-carbon heating. The main example being efficient air-sourced heat pumps, which use heat energy from outside (even when cold) and compressor tech to bring it into your home.
    
    It starts in April 2022, and is capped at 30,000 homes, so early prep should help your chances of securing it if it's right for you. More details in our £5,000 heating grant scheme news story, and see other energy-saving grants.

13. Know the difference between 'use-by' and 'best-before' dates to cut food waste. Around 7m tonnes of food are thrown away each year in the UK. Many wrongly chuck food that's still edible, due to misunderstanding the difference between best-before and use-by dates.
    
    - Use-by is a health issue. Don't eat anything beyond that date, as it's risky, even if it looks and smells fine, so it's best to bin.
    
    - Best-before is just the manufacturer's view of when it's no longer at its optimum quality. Use your eyes and nose to check if it's safe to consume. In fact, there are beyond best-before online shops which offer substantial savings.
    
    

14. Use giveaway sites to nab free sofas, coffee makers & more. Giveaway sites such as Freecycle and Freegle can be a great way to recycle unwanted items, as well as save some cash. Our Freecycle and Freegle guide shows you how to furnish your home and bag the best items, as well as give away your own goods to a good home.
    
    It paid off for Andrew, who tweeted: "@MoneySavingExp I got a perfectly decent set of golf clubs on the Oxford Freecycle group." Sadly though, there's no one on Freecycle who can take shots for you to improve your round (I've checked).

15. Yes... a smart meter is usually a good idea. I've long stopped being surprised about people worried that fitting a smart meter will 'cost me more'. I think much of this is based on a confusion.
    
    A smart meter lets you monitor your energy usage up to the minute, and this helps you realise where you're overspending - making it easier to reduce your usage. It also automates meter readings for you, saving you time. See Smart meters pros and cons.
    
    I was one of those who railed about the shambolic, rushed, initial roll-out of smart meters that wasted billions installing meters too soon, so that when people switched, they reverted to being dumb meters. The unnecessary cost was added to all our bills. My suspicion is many translated this into 'smart meters will cost me'.
    
    Yet as an individual, the meters are free for most, and you're paying collectively for them whether you get one or not. Thankfully, all new models fitted now stay smart when you switch.
    
    While, like anything, smart meters and their installation are far from faultless, most feedback I usually get is, on balance, positive, and in a quick Twitter poll I did, about a third said they help reduce bills.
    

16. Drive less, cycle more... The average length of a car journey in the UK is 8.4 miles. Think before you get behind the wheel - could you walk, cycle or use public transport instead? Do see our 12 MoneySaving tips for cyclists, which can help cut the costs.
    
    Or if you're a glutton for punishment like me, take the 10,000 steps a day challenge and walk everywhere. I do it more for health, mental health and obsession than to be green, but it helps. Yesterday I hit five years since I last missed 10,000 steps a day, even with operations, lockdown and sickness. I've done 44,900,000 steps since, averaging 24,600 a day.

17. You can help the green cause via your investments and especially pension. Investing isn't my bag, so I won't (and indeed can't) tell you where to put your funds. Yet to create change, money talks, so if you have investments, and feel a passion for environment issues, doing research to ensure your money isn't going to firms that harm the environment can work.
    
    This is also crucial with your pension. Most people are passive with their pensions, but pension funds decide where trillions of pounds go, so putting pressure on yours has an impact. If that interests you, the MakeMyMoneyMatter campaign has information on how to do just that.

18. Got an electric vehicle (EV)? Is a specialist tariff worth it? Running an EV is certainly better for the environment (I'll steer clear of the debate about manufacture) and indeed there have been some good EV tariffs available, all 100% renewable, with special cheap charging overnight rates.
    
    Yet again though, sadly the energy crisis has put a stop to that. We've crunched the numbers in our EV energy tariffs guide and for most they don't add up right now, so there's no point switching to one - you'd be better off on a price-capped tariff. For a few, the Octopus Go EV tariff can just beat the price cap if you use it perfectly.

19. Plant a tree with your ears. We just heard about this, and it seems to check out. Every 100 times this 31-second This Song Plants Trees is streamed on Spotify, the money earned is used to plant a tree via the Eden Reforestation Project. So why not add it to your playlists?

PS: I didn't include carbon offsetting in the main tips, as it's not MoneySaving, but then again, nor is giving to charity, and I support that - so a wee addendum to show a few options seemed a good balance.

Cutting emissions is of course more powerful than offsetting, and some see it as greenwashing guilt away.

Yet planting trees and funding green projects can be helpful, so if you want to very roughly calculate your footprint, Carbon Click and Climate Care are among the big world sites. You can then pay there, or perhaps donate to the Woodland Trust charity to get trees planted in the UK.