Do you run your home life like your business?

The point of this article is to encourage people to give their home finances the same care as they give their businesses. This post undoubtedly straddles the line between Facebook and LinkedIn content, but is very much targeted at fellow professionals who will have the skill set to truly improve their home finances will a little care and attention.

This week was a real eye opener for me.

Every quote I get in business, I make sure to understand inside out and negotiate hard to make sure I get the best possible deal. Suddenly though, one odd bill from a supplier in my personal life made me question whether I do the same at home. Have I been taking the easy option?

The first thing I needed to do was understand exactly what my monthly outgoings were, where they were going and what I was getting. There were a lot more regular outgoings than I'd ever realised, but more importantly, I was shocked at how much each had crept up over time.

Gas, electric, water, waste water, mobile phone, home phone, internet, Sky, home insurance, car insurance, life insurance, council tax...I've just always set them up on monthly DD then buried my head in the sand. I decided to start at the top and work my way down, from most to least expensive.

Before I knew it, the savings were wracking up;

• Company Car BIK tax wasn't something I'd ever taken the time to look at. I was given a generous allowance and, as so many of us do, wanted to get the best car possible within that lease budget. The problem is, that prestige cars depreciate in value slower, so for leasing purposes, you can find yourself in an Audi, BMW or Mercedes for the same price as a Ford Focus. Having let ego get the better of me I opted for a flashy E-Class Mercedes with all the extras. I'd never really taken the time to understand what impact that would have on my income tax. I definitely know now! Having looked at the emissions and car value (through the roof thanks to all those extras I didn't need), I found it was costing my company ï¿¡350 per month to lease, then a further ï¿¡350 per month in tax for me! I was mortified - I felt like a fool, I'd been had....by my own ego. I immediately looked at my options and took the time to understand how the tax was calculated, opting for a new Kia Niro, hybrid of course, to keep the emissions down. Sure; it's not prestige, but it's comfortable and has all the mod cons I need. More importantly, the savings I saw as a result were incredible... Saving : ï¿¡250 per month
• Council Tax was another thing I'd never taken the time to understand. Essentially it's based on your house value in 1991. However, upon researching, they'd somehow come to the conclusion my house was worth nearly 30% more than it actually was. I wrote to the tax office and asked for a reassessment. Some quick research of similar profiled houses within two miles enabled me to evidence I was 2 bands too high. That's more than ï¿¡740 per year too much and needed challenging with the council immediately. Be careful though; challenging your council tax banding can go against you and see your classification raised. Did you also know you have a legal right, since 2003, to pay your council tax over 12, not the traditional 10 months. Councils don't like the impact on their own cash flow so don't shout about it, but a well-worded letter can seriously help your own cash flow. Saving : ï¿¡62 per month
• Mobile Phone #1, my wife's, had been out of contract for more than a year. She was still paying for a phone she'd long since paid off and was getting a dreadful deal on the line rental. One mention of cancelling on their live chat and I'd gotten her ï¿¡24 down to ï¿¡6! Saving : ï¿¡18 per month
• Mobile Phone #2, my own, was also approaching expiry. I've always been someone who gets the latest phone on release. Thinking like a business, I always go for the option with least immediate cash flow impact; the "free phone". I'd never worked out the maths though. If I wanted the phone for free, I had to have 20GB of data, even though I only use less than 2GB on average. That meant ï¿¡49 per month, equivalent to ï¿¡1,176 over the 24-month contract. Plenty of us pay that, right? But what if I paid a little towards the phone? How about ï¿¡150? Suddenly, my charges dropped to ï¿¡27 per month, only ï¿¡798 over the full term of the contract! That's more than ï¿¡200 per year! The best part? I sold my old handset for ï¿¡400 on eBay! I used one asset against the value of another. That meant my ï¿¡27/pm contract and ï¿¡150, was actually closer to ï¿¡16 p/m! Saving : ï¿¡33 per month
• Electricity and Gas prices weren't something I'd ever thought about. You just have a provider and changing must be really tough, right? Wrong. A quick comparison of my existing on USwitch.com showing me that there were better options for me and many will even pay the early cancellation contract from your existing providers. A few web forms later, my annual bill has improved by nearly ï¿¡400 per year, with no exit fees to pay. Saving : ï¿¡34 per month
• Sky TV is great, but it strikes me that everybody has a different package. Some of us are getting rinsed, others are nearly being paid to have it. My ï¿¡60 per month seemed steep; one call to cancellations later, a bit of haggling on what I had access to (that I didn't use) and it appeared Sky agreed. Saving : ï¿¡20 per month
• Phone & Internet packages are confusing. There's so many variables that it's hard to truly compare them. I made it my mission to find a way though. Certainly, I didn't need the broadband speeds I was paying for, my BT Sport package was now included under the cracking mobile deal I'd just gotten and the anytime calls were a waste - who calls landline to landline during the day in 2017?! Suddenly the ï¿¡70 a month was ï¿¡40 and I'd made another saving in a matter of minutes. Saving : ï¿¡30 per month
• Insurances are "my area", you'd think. I work in insurance all day, every day. D'you know what though? I'm a complete divvy when it comes to my own insurances. I fall for every trick in the book, I'm lazy and I don't play the game at all. I took some advice from a financial planning friend of mine on my life insurances and got a far more tailored, cheaper offering. My car insurance plummetted as a result of the new Kia. I even shopped around for my home insurance rather than keep allowing them to casually inflate my premium by 5% every year for no reason - it turns out I was now WAY adrift of where I should be. All in all? Big savings. Saving : ï¿¡60 per month

Our total savings per month, bearing in mind this is earnings after tax?

ï¿¡507 per month OR ï¿¡6,084 per year!!!

You can imagine, I've suddenly become obsessed with understanding where I'm unnecessarily spending money and how I can further reduce the bleed.

Suddenly we've started shopping online every Sunday for the whole week ahead, bulk buying meat from MuscleFood rather than nightly ï¿¡20 stops at the supermarket. Less wastage, more routine and a 30% reduction in our costs.

So that brings me back to my original point; it's been a long journey!

When we put on a suit and head to work every morning, we're programmed to think about bottom lines, margins, cash flow and profitability - why do we not do ourselves the same service at home? How many of us truly understand our outgoings, our income vs expenditure and the value of owning things that can truly be deemed assets? For example, the rise in lease cars is terrible for personal finances. We have youngsters spending ï¿¡4,500 a year to drive a new BMW...but living at home until they're 30. They're then giving the car back every two years, with no asset to show for it.

"I can afford ï¿¡375 p/m," they think, not considering the longer term monetary wastage. Short term thinking over long term investment. Is this why the first time buyers housing market continues to slump?

"We can't afford deposits!" the youth shout into their ï¿¡1,200 contract iPhones, having spent their ï¿¡10k house deposit on an two year lease of the latest Audi hatchback.

My question; are we do enough to train the next generation to think like this? Are we doing enough to fight this "I want it now" culture, exacerbated by boastful social media profiles who skew their perception of the norm? Are schools providing an adequate grounding in personal finances and business acumen? I fear not.

I hope I've raised your eyebrows at least a little and that maybe we can start thinking differently as a network about where we put our money. Would love to hear if any of you have managed to look at your own finances and make some savings.