If I hadn't selected a tariff, I'd have automatically moved to standard rate which is is nowhere near cheapest or best value. The 13% Cap Increase made fixing feel a bit more uncomfortable than last year and there was no twelve month option, so a bigger gamble. But worse case is that prices plunge and I'd feel robbed by the lock in. If prices shoot up, I get a two year benefit.
To Each His/Her ownAnother think you can do is keep track of what you spend on groceries etc. I have a spreadsheet for that, and another for current account, savings accounts, loans, how much I still have to pay on bills and how much of groceries budget is left. It gives me an overview of where I am, and how much I expect to have saved (or overspent) this month. Obviously the second spreadsheet has data from the groceries one. The groceries also has a column for whisky and another for household expenses. Latter is things like clothes, not major jobs like a new roof.
I'm such a savvy grocery shopper that I find it a waste of time logging weekly grocery costs. There is a spreadsheet of all our savings/pensions/stocks etc where weekly ebb and flow movements are WAY WAY bigger than a few small bills. Saving a tenner on the weekly shop doesn't move the needle on the wealth dial anything like as much as the odd bit of home maintenance.
One really good use for a spreadsheet is calendarising direct debits and big bills like annual insurances, boiler service etc,
