Three in four people spending money on alternatives to central heating

FROST on the cars, a chill in the air and jumpers at the ready. Winter is finally here.

But while three people in four are worried about the cost of heating their home, people might end up spending more on ways to keep the radiators switched off.

Figures from TopCashback.co.uk show we’re spending an average of £71 on jumpers, blankets, hotwater bottles and draught excluders.

And that’s before we get to the food – with an extra £26 a month going on winter favourites like soup, hot chocolate and stew.

“With energy prices rising at the fastest rate since 2014, it is having a real effect on consumers who are worrying about their heating bills going up,” said Natasha Rachel Smith from TopCashback.

But what if there was a way to not only save on heating, but also get those jumpers and scarves free?

The message is out that you can often save money by switching supplier – but that still hasn’t been enough to convince people to shop around each year.

So how about this? If you use a cashback site when you switch, you can get up to £100 back on top of the savings – more than enough to pay for a new jumper, hot-water bottle and draught excluder too.

Given the gap between the cheapest and most expensive deals on the market is £256, according to GoCompare figures, that means people comparing prices and then using the right site to buy from can net a tidy sum.

Just remember, make sure you are switching to the best deal for you first – the last thing you want to do is move to a new deal for an up-front incentive, only to have it cost you more in the long term.