Our method
How our savings work
At The Cost Savings Shop, we believe money-saving claims should be backed by clear maths and independent evidence, not marketing guesswork. Every product we list is reviewed against that standard first. Here is how we calculate, check and source the numbers behind your household savings.
01
The evidence-first standard
We don’t invent savings figures. We check every item against published research and consumer guidance from respected independent organisations, including:
- The Energy Saving Trust (EST)
- Which?
- WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme)
If a product saves money but the evidence can’t support a specific, reliable yearly figure, we say so upfront rather than inflate the numbers. Right now that applies to 7 of our 9 products, including our beeswax food wraps and wool dryer balls.
These organisations are independent. They have not tested, approved or endorsed The Cost Savings Shop or any of our products — we cite their published guidance.
02
Standard UK cost baselines
To keep comparisons fair across the shop, the Energy Saving Trust figures we quote all use the same UK unit rates, averaged across recent Ofgem price caps:
- Electricity
- 24.7p per kWh
- Gas
- 6.5p per kWh
Energy Saving Trust: How we calculate our energy saving data
Your own savings will vary with your tariff, your type of home and how often your household uses the product.
03
Calculating the payback period
A product isn’t really a saving until it has paid for itself. Where a product has a sourced yearly saving, we divide its price by that saving to get a simple payback time — roughly when you break even.
Product Price Yearly saving Payback Eco Low-Flow Shower Head £14.99 Up to ~£65/yr ~3 months Tap Aerator 4-Pack £5.99 ~£20/yr (kitchen tap) ~4 months Payback assumes the full estimated saving applies in your home. It doesn’t account for future energy prices or how long the product lasts. We only calculate it where there is a sourced yearly figure.
04
Simple, quick upgrades
We focus on practical, small-scale upgrades. We choose products that need:
- No professional tradespeople to install.
- No complex or specialist tools — a standard screwdriver at most.
- Very little time — most take less time to set up than brewing a cup of tea.
Worked example · illustration only
Heated airer vs. tumble dryer
To show how the maths works, here is a hypothetical comparison. The heated airer isn’t a product we list, and the energy-use figures below are assumptions for illustration — not sourced estimates.
- 1
The baseline
Assume a condenser tumble dryer uses about 4.5 kWh per drying cycle. At 24.7p/kWh, one load costs about £1.11.
- 2
The low-cost alternative
A 230W heated clothes airer uses 0.23 kWh an hour. Left on for 5 hours to dry a heavy load, that’s 1.15 kWh in total — about 28p at 24.7p/kWh.
- 3
The difference
That’s about 83p less per load. At 4 loads a week, it would add up to over £170 a year on these assumptions.
Real results vary a lot. Dryers differ widely in how much energy they use (heat pump dryers use far less), and drying times on an airer depend on the load and the room. For an independent figure, the Energy Saving Trust estimates that drying clothes on a line or rack instead of using a tumble dryer saves about £50 a year in Great Britain.
Energy Saving Trust: Quick tips to save energy at home