I’ve simply grow to be an empty-nester – these are the eight important tips which have reduce my payments by hundreds

The house is oddly silent, the fridge is weirdly full and yet the bank account feels as stretched as ever.

Welcome to the world of the newly empty nester, where the children are out of sight but still have to be factored into the household budget.

‘When the kids move out, your household costs often drop, but that doesn’t mean your bills will automatically shrink,’ warns Kara Gammell, finance expert at bill switching site MoneySuperMarket.

She explains that you need to make a conscious effort to rein in and rejig your bills – otherwise, if you carry on as before, you’ll be forking out the same amount but for a smaller household.

For our family, the emptying of the nest has been unusually abrupt. 

This summer we had three teenage girls at home, a food bill running into hundreds of pounds a week and a water bill that meant I got regular calls from Thames Water’s ‘efficiency team’, telling us that a household of our size really shouldn’t waste so much cash on showers.

But when September came, our older daughter Daisy, our foster daughter Liza and our younger daughter Clover all left for university or boarding school.

With Clover only home every third weekend, Daisy studying on a long-stay healthcare course and Liza returning home to family in Kyiv this Christmas, not only has our Pot Noodle spending been cut dramatically, but our entire monthly budget has needed a rethink.

Here’s how we – and you – can cut back.

Reduce water bills

Our water bill has already shrunk by £31 a month thanks to fewer baths and showers – and because we have a water meter that measures the savings.

If you have more bedrooms than people in your home, a water meter is likely to save you cash. 

Matthew Sheeran, money expert at debt management group Money Wellness, says installing a meter can save up to £100 a year.

If you don’t have one, your water bill is based on the value of your property, which assumes that the size of the family living there matches the number of bedrooms.

Once a meter is installed, you’re only charged for the water you use, rather than an estimated amount based on your home’s size or past usage.

Not sure if the kids will be back? Sheeran says there’s often a two-year trial period where you can switch back to non-metered billing if it doesn’t save you money.

Most water companies have an online calculator you can use to see if a meter will save you cash.

Slash food costs

We have saved £40 by cancelling an annual subscription that gave us online supermarket shopping with no extra delivery fee.

Now we can easily pick up what shopping we need when passing a supermarket. 

Careful meal planning means we’re no longer stuffing the fridge (and, ultimately, the bin) with leftovers, cutting our supermarket bill from more than £120 a week to less than £50.

Cut subscriptions

The HP Instant Ink subscription that we used heavily when three children were printing out exam past papers has been pared right back from £13.49 a month to £1.79.

Subscription plans such as this are a classic example of costs that creep up without you noticing – and one that doesn’t automatically fall back unless you make the change yourself.

We were ‘rolling over’ hundreds of extra pages each month because we print so little now the teens are away.

Other bills to check include mobile phones and broadband. We still pay for the teenagers’ phones but switched them to a less pricey Lebara plan for £4.99 a month. 

It comes with more than enough minutes and data for their busy online lives.

If you have a gamer who has left home, you might be able to save by cutting your broadband package, too.

With our provider (Hyperoptic) the difference between a plan suitable for many devices and one better suited for just a couple is £10 a month, or £120 a year.

Now we’re beginning to tackle the streaming subscriptions. Between Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+, there’s more to watch than we’ll ever get through – though with teens still logging in while they’re away, there are likely to be squeals of protest when I finally pull the plug.

Travel cheaper

I learned the hard way that you need to unlink your child from your ride-hailing Uber account, unless you want to both pay for, and see, their trips back from the club at 3am.

Meanwhile, I’ve found that a Two Together Railcard takes some of the sting out of the price of parents visiting a child at university.

Costing £35 for a year, the cards reduce your rail fare by a third when you travel as a couple – and you can buy a card half price if you pay with Tesco Clubcard vouchers. Ours has already paid for itself.

Check council tax

Sadly there’s no change in council tax bills for the two of us left at home, but single parents should ensure they get their 25 per cent discount when adult children move out. 

If you think you are eligible for the single person’s discount scheme, talk to your council.

Use energy wisely

Our monthly energy bills have dropped from £221 to £166, thanks to more judicious energy use.

With the kids out of the picture we’re doing less dishwashing, washing and tumble drying, and we’re considering confining these activities to the cheaper hours of the day to save even more.

With E.On’s ‘Smart Saver’ tariff, electricity is least pricey between 2am-5am – so if you’ve got a timer on your appliances, you can run them all in the cheaper hours.

If you don’t have a timer, for a couple of pounds you can buy a plug that does the same thing.

E.On’s tariff has no exit charges so you can switch back if you don’t save money.

Heating the whole house when it’s not all full is a waste but we don’t want to simply turn off the radiators in the kids’ bedrooms as we might risk cold and damp.

A thermostatic radiator valve in each room allows you to turn down the heating without turning it off. The Energy Saving Trust says that installing these valves will save around £110 a year.

You can also get systems, such as Hive and Tado, which allow your phone to talk to your radiator valves, so you can zone the house and heat more areas when your children are at home.

Take in a lodger

Rent out your child’s empty bedroom to generate up to £7,500 in tax-free cash. Anyone can make this amount of money tax-free if they let out a furnished room in their home.

Consider listing their room on Airbnb or host foreign language students to fill your home with young people paying their way.

You can earn between £250 and £350 a week hosting students if you live near a popular language school. If you are happy to provide meals for them you will receive even more.

For more details visit the English UK website (englishuk.com), and check the details of the Rent a Room allowance on the tax office website gov.uk/rent-room-in-your-home/the-rent-a-room-scheme.

Be a savvy saver

Although the savings are potentially substantial, we won’t be pocketing all of them because there are new outlays now we have children at boarding school and university.

We’re paying towards their expenses and accommodation – as well as needing funds to cover higher bills when they come home during the holidays.

However, I’ve calculated that if I put £100 a month of the empty nest ‘savings’ that I’m making on household bills into my pension now, I’ll have an extra £32,200 in the pot by the age of 68.

Once the children graduate, I should be able to put away even more.

It’s small consolation for silent rooms and the crushing sense of nostalgia, but as we prepare for the onslaught of having them back for Christmas, rearranging finances for a new era feels like meeting a major life change head on, rather than letting the possible benefits slip away.

moneymail@dailymail.co.uk