A Belfast man has been turning his hand to saving people money when it comes to buying their home heating fuel.
Quantity surveyor, Damian McVeigh, got into stock market tracking during the pandemic and from there has been focussing on the price of oil and other general commodities.
"Since the war started in Ukraine, the heating issue seems to be a really contentious item for a lot of people," Damian told Belfast Live.
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"Through the stock trading, you can kind of see the prices of oil and the general commodities prices, so it's served me really well over the last six months or so.
"Even if I'm buying diesel for my car, if I see the price of diesel dropped two weeks ago, I'll maybe get half a tank that week and then hold off and finish the rest the next week if I anticipate it going down.
"The price does lag, and the reason it lags is they're maybe buying the barrel of oil for say $100, it'll maybe go down to $90 but they've bought it then but they have to use their reserve that they've bought before it can come down."
Damian has now set up a YouTube channel where he keeps an eye on price changes and discusses measures that might help save money.
He said the best tips he could give were around trying to keep an eye on prices and to track when a price dips and when it starts to go up again.
"I just could see that there was a down trend in June and I told everyone if they can to hold off and if they're thinking about buying and need to buy for winter, maybe just buy at the end of this trend," he said.
"The cards are starting to turn now and prices seem to be starting to go up, and even if they don't go up and go down a little bit, I think right now is the time to strike.
"And just in general, historically summer's a good time to buy your winter heating oil, that's not ground-breaking information obviously."
He said he was trying to stay ahead of the curve now, having found himself waiting 14 days for an oil delivery last winter.
"The price comparison sites too, people sometimes don't use them when the information is all there," he said.
"They'll ring their usual supplier and just go with that price, despite the chance their supplier might have bought at a bad time and is having to charge prices that reflect that.
"I do worry about even just my own family and parents, then about elderly people and how they're going to heat their homes."
One other tip Damian had was for parents to try and think ahead to the end of the year and take advantage of pricing on items for children.
"I always tell people, because I'm a father and I have a three-year-old daughter and six-month-old son, one thing that we've been doing and we have done for the last three years is buying their winter jackets and clothes now," he said.
"It's all on sale, it's all on discount - the kids just wear colourful tops and that so you don't need to worry about being on trend and all that, and you could be saving say a pound per t-shirt or whatever.
"You get it all now, put it away in a box and come winter, there's a whole new wardrobe.
"It seems like pennies, it seems like pounds, but every penny's a prisoner and if you can save a few pound it really does make a difference.
"We don't know for sure what's coming but I'd say we're looking at a tough 12-24 months and every penny will help."
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