A BRILLIANT budget blogger from Bridgwater has won a national award with her top tips to save money.

Fiona Hawkes, 32, runs the blog ‘Savvy in Somerset’, which has been named as the Best Frugal and Thrift Blog at the UK Money Bloggers awards - seeing off competition from nearly 90 rivals to win the prize.

On September 14, Fiona attended the annual Show Me The Money blogging conference awards in London.

This was the second year running Fiona has won the award.

Fiona said: "I was amazed to have won for a second year running, especially as I was on maternity leave for some of the judging period

"I love writing about saving money and being thrifty so this feels like a brilliant recognition of all my efforts.

Mrs Hawkes started her blog after her and her partner decided to save money to buy their first house together.

They managed to accrue £50,000 in savings despite both being on relatively modest incomes.

Fiona says one of the top trends she noticed in 2019 was people becoming savvier with their bills.

She said: "More people are switching suppliers when their current deal ends or phoning up suppliers to see if they can arrange a better deal, rather than auto-renewing.

"It's always worth making a note of the date the end of your current deal and popping a reminder in your diary a few weeks before to give yourself plenty of time to search for a better deal.

"Another trend that's emerged this year is switching to eco-friendly products.

"As well as being better for the environment many products can be reused over and over again saving money in the long run.

"This is especially true of kitchen products where people are switching to things like beeswax wraps as an alternative to using sandwich bags or clingfilm.

"People are also more conscious of where their purchases are coming from - we're seeing a resurgence in buying second-hand, especially clothes."

Fiona says in the run-up to Christmas, it's worth making a list of any items you'd like to buy and what price they are currently selling for.

"It's easy to feel pressurized into buying when things are only on special offer for a day or two, such as during Black Friday.

"Knowing how much were previously selling for should give an indication of whether it is a good deal or not.

"Picking up one or two items a week with your weekly shop can really help to spread the cost of Christmas and this has been made easier in recent years thanks to supermarkets ever-expanding ranges of gifts and clothes."