New year, new you. Changing your spending habits

The New Year is always a good time to try something new or change things in your life that you are not happy about.

With the state of the economy getting worse and families seeing the biggest squeeze to their budgets for 60 years, many may be seeing the New Year as an opportunity to change the way they are spending their money.

If you are looking to change your spending habits, here are a few top tips.

Write down all of your expenditure and see where you are spending your money. From this you can look at areas that are excessive or where you know you spend too much.For all of your utilities you can use comparison websites to see how much you can save. If it turns out that you have the best deals then you haven?t lost anything. However you could save yourself lots of money if you find a cheaper deal.On your grocery shop, why not switch to the supermarket own brands. Alternatively why not switch supermarkets? Try going to your local supermarket to buy cheaper fresh fruit and vegetables or visit one of the low budget supermarkets.Make use of loyalty card points and use them wisely. Tesco Clubcard and Sainsbury?s Nectar Card have double value vouchers if they are spent on certain items, so it is always worthwhile checking.Instead of cutting out luxuries, sign up to discount websites such as Groupon to get the things you love, for less.

How will you change the way you spend?

Written by Gemma on January 4th, 2012

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Posted in: Changing,habits,SPENDING

How to spot and stop the spending habits that lead to debt

Debt problems can creep up on you surprisingly quickly, often leading to panic, confusion and a certain degree of denial. Some people in debt have no idea where their financial problems came from, and facing up to the true cause of debt can difficult. Also, if you don’t know why you are in debt, fixing the problem becomes even more difficult.

Identifying the spending habits that caused your debt problems can help you to solve them. Take a good look at your spending behaviour and ask yourself:

Do I spend more than I make?

You might think that it isn’t actually possible to spend more money than you bring in; the funds just aren’t available. This isn’t true, as there are methods of securing extra money – overdrafts, borrowing from friends, dipping into your savings – but these always catch up with you.

Do I spend money I don’t have?

This relates to credit, as using loans and credit cards equates to spending money that isn’t yours. This is useful in certain situations, but using this borrowed money to pay off bills is only starting off a chain of debt.

Do I use credit for everyday purchases?

Credit cards and their ‘buy now, pay later’ appeal mean that you may often use them to buy everyday items such as groceries and clothes. This is creating more debt in the form of a daunting monthly credit card bill, so always use cash for these purchases if you have it.

Do I use debt to pay off debt?

Using a loan to pay off another loan is never a good idea; it creates a debt spiral that is difficult to get out of.

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DEBT TO SPIRAL AS SAVAGE SPENDING REVIEW HITS HOME

Here's how a debt management plan can help you repay debt. Benefit of a Debt Management Plan

Current monthly payment: Term: 10 years (for credit card) New monthly repayment:
Term: 3 years 8 months*

I would recommend Debt Advisory Line purely on Joe’s involvement.

We aim to reduce debt in the shortest possible time. We are members of DEMSA - (The Debt Managers Standards Association). We adhere to the code of conduct as set out by DEMSA which aims to protect the interests of both consumers and lenders. The DEMSA code of practice is approved under the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) Consumer Codes Approval Scheme (CCAS).

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Posted in: REVIEW,SAVAGE,SPENDING,SPIRAL