Save up to 30% of your grocery spend by planning a weekly menu.

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Check Ebay after Christmas day, you’ll find many, many gift vouchers for sale at knock down prices. (more…)

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Karl Marx stated the only thing the working classes possess is their labour. That’s not true now, but for most people, we work for so many hours, then we get paid an hourly rate for working those hours.

So when we spend money from savings, we spending from our past labour. When we spend on credit, we are spending money we have not earned yet, in other words we are spending our future.

So, the next time you are about to make non-essential purchase on credit ask yourself, how much of my future is this costing me?

Many people in need of debt management help, have in effect already spent years of their future. If your circumstances allow you to quailify for an IVA, then at least 5 years is as far in the future and a return to a debt free life need be.

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Are you paying for something you don’t need? Are you paying for service you can get elsewhere much cheaper. Are you missing on reductions by not managing an account online?

A quick review of my outgoings showed I was spending £500+ more than I need to. (more…)

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In the debt management and debt consolidation industry February is busiest month of the year.

Apart from those selling Valentines cards, I can’t think of another business where this is the case.

Why February?
Because too many people overspend in December, the credit card bills arrive in January and creditors are on the phone by February.

Plan the presents you need to buy and really think about what that person would really appreciate to receive. Last minute buys are often over expensive to compensate for the lack of thought.

Like everything else, decide upon a budget you can afford without getting into debt or increase current debt. Make a list and stick to it.

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You own stuff that is worth more to others than yourself. Cash in on that fact.

• Have you got clothes and shoes you’ve not worn for 2 years?
• Old Books, DVDs and Cd’s cluttering up your home?
• Stuff in cupboard than have not seen light for day for years?
• Kids toys than will never be used again?

Free yourself from emotional attachments to the junk in your home and make a few quid into the bargain.

If something is worth more to someone else than it is to you, then it makes good business sense to sell it. You’ll benefit in other ways as you make more space at home.

This is also a good psychological exercise as it will focus your mind on how much you paid for items, who little value you have had from them and how little they are worth now.

This will help educate you as to the foolishness of spending on things you just do not need.

Leave a comment
What’s the most you’ve earned from selling something you thought was worth little? Please share your experience by leaving a comment.

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The Jones’s may be drowning in more debt than you can imagine.

Trying to keep up appearances is little more than a costly illness. You cannot judge someone by what they have as you don’t know how they got it. Maybe they are financed up to the eyeballs and are in misery worrying about their debts.

Your spending decisions should not compromise either your own or your family’s long term financial security. Do not concern yourself with getting one over on Bob from next door as his television is only 42 inches.

There is no such thing as being materially complete. When you’ve bought everything on your current wish list, you’ll have thought of something else you can’t do without.

Giving into sort term gratification can be the root of long term debt misery.

Maturity is often defined as the ability to delay gratification, so keeping up with the Joneses is very immature.

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You are charged for water based on one of 2 methods:-

• A fixed fee based on the size of your property
• A part fixed and part usage charge.

If you have a large house, but live on your own, you would be better off on metered water.
If you live in a smaller property, with your family of 9, then you’ll be better off on a fixed charge.
As general rule of thumb is you’re better off on metered water if the number of occupants exceeds then number of bedrooms.
If you are on metered water, then there are many things you can do to reduce your bills with compromising personal hygiene
Some water saving tips:-

• Fix dripping taps.
  This could waste as much as 90 litres a week.
• Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth.
  Bushing your teeth with the tap running wastes almost 9 litres a minute. Rinse out from a tumbler instead.
• Keep cooled water in the fridge.
  You won’t have to run the tap for ages to get a cold drink.
• Wash clothes on a full load
  The average wash needs about 95 litres. A full load uses less water than 2 half loads.
• Shower
  A 5 minute shower uses about 1/3 the water of a bath.
• Boil just the water you need
  The is no need to boil enough water for half the street everytime you make a brew.

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People can still contact you where ever you are, which is the primary benefit of a mobile phone.

Ask yourself this: is your mobile phone absolutely necessary? If the answer is yes, then ask yourself whether you really need all those minutes and texts that come as part of your package. If you hand over £40 a month to your mobile phone company, that’s £480 a year – or around £750 of your gross salary.

But you can buy a pay-as-you-go phone for as little as £30 and only pay for the odd call as and when you need to. Remember that if you pay an expensive tariff with an included, state of the art phone, you are in effect buying that phone over the course of the contract.  When that contract ends, do not for heavens sake, keeps of paying this high monthly tariff. Your mobile phone company gets rich on the backs of their custumers not having the most suitable contract and over paying for the service.

If you are finished your contract, phone the company and tell them you want to go pay as you go. Your mobile phone company will have an army of call centre operators ready to try to talk you out of this.

I was on a £35 per month tariff, I told them I wanted to go pay as you go and they offered me a £15 per month tariff and credited my account with 9 months x £15 = £135.
I did not spend a penny of mobile phone calls for 9 months doing this.When this 9 months expired, called then again and they offer me a revised deal.

Why would Mobile phone companies do this?
One factor is that their share price is influenced by financial statements from saying how many contract customers they have. The more contracted custumers, the better for the share price.

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It’s a mugs game and called by some, a tax on the poor.

The odds of winning the Lotto jackpot are 14,000,000 to 1 against each ticket.

There are not any combinations or strategies that an alter this. Every combination is as equally likely as each other.

Only 45% of the money spent of tickets is give back out in prizes. This is an appalling return.

Go to your local casino if you want to gamble and play the roulette wheel instead, over 97% of the money is given back in winnings. This also is 100% random and without any skill or strategy that can increase your change of winning.

Better still, do not gamble at all, unless you know something that the person setting the odds does not know.

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