Abacus Daily Debt News

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.

Don’t get suckered into thinking you’re the one benefiting from earning points.

Loyalty cards operated by the major supermarkets and other retailers serve 2 purposes:-

Firstly, they perform great market research. They can see exactly what you are spending your money on and where you are doing it. This is far greater invasion of privacy than any current national ID card proposal. They then use this information to target marketing at you.

Secondly, and more importantly, you end up spending more money with them and earning them more profit. If this were not true then such schemes would not exist.

Many people loose sight of the fact that they get back just a couple of percent of what they spend. Am offer of  3% discount would not turn many heads in a high street window display.

People become emotional attached to building up points as if it were on a par to putting money in a saving account.

Of course, there are excellent offers to be had for people who know how to play the system. If you do your weekly food shop in the same place every week, you may as well take advantage so long as it does not make you spend more than you would.

Cash back credit cards
The above also applies to cash back credit cards. Typically you may get a few percent back on purchases for 3 months, then 1% thereafter on a card with an APR of 15%. So, you only profit from such an offer if you settle your card balance in full each month and are not seduced into spending more by the effective 1% discount.

Advice given by Charles Dickens in his 1850 Novel, David Copperfield.

A famous line from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield equates money with happiness:-

“If a man had twenty pounds a year for his income, and spent nineteen pounds nineteen shillings and sixpence, he would be happy, but that if he spent twenty pounds one he would be miserable.”

This may sound like stating the obvious, but the cause of much misery stemming from debt problems is that too many people simply spend more than they earn for no good reason other than credit is available to them.

It is true that most debt related problems are a result of change in circumstances; this is certainly the case for most of our debt management clients. However consider this, is you’re treating yourself to a period of overspending now, then you must at some time do the reverse, spend less than you earn to repay your debts, plus the interest. 

To this, many people say for example, “I need to spend now to kit out my new flat, I won’t need to spend so much later on”. There is some sense to this, but if your overspending is just a way of life without laying any foundations for the future, then think about this:-

• Where were you financial 12 months ago, where you are now and where you will be in 12 months time?
• Does this conflict with your longer term financial plans?

I wonder if Oscar Wilde had debt problems, one of his famous quotes is:

“Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” –Oscar Wilde

Budget for how much cash you’ll need for the course of the week and do your best to stick to it.

Don’t treat the cash machine like a bottomless pit of money.

This is especially true is your are already over drawn with your current account. Each trip to the cash machine is borrowing more money and leading your further into debt.

If you do your weekly food shopping while hungry, you are more likely to make impulse, non-essential food purchases

Shopping after lunch has a second benefit as you may loose a few pounds of weight if you’re better able to resist such temptations.

…and more importantly, stick to it.

Many people with a finance and debt management problem have a needless over spending problem.

One place to cut down on this is in the supermarket. How many times have you bought food on impulse only to throw it in the bin when it’s gone off?

Make a list before you go. When arriving at the checkout, anything in the basket which is not on the list, get rid of. If it’s stuff you just want, then you can’t actually need it as you didn’t know you wanted it unitl you saw it.

If you’re feeling brave, budget how much you’ll need to spend and take cash only with no other means of payment.

Exceptions can be justified if the item is on offer and by making a calculated, non-planned purchase now, there is reduced planned spending at a later time, and hence a net saving.

Another example of turning planned spending in to overspending is doubling up when clothes shopping.

How many times have you gone out to buy for example a jumper, and come home with having bought two from the same shop. You couldn’t decide which you prefered so you bought them both. Worse still, they are the same, except in colour. What always happen’s is that you will prefer one over the other and that one you will wear more and get better value from it.

The raw ingredients to make a sandwich costs about 25p, so why pay £2 for one from a shop?

If you buy lunch at work everyday, think how much you could save if you bothered to make yourself a packed lunch. I know lunchboxes are very un-cool, but could easily save £50 plus per month, and eat a lot healthier at the same time.

Sit down and work out how much you spend each month. List essential outgoings and all other non-essential spending.

Most people are surprised at how much that can save if they were more disciplined with their money. When I did this, I realized I had a £25 per month magazine and a £17 per month chocolate habit. So not only did a save some money, I lost a few pounds also.

You can use this handy income and outgoings calculator to see where all your money goes.