ChristmasShip

Were into February now and most people will still be paying off Christmas.

January is always a boring month. You can do very little due to the amount of money you have available. Mortgages repayments are rising, as are utility bills, council tax and insurance. It seems as though everything has risen in price. Interest rates are at an all time high, insurance premiums are through the roof and tax keeps rising.

So how do we manage all our finance if everything is going up except our wages! My best answer is budgeting and the analysis of every purchase. I cannot stress the importance of thinking… Do I need this? If I do, Is there a cheaper alternative? If not, Is it cheaper somewhere else?

Try it, You’ll be amazed.

January is here and now the Goose has settled and everyone is back at work, its time to have a look at the finances.

The credit card bill comes through and…….HOW MUCH!!!!!

If you have overspent the best advice I can give you is plan and prioritise. Sit down and look at exactly how much you will bring in, what you owe and to where. Prioritise your payments, i.e. Mortage first. Look around for another credit card that you can transfer some balance onto. If this has 0% for 3 months you can ease up on some of the repayments you will have to make this month.

My next bit of advise is analyse everything you spend… Do I really need to by this? Could I get it cheaper? Is there a cheaper alternative?

9 times out of 10 the answer wil surprise you.

This wouldn’t be a Christmas Blog without a Christmas Post!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope the festive season has and will continue to be a good one into the new year.

I hope it didn’t cost you too much

Should you be looking around for a credit card deal during the run up to Christmas. Capitol One offer some great rates and deals at the moment. 0% on balance transfers and purchases for 3 months shouldbe be more than enough to help you pay off any extra spending the occurs over the festive season.

I already have a Capitol One card so I cannot partake in these deals, I may find another credit card to offload some of the balance onto. The card would need to have no balance transfer fee and obviously 0% on balance transfers. I’ll let you know if I find anything.

Rumours of a credit crunch are becoming increasingly louder as US markets crashed today. Should any banks begin to fold this could have big impacts on our Christmas savings and spending. A credit crunch would make it much harder to get credit cards and interest rates would rise to slow borrowing.

Should the markets crash it could be a hard Christmas for quite a lot of people as credit card companies especially will become increasingly stringent on who and what they lend to consumers.

There has been a large increase in the number of properties being rented after the recent rise in interest rates. More and more people are opting to rent rather than buy properties. Fears over mortgage repayments and increased utility bills are driving first time buyers down the renting route.

Christmas can be a strain on the finances and a good way to avoid rent or mortgage repayments being affected is to have a seperate account that money is deposited into each month. You can do it two ways:

a) Have a christmas account. Here you deposit a monthly amount throughout the year so that once christmas comes around most expenses are taken out of this.

b) Have a rent account. Here you deposit all you will need for rent and utilities each month. The account will never grow in amount but you know that you rent is safe every month when you look at your bank balance.