Every penny helps!

Sunday 26th October, 2008 - £7,499.83 in debt…

It looks like I’ve started a trend - suddenly everyone wants to pay off their debts! It could be something to do with this recession we’re teetering on the edge of, but I think my influence should be taken into account as well. Increasing your monthly credit card payments is the new cool thing to do, and Primark is the new Armani.

According to the BBC, the number of people consulting Citizens Advice about their debts has risen by a third in the past year. Given that this means more people are searching for debt advice on the internet and finding this blog (bad luck, chaps), I thought I’d give you a quick run-down of the best sources of debt advice I’ve found so far in my quest for debt freedom.

     1.  Martin Lewis’s site, www.moneysavingexpert.com, is a very fine resource once you get your head around the somewhat busy homepage (and the fact that it’s two consonants away from ‘monkey shaving expert’). Martin himself might come across as an android with no spending urges whatsoever, but the forums (especially Debt-Free Wannabe and Up Your Income) are well worth checking out for advice from fellow humans. Receiving the weekly email updates is like having a relentless snapping terrier at your heels.

     2.  The Citizens Advice homepage is at www.adviceguide.org and offers simple, step-by-step guides to paying back your debts, negotiating with your creditors, dealing with mortgage arrears and so on. It doesn’t preach, but nor does it offer alternatives to the accepted methods, or advice on coping with the emotional side of things.

     3.  One site that does look into the psychology of debt is the very one you’re reading now. As well as my own blog, which was described as “helpful” by one reader and “very good” by another (high praise indeed), Consumer Choices also has a debt centre, featuring news, articles and consumer guides.

     4.  The National Debtline offers free, confidential advice on its website (www.nationaldebtline.co.uk) or on the phone (0808 808 4000, which is a freephone number). There’s a range of factsheets on the website, but National Debtline specialises in giving personal advice via email or phone. You can email an advisor by clicking here.

     5.  If your money problems could be solved by sorting out a dispute between you and a financial service provider (your bank, insurance company or PayPal, for instance) contact the Financial Ombudsman Service at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk for advice. If you need to write a letter of complaint, use the FSA website (www.fsa.gov.uk) to find the regulations your service provider should be obeying and quote them.

     6.  If you’re paying off debts you’ll need to save money on some essentials: www.petrolprices.com will tell you which petrol stations in your area are offering the cheapest prices per litre. It’s not something I check every day, but you can sign up for weekly email updates. Use www.mysupermarket.co.uk to compare grocery prices before you do the food shopping. I saved about 13% of my food budget by doing this.

     7.  For some genuinely useful practical help, visit www.whatsthecost.com and calculate the real cost of your debts including interest. The amazing snowball calculator will also tell you which order to pay your debts in, how much interest you can save by doing it the right way, and how much to pay per month if you want to be debt-free by a particular date. I had no idea about this site until a few months ago, but it’s now one of my favourites.

     8.  The Consumer Credit Counselling Service is another charity that gives free and confidential advice. As well as offering a free helpline (on 0800 138 1111), the website (www.CCCS.co.uk) features a Debt Remedy service, which starts with a comprehensive 20-minute questionnaire (to establish the kind of mess you’re in) and ends with the CCCS sending you a Debt Remedy booklet. This includes your budget, a summary of your debts, and advice about paying it off. Beware though: If you’re self-employed the Debt Remedy service won’t apply to you, and you can’t ask the charity for help if you’re not a UK citizen.

If you’re in lots of debt and stuck for an answer, the best advice I can give you is two-fold: (a) talk to someone, and (b) make sure you’re talking to the right someone. Doing a Google search on ‘debt help’ is likely to throw up a lot of unscrupulous companies that are trying to offer you an expensive consolidation loan or IVA. These are often the wrong solutions to the problem: what you need is support and practical, impartial advice. Good luck.

 Bathroom Storage - Cool 

Wednesday 2nd July, 2008 - £8,850.98 in debt…

Things I learnt in June:

1.  Temping agencies must be treated with caution until you actually start the job.

2.  Fortunately, unlike my previous agency, Office Angels gives me sick pay, bank holiday pay, petrol allowance and the baffling “subsistence”, which I think must be sandwich money or compensation for my house sliding down a cliff.

3.  Filling out forms on Consumer Pulse is a fine and noble pastime but, as it turns out, they only pay you for 20 items per month! Fair enough – I was running out of imagination anyway.

4.  Budgeting is fun and fascinating, but only if you do it properly and be reasonable with yourself.

5.  I don’t really need a bathroom storage unit.

6.  Ice cream bad; mystery shopping good. My favourite mystery shopping company so far is GfK.

7.  The Barclays personal reserve may be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

8.  If I keep an eye on petrol prices and drive like an OAP looking for a parking space, I might save some money.

9.  Texperts and AQA could offer the answer to everything, including my prayers.

10.  If all else fails, I can always talk to lonely old men about bottoms.

Not a Daewoo Matiz 

Wednesday 18th June, 2008 - £8,920.19 in debt…

Stop looking at that debt-counter up there. Please. It’s really not fair that my success should be measured in such bold, unforgiving terms. I mean, what are numbers anyway? Just meaningless black squiggles on a page really, when you think about it.

Anyway, let’s not worry about that for the moment. Always look on the bright side: The new job is going well, I haven’t yet overshot my budget for the week, and the sun is shining. Occasionally. 

My budget for this week is:

• Budget for June 13th to 19th = £18.47
• Spent = £15.07
• Remaining = £3.40

Going well, isn’t it? I’ve only bought a Fathers’ Day present and a parking ticket. I am truly amazing.

But I’m about to hit my first real snag in this budgeting malarky: my next tank of fuel. I reckon I can make my current one last until the weekend but, apart from not driving anywhere, are there any other tricks I can use to make my petrol last longer?

The basics of fuel conservation seem to be:

• Drive smoothly
• Don’t carry excess weight in the car
• Keep your tyres pumped up
• Don’t leave the engine running
• Don’t use the air con unless you really have to
• And buy a beautiful little fuel-efficient car like mine (a Daewoo Matiz - small engine, small car, very few cool points).

According to this article, the optimum driving speed is 55mph - for every mile per hour faster, your fuel economy will drop by about 1%. And that’s what I’ll be telling the next police officer who pulls me over in a 30 zone.

This Is Money does a nifty little fuel calculator thing that works out your annual fuel bill (and how much of that is tax - not that you can do anything about it). And, if you feel like you haven’t had enough heart palpitations recently, ask it to calculate how much more you’ll pay per year every time the price of fuel goes up by a few pence a litre.

To make sure you’re getting the best value petrol around, use www.petrolprices.com - enter your postcode and it will find the five cheapest petrol stations in your area. It also gives you weekly email updates if you want them.

Not that any petrol stations around here are actually selling petrol at the moment.

Anyone else have any more tips? How have you been conserving petrol during the Shell strike? Are any petrol stations near you stocking more than just charcoal briquettes and the Daily Mail?�