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Week 2 - Organise your finances
If your finances are in a mess, you may be wasting money on expensive charges and causing yourself extra stress. This weeks task aims to help you sort them out a bit and hopefully save you money.
Task 1 - Organise
Purchase an expanding file and sort all your bills and statements into the approriate sections. Now you will be able to find bills instantly when you need them!
Task 2 - Debt Evaluation
Go through all your credit cards, loans, overdraughts etc... and write down how much you owe on each and what your interest rate is.
Is your interest rate particularly high? If so, see if you can find a better deal. Try www.moneysupermarket.com.
Also think whether you could go without that shop bought coffee every morning, or that takeaway at the weekend? You could use that money to pay off your debits quicker.
If you find that you forget to pay your credit card on time and get a hefty bank charge, perhaps you could set up a standing order? This way you could spread the cost over 4 weeks by setting up a weekly standing order (for example: £10 a week for a payment of £40 a month).
Task 3 - Utilities
Do you read your gas and electricity meter regularly? If not you may find you have been paying too much and your energy company may even owe you money. It's always best to check your meter every quarter when your bill comes in.
Task 4 - Benefits
Are you claiming what you are entitled to? If you are on a low income or have children, you may qualify for tax credits, help with perscription costs, council tax benefit or housing benefit. Try this online benefits calculator to see what you might be entitled to.
If you do qualify for these benefits, you may be able to get discounts elsewhere too. Most leisure centres do special memberships for people on low incomes. You may also get help towards tuition fees for colleges or Universities. Even the Open University has funded places for people receiving certain benefits.