Managing Your Finances

There aren’t many of us around at the moment that have more money than we need; in fact most of us are struggling to make ends meet right now. More and more young people are having to declare themselves bankrupt and even those that aren’t taking such a drastic step are finding they’re getting into trouble. The worst thing you can do if you’re racking up debt is just ignore it; you can’t bounce the debt around different credit cards forever, it will catch up with you.

If you’re starting to worry about money you need to act now, it’s never too late. So here are 5 things to make sure that pay check gets you through to the end of the month.

Pay The Important Things First

You may have had your eye on those new shoes that you pass on your way to work each morning but the second you get your wages through you need to get the important things paid off first. Get the rent/mortgage taken care of right away and work out how much you’ve got in bills and utilities to pay. Once you know all the important things are taken care of then you can enjoy what’s left guilt free.

Split The Rest

Now you know what you’ve got to last the rest of the month you can plan ahead. Obviously you want to enjoy yourself but it’s better to know you’re going out drinking soft drinks this weekend and know you can have a great night out later in the month. Look at your calendar for the month; do you have any friends or family with birthdays? Does your car need a service? Once you know what’s coming up you can attribute your cash accordingly so you don’t need to break out the plastic.

Put Some Aside For Rainy Day

You know you need to save, you’re not stupid but the reality of you being able to put 10% of your pay into savings each month is actually pretty remote. If you think you might be able to start doing this try setting up a direct transfer so the second your salary clears a set amount goes straight into savings. If you think this is going to be a problem, take a couple of quid and leave it in your sock draw. It doesn’t have to be much; just enough to know if you get to the third week of the month and run out of cash, you know you’ve got enough to get groceries.

Shop Around

No matter what you’re parting with your hard earned cash for you need to make sure you’re getting the best deal possible. You also need to make sure you understand the difference between cheap and value. Whether it’s household utilities, weekly groceries or electronics, always shop around to make sure you’re getting the best value for money. Just because something is the cheapest, doesn’t mean it’s the best value for money – there’s no point getting something cheaper if it’s just going to need replacing soon.

Don’t Ignore It

If you are really struggling with your cash you need to own up to it. Make sure you’re opening your bank statements and you know exactly what credit cards you have and how much they have on them. This can seem very overwhelming at first but you don’t have to fix everything there and then, you just need to be aware of it. If you’ve got a close friend you feel you can trust it often helps to have someone around when you’re first taking stock of your situation. They probably won’t be able to bail you out but they’ll be able to offer some perspective and stop you falling off the budget bandwagon.